Strong Showing: High-Performance Power Supply Units

The Test Candidates In Detail

Cooler Master Real Power 450W

Overall Impression

Cooler Master Real Power 450W

Cooler Master sent us its Real Power 450 watt power supply. Although the unit conforms to the ATX12V 2.01 standard, you won't find a six-pin PCIe connector for graphics cards in the box. For that you'll need an adapter, which Cooler Master unfortunately neglected to include.

On the positive side, we should mention the use of user-friendly Molex connectors for hard drives and DVD drives. On the other hand, Cooler Master did not include a special graphics card connector without the "ears" - here you'll have to resort to using a sharp knife.

The Real Power 450W features user-friendly connectors

A special highlight of this unit is the analog power meter that displays current performance status. While the idea is nice, the needle inside the display is barely visible, either in daylight or in the dark, as we already reported .

Nice idea, but the instrument is tough to read in the dark