Cooler Master V1300 Platinum Power Supply Review: Plenty of Juice

Specifications and Part Analysis

The Cooler Master V1300 Platinum power supply is the flagship of the V series, featuring top-notch build quality and a hefty, ten-year warranty to back it up. It is based on a platform developed by Delta Electronics, which was released several years ago, so performance wise, it fails to impress us. Despite the enormous capacity and the tremendous amount of cables and connectors that it is equipped with, there are better options with lower price tags than $300 (£228) that the V1300 costs. For 50 bucks (£38) less, you can get the excellent EVGA 1200 P2, the HX1200i and HX1200, all of which are even more affordable. All those units might have 100W lower max power, but they achieve higher overall performance scores, so their performance per buck/pounds numbers are better.

After quite some time, Cooler Master decided to revamp its V line with three new models based on an older Delta Electronics platform, which will have trouble competing modern competition. Nonetheless, Delta's implementations are known for their top-notch build quality and longevity.

It is no secret that Delta is an expensive manufacturer, mostly because it uses high quality parts and on top of that its production lines are among the best available today, but Cooler Master managed to keep the prices of the new V models at normal levels. 

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The Cooler Master V1300 Platinum is the flagship of the V line, which comes second in CM's portfolio behind the MasterWatt Maker. As its name implies, it is 80 PLUS Platinum certified while in the Cybenetics scale it meets, according to our measurements, the ETA-A and LAMBDA-A- requirements, but it isn't certified yet by this organization.

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The unit's dimensions are large for today's standards, where the downsizing trend gains popularity day by day. So if you plan to buy one, you should check if your chassis can accommodate it.

Specifications

* The V1300 is not certified by Cybenetics, yet. The provided ratings are based on our own measurements.

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

Because of the enormous capacity, plenty of connectors are available to transfer all this power smoothly. Besides two EPS connectors, there are also twelve PCI along with 16x SATA and eight 4-pin Molex. All cables are long enough, but the distance between the peripheral ones should be a bit longer, reaching 150mm.

Given the 1300W max power (and the high over power protection threshold which allows for even higher wattage), for extra safety the V1300 should have a C20 inlet and use an AC power cord with a C19 coupler. The C13/C14 coupler in the US might be rated at 15A but internationally is rated at 10A, while the corresponding ratings for the C19/C20 are 20A and 16A.

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Power Distribution

We noticed that the power distribution is quite different from the one depicted on the unit's modular connector stickers. Both EPS sockets are fed by 12V2 while the rest of the connectors are powered by 12V1. This way, once you set the PSU in multi +12V mode through the corresponding switch, located on the modular panel, the EPS sockets use a dedicated rail and are not mixed with the PCIe ones.

It is weird that both 12V rails have the same Amperage, on paper at least, since clearly 12V1 has way more connectors to feed so normally it should be much stronger than 12V2, which only has a pair of EPS connectors to support.

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

This is an older, but still capable, Delta Electronics platform. The build quality is great and the main transformer uses a special design, which allows it to have super compact dimensions. Moreover, the +12V FETs are directly attached to it, for higher efficiency levels and reduced EMI emissions.

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On the primary side, a full-bridge topology is used along with an LLC resonant converter. This is the most popular recipe for high power and decreased energy losses.

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On the secondary side a large number of electrolytic caps, along with several polymer ones, handle ripple filtering on all rails. Finally, the cooling fan is provided by Delta and it uses a double-ball bearing which is louder than a fluid dynamic one, but is much more tolerant to high operating temperatures so it is more suitable for a high wattage PSU.

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