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 have to be taken into consideration -- of which certain criteria consists 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're not going to try to BS you 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 8W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. It is better than other power supplies with the same wattage rating; even though the Cooler Master V750 750W's internal fan is on at this stage. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the Cooler Master V750 750W delivered very good efficiency and very good to excellent voltage regulation and ripple depending on the rail. This is an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply unit.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are within 2%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 290ms.
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/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of only 95W (12.7%) on the Cooler Master V750 750W had the power factor at 0.96. This is very good, considering many PSUs do not hit 0.99 until at least 25% to 30% load.
The Cooler Master V750 750W is an extremely quiet power supply; especially for a compact 750W unit. Under regular loads (Less than 300W), the 750W V-series is almost inaudible. The Cooler Master Silencio FP is an extremely smooth running fan with minimal motor sound, and good placement of internal components contributes to minimal turbulence noise. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Cooler Master V750 750W to be at 2.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads, because the fan spins really slowly. The fan is out of the way to approximately 50% of the PSU's maximum load, but it will become exponentially more audible when it spins up. Overall, the Cooler Master V750 750W is a great choice for silent PC enthusiasts. Obviously, it would have been nice if the fan could be completely shut off at low loads like the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W, but I am not complaining.
Cooler Master provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The Cooler Master V750 750W is yet another quality power supply manufactured by Enhance that delivers great performance according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment. Quiet PC enthusiasts will also be happy to see the V750 features the excellent Silencio FP fan inside, although having a hybrid fan design would have been better in my opinion. The power supply's depth of on 14cm will guarantee a great fit in mITX cases. However, the included cables are on the shorter side for larger builds. As with other V-series PSUs, the V750 offers a generous five year warranty. For $110 at press time, considering the competition and everything you get with Cooler Master's latest fully modular V-series PSU, the V750 no doubt offers a lot of bang for your buck.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
