Gigabyte Ultra Durable 850W Power Supply Review

When it comes to power supplies there are only a few basic form factors and the Gigabyte UD850GM 850W is slightly smaller than most at 140mm deep and yet is still fully modular meaning that all of the power cables are removable.  A modular design is an important consideration for any PSU as it allows you to control cable management by using only the cables you need and gives you an easy opportunity to swap the cables for individually sleeved units at any time.

At the back you will find the main power switch and power connection.  The fine mesh does allow for good airflow while also keeping cats and birds from getting into your PSU.  I especially like how the entire PSU design features a black and grey color theme and yet we have yellow components just hanging out behind an open mesh.

One of the special features was the venting of the PSU.  As you can see from the photos the chassis is fully stamped with venting located across the entire face of the fan, at the back near the power socket.  While I still prefer wire fan grills this method of venting is very elegant.

I had mentioned that the Gigabyte UD850GM is fully modular and in terms of connections you’ll get a standard 24-pin main power connector that is split across to plugs for the PSU.  There are a total of five 8-pin connections which will accept either the CPU or PCI Express power connection.  You only get three connections for peripheral cables which, is more than enough for any modern system build.

At this point I would like to draw your attention to a warning sticker at the bottom of the PSU indicating that you should only use the original cables for your installation.  This should be a reminder to ALL of you.  Just because your PSU features modular cables doesn’t mean you can mix and match cables.  The pin-outs can be different and that can be disastrous for your build.

With the Gigabyte UD850GM you will get enough cables to populate almost the entire backplane and feature the extremely popular “flat ribbon” cable design.  The main 24pin ATX cable that is not broken up into the +4pin variety but does have a split set of cables where it connects to the PSU. 

You will also get two 4+4pin CPU power connectors allowing this power supply to support a multitude of different motherboard configurations.

I find it surprising that this 850w PSU supports a total of three PCI Express (or five if you count the CPU power plugs) and yet only comes with two PCI Express power cables.  Each cable supports two 6+2 power connections making it perfect for most RTX 30 Series cards.

The final set of cables are for the peripherals with two cables featuring the standard SATA plugs and will interface with most anything from RGB power connects, SATA drives and even DIY pumps.  If you have the need for a legacy MOLEX power connection a combo cable featuring three 4-pin MOLEX and a single floppy style connectors is available.