PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review

Introduction

PC Power & Cooling is often a brand that many enthusiasts turn to when a system dictates the need for quality power and lots of it. Its name is often synonymous with performance and reliability, proven by the legendary Turbo-Cool series and multiple iterations of the Silencer series.

We've taken a look at both the Silencer 760W and Silencer Mk III 600W power supplies and neither of them left us disappointed.

We'd been hoping for another high-wattage unit from PC Power & Cooling for quite some time and when they showed off the Silencer Mk III 1200W at Computex back in June, we couldn't wait to get our hands on one just to see how well it performed.

Modular cabling, single 12V rail, silent operation and 80 PLUS Platinum levels of efficiency; the unit just seems to offer everything. Now it is here and it's time to see just what it has to offer. Let's dig right into the output specifications see what else we can find.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

The Silencer Mk III 1200W power supply provides 12V power via a single rail design rated for 99.5A or 1194W. Both of the minor rails are rated for 20A each with a combined maximum output of 100W for the 3.3V and 5V rails. This left us scratching our heads a little bit as even the Silencer Mk III 600W had stronger minor rails, but it should still be plenty of power. The 5VSB rail is rated for 2.5A or 12.5W which is also a bit lower than what we normally see.

When taking a look at the features and protections of the power supply, we expected to be able to report everything was here. While going through the protections offered, we found that Over Temperature Protection wasn't listed. We were sure that this had to be a mistake; however, OCZ informed us that OTP was not included with the Silencer Mk III 1200W. Aside from OTP, the unit offers everything else. Sleeved native and modular cables, 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency, and being rated for 100% continuous output at 50C round out a solid list of features.

The PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W power supply has an MSRP of $299. Some poking around on the web shows that not many are offering the unit much, if any cheaper. Tiger Direct does have the unit for sale for $289.99, but after shipping of $9.16, that still raises the final price to $299.15. Many will be pleased to know that while the 600W model only carries a five year warranty, the new 1200W model is backed by a solid seven year warranty.