TruePower Quattro 850 W is a power supply from Antec featuring modular cabling system, four auxiliary PCI Express power cables for video cards, active PFC, efficiency above 80% and the very traditional ATX looks, with a small 80-mm fan on the rear side. The manufacturer promises that this unit can deliver its labeled power at 50º C. Sounds promising, but can this unit really deliver 850 W? Let’s see.
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Figure 1: Antec TruePower Quattro 850 W power supply.
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Figure 2: Antec TruePower Quattro 850 W power supply.
As we mentioned this power supply uses a regular 80-mm fan on its rear instead of a 120-mm or bigger fan on its bottom.
We like modular cabling systems as they allow you to only have the cables you are really going to use, improving the airflow inside your PC since you will have fewer cables blocking the airflow. Usually on power supplies that use modular cabling systems the motherboard cables don’t use them, being permanently attached to the power supply. This isn’t an issue, as you will always use the motherboard cables. On this power supply, however, two of the four auxiliary power cables for video cards don’t use the modular cabling system, being permanently attached to the unit (these cables use 6/8-pin connectors). In theory this shouldn’t be an issue, as this power supply is targeted to users with at least two video cards installed under SLI or CrossFire. If you have just one video card installed, then you will have one unused video card power cable hanging from the power supply. Also you will always have one of the motherboard cables hanging loose, as this power supply has separated EPS12V and ATX12V cables and you can only have one of the two attached to your motherboard.
On the power supply modular cabling system the manufacturer identified which +12 V rail each plug is connected to. This is a terrific idea.
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Figure 3: Identification of which +12 V rail each plug is connected to.
On Figure 4 you can see the cables from the modular cabling system that include two 6-pin auxiliary cables for video cards, three cables with three standard peripheral power plugs each (two of them with a floppy disk drive power connector attached), two cables with three SATA power plugs and one cable with two SATA power plugs.
The number of connectors provided by this power supply is perfect for even the most high-end user.
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Figure 4: Peripheral cables.
On this power supply all wires are 18 AWG, except the wires on the main motherboard cable, which are 16 AWG, which is adequate for a power supply on this power range.
Even though Antec paid to have their own UL number, this power supply is actually manufactured by Enhance Electronics.
Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.
