Sparkle SCC-850AF Power Supply – Review – Hardware

SPARKLE SCC-850AF GOLD CLASS SERIES 80PLUS 850W ATX POWER SUPPLY

Written By David Hollabaugh

Sparkle Computer has been busy recently, launching a serious assault on Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, and XFX with gamer focused video cards, and now power supplies.  Sparkle Computer started in 1982 in Taipei, Taiwan, as a manufacturer of discrete graphics cards.  Until the past few years, their low-profile products were generally quality boards based on reference designs from ATI and nVidia.  But with the release of their Gold Class power supplies, along with their recent top-of-the-line video cards, Sparkle has announced they are not content to create utilitarian products for the mass market.  No, they intend to rise to the top of a short list of high end gamer oriented components as well.

The Package

The SCC-850AF comes packed like a bottle of Crown Royal and all the trimmings of Thanksgiving Dinner.  Inside the oversized box are 3 x3 SATA power connectors, 3 x3 Molex connectors, 4 PCI-E 6+2 cables, a power cord, user manual, 80 Plus certificate, warranty card.  The actual PSU is immaculately wrapped in a custom pouch, to protect the glossy finish of the unit itself.

The PSU itself is very beautiful.  It’s not black, and it’s not grey.  It’s a glossy gunmetal, that will really compliment any light scheme.  Some manufacturers will use a specific LED color like red or blue, which doesn’t work for someone who spent $100 on green or blacklight.  The purple connectors and fan add the touch of uniqueness to the unit, and are in line with the current crop of video cards.

The Specs

I won’t waste time and energy retyping all the specs that are readily viewable on Sparkle’s site, but I will point out some high points.  An 80 plus certification means that this power supply is guaranteed to be at least 80% efficient 100% of the time.  The unit features a 13.9 cm silent fan, thermal temperature control, and a staged fan shutdown that allows the fan to continue operation for an additional 5 to 10 seconds after the power is off.  It also utilizes FIVE 12 volt rails, 3 rated at 16 amps and 2 rated at 18 amps.  The debate rages on about single versus multi-rail PSUs, and each type has its merits.  In this unit, each of the four video card auxiliary power connectors is coming from a different rail, which arguably translates into better efficiency and less electrical noise.  Suffice it to say you couldn’t run four overclocked 485’s off an 850 Watt power supply, but you can at least easily calculate the draw off of each rail for each card you plan on using.

Okay, lazy, here are the specs:

•      850W Modular Power Supply

•      80 Plus Gold Certified

•      Double Ball Bearing Fan

•      All connector AU coating to keep Ultra high efficiency

•      Full Thermal Control with super silent fan

•     12V peak at 80A

•      Temperature control design mode

•      Active PFC design

•      Keep PSU fan running for 5-10 seconds after shut down to dissipate the remaining system heat and prolonging system lifetime.

•      Ultra-quiet 13.9cm Fan with intelligent RPM control guarantees cool performance and silent operation.

•      99.9% 12V Power

•      SYNC Transformer Array

•      Double main electrolytic capacitors

•      DC to DC circuitry design with solid capacitors

•      Forward Safe Guard Circuitry Design

•      Dual Layer main PCB 1.6mm thickness

•      Quintuple 12V Rails

•      100A Mosfet 12V Rectifiers

•      20k µF low ESR secondary 105℃ electrolytic capacitors

•      Triple AC EMC Filtering stage

•      Dual capacitors design to protect system safety when sudden shut down

The Test

I pulled a Dell XPS 730x apart to install this power supply in the system.  Those of you familiar with the XPS series will remember how well Dell was doing the gaming world before they dropped the line for the Alienware nameplate.  I won’t go into the difficulty I had pulling all the wiring, but suffice it to say that OEMs need to learn to STOP MAKING PROPIETARY HARDWARE if they’re going to sell to gamers.  We tinker, we upgrade, we rip apart and rebuild.  We don’t take kindly to having to spend 3 hours making a special wiring harness just to plug into a non-standard connector.  Okay, off the soap box, on to the test.

I used Furmark 1.8.2 to push the system a little bit, and to show the specs of the test rig.  Granted the 4850 is no prom queen by today’s standards, but it still adds about 100W to the total power requirements when pushed.  Remember, we’re not testing a video card here, but how a PSU responds to changes in energy requirements.  Before I ran some benchmarks, I tested some measurements of the stock 1000W Dell power supply to get a baseline.

	Stock	Sparkle	Difference
System Idle	311	294	5.5%
Writing Hard Drive	320	302	5.6%
Reading Blu-Ray	328	311	5.2%
FurMark	406	371	8.6%

These results indicate a higher efficiency over the stock power supply by about 5%.  How this relates to your favorite aftermarket flavor is for another review to determine.

What is interesting here is the jump in efficiency during the Furmark simulation.  The Sparkle power supply seems much more efficient than your average grey box when it comes to handling video cards, by a significant margin.

Also worth noting is that during all this testing, I never heard a sound from the 140mm fan.  I even had to check a few times to see if it was turning, which it was.  Big points to Sparkle on getting this right, because it’s something many manufacturer’s overlook.

The Conclusion

Testing a power supply isn’t as glamorous as testing a video card or motherboard.  Generally, if it’s delivering the advertised power at a reasonable draw, then its “good enough”.  If you think about it though, your power supply is the HEART of your system.  Without it pumping good energy to your components, that $3,000 rig you put together is just a door stop.  Sparkle’s offering shows that a heart can be sexy AND hardy at the same time.

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