BFGTech ES-800 -- Good Experiences?

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timlara

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I know this was touched on in a deals thread recently, but I thought it was worth bringing up again in this section for anyone who missed it and might be interested...

Based on the stellar [H] review and the sweet Newegg deal from 8/25, I went ahead and picked up an ES-800 to add to the pile of gear I'm saving up for a new build. I was a bit hesitant at first because there were very few (7) customer reviews about this unit on Newegg, and the majority of these few reviews were complaints about popping noises, dead PSUs, and things catching on fire.

Now, I'm well aware of the fact that when it comes to internet shopper reviews, you're generally MUCH more likely to hear from people who had a bad experience than you are the folks who are off happily enjoying their perfectly working new widget -- plus, in the case of Newegg, Amazon, (insert-giant-internet-store-here) shoppers, I get the impression a fair amount of them are knuckleheads who maybe *shouldn't* really be allowed to play with anything electronic in the first place -- BUT, the fact that I have also seen a couple reports of DOA ES-800s on these forums is beginning to make me a little more nervous.

Is it possible that there really are some engineering / quality control issues with the somewhat unconventional design of this PSU? A bad batch or two made while the assembly line foreman was on summer vacation??

Or is it truly just a case of the happy customers not speaking up? If you *are* a happy customer, please chime in here....and if you have a few minutes to spare, I'm sure the folks at BFG would appreciate it if you dropped by Newegg and helped get the positive reviews back up into the majority!

(BTW - I've also been impressed with the customer service I've seen so far from the BFG reps, so that definitely makes me feel better in the event there does turn out to be some sort of production hiccup going on.)
 
I got in on the deal back in July and have been running mine for about a month now. It looks really nice and I haven't had any problems so far. The voltages have been pretty stable, so no complaints there.

To be honest though, I wish I hadn't bought it. Not because it's a bad PSU, but it's just overkill for me and my old PSU was perfectly fine. I plugged my system into a kill-a-watt, and even with dual 4870's, the system only draws ~400 watts at full load. I had a Seasonic S12 600w that I had been running for a couple years, but I thought the extra wattage might be a good idea. Turns out it was kinda pointless.

The seasonic was also a better PSU imo, the rails ran closer to spec and they were rock solid. I also had to bump up the voltages from 1.2 with the seasonic to 1.25 with the ES800 to get my processor overclock stable again. So, overall, not a bad PSU. I'm sure I'll use the extra watts eventually, but for now it's pointless, at least for me.
 
Solid so far for me. I upgraded from a Corsair 520hx. I accidently dropped a pci slot screw on top of it while my comp was running and it gave me a bsod shorting out something on the motherboard. The metal is sensitive on the outside.
 
Thanks for the input so far. kadozer's comment is interesting...I'll def keep that in mind. Coincidentally, the 520hx was the PSU I was initially going to get as well since I'm not going to be running crossfire right away, but when I saw the deal on the BFG I decided to grab it for future headroom as the switching design for low load efficiency sounded like the perfect choice to plan for a future upgrade.
 
timlara said:
Based on the stellar [H] review and the sweet Newegg deal from 8/25, I went ahead and picked up an ES-800 to add to the pile of gear I'm saving up for a new build. I was a bit hesitant at first because there were very few (7) customer reviews about this unit on Newegg, and the majority of these few reviews were complaints about popping noises, dead PSUs, and things catching on fire.
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Well, then you and everyone else in this thread so far should make sure they post a positive review to off-set those negative ones. ;)

I'm guilty of not posting positive reviews too. I bought a new Asus board last week and thought about posting a positive review of it just so I didn't appear to be a hypocrit, but unfortunately, so far, my experience isn't positive. :(
 
I have been using the same unit we tested here on the bench in my office for a couple of months now. I have run it under "real life" conditions here with up to 700w load on it for hours at a time and have never had an issue with the unit at all.
 
Also the ES-800 will run a 12w load for ~14 hours <shifty eyes>
 
timlara said:
I know this was touched on in a deals thread recently, but I thought it was worth bringing up again in this section for anyone who missed it and might be interested...

Based on the stellar [H] review and the sweet Newegg deal from 8/25, I went ahead and picked up an ES-800 to add to the pile of gear I'm saving up for a new build. I was a bit hesitant at first because there were very few (7) customer reviews about this unit on Newegg, and the majority of these few reviews were complaints about popping noises, dead PSUs, and things catching on fire.

Now, I'm well aware of the fact that when it comes to internet shopper reviews, you're generally MUCH more likely to hear from people who had a bad experience than you are the folks who are off happily enjoying their perfectly working new widget -- plus, in the case of Newegg, Amazon, (insert-giant-internet-store-here) shoppers, I get the impression a fair amount of them are knuckleheads who maybe *shouldn't* really be allowed to play with anything electronic in the first place -- BUT, the fact that I have also seen a couple reports of DOA ES-800s on these forums is beginning to make me a little more nervous.

Is it possible that there really are some engineering / quality control issues with the somewhat unconventional design of this PSU? A bad batch or two made while the assembly line foreman was on summer vacation??

Or is it truly just a case of the happy customers not speaking up? If you *are* a happy customer, please chime in here....and if you have a few minutes to spare, I'm sure the folks at BFG would appreciate it if you dropped by Newegg and helped get the positive reviews back up into the majority!

(BTW - I've also been impressed with the customer service I've seen so far from the BFG reps, so that definitely makes me feel better in the event there does turn out to be some sort of production hiccup going on.)
Click to expand...

One other thing to consider, that 90% of the bad experiences on newegg reviews is user ineptitude. esp the motherboards. that is why there are so many open box deals. Person that was trying to install it failed, said they got 3 bad boards in a row, and so one. While I am sure that it happens the odds of several bad items in a row leads one toward user error. that is why the open box motherboards are such good deals usually.

By and large the only reviews I take to heart are the monitor and high tech items (things that only really tech savvy people get / work with)

I have only had one bad experience with BFG power supplies (not this model). and even then I should have handled it differently. (was a good deal, I just got hold of a bad tech support person) The vast majority of people are usually very happy with BFG products. On that not my new video card is a BFG.
 
I'll post a review on mine as soon as my bolt-through kit comes in so I actually have something for it to run. My only initial complaint is the lack of modular wiring. The wiring there is nice, though. Full sleeving, heavy connectors, and plenty of length for what I'm doing.
 
Well, the number of replies in this thread has already surpassed the number of negative reviews on Newegg, so that's a good sign... ;)

The man in brown just dropped mine off today. I haven't put it to use yet as I'm still waiting on the rest of the parts for my new build, but I can say the fit and finish sure is nice. Feels like a tank. Once I've had a chance to actually run it for a while, I'll definitely log back on to Newegg and do my part.
 
I have the BFG ES-800

I bought it as soon as it got the Gold Award...don't ask me how much it cost me...

but anyways..its been a good utility..i use it primarily for the 12v out put....

and oh yeah..the reviews from newegg are hardly influencial for me...most of the bad reviews are from not so good so called "techies"...
 
Andyson's build quality is average, so it should be okay as long as you don't overload it. A friend ordered one and it arrived DOA. The replacement still works fine though.
 
Rage_3k_Moiz said:
Andyson's build quality is average....
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Example?

I chose Andyson as an OEM because I was impressed with their build quality. They were actually in the top tier of my "recommended PSU manufacturers" list when I was doing reviews.
 
I've seen a lot of Andyson-made Hiper and one or two Raidmax units fail. That and plus some of their Ultra PSUs I've taken apart have a lot of solder clumped together around the rear end of the PCB. Maybe the latter's just an aesthetic issue, but the aforementioned Hiper units were frequently replaced in the shop I worked in over one summer.

I have to say though that Ultra's PSU quality did improve once they switched from Wintech to Andyson.
 
Rage_3k_Moiz said:
I've seen a lot of Andyson-made Hiper and one or two Raidmax units fail.
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Andyson makes a full range of product with the Hiper, Raidmax and Sunbeam units being based off of their lower end product.

Not to sound defensive, but would you judge the quality of your HX1000 on the old Antec Smart Power units?
 
Of course not. I was just pointing out that from my experience, Andyson isn't such a great OEM. Maybe that isn't true for the higher-end models though. And I know that the Fuhjyyu caps that were used in the old Hipers and Antecs were the main reason for the failures, but still, it was a bad decision on the part of Andyson and CWT. It's not that I'm trying to say that their products today are that bad, but it's just that I've yet to personally see a PSU from Andyson that is on par with the rest of the offerings. On the flipside, I own another PC with a Gigabyte Odin GT 680W PSU and my brother's rig currently contains a two-month-old Corsair 550VX, both of which I have dissected and found to be great units.

Maybe if I get to open up and see one of their PSUs myself, it'll change my mind. Speaking of which, what particular Andyson-made PSU would you recommend for a Phenom X4 9850 BE setup with an HD 4850 and one HDD and DVD burner?
 
Rage_3k_Moiz said:
And I know that the Fuhjyyu caps that were used in the old Hipers and Antecs were the main reason for the failures, but still, it was a bad decision on the part of Andyson and CWT. ?
Click to expand...

That's not entirely Andyson's or CWT's fault. OEM PSUs (CWT and Andyson) builders only build to the specifications set forth by the PSU company (Antec and Hiper). So part of the blame is on Antec and Hiper for setting low specifications on their PSUs.
 
Danny Bui said:
That's not entirely Andyson's or CWT's fault. OEM PSUs (CWT and Andyson) builders only build to the specifications set forth by the PSU company (Antec and Hiper). So part of the blame is on Antec and Hiper for setting low specifications on their PSUs.
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And sometimes the designs are just bad ;)
 
Rage_3k_Moiz said:
Of course not. I was just pointing out that from my experience, Andyson isn't such a great OEM. Maybe that isn't true for the higher-end models though. And I know that the Fuhjyyu caps that were used in the old Hipers and Antecs were the main reason for the failures, but still, it was a bad decision on the part of Andyson and CWT.
Click to expand...

Like Danny pointed out, that's not necessarily Andyson or CWT's fault. If you look inside a Aerocool Zero-dba, it's the same Andyson platform as a Hiper Type-R, but the Fuhjyyu's are replaced with Teapos, primarily because the Zero-dba's fan is supposed to not spin at low loads and the Fuhjyyu's simply can't hold up to that kind of heat.

Rage_3k_Moiz said:
Maybe if I get to open up and see one of their PSUs myself, it'll change my mind. Speaking of which, what particular Andyson-made PSU would you recommend for a Phenom X4 9850 BE setup with an HD 4850 and one HDD and DVD burner?
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I dunno. How about an Andyson MT8 based BFG ES-800? I heard there was some pretty good autopsy photos here: http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ2NywsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0 ;)
 
Wouldn't that be overkill for that system? I was thinking something more along the lines of a BGears Tarantula 650W. How's that compared to the BFG PSU?
 
I was sort of being cheeky, but define "overkill". Is there ALWAYS such a thing as overkill? Overkill is usually avoided when you have to pay more and net no gain. But the ES-800 has been on sale lately for less money than lesser PSU's. So in that case, is it still "overkill"?

The BGears is a decent PSU, but again it's based on a lower end Andyson platform. Same one the Ultra X3 is based off of. Better than the older Hiper, Sunbeam, Aerocool, etc. but still not an MT8.

Differences being component selection for one, like Japanese caps, gold plated connectors, and a ball bearing fan with a +3V start up voltage. Also the ES-800 has a separate +5VSB PSU within the PSU to give it the best efficiency while the PC is in standby. No other Andyson built or any other brand PSU on the market today currently has this feature. Also, the ES-800 has Frequency Conversion which allows the PSU to emulate a smaller PSU when the load is less by dynamically changing the switching frequency based on the load. Other PSU's have a similar functionality, but not using the same means as the ES-800 and the ES-800 is still more efficient than these units at these lower loads. Of course, this is all in Paul's review. Not to put down the B-Gears, but it's a conventional PSU with slightly better than average construction (all Teapo caps, sleeve bearing fan). If the better quality components, better +5VSB efficiency and better efficiency at lower loads doesn't interest you... then the B-Gears is a fine choice.
 
JonGerow said:
Also the ES-800 has a separate +5VSB PSU within the PSU to give it the best efficiency while the PC is in standby. No other Andyson built or any other brand PSU on the market today currently has this feature.
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The PUC's do ;)
 
That's right! I forgot the higher CWT PUC's do; like what the Corsair HX1000 and Xigmatek NRP-HC1001 are based off of. I stand corrected. But also, those aren't sub-$200 PSU's.. and talk about overkill. ;)
 
Hehe right. The ES-800 it is then. :)

EDIT: Just read the review and saw what the PSU is capable of. I'm looking forward to taking a peek at the insides as soon as it arrives.
 
Term-X said:
So when is BFG coming out with the ES-1000? :D
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Working on it. Just need to get everything straight with the licensing of the Ultra modular interface patent and tooling the modular interface so we can make it modular.
 
JonGerow said:
Working on it. Just need to get everything straight with the licensing of the Ultra modular interface patent and tooling the modular interface so we can make it modular.
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I'll actually "upgrade" just for the modular interface. 800-1000 watts is fine for me. Will you keep the relatively short length and large, slow fan?
 
Awesome! Modular, no less. Can't wait for it to make the rounds. I am definitely going to upgrade when it's released.
 
I finally ordered my VGA card (4870). For proper power distribution, should I take the 2 PCIE(6) inputs from separate lines, or just hook the single line to it (both plugs) and keep the other one tucked neatly away until called to duty?
 
I'd just use the single line with the two connectors on it to keep things looking tidy.
 
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