Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500-watt Power Supply Review

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.