Ultra High-End PSU Roundup
by Christoph Katzer on October 22, 2007 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W
Cooler Master sent us their latest and strongest version of the Real Power Pro product line rated at 1250W. The above picture shows a power supply that looks like many other units on the market; the actual manufacturer in this case is Enhance. When we open up the PSU, the heritage of the power supply will become more apparent. Indications of the original manufacturer are the green square capacitors on the filtering stage directly in front of the punched exhaust holes. Cooler Master went to Enhance for its high-end power supplies on certain models; unfortunately, this is not always the case since we have just seen that the M620 is manufactured by a lower quality offering.
There are a couple other interesting features that can be seen in the above picture. First, there's no manual power switch - a feature that's not strictly necessary but which can still prove convenient times. We can also see that the jack for the power cord has a different shape. Yes, Cooler Master decided to break with tradition and use a proprietary power cable. At this point we want to thank Cooler Master for this great invention since we needed to totally overwork the power distribution in our heat chamber (it is embedded within the walls of the box). Still, most people will have to worry about such difficulties, and we have to admit that this new plug is quite nice and fits securely into the jack.
The Real Power Pro has in total six 12V rails with a maximum combined power of 1125W. The different 12V rails are nicely marked with a different color in each of the yellow cables. This makes it easy to separate the rails for different graphics cards since it will not be helpful to use only one or two 12V rails when you have more to choose from. By the way, the little logo on the right side is the German so called "green dot" and means that the material is recyclable. The third logo on the right with the crossed trash can means you are not allowed to throw this power supply in the normal trash. It is quite clear why the last logo is printed on the label, but the first one? The only thing recyclable on this PSU will be the label itself - okay, and the exterior casing if you want to take time to rip out the internals. Maybe that is what Cooler Master wants to tell us? But maybe more logos just look cool....
The power supply itself comes with a dark mirror coating and the large fan is located on the bottom side of the case. As there is no power switch on the backside you will need to pull the plug to fully separate your PC system from the power grid. Opinions on whether or not this is a useful trait will generally fall into one of two categories. Some people never separate their PC from grid power anyway, while other people can switch off power using a switch for the wall outlet (or on a power strip). If you are in the first group you can be relieved since the power consumption of this power supply is just 1W while turned off.
Cables and Connectors
The Real Power Pro has a different approach on power distribution to the components than the PCP&C Turbo Cool. There are six 6-pin PEG connectors and three 8-pin connectors. That means you have nine total PEG connectors from which to choose - certainly an impressive number, though not something we can currently use in most PCs. With a minimum length of 60cm the cables are long enough for any high-end system. Our second unit today is rated at just 50W more on the label, but the choice of connectors is quite better than what PCP&C offers. We have eight SATA and seven Molex connectors, and for workstations the 8-pin EPS connector is also present. All cables are sleeved to help things stay organized, as we would expect on any high-end power supply.
The inside reveals for certain that this is indeed an Enhance manufactured PSU. It is well arranged and all of the components seem to get enough air from the large fan that will blow directly at them. The heat sinks are both a reasonable size and thickness and should do a good job dissipating heat from the attached components. The secondary heat sink has two temperature diodes attached with black shrinking hoses on two fins. The fan control gets its data from these diodes for controlling fan speed.
The filtering stage and PFC circuit looks very well developed since the layout is based on previous models with lower wattage ratings. There are two capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con rated at 390µF and 420V which is a very good choice. The secondary side has Teapo caps installed which is a more common cost effective choice for mainstream power supplies. The two transformers in the middle of the PCB supply the dizzying number of rails for this PSU.
Cooler Master sent us their latest and strongest version of the Real Power Pro product line rated at 1250W. The above picture shows a power supply that looks like many other units on the market; the actual manufacturer in this case is Enhance. When we open up the PSU, the heritage of the power supply will become more apparent. Indications of the original manufacturer are the green square capacitors on the filtering stage directly in front of the punched exhaust holes. Cooler Master went to Enhance for its high-end power supplies on certain models; unfortunately, this is not always the case since we have just seen that the M620 is manufactured by a lower quality offering.
There are a couple other interesting features that can be seen in the above picture. First, there's no manual power switch - a feature that's not strictly necessary but which can still prove convenient times. We can also see that the jack for the power cord has a different shape. Yes, Cooler Master decided to break with tradition and use a proprietary power cable. At this point we want to thank Cooler Master for this great invention since we needed to totally overwork the power distribution in our heat chamber (it is embedded within the walls of the box). Still, most people will have to worry about such difficulties, and we have to admit that this new plug is quite nice and fits securely into the jack.
The Real Power Pro has in total six 12V rails with a maximum combined power of 1125W. The different 12V rails are nicely marked with a different color in each of the yellow cables. This makes it easy to separate the rails for different graphics cards since it will not be helpful to use only one or two 12V rails when you have more to choose from. By the way, the little logo on the right side is the German so called "green dot" and means that the material is recyclable. The third logo on the right with the crossed trash can means you are not allowed to throw this power supply in the normal trash. It is quite clear why the last logo is printed on the label, but the first one? The only thing recyclable on this PSU will be the label itself - okay, and the exterior casing if you want to take time to rip out the internals. Maybe that is what Cooler Master wants to tell us? But maybe more logos just look cool....
The power supply itself comes with a dark mirror coating and the large fan is located on the bottom side of the case. As there is no power switch on the backside you will need to pull the plug to fully separate your PC system from the power grid. Opinions on whether or not this is a useful trait will generally fall into one of two categories. Some people never separate their PC from grid power anyway, while other people can switch off power using a switch for the wall outlet (or on a power strip). If you are in the first group you can be relieved since the power consumption of this power supply is just 1W while turned off.
Cables and Connectors
The Real Power Pro has a different approach on power distribution to the components than the PCP&C Turbo Cool. There are six 6-pin PEG connectors and three 8-pin connectors. That means you have nine total PEG connectors from which to choose - certainly an impressive number, though not something we can currently use in most PCs. With a minimum length of 60cm the cables are long enough for any high-end system. Our second unit today is rated at just 50W more on the label, but the choice of connectors is quite better than what PCP&C offers. We have eight SATA and seven Molex connectors, and for workstations the 8-pin EPS connector is also present. All cables are sleeved to help things stay organized, as we would expect on any high-end power supply.
The inside reveals for certain that this is indeed an Enhance manufactured PSU. It is well arranged and all of the components seem to get enough air from the large fan that will blow directly at them. The heat sinks are both a reasonable size and thickness and should do a good job dissipating heat from the attached components. The secondary heat sink has two temperature diodes attached with black shrinking hoses on two fins. The fan control gets its data from these diodes for controlling fan speed.
The filtering stage and PFC circuit looks very well developed since the layout is based on previous models with lower wattage ratings. There are two capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con rated at 390µF and 420V which is a very good choice. The secondary side has Teapo caps installed which is a more common cost effective choice for mainstream power supplies. The two transformers in the middle of the PCB supply the dizzying number of rails for this PSU.
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redly1 - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
I'm just trying to imagine the flames that ensue when something goes bad on the motherboard.Anyone ever burn up a classic Athlon by forgetting to put the heatsink on? Imagine doing that with a 1.3kW supply? Yikes
billa16 - Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - link
I did that on a k7@950. I was trying to oc it(hardmod with a pencil). Nothing happend the first 2 times(just a few secs). After that it's stopped working. No sparks/flames and stuff like that. Don't belive anything U read/see on the internet.This type of power supply's have protections. If something is damaged so bad that would cause flames the protection kicks in. The worst fire scenario with this type of PSU will be a flash when the fuse burns out.
Sorry for my poor english.
DigitalFreak - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Still amazes me how many people fall for the marketing hype...Traciatim - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Instead of just giving specs and doing an overview of the efficiency, why not design a machine that actually needs these over say a 600-700Watt PSU and show watt you would need to do do actually use one of these.I have a pretty small machine, and it regularly pulls 120Watts out of the wall, 200Watts if I Get everything ramped up. I'm also using a P4, not a Core2Duo so it's not going to be as efficient.
The ONLY point that I can see to have one of these is simply to waste money on uneeded equipment that could be better spent one something performance based and to say that 'My PSU is bigger than your PSU'.
retrospooty - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Ya, these 1000+ watt PSU's are marketed to enthusiests, and are supposed to be for heavily overclocked quad core CPU's (meaning cascade, dry ICE or liquid nitrogen cooling kind of overclocks) with overclocked high end SLI or crossfire rigs, and plenty of hard drives and other peripherals added as well. We are talking $3000 or higher systems - WAY overkill probably even for that purpose.JarredWalton - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
You can see the most power-hungry system I've personally tested http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=30...">right here - which uses standard ATX components and a Topower PSU. That's a lot more system than most people run, obviously, but if maximum efficiency is achieved in the 40-80% load range, and if that particular PSU was around 80% efficient, it was outputting around 600W of power at maximum load.Toss in TriFire HD 2900 XT and you could add another 100W to that, maybe. If you were to get an overclocked Xeon platform with dual quad-core CPUs plus CrossFire/TriFire, you could actually reach the point where 1300W was "required". LOL
ORB chasers and "professional benchmarkers" running at insane overclocks (i.e. 5000 MHz quad-core) deal with exponential power requirement increases as well. The solution is either to use multiple PSUs or else get one of these uber-powerful designs. So these appear to be for around 0.01% of the market, I guess?
Michael91ah - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Glad to see the statistics for these 3 units. I really like the Cooler Master's curve on the acoustics. That noise makes a big difference for me when choosing a power supply.