Page 4 - Minor Tests, Software, 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 6W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. There are no independent sources with professional load testing equipment done on the Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi 850W at press time. This power supply unit has an 80 Plus Gold rating, but has no Cybenetics ETA certification at the time of writing this review.
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, so it looks like the PSU tester I used was not fast enough to pick up the true PG 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 V850 Gold i multi 850W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi 850W is a very quiet power supply by default using the Silent profile, but you can configure the fan curve to your own preference. Under idle level loads, or less than approximately 50%, the Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi 850W is inaudible because the fan is shut off completely with the default profile. Under moderate to high loads, the V850 Gold i multi is still reasonably quiet, as the fan is capped at 60% in Silent mode. You can change fan speed profiles in software; more on this later. Personally, I found the Snowfan YY14025M12B to be very good. The fluid dynamic bearing fan has a smooth-running motor with no annoying noise during operation. 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 V850 Gold i multi 850W to be at 0.0/10 when the fan is off, because, well, the fan is off. Above that, I would peg it at 2.0/10 acoustically under moderate loads. At maximum speed, the fan is recorded at 58 dBA at 500Hz from 30cm away, which translates to 5.0/10 in my books. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi 850W will not disappoint, especially with the user-configurable fan curve.
The Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi 850W works along with a version of MasterPlus+, which is a 315MB download from the company's website at press time. This program unifies compatible Cooler Master products into one application, but check the website first for compatibility. The V850 Gold i multi connects to your motherboard's internal USB 2.0 header. I know on the website it says it is a USB 3.0 cable, but I can assure you it is USB 2.0, which is better as it saves a USB 3.0 header. Once the program opens, it will immediately detect the products you own. All settings are stored on the PSU's internal memory, so MasterPlus+ does not need to be running to maintain your custom configuration.
The main configuration window is separated into two tabs. The first tab, Overview, gives you vital statistics about your power supply as well as fan speed control, as shown in our screenshot above. These statistics include input voltage, input current, power input, and power output on the left as well as output rail voltages and PSU temperature on the right. The fan curve can be user-configured. There are four preset profiles, including silent, standard, gaming, and overclock, plus a custom fan curve. The second tab, Configuration, lets you data log at a user-configurable interval. The device name to be shown in MasterPlus+ can be changed here as well. Overall, I found Cooler Master MasterPlus+ to be basic, but it is very straightforward and easy to use. I do have a few complaints, which all relate to the update process. First, if a software or firmware update is available for any compatible device, you cannot launch MasterPlus+ without running the update first, which seems a bit forced. Second, the update screens all use the infamous MS Mincho Regular font and are written in poor English. I am sure Cooler Master can do better, especially for a company of this size and caliber.
Cooler Master provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
Cooler Master has put out another unique PSU with the V850 Gold i multi 850W with its semi-digital platform, leaving the end-user no ambiguity with its performance monitoring statistics and software configurable fan profiles. This power supply is very quiet at default settings, and the fan has good acoustic properties. It is ATX 3.0 compliant and has a PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector for all your latest hardware. Independent detailed laboratory tests are not available at press time, so we cannot comment on its overall performance other than it is an 80 Plus Gold certified unit. What I can say is there is a good selection of components under the hood. Cooler Master also includes a 10-year warranty should anything go wrong. A suggestion for improvement is fixing the MasterPlus+ usability quirks, but this is relatively minor. At an MSRP of $175, the Cooler Master V850 Gold i multi commands a little more coin than the average 850W PSU in its class at press time, but you can be sure the retail price will be lower than the MSRP, not to mention the performance monitoring capabilities and user-configurable fan profiles are features that are worth the money.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests, Software, Conclusion
