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Bottom Line
The Hydro G Pro 850W has excellent build quality. All the components that FSP used are of extra-high quality. I rarely see 450V rated bulk caps with 3,000h at 105 degrees Celsius ratings, even in more expensive power supplies. And the cooling fan is by a respected manufacturer (Protechnic Electric). The fan will probably live forever, thanks to its fluid dynamic bearing.
All the ingredients are up to the task, but somehow the final recipe is not right, because the HG2-850 fails to meet the competition effectively. Only in the transient response at +12V, which is of immense importance, does this platform excel. The Corsair RM850x, one of the most popular products in this price range, has a 7.42% higher overall relative score while the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold with the same capacity is 7.82% higher. Those are tremendous differences. And on top of that, the Hydro G Pro 850W might make less noise than Seasonic's offering. But it is clearly outperformed by the RM850x, despite a more-than 18 dB(A) difference.
Because of the quality (hence expensive) parts that FSP used, the expected retail price is set quite high at $139. Currently, the RM850x costs $10 less, and the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850W is even more affordable. I personally don't mind paying more to get high-quality components, which will dramatically increase the power supply's reliability. But this is not the case for the majority of buyers. Moreover, there is a significant performance gap between the Hydro G Pro 850 and its opponents, the Corsair RM850x and RM850 and the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850W.
FSP should either decrease the price of this product, or make changes to the platform tol increase performance and lower the noise output. Since it's difficult and pricey to make any changes to a newly released platform, dropping the price is the more-likely option. But this will be tough as well, given the high bill of materials (BOM) cost of the parts inside this PSU.
Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics, and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.
