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BFG ES-800 800W Power Supply Review

by Michael "SKYMTL" Hoenig     |     February 27, 2008

Cables and Connectors

- Molex: 6 Connectors
o 2x 31” length (3 Connector each)

- SATA: 6 Connectors
o 2x 31” length (3 connectors each)

- PCI-E 6+2 Pin: 2 Connectors
o 2x 19” length

- PCI-E 6-Pin: 4 Connectors
o 2x 24” length (on same cable as 8-pin PCI-E connectors)

- 20+4 pin ATX Connector: 17 ˝” length

- 8-Pin CPU: 19” length

- 4-Pin CPU: 24” length (on same cable as 8-pin CPU)

- Floppy: 2 Connectors
o 2x 36” length (@ end of Molex cables)



Overall, the length of the cables and number of connectors on the BFG ES-800 is extremely good (which is a huge change from what we saw with the older BFG 800W) but there are some areas that need a bit of improvement in the length department. The main area we would like to see changed is the lengths of the ATX and 8-pin connectors. We have found that for proper cable routing in larger cases, 18” is the bare minimum for an ATX 24-pin connector while 20” is optimal. The same goes for the 8-pin CPU connector; while it can be argued that the 4-pin CPU connector is exceedingly long, it is the 8-pin which many enthusiasts use. Unfortunately, in our tests with this power supply installed in an Antec P182, the 8–pin connector was not able to reach the CPU power connector on our P35 motherboard. Luckily, since this is a pre-production sample, we would expect that some of these lengths will be changed for the later retail units.

That being said, special attention really has to be given to the sleeving used on all of the cables. This isn’t the cheap mesh we see with some power supplies but is actually a tightly-bound and form fitting fabric which offers the perfect blend of looks and flexibility.


With this power supply, BFG has seen fit to have separate connectors for both the 4-pin and 8-pin CPU outputs while keeping them on the same cable. While we have never been a fan of this practice we can see the extra length given to the 4-pin connector being a benefit but 8-pin users get cut short (literally). It is HIGHLY recommended that if you are using the 8-pin connector that you zip-tie the hanging 4-pin to the main cable. If not, your CPU heatsink fan will tend to suck it it...which is exactly what happened to us…

The PCI-E cables are laid out in the same fashion as the CPU cables which means that there are two connectors per cable. Even though we had an issue with this on the CPU cable, the advent of graphics cards with two power connectors per card has made this layout perfect for PCI-E cables.


BFG provides you with a pair of ground wires which can be attached to either PCI-E connector on a given cable. This means that if you need the 8-pin connector to be longer, you can do so by stretching the two ground wires to the longer of the two PCI-E connectors on the cable.
 
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