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, is not nearly sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimum load on the power supply, the initial power consumption was 12W, meaning that its basic load-free power is slightly higher than average. The Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W is an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply; hence the name. To be 80 Plus Gold certified, the product has to be at least 87% efficient at 20% load, 90% efficient at 50% load, and 87% efficient at 100% load. This makes the Silent Pro Gold an extraordinarily efficient PSU. Voltages at minimal load are pretty accurate as well. All were within 0.3V spec; with the PG (Power Good) delay of 310ms, as obtained from our meter.
The active power line correction shifted between 0.95-0.97; but mainly stayed at 0.97, which is acceptable for this power supply. Of course, it would be best if it was 0.99 -- but since my computer configuration did not consume too much power, I would expect the PF to reach 0.99 as the power draw increases and reaches optimal operating loads.
Under regular load, the noise level of the power supply is commendably quiet. Only if you listened very closely would you hear the fans of the power supply. A reasonably amount of warm air was pushed out of the power supply while maintaining a low noise operation. The fans on my Cooler Master HAF 932 chassis were noticeably louder than the power supply fan. When my computer is under load (Note that this does not push the limits of this power supply to any extent), the noise level of the power supply is still significantly quieter than my chassis fans. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is most silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W's nominal load to be at 2.5/10. The power supply only gets some turbulence noise when the fan speed turns up, but in idle conditions, you would only hear some noise when you stick your ear within close proximity. At full load, the fan speeds up to max speed from leisurely 700-800rpm -- and that's far from silent. However, it would be a challenge for even high end computers to even reach this level of loading for extended periods of time anyway.
Special thanks to Lulu over at Cooler Master for making this report possible.
The Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W is one heck of a power supply unit. There are more than sufficient connectors for all your components, along with a kilowatt of available power under the belt, would make a better ninja than myself. Being an 80 Plus Gold certified PSU, the Silent Pro Gold's high efficiency and excellent build quality well justifies the $230 price tag at press time.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
