A Closer Look
It was already a little confusing with two PC hardware companies called “Sparkle”, Sparkle Computer building video cards and Sparkle Power building power supplies. Now it will be a little more confusing that Sparkle Computer builds power supplies.
The Sparkle Computer Gold Class power supplies are very new, and have not yet been tested for SLI certification. That usually takes six months or so.
The power supply is finished in a fairly shiny gunmetal/black powdercoat…it is darker than what most companies call “gunmetal”, but not quite black. The label, that covers most of the side of the PSU, has the same theme as the PSUs box and sports Sparkle’s S-blade logo. The 139mm fan is purple in color, and I suspect it is UV reactive, but I don’t know for sure.
The PSU is fully modular, excepting of course the 24-pin and ATX12V connectors. The modular connectors are the same purple color as the fan. The rear of the PSU is vented with punched honeycomb openings, not as large as I prefer, but should cause no wind noise. The Sparkle Computer Gold Class 850 has five +12V rails, three of them at 16A, and the other two are 18A.
The Gold Class 850 does not have an extensive array of cooling fins on the rails, but with such high efficiency, they aren’t needed. The fins should be more than enough, and are anodized purple. All capacitors are solid and 105C rated.
The modular cables are stowed away in this cool bag, made of Cordura-styled material, and emblazoned with the Sparkle Computer logo.
The cables themselves are covered in heavy nylon mesh and finished with heavy heat shrink tubing. The male modular connectors are the same purple as the female connectors on the PSU. The power connectors are of good quality and heavy enough.
There are 4 x 24” PCI-E cables, each with a single PCI-E 6+2 connector. There are 3 x 34” 4-pin Molex cables, each with three Molex connectors and a single floppy connector (which adds 5” to the length of the cable). And there are 3 x 35” SATA power cables, each with three SATA power connectors.
“Attention to detail” kind of stuff really means a lot to me and I am always on the lookout for those little added niceties that other companies don’t do. There are a couple here, and both could easily go unnoticed. Every connector on the cables is gold plated. I’ve seen that before, but only on a couple of power supplies.
The other item is something I have never seen at all on a PSU…filtering on the 24pin cable to limit the possibility of RF interference.
Included is a 14ga power cord, a pack of Velcro wire ties sporting the Sparkle Computer name and logo, and some thumb screws.
