BFG ES Series 800W PSU

Results

It's good to see BFG has upped its game, but it's not quite as good as we've seen elsewhere recently. The 12V rails are consistently low, and when we fully loaded the ES-800 with a 12V weighting the rails dropped to 11.67V and 11.71V respectively. This is still within the ATX specification which goes down to 11.4V, but it's hardly hitting the mark when it's called upon.

The 3.3V and 5V rails are very strong, although under extreme load the 3.3V does nuzzle close to the "1 percent of ATX spec" margin. In addition, in the same weighted test the 5V standby voltage does drop into this yellow area though, but all the way through the 5V standby seems to be struggling just a bit.

The performance isn't poor, far from it as you can see from the almost entirely green results and incredibly high efficiency - at low to medium loads the ES-800 hits upwards of 87 percent, which is fantastic. However, the market as a whole is now starting to hit these levels, with Cooler Master's Ultimate series of PSU's getting the 80+ Silver certification that represents a similar efficiency. BFG may be ahead of the pack for now in terms of efficiency, but between the width of a watt and a volt, it's also quite mediocre.

On a more subjective front, the noise level at 50 and 75 percent is exceptionally quiet, and the unit was cool to touch on all sides. As we hit 100 percent load the PSU was a little more audible but in no way offensive; it was still very quiet, but not silent, as the fan cranked up a notch to accommodate the extra heat being created. In the same respect the base and sides got warm-hot after an extended session at high load too.