1000W-1200W Roundup: Five High-End PSUs
by Martin Kaffei on December 9, 2010 1:20 PM ESTCooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W
The 16cm long Silent Pro Gold is Cooler Master's latest creation. The package comes with flat modular cables with gold colored connectors, a manual, some screws, and a power cord. Cooler Master told us that there are some special technical features like the transformer core mounted to the heatsink. They have reduced some power loss from terminal pads because many components have direct contacts. Cooler Master offers a 5-year warranty.
| Cables and Connectors | ||
| Fixed/Modular | Main | 24-pin 50cm |
| ATX12V/EPS12V | 4+4-pin 60cm / 4+4-pin 60cm | |
| PCIe | 4x 6/8-pin 60cm + 6-pin 10cm | |
| Peripheral | 3x SATA 50-70cm / 3x SATA 50-70cm / 3x SATA 50-70cm | |
| 2x Molex 50-60cm /2x 50-60cm + Floppy adapter 15cm | ||
The two 8-pin CPU connectors and eight PCIe connectors are satisfying. However, the peripheral cables are very short and there are only four Molex connectors for fans and other peripherals. This is not the best solutions for large cases, but it's good enough for triple-SLI and quad-CrossFire setups.
The 135mm fan from Young Lin, model number DFS132512H, is the same one like in the AeroCool V12XT--not very silent nor professional. It's a typical sleeve bearing type spinning at up to 1800RPM with eleven fan blades.
On the right side you can see both DC-to-DC VRMs. This PSU has two main caps from Nippon Chemi-Con, a very small transformer, and a clean soldered cable management PCB. The L-shaped heatsinks should help to increase airflow. Cooler Master has no real single rail for +12V and OCP to protect their multi rail design. The active PFC circuit allows Cooler Master to sell and use this power supply in countries with 90-264VAC input voltage. The placement of parts near the power inlet seems to be very chaotic.
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SirGCal - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
Ditto! I have bought nothing but Corsair powersupplies for quite some time. I got tired of my Antec supplies dieing out on me so I switched to some of the others (Seasonic) but once I found the new (at the time) Corsair's lineup... There was no competition. And generally speaking, I don't buy their ram or other products, but their power supplies are rock solid.Squuiid - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
+1Where's the Corsair?!
aandea - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
+1Where's the Corsair?!
Martin Kaffei - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Well, we can't test all brands out there, but we've already reviewed the AX 750, which is a very good PSU and this roundup wasn't the last one. I'm sure, Corsair will send more samples, if you are interested.landerf - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
The AX 750 and the AX1200 are hardly comparable. You can't just assume by the model line, especially with corsair. They're not made by the same manufacturer. The AX is considered "god" tier at the moment, so it'd be expected to be in any such comparison.landerf - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Meant AX1200Havor - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Still the AX1200 belongs among the tested products as its the only one that is in the same range as the Antec High Current Pro 1200WJerricho24 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
I also have a few corairs and would have liked to see the AX1200 set along side the enermax Revolution 1250 or Galaxy 1000(that I also have both of)the REAL top end players seem to be missing from 1000W+ review.
Beenthere - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
...it's good to expose that some known and unknown brands have mediocre PSU quality. Now days you need to consider accurate PSU reviews on the specific model PSU you are considering purchasing as the quality and performance can vary drastically from one PSU model to another of the same brand.SirGCal - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
Even the Corsair CMPSU-1000HX or CMPSU-950TX would have been interesting in the mix. Let alone the AX1200 monster.But still, the majority of users who aren't running tripple SLI won't need anything more than a 600-900W unit depending. It would be more interesting to see a good comparison of say the ~750W range. That'll hold most systems even with two GPUs in many cases. But no problem at all with any single GPU as the majority of users run.