Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review

Introduction, Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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It may have been a while since we have taken a look at something from Cooler Master, but that doesn't mean that they have been stagnant in their line of power supplies. While the power supply we are looking at today isn't as much of a monstrosity as the Silent Pro M2 1500W, the unit on our bench is quite a bit more modest. The power supply in question is the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W.

This new power supply ups the ante a bit in the area of efficiency, but maintains the rest of the features of the Silent Pro series of power supplies. The unit features both native and modular cabling and is a mix of fully sleeved and flat ribbon cables. Also present here are two fan connectors on the front of the power supply so that they can be controlled by the power supply and not the motherboard.

As we've had some excellent results out of the other Silent Pro power supplies we've taken a look at, we expect nothing less than the same out of this Silent Pro Platinum 1000W PSU.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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12V power is provided via a single 12V rail rated for 82A of power. While this isn't quite 99% of the total output, it is more than enough to take care of what should be needed. If you need more 12V power, you should be looking at a higher wattage power supply. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 25A each with a combined maximum output of 150W. The 5VSB rail is rated for 3.5A which is about 0.5A more than what is considered average and is nice to see. Also present that we usually don't see is a 7V rail rated for 1.5A or 10.5W. This is present to power the two fan ports on the front of the power supply. Maximum combined output for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply is 1000W.

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Taking a look at the features list for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply, we find that there is a solid list of features present with the unit. SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP, and OTP are all present. The power supply features both native and modular cabling. All native cables are fully sleeved while the modular cables are all of the flat ribbon type. As the name would suggest, the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply is rated for 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency. Cooler Master does not rate the power supply for 100% continuous output at 50C, but does rate it at a more modest 40C.

Cooler Master lists the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply with an MSRP of $249.99. Amazon has the cheapest price on it at this time, offering it for the MSRP with free shipping. Cooler Master backs the power supply with a five year warranty and includes free live-chat customer support where available.

Packaging

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The front of the box gives us the essential information about the unit including efficiency, warranty, wattage, modular cabling and that it has integrated fan ports.

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Moving to the back, we find a list of highlights in multiple languages. Most notable here is the claim of the "World's first PSU integrated 7V fan port." It is present for sure and takes the load off your motherboard.

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The other half of the back side features two graphs. The first one depicts fan activity and noise depending on the load of the unit. The second one tells the tale of efficiency for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W.

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One side of the box lists nothing, but the other side is full of specifications. This includes I/O specifications and connector availability.

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The top is another blank slate, but gives a good shot of the purple used throughout the packaging.

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The bottom simply points you to Cooler Master's website for more information in a plethora of languages. This is becoming quite common as there is just too much to list on the box, even if all sides are fully utilized.

Inside the Box

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Once we open the box in a box, we are presented with this. The foam utilized to protect the power supply is extremely dense and should keep things protected short of being crushed.

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Removing the unit from the PSU cozy reveals the matte black finish on the unit and the I/O specification label on the top.

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Both sides feature the same Silent Pro Platinum 1000W logo.

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There isn't anything special on the back, just your standard mesh grill, AC input and on/off rocker switch.

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On the front, we find all of the modular connectors along with pin layouts for all of the connectors except the fans.

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Taking a look at the front, we find the modular connections. It is nice to see the pin out for each connector listed here.

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The bottom features the 135mm HDB fan which cools the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W. The fan is protected by the chrome wire mesh grill which provides a nice amount of contrast to the unit.

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All modular cables are of the flat ribbon type.

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Also included with the power supply are mounting screws, AC input cord, two fan extension cables and the user manual.

Cabling Arrangement and A Look Inside

Cabling Arrangement

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Cooler Master provides a good selection of cables for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply. Native cables come in the form of the Main, dual EPS12V connectors, and a single cable with dual PCI-E 8-pin connectors on it. Modular cabling provides four more PCI-E 8-pin connectors, 12 SATA connectors, five Molex connectors and a single FDD connector. The short and long cables for SATA/Molex connectors are great and the only thing that I would like to see changed would be for one of the EPS12V connectors to be modular.

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Rail distribution is as simple as it gets with a single 12V rail. There is no need to worry about load balancing here.

A Look Inside

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Lots of cooling is present within the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W unit, including an all copper heat sink.

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Three Panasonic capacitors are on the primary side of the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply.

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The secondary side of the power supply isn't as kind to the eyes. We find many Teapo capacitors here and this is always a sign that ripple will not be as low as we like it to be.

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Cooler Master uses its own DFS132512M fan to provide the active cooling for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply. It is quite obvious that the unit is manufactured by Young Lin.

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 equal to that of the Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 1000W power supply, we can test it to the maximum.

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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.

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Let's start by taking a look at the voltages to see how well this unit did during testing. Starting with the 12V rail, we see 3% regulation from start to finish with a total drop of .07V. The 5V rail managed to stay within 1% of specification with a total drop of .07V from start to finish. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was within 1% of specification with a total voltage drop of .06V.

DC Output quality for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W was okay, but well within specification. During Test 1, we saw 25mV of noise on our scope. When we increased the loads in Test 3, the ripple climbed to 59mV at a little over half load. During Test 6 under a load of 1000W, the oscilloscope showed a maximum of 79mv on noise on the 12V rail.

The Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum is rated for 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 90%/92%/89% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the Silent Pro Platinum passed on our bench, and wasn't close to failing at any point.

Final Thoughts

I was expecting quite a bit out of this power supply from the start. The previous CM units that we have seen here at TweakTown have all been excellent power supplies all the way around. I had some very strong hopes when I pulled the unit out of the box. As soon as I opened up the enclosure to see the inside, I knew exactly what was going to happen and my hopes went out the window.

Looking at the performance of the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W, you can see exactly why my hopes went out the window. Voltage regulation just wasn't what we would expect from Cooler Master. The 12V rail just barely eked into the 3% range while both the 5V and 3.3V rails stayed within 1% of specifications. The DC output quality was exactly where we expected things to go wrong and was quite subpar compared to what we are used to seeing from Cooler Master. We saw 79mV of noise on the 12V rail and feel this just isn't acceptable from them, especially since we know they can do much better. At least the efficiency was great, more so than what we expected. Normally we see efficiency drop off a bit sharper as loads increase, but this wasn't the case.

Adding to the woes of the DC output quality for the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W is the relatively high price for the unit at $249.99. This makes it one of the most expensive 80 PLUS Platinum rated power supplies on the market and by quite a bit. Take into consideration that we have looked at a majority of these units and all have provided equal to or better performance to the Silent Pro Platinum 1000W, it looks even worse.

Don't let all of this dissuade you too much though; it is far from a bad unit. The inclusion of the two dedicated fan ports is a nice addition to the unit and something I would like to see a lot more units have. Many units already feature thermal management that keeps the fan running on the power supply for about 30 seconds more than the rest of the computer to cool the unit and remove excess heat from the case. Add this to the integrated 7V fan controller and you've got a mass adopted way to promote removal of residual heat within a case.