BFG, the traditional video card manufacturer, has recently entered into the Power Supply business. Their 800 W model has two 80-mm fans to cool down the unit and the PC and two (BFGR800WPSU) or four (BFGR800WPSULE) PCI Express auxiliary connectors, to feed two (BFGR800WPSU) or four (BFGR800WPSULE) video cards under SLI or CrossFire configuration. Let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply and see if it can really deliver its labeled 800 W.
Currently there are two versions of this power supply. The first version, called BFGR800WPSU, has two power cables for video cards and right after it was launched BFG discovered that these cables were too short. So they launched a second version, called BFGR800WPSULE, with four video card power cables, increasing the length on the two extra cables. The box of the product is absolutely the same with the newer version having a sticker saying "NEW Limited Edition - Features Four PCI Express Power Connectors" on it.
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Figure 1: BFG 800 W power supply.
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Figure 2: BFG 800 W power supply.
As you can see on Figures 1 and 2 this unit doesn’t have any fancy feature like modular cabling system and its visual is very plain. As we mentioned, it has two 80-mm fans, one at the rear side of the unit and the other at the front side of the unit.
It features active PFC, a standard feature for high-end power supplies (you can see this not only by the sticker on Figure 1 but by the absence of a 110/220 V switch, which isn’t present on power supplies with this feature). This feature provides a better usage of the power grid and allows this power supply to be comply with the European law, making BFG able to sell it in that continent (you can read more about PFC on our Power Supply Tutorial).
BFG, however, doesn’t mention anything about efficiency on the product box or on their website. This is definitely something we should check our closer during our tests.
The higher the efficiency the better – an 80% efficiency means that 80% of the power pulled from the power grid will be converted in power on the power supply outputs and only 20% will be wasted. This translates into less consumption from the power grid (as less power needs to be pulled in order to generate the same amount of power on its outputs), meaning lower electricity bills – compare to less than 70% on regular power supplies.
This power supply comes with seven (BFGR800WPSU) or nine (BFGR800WPSULE) peripheral power cables: two (BFGR800WPSU) or four (BFGR800WPSULE) auxiliary power cables for video cards with 6-pin connectors, two cables containing three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector each, one cable containing two standard peripheral connectors and two cables containing three SATA power connectors each.
The first version of this power supply has the problem of having only two power cables for video cards. If you need four cables, choose the "Limited Edition" model, which has all four connectors. Notice that the first version is cheaper than the second because of this.
As we explained, after releasing this power supply BFG found out that the video card power cables weren’t long enough for some SLI and CrossFire configurations, so they released an extension plug for them costing USD 5 each (or free of charge if you call their support department and provide the serial number of your power supply). This extension plug uses a 6/8-pin connector, so if you have a video card that requires an 8-pin connector you will need to buy this extension as well.
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Figure 3: Extension plugs for the BFG 800 W.
On the second "Limited Edition" version BFG kept these two cables (approximately 16" or 40 cm in length and using light blue connectors) and added two more PCI Express cables measuring approximately 20" or 51 cm in length each (with dark blue connectors).
On the aesthetic side the plastic sleeving used by the cables come from inside the power supply (see Figure 2), which is great.
This unit comes with five Velcro and two nylon cable holders to help you organize the cables inside your computer, helping the PC internal airflow.
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Figure 4: Cable holders that come with the product.
The wires on the main motherboard cable are 16 AWG, which is great, but the wires used on all other connectors are 18 AWG, which is thinner. It would be interesting to see all wires 16 AWG. On the "Limited Edition" model the two additional video card power cables (with dark blue connectors) use only two thicker 14 AWG wires instead of six 18 AWG, being divided into six 18 AWG wires on the connector.
This power supply is really manufactured by Topower.
