FSP originally announced their Dagger Pro line of SFX power supplies back in 2019 but last year they updated the lineup with a few more wattages. The original lineup was the Dagger Pro 550 and 650 and then last year they introduced the Dagger Pro 750 and the 850. I’m a little late to the party but we did get their Dagger Pro 850 in for us to check out and today I’m going to take a look at its features to see what it is all about. I’m a big fan of small form factor builds and having options in the true SFX size range for high wattages like this 850-watt model is huge so let’s see what it is all about.

Product Name: FSP Dagger Pro 850W PSU

Preview Sample Provided by: FSP

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

**Disclaimer**

LanOC Reviews only covers the features of power supplies due to not having the equipment to test them up to our standards. Because of this, you will not see a performance section, a final verdict, or awards. Therefore, we prefer to call this a preview rather than a review. Thank you for understanding; we keep our standard to the absolute highest for you, our reader.

Specifications

Capacities Available

550, 650, 750, and 850 (which is what we have)

Model

SDA2-850

Rated Output Power

850W

Form Factor

SFX

80 PLUS Certification

Gold

Input Voltage

100-240V

Input Current

12-6A

Input Frequency

50-60Hz

Efficiency

90%

Fan Type

ball bearing fan,92mm

Dimensions (L x W x H)

125 × 100 × 63.5 mm

Operation Temp.

200,000 Hrs

Protection

OCP, OVP, SCP, OPP, OTP

 


Packaging

The FSP Dagger Pro 850W PSU has a standard smaller than ATX-sized box for the SFX power supply but I was surprised with FSP’s choice in the front artwork. The box does have a picture of the power supply in the middle of the front. The last FSP power supply we had in the office had a similar layout but the background art looked like lighting from a jewel where for the Dagger Pro 850W PSU they have gone the complete other direction with digital camo in green. The camo is surrounded with a gold trim which goes with the PSUs 80 Plus Gold rating which is also featured in the bottom left corner. The FSP branding in the top left isn’t too large or in your face, they have left the Dagger Pro branding to be larger and the wattage which is next to that is even larger. With the wattage they let you know that this is an SFX power supply and near the 80 Plus badge they have a few other badges to show some of the PSU’s features.

image 1

The back of the box has another picture of the Dagger Pro and it is from a different angle that shows the fan. On the left they have a listing of the features then over on the right they highlight a few of those with a picture and a longer explanation of the feature. Beyond that, the back has the FSP and model branding up top, and then down at the bottom, it has the UPC and a sticker with the serial number as well.

image 2

One end of the box has a line drawing that breaks down all of the cables you get as well as a list of the total connections. They also let you know which power cord type is in the box here. Then the other end of the box has a wattage breakdown that shows the Dagger Pro 850W PSU being a single rail PSI. Below that they have a graph that shows the fan noise and the RPM which highlights that the fan doesn’t turn on until over 20% load. There is a second graph that maps out the PSU efficiency as well. FSP really makes sure that they use all of the space on the box to let you know what you are getting.

image 3

image 4

When you open the box up you have the documentation sitting up on top. The Dagger Pro 850W PSU itself comes wrapped up in a plastic bag and sits in its foam tray to keep it from moving around, interestingly though the foam isn’t up on top at all so if the box is hit from the front it could take damage that direction. There is a bag of goodies and then all of the cables are wedged into the rest of the box along with the power cable. There isn’t a reusable bag or even a plastic bag for any spare cables so plan on keeping the box for any extra cables most likely.

image 5

 

 


Photos and Features

With the packaging in the background of the FSP Dagger Pro 850W, we can see that the power supply has the same gold trim on it as the box. The camo still doesn’t match up with it, but the Dagger Pro 850W has a heavily textured black powder coat finish and the gold painted on top of that gives a great contrast. The Dagger Pro comes in 550, 650, 750, and 850 wattage options. Our sample here is the largest wattage at 850 watts but if you aren’t trying to pack a high-end PC into a small form factor build, the other wattage options are there, and frankly, it wasn’t that long ago that even the smallest at 550 watts would be considered a high wattage SFX PSU and unless you are running the highest end CPUs and GPUs those options will work perfectly.

image 6

image 7

image 8

Like I said before the Dagger Pro 850W is an SFX power supply which is significantly smaller than the standard ATX-sized PSU. The Dagger Pro 850W is 125mm long, 100mm wide, and 63.5 mm tall. The 125 mm width and the 63.5mm height is standard to SFX, the length of 100 mm is what sets a standard SFX power supply like this apart from an SFX-L which is what most higher wattage SFX options come in.  

image 15

image 17

image 18

Both of the sides of the Dagger Pro 850W have the same black and gold sticker on them. This includes the FSP logo on the left and then the Dagger Pro branding all in gold along with a few additional accent stripes under the FSP logo. The rest of the sticker is black. The reason one of the stickers is upside down is to make sure that the branding is readable even if your case needs the PSU installed with the fan down or up. Given that the Dagger Pro 850W does have printed or painted gold on other areas, I do think this would have looked a lot better with the gold painted on the sides because the large black striker covers up the nice textured finish that the rest of the Dagger Pro 850W has. Beyond that our stickers at least on one side was a little tilted as well.

image 9

image 10

The outside facing end of the Dagger Pro 850W avoids any of the stickers so it has that nice textured finish and FSP did print in gold “Power Never Ends” on here. Beyond that most of this end has small vent holes to let the airflow from the fan to blow out the back of the housing. The only area that isn’t ventilation is where the C13 plug for the power cable is and there is an on and off switch next to that.

image 11

The inside facing end of the Dagger Pro 850W has more of the gold accents with stripes along the bottom and then labels for each of the connections in gold. It has the dual connection for the 24-pin motherboard cable at the bottom and then up top there is one CPU power and two PCIe plugs with similar 8-pin plugs. Then on the right, there are two 5-pin vertical plugs for the peripheral cables.

image 12

You can call it the top or bottom depending on how you have the Dagger Pro 850W orientated but on one side the Dagger Pro 850W has a full flat surface with no plugs, fans, or vents. This is where they put the main information sticker which at first glance looks like a transparent sticker but I think is a textured black sticker that matches perfectly with the textured finish on the housing. I wish the side stickers had this finish at least. This has the FSP branding and of course the Dagger Pro branding and the wattage. It also has the wattage breakdown and a sticker for your serial number. They also use the space for all of the normally required certification logos as well as the 80 Plus Gold logo.

image 13

On the opposite side of the sticker is the fan side. This view gives us a better look at the stubby size of the standard SFX form factor. The SFX-L and ATX form factors are more squared off if not longer than the width which allows for a fan that goes the full width of the PSU. But for SFX the Dagger Pro 850W has a 90mm fan installed to pull air in and keep things cool. FSP used an old-school wire frame fan grill to keep anything from getting inside and that has a black finish just like the fan itself to go with the black textured housings finish.

 

image 14

image 16

image 22

Alongside the Dagger Pro 850W, in the box, it came with a few extra things. You get documentation of course with a black and white folded-up user manual. Beyond that for those in the US like me you get a NEMA 15 to C13 cable aka a standard power cable. Being a fully modular power supply the Dagger Pro 850W also comes with a bundle of cables but no bag for storing them. They do come at least in a Velcro strap which can be reused for bundling up any extra cables. Then in the plastic bag, you get an ATX to SFX adapter bracket for installing the SFX Dagger Pro 850W into a standard case which is a great way to get extra space in a tight case. You also get a baggie of black screws for both the bracket and for the power supply itself.

image 19

image 20

image 21

The bundle of cables that the Dagger Pro 850W comes with are all the now standard flat and flexible black cables that almost every modular PSU comes with. These make cable management easier and I’m glad to see that the Dagger Pro 850W comes with them. Even the 24-pin which sometimes still gets sleeved is a flat cable. The 24-pin here is 21 inches long which is more than long enough for any SFX compatible system, if anything it may be too long in some situations. For comparison, the Corsair SF750’s and the Cooler Master V850 SFX both have a 24-pin cable that is around 13 inches long.  The CPU power cable is interesting in that it has two plugs whereas most PSUs would use two different cables. That cable is 29 inches long, again for comparison other SFX PSUs are in the 17-19 ich range.

image 23

image 24

For the PCIe power, you get two cables and both have dual plug ends each with 6+2 configuration to support 6 or 8 pin options. Both are 21 inches long which is in line with what other SFX cables would normally be. The only difference here is they aren’t doing a daisy chain configuration so the plugs are both at the same length which I like more and means you don’t have that 6-inch cable sticking up between your power plugs.

image 25

image 26

Last up are the peripheral cables. Both are long at 26 and 27 inches long and both have four connections on them in total. The cable in the top of our picture has two SATA plugs, one Molex, and then one old-school floppy plug which I don’t know why we continue to see. Then the bottom cable has three SATA power plugs and one Molex down at the end. I like the mixed cables which means you don’t have to have two different cables if you are running something with Molex and something with SATA power. Each has about four and a half inches in between each plug. These are long like a standard ATX cable as well whereas a normal SFX PSU would have the plugs starting right near the power supply and would be 18-19 inches long.

image 27

image 28

 

 


Overall

Even without digging into pure performance which again I suggest you check out before deciding on a power supply. The Dagger Pro 850W does have an interesting mix of things that I like and things that I don’t like. I love the heavy texture that the powder coating on the enclosure as well as the gold accents used on the back and on the plug side for labels. Even the information sticker which matches that same finish is nice, but then on the sides where they have the branding stickers, they miss out completely by covering the nice finish up rather than printing that on or at least using a similarly textured sticker like on the info sticker. I like that FSP has wattage options available because not everyone needs a high wattage option like the 850 watt that we have here, but it is nice that the 850 IS an option for anyone looking to do a higher end build. The 80 Plus Gold rating is a nice happy medium where you get decent efficiency without going with the full high end and I like that the fan does shut off at lower usage.

The Dagger Pro 850W is fully modular which means you can pick and choose what cables you want to use or make your own cables. I do wish that you would also get a back to store the extra cables but the Velcro strap is better than nothing. I like that they also include an ATX to SFX bracket as well which adds a little more value. But with the cables, I start to wonder why the cables are so long, at least with most of them. The PCIe cables are in line with what most SFX PSUs have, in fact not having the daisy chained setup is an improvement there. But then for the rest of the cables, you get cables designed for a full-size case. This with the ATX bracket does make this a great option for larger cases if you want a smaller power supply to make room for something, but for actual SFX if you are using the Dagger Pro 850W you are going to be fighting with all of the extra cable and in some cases, I don’t know that you will have the room to deal with them.

For pricing, the Dagger Pro 850W has an MSRP of $179.99 and on Amazon they have had it listed at 189.99 for some reason, both being directly from FSP. But at least right now on Amazon, you can get the Dagger Pro 850W for $152.90. The V850 from Cooler Master is what I would consider to be a direct competitor for the Dagger Pro 850W and its black version is selling for $142.99 so the Dagger Pro 850W is a touch high even at the sale price but FSF isn’t far off in its pricing at least with the sale price.

Live Pricing: HERE

 

 

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

Log in to comment

We have 2012 guests and no members online

supportus