The power supplies we’ve seen from Cooler Master have relatively high efficiency. However, the Silent Pro is a bit disappointing. Instead of remaining at the top, the Cooler Master unit ends up somewhere in the middle of our pack; it gets close to 87 percent efficiency but doesn’t quite make it. Therefore, the efficiency at low loads of 85.3 percent doesn’t drop as much as it might if our 50% load numbers were higher. Under maximum load, the PSU reaches almost 84 percent.
Very surprising, however, is the standby power consumption: a mere 0.35 watts—the best among the products we tested. This is the draw taken from the connection socket when there is no load. When the load increases to 2.5 watts, the power consumption remains good, at 4.12 watts.

- Positives
- Negatives
- Flat, flexible wires
- Lots of connectivity
- Low standby energy consumption
- Relatively low efficiency
- Cords aren’t color coded
- Mainstream PSUs Up To 700W
- First Up: Cooler Master Silent Pro 500 Watt
- Cooler Master Silent Pro 500 Watt (Continued)
- Voltage
- Efficiency
- Thermaltake Toughpower QFan 650W
- Thermaltake Toughpower QFan 650W (Continued)
- Voltage
- Efficiency
- Silverstone SST-ST70F Strider 700W
- Silverstone SST-ST70F Strider (Continued)
- Voltage
- Efficiency
- Antec Signature 650W
- Antec Signature (Continued)
- Voltages
- Efficiency
- Dragon Force DF-530GT
- Dragon Force DF-530GT (Continued)
- Voltages
- Efficiency
- Charts: Efficiency Specifications
- Charts: Efficiency @ 250 Watts, 35 Watts, And Standby
- Conclusion: Dragon Force and Silverstone Win

Also I can see the reason why a person wouldn't want a CPU/ATX connector on a 700w power supply. If they had an excessively power draining system like a Quad/Tri GPU with modern high end cards it will waste alot of power and using 2 lower watt power supplies is cheaper then getting 1 high watt one.
Ill agree with the ripple tests too, yeh great we might have a power supply that is efficient at 100% but what if the 12v rails are hovering outside of spec...? Its a nothing review really.
Thanks
What manufacturers use insulation and mesh that block interference? The insulation on the wires of my PSUs is standard insulation, the mesh is plastic and there strictly to hold the wires in place and prevent the inside of a computer case from becoming a birds nest of wires.
If there are manufacturers that use materials to block interferences, I'd like like to look into their products as it sounds interesting but I'd like to hear from someone actually in the know as to if it would make any difference or not.
When I studied power engineering one would need a ton of voltage or current to be 'eligible' for most electrical phenomena to occur - theoretically.
so many levels that it would need its own website to correct it, thought
their basic principle is right... And the Andrew Watts methodology mentioned...We have been using it since 1980s to measure CMOS and TTL
current consumption, so it is nothing new that most psu review's
are "wrong"... The "methodology" may be wrong, but the results are still
mostly correct.
impossible to design a psu that sucks in any department because
the circuitry in them is mostly common knowledge, and all manufacturers
copy each other, some might have the advantage for six months, but others follow sooner or later. Though some psu's have far better
external designs than others, it doesn't tell anything about their
ability to do their job. And neither does some hightech load-tester, in spite of what some technically oriented website tell's you.
For me its Enermax, SeaSonic, the aforementioned re brands, or bust.
It's not a test to see if they deliver their rated wattage in most cases. Generally the variable voltage on the rails IS the appropriate test because the test should bear out whether or not the rails stay stable (because of the PWM circuit-not in spite of it) at a given draw.
The fact that most normal or even consumer high-end computers don't draw the rated wattage is even more reason to monitor individual rail stability rather than the total draw. If my PC only pulls 200W (guess what-that's about normal despite the 1000W PSU people pay $200 for) from a 600W supply and a +12v rail is not within a given tolerance the PSU might as well be garbage. Voltage fluctuation will cause system instability way before you have to worry about the fact that the PSU is only delivering 500W despite what the label says.
I don't pretend to know more about testing than they do, but the logic behind that article is flawed.