Introduction, Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Cooler Master is well known for a variety of PC components, cases, peripherals and more is just the starting point. Cooler Master has a wide selection of power supplies available to cater to just about any builder's needs and we've recently taken a look at several of their units. Both the Silent Pro Gold 1200W and Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W proved to be awesome power supplies.
We were very anxious to see what Cooler Master was going to unveil at Computex. They didn't disappoint as they revealed the new Silent Pro M2 series which officially launched the last week of June.
The Silent Pro M2 series is available in 620W, 720W and 1500W models. We wouldn't be surprised if they fill the gap between the 720W and 1500W models later down the road. Cooler Master states that the new design incorporates a new 3.3V DC-to-DC board for increased efficiency and newer high quality capacitors as well.
Naturally we wanted to take a look at the biggest one they had to offer so read on as we take the 1500W beast apart and put it through our test bench.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Cooler Master's Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply has a ton of power to offer thanks to the dual 12V rails. 12V1 is capable of 70A while 12V2 makes up the other 55A. Combined output of the two rails is 120A or 1440W. Both of the minor rails are rated for 30A each with a combined maximum output of 150W. Total combined output for the unit is 1500W.
We hoped that we would see a complete list of checks across the board when it came to features, but sadly that isn't the case. The power supply has plenty of protections including OCP, OVP, OPP, UVP, SCP and OTP. The unit features both native and modular cabling. All native cables are fully sleeved and all modular cables are of the ribbon type. The power supply has dual EPS12V connectors and is 80Plus Silver rated for efficiency. Unfortunately it is not rated for 100% continuous output at 50C, but is rated for it at 40C.
Pricing for the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W is $399. There are only three other power supplies on the market within $50 of this price so it is certainly one of the most expensive units currently on the market. Warranty for the Silent Pro M2 series is five years.
Packaging
Cooler Master utilizes white and purple packing to show off the M2 series. There are a few features listed on the front as well as a few specs and warranty information. We also get a shot of the unit and can see that it uses the C19 style power cable.
The back gives us little more than the front, but does include some efficiency and fan charts.
One side gives simply designates the product.
Over on the other side, we find good information on the power supply including a list of power connectors offered up and the I/O specifications.
Moving to the top of the box, we find nothing useful.
The bottom has nothing for than the URL for Cooler Master's website in numerous languages.
Inside the Box
As you can see, the unit is well protected during shipping. It has foam surrounding the unit on all sides and even the top. Foam also separates it from the cables to prevent them from scratching the power supply itself.
The top of the unit gives us a great shot at the semi-gloss black finish used on the power supply. I/O specifications are listed here and we could tell the unit was abnormally long. As you can see the power supply measures 8 3/4" long. Most power supplies are between 6 1/2" to 7" so keep that in mind if you're considering this power supply in smaller cases.
This side simply designates the power supply.
The other side is identical and doesn't even invert the logo.
Moving towards the front we find the modular connectors. Note that there is no grommet around where the natively wired cables exit the unit.
Spinning it some more brings us to the back which shows us the standard honeycomb mesh exhaust with heavy duty on/off rocker switch. As the power supply has a C20 style coupler on it, Cooler Master has placed a warning sticker over it telling you that you need an outlet rated for at least 16A for this power supply.
Flipping things over reveals the 135mm fan that actively cools the Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply.
All modular cables are of the ribbon type and do not require sleeving.
Package contents also include the user manual, warranty card and mounting screws. No form of cable management is included.
Cabling Arrangement and A Look Inside
[Heading]Cabling ArrangementCooler Master does a very good job with connectors and cables on the Silent Pro M2 1500W. What most will see that is abnormal are the 12 PCI-E connectors. That's right, there are enough PCI-E connectors to feed six or more GPU's, depending on how many power connectors each one requires. Peripheral connectors are handled in the form of 12 SATA, five Molex and one FDD connector. Also worth noting are the dual EPS12V connectors. These are both fixed 8-pin connectors and neither one can be split into a 4+4 ATX connector.
Rail distribution is very simple for this dual 12V rail power supply. All of the natively wired connectors are on 12V1 and rated for 70A while all of the modular connectors are on 12V2 and rated for 55A.
A Look Inside
There is quite a bit of passive cooling inside the unit and you can bet that it is all put to very good use under full load.
Quad Panasonic capacitors sit on the primary side of the Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply.
Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors can be found on the secondary side of the PSU.
[img]24[img]Cooler Master uses the DFS132512H fan to provide the active cooling for the Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply.
Test Results and Final Thoughts
Test Results
Our load tests utilize a couple of FAST ATE active load testers and a variety of other equipment such as an oscilloscope, power conditioner, temperature probe and a power consumption meter. You can read more about our standard testing approach here.
The tests performed are based around six conceivable setups that are out there and progressively load down the PSU up to the power supply's limits or 1000W, whichever comes first. Since our test equipment's limits are lower than that of the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W PSU, we can only test it to the 1000W.
The above tests represent typical loads that we have measured from various systems and are meant to give a rough idea of where your computer might fall in line with our tests. Please keep in mind that each system is different and actual loads can vary greatly even with similar hardware.
Let's start by taking a look at the voltages to see how well this unit did during testing. Starting with the 12V rails, we see 2% regulation from with a total drop of .16V from start to finish on 12V1. 12V2 was nearly identical to 12V1 with 2% regulation and showed a drop of .15V. The 5V rail also stayed within 2% voltage regulation and displayed a total drop of .06V. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was again within 2% with a total voltage drop of .04V.
DC output quality was excellent from start to finish. Starting out, we were able to see a ripple on the scope during Test 1 where we measured noise at a very low 8mV peak to peak. This steadily increased as the loads also increased. By the time we had reached around 50% load, the unit ripple had crept up to 21mV. Under Test 6, we saw that the noise on the 12V rail had crept up to 28mV.
The Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W is rated for 80Plus Silver efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 85%/88%/85% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply had no trouble achieving this while on our test bench. After all the testing was said and done, we saw no reason that the power supply would have failed any of our tests if we had been able to fully load the unit.
Final Thoughts
Cooler Master delivers awesome power with the Silent Pro M2 1500W power supply.
Not only does it deliver clean, stable power, it does so while being very quiet and with a bit of efficiency. Voltage regulation is fantastic and stayed within 2% across the board. DC output quality is also amazing, especially for such a high wattage unit. Finally, the efficiency for the unit is also right where it is advertised. Let's not forget that the power supply has a total of 12 PCI-E connectors to power more GPU's than most enthusiasts will have in a trio of computers.
All of this comes at a very hefty price, however. The power supply has a retail cost of $400 on it and that is quite a bit of loot to drop on a power supply. Look at the Lepa 1600W and you make the matter even more complicated as it delivers 100W of extra power for $70 cheaper with higher efficiency. This doesn't mean that the Lepa is a better unit, but it does go to show that the Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W is a bit more of a specialty power supply.
Very few will ever be in need of 12 PCI-E connectors simultaneously, but there isn't another power supply on the market that offers this to the best of our knowledge. For those who are in need of it, price won't be an object, but performance and features will and that is where this power supply delivers most.