Cooler Master V700 700-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review

Introduction

Over six months ago, Cooler Master launched their V-series of power supplies. The V-series is still their current flagship power supply. As such, we thought it would be worth our time to find out how one of the lower wattage V-series units compared to the higher wattage units.

We've seen companies use different manufacturers for higher and lower wattage units in the same series and want to see if the same thing is going on here or if the lower wattage unit are every bit as good as their higher wattage units.

After digging into the V700 a little bit, we found it to be of the same manufacturer, which is Seasonic in this case. This means that we probably won't be seeing too many differences aside from wattage, cables and connectors. If that is all we find, that means the V700 will be a major win for consumers since the V1000 is such a great unit.

Let's just dig into this thing since we already know some of what to expect from this power supply.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Cooler Master uses a single 12V rail on the V700. This single rail is rated for 58A. The 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 25A with a combined maximum output of 125W. The 5VSB rail is rated for 3A or 15W. Combined maximum output for the Cooler Master V700 is 700W. Just as we had hoped for, the only difference here is in the 12V rail.

Just as we saw with the V1000, the Feature Summary is almost full of green checks, but misses it by one item. All protections are present including SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP and OTP. The V700 features fully modular cables, all of which are fully sleeved. The V700 is rated for 80 PLUS Gold efficiency, but unfortunately it is not rated for 100% continuous output at 50C. Cooler Master does rate it for to do so at 40C though, which is important to know.

Cooler Master has an MSRP of $159.99 on the V700. This is a little bit higher than what we expected, but Newegg has the power supply for sale for $119.99 and $79.99 after rebates. Even without the rebates, that makes this a very attractively priced unit for consumers as it places right in the middle of about a dozen different units with nearly the same features. Cooler Master backs the V700 with a five year warranty.