Can this efficient power supply from Atomic reader favourites Coolermaster manage to impress?
Coolermaster has bucketloads of experience with power supplies, and in terms of sheer volume and penetration of Atomican rigs, it's sitting in the number four spot as found in our recent Atomicans' Choice Awards. Coolermaster's Silent Pro M1000 unit, which we looked at recently, was a high-powered box able to supply a lot of juice, though it did so with unsteady voltages and wavering confidence - alongside only an 80Plus Bronze rating.
The Silent Pro Gold 800W, on the other hand, supplies an eponymous 800W of power while netting itself an 80Plus Gold - indicative of over 90 per cent efficiency when converting from AC 240V at the wall to DC 12V. It's a slightly elongated ATX form factor that combines a large 120mm exhaust fan with honeycomb ventilation to remove heat quickly, a process aided by a clever transformer design that embeds them inside heatsinks for better heat transfer.
While slightly low on Molex connectors there are plenty of other cables available to power even the most complex machines, and cabling neatness is helped by the modular design. Of slight concern, however, are the three PCIe connectors that each have a 6-pin and an 8-pin plug off the same wires; potentially drawing an awful lot of current.
Idle voltages on the 12v rail sat at a very nice 12.212v, while the 5v rail read as 5.035v. When loaded up on our testrig, consisting of a Core i7 965 (3.6GHz @ 1.375V) and two GTX470 cards in SLI running OCCT and MSI's Kombustor concurrently, the 12v rail dipped by a miniscule 0.003v and the 5v rose by 0.002v - in other words, hardly any change.
Noise was ignorable at full loading and the unit itself became warm to the touch, though this did not seem too unusual. For a large capacity unit boasting good efficiency and reliable rails, it's made all the sweeter by the included five year warranty.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012