Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W

850 watts of PSU juice, we eat that for breakfast these days. But 8 x SATA connectors = a lovely new realm of overkill.

We’ve been spoiled by modular power supplies. The huge mess of cables spouting forth from this supply and our subsequent amazement has clearly emphasised the fact. Of course, once you hit the realm beyond 800W, then you have to expect said attachments, including the crazy 8x SATA connectors. This thing is definitely best suited to a server rather than your typical desktop environment.

Mirror finishes are apparently in, as the Real Power Pro happily allowed us to power our PC while simultaneously spying on whatever PC Authority technical editor Nick Ross was doing behind us. If nothing else, this allowed us to dodge several spitballs and one attempt to Velcro a RAM stick to our heads. [But you need the extra memory Craig. - Ed]

The power supply managed to stay very quiet at idle courtesy of the huge 140mm fan sitting on top, with only a faint rattle to be heard. Sitting around a metre away it couldn’t be distinguished from general background noise at all, so kudos goes to Cooler Master for that. Unfortunately the power supply became noticeably audible under load as a buzz developed. Tolerable, but not within the leagues of Seasonic and Hiper. A clear oversight, however, is the lack of an independent power switch on the back of the supply, requiring you to go to the wall if you want to switch off in a hurry. That, or you could just yank the cord from the supply itself.

When plugged into a small defenceless bonsai kitten that was moulded to act as a Gigabyte 965P-DS3P with 8800GTX, X6800 and 2GB of Corsair PC2-8500, it returned 12.08, 5.01 and 3.37V on the 12V, 5V and 3.3V lines at idle, respectively. Under load it returned 12.07, 5.01 and 3.37V.

The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W is a good power supply for anyone’s needs, with only a few minor faults. If you have a file server and need to power eight SATA drives, this could very well be the beast for you.