EVGA BQ Series 850W PSU Review

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One of EVGA's most affordable power supply families, the BQ, includes five unique models. The higher-capacity ones are made by HEC and the rest come from Andyson. Today we're testing the flagship 850 BQ.

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Cross-Load Tests And Infrared Images

Our cross-load tests are described in detail here.

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through our custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V and 3.3V rails. The load regulation deviations in each of the charts below were calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V and 3.3V) as point zero.

Load Regulation Charts

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Efficiency Chart

As you can see, the 850 BQ's efficiency is greater than 85% during much of our testing. Above 650W loads it drops to the 80-85% range, but this isn't an issue. The cooling fan's noise is what should worry you under higher loads.

Ripple Charts

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Infrared Images

We took some IR photos of the PSU with its top cover, along with the fan, missing and around 400W of load applied for several minutes. We used our modified FLIR E4 camera that delivers 320x240 IR resolution (76,800 pixels).

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The SBRs on the secondary side get hot quickly without a fan pushing lots of air above them. Even with a fan, under tough conditions the thermal loads on those SBRs will be high. This is why HEC uses a large secondary heat sink.

Also worth mentioning is the NTC thermistor's very high operating temperature, which reaches 97°C in a matter of minutes. The higher its temperature, however, the less energy is wasted, since its resistance gets lower as the temperature rises. The only potential issue is that it'll take some time for the thermistor to cool down once the PSU turns off before it's ready to do its job during the start-up phase.

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

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25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joz
    At $85 I can get a G2 650W; or even a G2750W on sale.
    Reply
  • Metteec
    Thanks for the review. Looks like I will be avoiding this one.
    Reply
  • Metteec
    Also, for $20 more, you can pick up an equivalent gold rated PSU or maybe even a platinum one on sale and after rebates. It is the halcyon days for competition in quality PSUs.
    Reply
  • _TheD0ct0r_
    19020704 said:
    Thanks for the review. Looks like I will be avoiding this one.

    Why is that?
    Reply
  • Metteec
    @_THEDICTOR_, for $85, there are so many other better options. EVGA could have been more competitive model if they made quieter version. Instead, you get a PSU with fixed cables, low efficiency, high power variances, and noise like a mini-vacuum. While the higher quality capacitors and warranty are nice, the lack of utility does not make this a good value. 3-years ago, this would have been a great PSU, but times have changed. It is a great day to buy a PSU, just not this one.
    Reply
  • MasterMace
    appears to be another terrible unit. I'll have to read back and see if it's an Andyson or a HEC
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Considering the OEM is HEC , not surprised by this review.
    Reply
  • Nuckles_56
    I would have thought that EVGA could have pushed HEC a bit harder and got a much better unit out of them than this
    Reply
  • lunyone
    I would personally like to see more 450-550w PSU reviews, not the cherry picked and delivered 750w+ ones that seem to make the rounds. It is just that most people are only going to need 450-550w PSU's for their 1 dGPU based systems.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    This is not a cherry-picked sample. It comes directly from a store shelf and not from EVGA.

    As for more 450-550W PSU reviews, I am currently working on a 500W unit (which however isn't affordable).
    Reply