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CoolerMaster 600, OCZ 600 and Zalman 660W PSU roundup

Cases & PSU/Power Supplies by geoffrey @ 2009-07-14

Looking for a 600~700W pc power supply but haven´t decided yet what to get? We at Madshrimps have tested three popular products from major brands like Coolermaster, Zalman and OCZ. We compared features, performance and efficiency. Which one to get? Read on to find out!

CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 pics & results

CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 pictures

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Box unpacked, inside we found:

OCZ ModXstream-pro 600W power supply

Sleeved cables

AC power cord

Install Manual

User's Manual CD

CoolerMaster Warranty Card

4 x PSU Installation Screws

Noise silencing pads

A nice extra feature we found inside are these silicon noise silencing pads. Although there aren't too many moving parts, everything that could be taken away counts and if this would mean less vibration of our pc housing then it probable might be a small percentage less noisy.

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Cables explored

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With the Silent Pro M600 you get one 20+4pins ATX and one 4+4pins cpu power cable on the PSU, modular are the following cables:

2 x PCI-E2(6+2pin) Cables

2 x ODD/HDD/FDD Cables

3 x S-ATA Cables

Unlike OCZ we do get two 6+2pins PCIe power cables, we also got one extra S-ATA power cable plus each cable measures few inches longer so all in all I must say the Silent Pro M600 did please us a bit more regarding box contents.

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More pictures

In size this PSU measures 150 by 150 mm, powerful and yet very compact, even smaller then the OCZ ModXstream 600. Its black body and black sleeved cables makes the PSU look quite good, but it's nothing special though. Airflow design is pretty similar as with many others, big 135mm intake fan and an air ventilation grill at the back of the PSU.

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Inside the CM power supply we found noticeable more components and heatsink cooling surface as with OCZ's PSU, hopefully these extra components don't bring too much heat so that fan speed can remain low. The heatsink itself is in fact hybrid material: copper core and aluminium fins results in more efficient heat transfer and possible lower noise. As for fan CoolerMaster went for a Young Lin Tech Co. DFS132512M brushless 12V DC fan which moves 78,13CFM at 1500 rpm, at a noise level of 34,44dBA it's far from silent but as far as CM's documents go the fan is mostly powered with less then 5V and slightly higher once you're past 50% load. Even at over 100% load the fan voltage remains lower then 7V so all together this might proof to be very silent.

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CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 results

How to read the table underneath? Well, we tried 3 different load settings: 100%, 50% and 20% of the total power rating. In the left green field on the right side of the table you can read the output power of the PSU, i.e. the load we set, it's calculated by measuring the live voltage per rail, and by measuring the flowing current per volt rail. You can also see what numbers we've measured inside the CM labs, and how many power is consumed by multiplying U (Volts) with I (Ampéres). In the red field on the left side represents the input power of the PSU, i.e. how many in total is being drawn from the wall plug. The second green value on the right side is the efficiency of the power supply, or output power divided by input power, in percent that is.

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Pretty similar results as with OCZ's psu, high 80 plus efficiency and very stable volt lines. Only the 5V line is a bit on the low side once you start pulling lots of current from it, nothing too worry about though. Inrush current remained quite a bit lower here, around 9amps less then OCZ's:

Inrush current: 46 Ampére

Power Factor: 0,99

Standby power consumption: 0,35 Watt

12V shortcut protection: OK

5V shortcut protection: OK

Like with OCZ's psu we had a look at the headroom left by increasing 12V load, at a marvelous 806 Watt we finally managed to trigger the PSU into hiccup, with the M600 you're quite save even if you overpower your PSU from time to time in short instances.

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