Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 7.3W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply was very good. Independent sources with professional load testing equipment showed the Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W delivered very good efficiency for its class and excellent voltage regulation and ripple across all rails. This power supply unit is 80 Plus Platinum and Cybenetics ETA Platinum certified.
Voltages with minimal load are accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. This power supply is ATX 3.0 compliant and officially supports Alternative Sleep Mode with 100 to 150ms PG specifications, and this is indicative of the 110ms power good signal. The ATX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it, as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W is a decently quiet power supply. One thing notable with the older Cooler Master V850 SFX Gold unit was its more audible fan, and thankfully there was some improvement here. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W to be at 3.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads. It is not too surprising considering the smaller 92mm fan must spin faster to get enough air moving through the unit. As with all fans, the faster it spins, the more audible it gets, but I think Cooler Master has adjusted the fan curves better with this unit to make it a bit less noisy. According to Cybenetics, the V SFX Platinum 1100W is rated LAMBDA A-, which is smack in the middle of the rating scale. This indicates an average noise output of 25 to 30dBA. This is an improvement from its predecessor regardless, which is a positive step.
Cooler Master provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
After inspecting the Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W, this is a solidly constructed power supply. Despite a lesser-known OEM, its build quality is excellent with a solid part selection internally and heatsinks to keep everything cool. A 10-year warranty coverage also backs this up. Third-party certifications show the Cooler Master's decent performance overall, especially when we consider this is an SFX unit. Efficiency is decent while voltage ripple is generally kept to a minimum across the different outputs. It is important to also keep in mind the relatively low power output on the minor 3.3V and 5V rails. As well, you should be careful about the output connectors and not reversing the cables, as there are no safeguards to prevent this from plugging the wrong end into the PSU. Even so, it is impressive to see how much power can be output from such a small unit. At the time of the review, this unit is available for $280, which is expected given the extra you generally pay for this form factor. As such, if you are looking for something to power the latest components in a tighter space with ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support, the Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W should be on your list.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
