Five 550 And 600 W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supplies, Tested

Features
By Patrick Afschar
published

A good power supply doesn't just provide you with ample output. Increasingly, vendors have put a bigger emphasis on delivering power more efficiently, too. We're testing five 80 PLUS Platinum-rated power supplies in the 550- to 600-watt range.

Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 550 W

We've seen Cooler Master launch two power supply families in the past year or so. At the end of 2011, it introduced the Silent Pro Hybrid series. This line-up of 80 PLUS Gold-rated PSUs shuts its fan off under low-load conditions where moderate ambient temperatures allow. The fan switches on when the load exceeds right around 200 W.

Cooler Master's Silent Pro Platinum family ups the ante, according to the company's spec sheet.

We received a 550 W entry-level model, and the feature list is impressive: fully sleeved permanent cables, flat modular cables, and lots of connectors, namely four PCIe, five Molex, and a whopping nine SATA connectors. However, we wish that it came with longer cables, as 27.5” may be a tad short if you want to route them behind a motherboard tray. 

This power supply sports a single 12 V rail, which can be loaded with up to 45 A. It ships in a huge cardboard box, with the power supply nestled into a soft, velvet-like bag. Although it looked nice, we weren't big fans of the overpowering chemical smell the bag was emitting.

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Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 550 W
AC Input100-240 V, 50-60 Hz
DC Output+3.3 V+5 V+12 V (#1)+12 V (#2)+12 V (#3)+12 V (#4)-12 V+5 Vsb
25 A25 S45 An/an/an/a0.3 A3.5 A
Individual OutputRow 3 - Cell 1 Row 3 - Cell 2 32 ARow 3 - Cell 4 Row 3 - Cell 5 17.5 W10.5 W
Rail UtilizationSysSysCPU And VGA
Combined Output150 W540 W
Total Continuous Output550 W
Peak Outputn/a

Patrick Afschar
59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • what? no overload it until it blows test?

    and i was making popcorn.
    Reply
  • mousseng
    Is that a typo in the first chart for Kingwin's Lazer? It claims that it fails 80 Plus's 50% load spec (82% of 92%); I assume that was meant to say 92% (since that's what the chart below it shows).

    Pleasant read, though, I like PSU reviews.
    Reply
  • What happen to Seasonic? They have the 520W fanless SS-520FL Platinum version. No PSU test is complete without a seasonic to compare to, in my own opinion.
    Reply
  • dudewitbow
    jupiter optimus maximusWhat happen to Seasonic? They have the 520W fanless SS-520FL Platinum version. No PSU test is complete without a seasonic to compare to, in my own opinion.they asked for vendors for the PSUs. Theres the offshoot chance that seasonic declined the offer. On other sites, the 520w fanless seasonic unit was compared to Rosewill's 500w silent night unit. The seasonic unit I believe in that review barely edged out a victory.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    iknowhowtofixitEither the Rosewill FORTRESS was defective or your calibration was off for the last test. Your o-scope shots do not match those of other highly credible reviewers. Also, I'm curious of your testing methodology, but it was not listed.I believe this is still applicable to all of the power supply testing our German team does: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-test-equipment,2657.html. I'm waiting for confirmation that I'm right.

    Edit: Yup, that's the correct testing equipment/procedure!
    Reply
  • Dun dun dun..................... no acoustic performance measured, the only reason some people buy high end PSU's.
    Reply
  • sebbesapa
    WOW! Thanks a bunch for including the 25watt "Low-Power PC" efficiency test! All other reviewers stop @ 20% load witch is not "idle" or "low load" at all. :-)
    Reply
  • sanilmahambre
    Power supply unit is where a system builder cannot use a word "BUDGET"
    Reply
  • jaideep1337
    I don't understand
    Why is the 80 plus spec officially test by having more load on the 3.3v and 5v rails?
    Clearly loading the 12v rail would give us a better overall image
    Reply
  • jaquith
    Interesting, IMHO the most important aspect is 'Ripple Voltage' @ Rated Load. The only mention I see is a vague reference in your conclusion page.
    Never mind I see the ripple data buried in the individual tests. It would have been better in the summary side-by-side tests.

    Nice article.
    Reply