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 14W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is about average. Comparable power supplies in the wattage range such as the Cooler Master Silent Pro M 1000W and Silent Pro Gold 1000W used 8W and 12W, respectively. This is not really a real issue, because independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W delivered commendable efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple across the board -- right up to its rated wattage. This includes its 80 Plus Gold certification.
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 3.3%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 330ms.
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 180W (~17%) on the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W had the power factor between 0.95 and 0.96. As the load increases, the PF should approach 0.99.
The Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W is an extreme quiet power supply; especially for a high power kilowatt-plus unit. Under regular loads (Less than 200W), the SPH 1050W is inaudible, because the fan can be shut off completely. Even when it is on, the Young Lin Tech Co DFS132512H is an extremely smooth running fan with minimal motor noise, and good placement of internal components contributes to minimal turbulence noise. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise, and the loudest component in my entire system is my Western Digital Caviar Blue hard disk. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W to be at 0.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads (Most computers don't use more than 200W idling). The fan is extremely quiet up to approximately 50% of its maximum speed, but it will become exponentially more audible after that magic mark. Under full throttle, I would rate it to be 6.5/10. Overall, the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W is an extremely awesome power supply for silent PC enthusiasts, if they fix the fan speed control issues as described in the last paragraph of Page 2 of this review.
Cooler Master provided this product to APH Networks to facilitate this report.
The Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W is a high quality, fully modular PSU that delivers in power and performance according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment. But does it reinvent the word "hybrid"? If they fix the fan control issues, I think this is the product that will truly combine the best of both worlds -- which is silence and high wattage.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
