Introduction

We would like to thank be quiet! for supplying the review sample.



be quiet! products are not that easy to find in the US, but we believe that the company is hard at work to expand into the region since there are plenty of potential buyers there. be quiet! has already established itself in Europe, especially Germany, and they definitely are among the top choices for noise-sensitive users when it comes to both PSUs and cooling products (e.g. fans and heatsinks/coolers).

We tested the Power Zone 1000 W a while ago and were left quite satisfied by its performance, but the time has come for the second unit in command of the Power Zone line, the Power Zone 850 W, to be put to the test. Like its big brother, this one is also 80 Plus Bronze compliant while featuring a fully modular cabling design and a high-quality SilentWings fan. be quiet! even provides the option to connect up to three case fans directly to the PSU for reduced noise output and optimized system cooling, since these fans will be thermally controlled by the PSU itself. Like all Power Zone units, this one features the Cool Off function which operates the fan for three minutes after the system shuts down to cool down all sensitive PSU components, which prolongs their lifetime. This isn't the first time we see such a feature in a PSU, but we haven't seen one engage the fan for such a long time after the system shuts down. Finally, like all modern PSUs, the Power Zone 850 W supports the Deep Power Down modes that were introduced with Intel’s Haswell CPUs (C6 & C7 sleep states).