Value and Conclusion
- Cooler Master's Real Power M850 is going for about $230 or € 159, definitely not the cheapest in its class.
- Stable 12V line
- Modular
- High efficiency
- Large number of connectors
- Quiet
- Cables are fully sleeved
- Good ripple voltage
- No power switch
- High Price
- Average 3.3V and 5V line stability
- Small gotchas with cables and plugs
- Takes fingerprints easily
Cooler Master markets their Real Power M850 as "World's first power supply with six 12V rails". While this may sound good on paper I couldn't see any big advantage of this during my testing. Actually the actual peak power of all six 12V rails is 768W, which means that each rail is only good for ~11A if you use all six. Yes, the 12V line is quite stable, but there are more stable power supplies that use four or less rails. The 3.3V and 5V lines were among the worst of our test group, but this doesn't mean that the line stability is bad. It is just that there are better power supplies out there. The same goes for efficiency and fan noise - good, but we have seen better results.
The color coding of the modular connectors on the back is certainly a nice feature that will help less experienced users, but why are there only four PCI-Express power connectors, two of them even being six pin only. The missing power switch is a major issue in my opinion, I wouldn't be willing to accept such a limitation, especially when there would be enough space to add this feature. Another mystery to me is why both, the 4-pin and the 8-pin power connector are fixed to the power supply. If you think about this for a second it should be evident that most users will only use one of them at a time, the majority will use the 8-pin connector. So why not put the 4-pin connector on a modular cable that is optional.
Overall the Cooler Master Real Power M850 leaves me fairly unimpressed, even though its numbers look good. In the difficult power supply market you should innovate to leave your competition behind.