Cooler Master Silent Pro PSUs
by Christoph Katzer on September 8, 2008 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Introduction
Cooler Master already showed their new Silent Pro series at CES and CeBIT, and now we finally have the shipping product in our hands. However, so far only a few models are available, and with the lawsuit initiated by Ultra Products regarding modular power supply patents, Cooler Master unfortunately is not yet able to sell this series in the U.S. market. Rumors say that most of the affected companies have begun appeals against the patent, but they still await further court rulings on this case. Until that happens, folks over in Europe are the only ones that can enjoy this new product, which we will review today. (It's somewhat interesting to mention that before we could even publish this review, Cooler Master wanted to talk to their legal department first; luckily, we were able to talk them into letting us go forward.)
If you've followed our PSU reviews over the previous year, you can probably guess the ODM of the Silent Pro from this first image. Enhance has a deserved reputation of building high-end units, and they provide that service for quite a few companies. This time we are greeted by low to medium range 500W and 600W power supplies built by Enhance, and the performance has almost resulted in feelings of ecstasy during testing. The overall look is nice with rubber protection on the back and the front, and a large 140mm fan does the rest. We received both the 500W and 600W models, but we will focus primarily on the 500W unit for testing.
The label shows a single 12V rail with 34A and the 3.3V and 5V rails at 20A. This might seem a little low, but most systems don't need much power from the lower voltage rails anymore.
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ryboto - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link
You're quite incorrect. The method for heat transfer from the heatsinks to the air is the same for both copper and aluminum. If you took a heat transfer course you'd know that the thermal conductivities and convective heat transfer coefficients are what is used in the heat transfer equations. No where is it dependent on the heat capacity. So, you haveQ=K A (Tb-Th) where Tb=base temp, Th= heatsink temp, then heat transfer to the air is
Qa=h A (Th-Ta) where Ta is the bulk air temp. These are highyl approximated, as there are multiple layers. Now, look at the equations...if K for Cu is greater than for Al, heat transfer is faster. What this amounts to is a greater Th, but look at the second equation, if Th is greater, the temperature gradient(or driving force for heat transfer) is greater than it would be for aluminum. Copper is a better material for this application. It's just expensive, and it oxidizes, which is why we have nickel plated copper heatpipes.
Megaknight - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Great explanation mate.Penti - Monday, September 8, 2008 - link
It's an old tale but it's just that a tale.Weight has probably a lot to do with it on modern coolers, I have a Tuniq Tower 120, think of this cooler in pure copper, it would snap the motherboard with it's weight probably. We haven't moved to coolers weighing 2-3 kg yet. But as always price is the main factor.
Aquila76 - Monday, September 8, 2008 - link
'Transfer' and 'dissipate' are different things. The copper plates transfer heat away from the components better; the aluminum fins dissipate (exchanges may have been a better word choice there) the heat into the air. This is not unlike those heatpipe tower-style CPU coolers.Christoph Katzer - Monday, September 8, 2008 - link
Thanks mate.