Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000 1000W
by Martin Kaffei on September 5, 2010 10:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- 80Plus
- Cooler Master
- Silent Pro
Cooling and Noise Level
| Sound Pressure Level | |
| Load | dB(A) |
| 10% | 20 |
| 20% | 20 |
| 50% | 20 |
| 80% | 22 |
| 100% | 30 |
| 110% | 35 |
Unfortunately the noise is one of our main points of criticism. The fan spins relatively fast, even at 50% load. In our opinion an additional regulating stage is missing, which falls short of 20dBA at 20% load. But the spin-up is moderate up to 80% load. Then the fan spins at nearly full speed and a noise level of 30dBA can be measured, climbing up to 35dBA at light overload, which is very loud.
On one hand the Silent Pro doesn't live up to its name. On the other hand FSP always has used rather conservative regulation of cooling to prevent overheating. When the customer is playing games or listening to music, he usually will not be able to discern a difference in noise, as the PSU will be drowned out by the noise of the latest high-end graphics cards. It is more annoying that the results in idle won't be better at all.
The Power Logic fan with the model number PLA14025S12H is a sleeve bearing type. It's a 135mm sized fan, with half of the cooling intake is blocked by an air guidance foil. Cooler Master tries to guide the down flowing air stream out through the ventilation holes, so no turbulence from additional down streaming air should occur near the EMI-filtering components. This sounds plausible in theory, but practically it is a massive restriction of the cooling potential of the fan. When such a large area is covered, it should be in question why such large fan is used at all. Cooler Master should cover the first third at most and use a better fan, which would be more suitable to the general quality of the electronics. But there are even louder PSUs in this class. It should be clear that especially here significantly more cooling power is required.
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FinBenton - Monday, September 6, 2010 - link
I have this PSU, it has been working ok but computer cannot go to sleep with this psu and fan is definitely audible even when no stress on hardware.Beenthere - Monday, September 6, 2010 - link
Don't care for the flat cables at all. They are a PITA and obstruct airflow. With quiet fans available there is little need for noise these days.hsew - Monday, September 6, 2010 - link
It's too bad we don't see more PSU reviews from this site more often. This is one of the few sites that properly tests PSUs.redwolfe98 - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
every review of a "cooler master" power supply that i read mentions some defect..having half of the air-intake blocked is stupid..
pkoi - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Heatsinks have way too little surface area.pkoi - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
What a piece of S...Imagginer - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Power Supplies this strong are made for CF and SLI gymnastics, right? So if you've got 2 or 3 high end graphic cards stacked how are you going to cool them? Passively?....I don't think so. Now, I dont know how load those coolers are going to be but one can bet they're gonna be loader than 20dba......so this fuss about 20dba being too load is irrelevant or should we say ridiculous...If you're building audio workstation...that's another story....but you're not gonna need 1000W, thats for sure...
Imagginer - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
PS.Who needs 1000W PS anyway.... 99,9999% of people get nothing with it but bragging rights...
My 625W Enermax is more than I will ever need and even with that I often ask myself if I ever am gonna need that much power.... taking into consideration that my i7 920 and HD 4870 are not exactly 'power saving components'....
jdietz - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Agreed. 1kW is far too much for most PCs. One of my PCs has 380W PS and the other has 330W PS. Both have a video card installed. If you have only one video card (read: 90% of PC owners), you don't need over 350W.Martin Kaffei - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Hi,for my next review I got an Antec Earth Watts Green 380W. Hope, you'll like it.