PC Power & Cooling - Visiting a Legend
by Christoph Katzer on January 23, 2009 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
If you're a PC enthusiast and care about power supplies, you'll definitely be familiar with the name PC Power & Cooling. The company has been around a long time now and is responsible for many innovations in the power supply industry, particularly in the USA. In May 2007, Doug Dodson, the founder and owner of PC Power & Cooling, sold his company to the OCZ Technology Group; with that move, the brand also entered the European Union. What many users don't know is that PC Power & Cooling has been around 24 years, bringing inventions to market like no other company in this field. They were building power supplies when most of today's enthusiasts weren't even born.
After this year's CES, we took the chance to drive down to San Diego where PC Power & Cooling has resided for the past 17 years. We met up with Doug Dodson, the CTO of the OCZ Technology Group, and James Dickensen, the Quality Engineer in charge of Quality and Testing. If you are a reviewer like us and received a PC Power & Cooling unit before, you might have seen his name on the Chroma report that came with the unit.
James Dickensen in his lab; you can see that he does more than sharpening pencils in here.
Today PC Power & Cooling helps OCZ with RMA, testing, and development, but OCZ continues to do much of this on their own for OCZ branded products. OCZ has a product development team that develops for both OCZ and PC Power, and Doug's role in this is more consulting based now. The differences between the two companies is still large, since PC Power was always and still is a high-end power supply vendor that cares less about prices and focuses primarily on components and best quality merchandise. OCZ as a brand caters mostly to other parts of the market where the price wars are more taxing.
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hamunaptra - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - link
I have had the 500w Silencer model for a while, it rocks. Unfortunately the first one did fail on me after about 2 months of use, but the RMA process was amazing. I had my NEW PSU back to me within a week!!!! By the time I got around to checking the tracking on it, it showed it was out for delivery TO MY HOUSE!!! ROFL! I was very impressed.I got back a totally new 500w PSU and its still goin strong!
I will buy nothing other than PCP&C in the future! I love the fact the internals of these are high quality and the 80mm fan design I still desire one reason being my case works best with those and 120mm fan PSU's dont get air in my smaller case =)
This PSU must have amazing cooling ability also, because after my computer has been under load for 24hrs crunching away on all "8" cores crunching away on WCG...I put my hand on the exhaust of the PSU and its cool air! the sides of the PSU are cool also.
My previous non PCP&C PSU's were hot and loud!!!!! with half the load ROFL!
I recommend PCP&C PSU's to everyone! the single 12V rail is also superior and....I just hate the idea of multi 12v PSU's having to balance everything and it just seems like a cheap way to get away with a lot of watts and not great parts.
corsa - Friday, January 30, 2009 - link
Oh so this is where they do the re-badging ...I'll stick to Seasonic built Corsair.OCZJess - Friday, January 30, 2009 - link
Yes it is true that Seasonic is PC Power's OEM; however, PC Power designed and engineered the Silencer series themselves in Carlsbad, CA.Don't forget PC Power was using Seasonic long before Corsair was even making PSUs. I guess we don't need to wonder why Corsair chose Seasonic :)
ebayne - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - link
I am a major PC P+C fan. I have used them exclusively for going on 10 years now. The most effective ad I ever saw was the one where they showed the guts of an OEM next to a turboCool.I'm 44 and am now teaching the next gen of PC Enthusiasts in my family. I tell them if they want my help building a system it has to have a PC P+C psu or I won't touch it. I don't understand these idjits that will spend 600 bucks on a cpu or gpu and then power it with a 10 dollar psu.
9nails - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - link
I'm in the San Diego area, and would love to take a tour some time. But a virtual tour with more pictures of the shop would have been a nice alternative.I've often wondered how components are selected for power supplies. They can't all be selected out of a catalog, right? Any insight as to what goes into the build process?
I used to be a fan of Antec power supplies, but after my last one and it's RMA unit died on me, no longer. I've installed my first PCP&C Silencer 750 last November. And soon after I built a $4K computer system for a friend with the same power supply. I've liked the build quality so much that I specifically asked for a PCP&C power supply in my next business computer! I'd even be willing to donate the cost difference to my district just to make sure that I'm up and running, unlike those dime-a-dozen power supplies that die in a year. I've learned how addressing this one area of your computer fixes all the other little issues that crop up due to poor design.
dunce - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - link
When the fan in my Silencer 750 started making a clicking sound. I called them and they told me to just bring it in (I live 10min away). They guys were very cool and it was fixed in 30min. Now that is customer service!! I will always run PC P&C Power Supplies!looper - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - link
I have owned several of their PS units over the years. Quality and pride is what this company is all about.OLD SCHOOL...
I hope to God that OCZ does not step in and change the success blueprint here.So often, after a takeover the parent Company, trying to cut costs, steps in and makes bad decisions.
OCZ... don't screw this up....
Brian in RI
OCZJess - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - link
Hi Brian,I would like to mention I am an employee of OCZ. We acquired PC Power & Cooling close to 2 years ago now and as you can see we have not imposed on what made PC Power so successful. The facility and employees have remained intact. In fact, PC Power has improved the quality and engineering of all of OCZ's PSUs.
I see it as a symbiotic relationship; Doug and team has helped take OCZ power supplies to a new level with their years of experience and immaculate testing abilities. OCZ has helped make them a world-class brand with their global distribution channel.
We promise not to screw it up ;)
Joe Schmoe - Monday, January 26, 2009 - link
I just noticed how much that guys office looks almost exactly like mine.. except all his junk is nicer.Zorlac - Monday, January 26, 2009 - link
I agree the PC P&C most likely makes the best PSUs in the business, but I have to admit I will not buy another until they start using 120 or 140mm fans. Those 80mm blow dryers they use are stupidly loud.Nice article by the way! :)