Page 2 - Physical Look - Outside
The dark, matte-textured finish on the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold gives the power supply a nice slick look in my opinion. It gives it a very classy and mature appearance, especially considering it has no flashy LED lights included. A 135mm bottom mounted fan gives the Silent Pro Gold good internal airflow at slower speeds for low noise emissions. A honeycomb mesh is implemented for low air impedance without additional fans to optimize silence. A standard on/off switch is located at the back, just above the male connector, for AC power input. Like most power supplies these days, the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W has automatic full range 100V-240V AC line voltage selection, so the user do not have to select the input voltage manually.
The Silent Pro Gold 1000W measures in at 150mm x 180mm x 86mm; that makes it a full four centimeters longer than standard ATX power supplies. Just for your reference, the Silent Pro M 1000W Kenneth wrote about last year is 1.5cm shorter. Some additional room will be needed to fit this power supply into the user's chassis, but any modern case should have no problems accommodating it.
After flipping the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W upside down, the 135mm fan is revealed with a 6-ring fan grill, as compared to the standard 8-ring on similar power supplies these days. The center is stamped with the Cooler Master logo, which basically occupies the space required for two extra inner rings found on standard 8-ring fan grilles. The fan grille can be easily detached from the outside by removing the four Philip-head screws. There are also four other screws that hold the casing of the power supply together. Obviously, opening the power supply will void your warranty, so it is not recommended that you open it. Besides, Cooler Master gives you a good five years on it, so if you are planning to crack it open, do so when you know the five years are up.
There are five fully sleeved cables that are not modular on the Silent Pro Gold 1000W. These cables are hardwired into the power supply, including the 20+4 pin motherboard connector, two 4+4 pin CPU connectors, one 6+2 pin PCI-e connector, and one 6 pin PCI-e connector. The rest are modular. Generally speaking, it is more than sufficient to power up enough drives and other accessories in your computer without aftermarket cable splitters.
Located clearly on the front side of the power supply is the power output/rail configuration information label, which has the miscellaneous certifications and patents printed on it as well. Although Cooler Master is able to design such a high performance power supply, it is kind of funny because their English skills lack proficiency (Look who's talking, haha. :P - Editor). On the label, it states that "AS SEALED STICK WAS REMOVED, LOST, OR DAMAGED, IT SHALL BE OUT OF WARRANTY VALIDITY". In plain layman's English, it simply means opening the power supply voids its warranty. The maximum DC power is rated at 1000W, with 1200W maximum for boost (The overload is useful, because starting the computer temporarily requires more power; once it stabilizes the power consumption returns to normal levels). Theoretically, the +3.3V rail provides 72.6W by itself, and the +5V rail provides 125W, as obtained from the formula, P=IV. The +3.3V and +5V rails total an output of 150W. The +12V rail is one big fat one for minimal operating overhead, and provides a single maximum DC output of 984W. The combined maximum for all the rails on the Silent Pro Gold 1000W is 1000W, hence the name, haha.
As mentioned earlier, the following cables can are modular, meaning they can be connected and disconnected at your disposal:
- 2 * PCI-e cables (One 6+2 pin and one 6 pin connector)
- 3 * SATA cables (Three SATA connectors each)
- 2 * Peripheral cables (Each with two 4-pin Molex connectors plus one with a floppy connector)
As aforementioned, the 20+4 pin motherboard, two 4+4 pin CPU, one 6+2 pin PCI-e, and one 6 pin PCI-e connectors are fixed to the Silent Pro Gold. These cables are fully sleeved and soldered neatly onto the board of the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W. This can be seen on the subsequent page. Most of the modular cables are the flat type as shown in our photo above, making them easier to manage when working with the power supply in your chassis. It is beneficial because the cables are not likely be easily tangled into a big mess -- even when you're hooking them up with multiple hard drives, optical drives, video cards, and the like.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
