Cooler Master V Series 1000W PSU Review

Today we are looking at a power supply from Cooler Master , part of the high end V Series. This new range comprises a 700W, 850W and 1000W unit. The power supply we are reviewing today is firmly targeting the high end - it is a pure modular design with 80 Plus Gold Certification and is backed with a full 5 year warranty. The Cooler Master V series is based on the excellent Seasonic KM3 platform, the same as the Corsair AX760 and AX860 models which we reviewed here back in November. Cooler Master have worked with several OEM's over the years - Enhance springs to mind as their designs have featured in many big selling, budget oriented Cooler Master units. The shift to Seasonic in the high end makes sense for Cooler Master, we have reviewed many Seasonic power supplies in the last year and they have achieved a level of consistency that few others can equal. We therefore expect this Cooler Master V Series 1000W to really deliver the goods today. V1000 overview: Fully modular cable design incorporates a single 1000W +12V output that delivers up to 83A. 80 PLUS Gold certified: up to 93% efficiency @ 50% load. Silent 135 mm FDB fan for lower noise and longer lifespan. Eight PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors to support high-end GPUs. 100% high quality Japanese capacitor ensures performance and reliability. Reliable 5 year warranty. The Cooler Master V Series 1000W power supply ships in a very attractive box featuring a moody, softly lit image of the power supply itself alongside the 80 Plus Gold Certification logo and some specifications. Inside, the power supply is protected between two soft foam pads and a soft felt bag. The modular cabling is supplied in a nylon bag, alongside a regional specific power plug and some mounting screws. There is also a little sheet of paper which gives an overview of the power supply. The quality of the 18AWG cables is excellent, apart from the main ATX cable they are all the flat ribbon style which has proven popular in the last year. They are easier to route and can help improve airflow. Cable (modular) Connectors MB 20+4 pin x1 (610mm) 6+2 pin PCIe x8 (600mm + 110mm) 4+4 pin EPS12V/ATX12V x2 (690mm) SATA x8 (460mm+95mm+95mm) MOLEX x2 (460mm+100mm) MOLEX FDD x2 (460mm+100mm) x1 (+100mm) The V1000 has 8x PCIe cables which will cover a Quad SLI, or Crossfire system build. I would have expected a couple more SATA and Molex connectors however for such a high end unit. The V1000 has a single +12V rail. The Cooler Master V1000 is a very attractive looking power supply, finished in a black and grey livery. The name of the unit is displayed proudly on the sides, as shown in the image above. The unit passed our 'screwdriver' stress test, which involves running a Philip's head driver down the side of the chassis with weak to modest pressure. How often have you accidentally hit a power supply with some tools during a system build phase? The paintwork didn't scratch or mark at all. Bonus points. A large black fan takes centerstage behind the 'Cooler Master' company logo. We will look at this more closely when we open the unit later in the review. One side of the chassis is vented to ensure good airflow under load. There is a power connector and switch underneath the company logo at the side. The other side of the power supply is home to the modular connectors, which are clearly labelled. The peripheral connectors are all mounted vertically underneath the PCI-E and CPU connectors. Cooler Master V Series 1000W PSU DC Output +3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5Vsb Max Output 25A 25A 83A 0.5A 3A Total Power 125W 996W 6W 15W 1000W The single +12V rail can deliver 83A which is 996W of the total output. Both +3.3V and +5V rails can deliver 25A each. The fan is a Protechnic MGA12512XF-O25. This is a Fluid Dynamic Bearing model which has a much longer life cycle compared to ball bearing units. They also tend to produce less noise. Off to a good start. As we mentioned earlier in the review, this is a Seasonic OEM design based around the KM3 platform. The primary side uses full bridge topology with a LLC resonant converter. The secondary side uses synchronous rectification along with DC-DC converters which produce the minor rails. Soldering quality throughout this design is exceptional. The design has a sealed PCB to improve EMI interference behind the AC receptacle. The transient filtering stage components include a single X cap, a CM choke and four Y caps. There are other transient filtering components on the main PCB, an MOV, two CM chokes and two pairs of Y and X caps. Each of the GBJ 1506's are used a bridge rectifiers and can handle 30A combined. The design uses a Champion CM6901 LLC resonant controller on a vertical PCB. There are fets here which regulate the +12V rail. Two heatsinks are placed to help cool down the fets. The Seasonic design uses some high grade Chemi-Con polymer caps for filtering the +12V rail. The VRMS that generate the minor rails are installed on the modular PCB. At the front of the PCB are a handful of polymer capacitors by Chemi-Con, and these are used to filter the DC outputs. The two primary stage capacitors are supplied by Nippon Chemi-Con rated at 420V, 390uF @ 105c. Highest grade capacitors which should last a very long time. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price. Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions. We use combinations of the following hardware: • SunMoon SM-268 • CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs) • CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4) • Extech Power Analyzer • Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter • SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) • Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC) • Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA DC Output Load Regulation Combined DC Load +3.3V +5V +12V +5VSB -12V A V A V A V A V A V 100W 1.55 3.35 1.78 5.04 6.67 12.12 0.50 5.03 0.20 -12.02 250W 3.45 3.34 4.48 5.04 17.17 12.10 1.00 5.03 0.30 -12.02 500W 7.07 3.34 9.17 5.03 34.68 12.07 2.00 5.02 0.50 -12.02 750W 11.08 3.33 13.77 5.03 52.72 12.04 2.50 5.02 0.60 -12.03 1000W 16.90 3.33 18.95 5.02 71.99 12.00 3.00 5.02 0.80 -12.04 Load regulation is excellent, holding well within what we would expect. As good as we have seen in the last year. Cooler Master V Series 1000W Maximum Load 1192W We managed to get another 192W from the power supply before the protection circuitry kicked in. The protection circuitry worked well and the unit restarted with a lower demand. Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly. Cross Load Testing +3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5VSB A V A V A V A V A V 885W 2.0 3.34 2.0 5.04 72.0 11.99 0.2 -12.03 0.50 5.03 240W 20.0 3.33 24.0 5.02 2.0 12.11 0.2 -12.03 0.50 5.03 The power supply handled these tests exceptionally well, fluctuating only a little and well within tolerance specifications. We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum. ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide. ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance Output Ripple (mV p-p) +3.3V 50 +5V 50 +12V1 120 +12V2 120 -12V 120 +5VSB 50 Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard. AC Ripple (mV p-p) DC Load +3.3V +5V +12V 5VSB 100W 10 10 20 15 250W 10 10 20 15 500W 15 10 25 15 750W 15 15 25 15 1000W 15 15 30 15 Ripple suppression is superb, and what we would expect from the Seasonic KM3 design. Both +3.3V and +5V rails peak at 15 mV and the +12V output peaks at 30mV. These are all well within the rated tolerance levels. Efficiency (%) 100W 85.11 250W 87.41 500W 92.73 750W 91.88 1000W 89.11 The efficiency results are excellent, peaking at just under 93 percent at 50% load. This drops to over 89% at full load. We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 Player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Noise (dBA) 100W <28.0 250W <28.0 500W 29.3 750W 32.6 1000W 35.7 The power supply is quiet almost all of the time, unless you manage to load it with over 850W, then the fan spins up quite dramatically. Even at full load the fan noise is not that intrusive however. Temperature (c) Intake Exhaust 100W 35 38 250W 36 44 500W 39 47 750W 43 54 1000W 47 58 The fan only really becomes active when the load is over 850W, spinning quite slowly at 700W or less. It is a very capable fan and moves a lot of cool air inside the chassis, which has a very positive outcome on the results above. Maximum load Efficiency 1192W 87.8 Pushing the power supply above its rated limits generates an efficiency level of around 87.8%. This is not a viable ‘real world’ situation, but its interesting nonetheless. Cooler Master certainly made the right decision when they partnered up with Seasonic for their new high end power supplies. The V Series 1000W unit is an exceptionally good power supply, based around the class leading Seasonic KM3 high end design. First impressions are very positive. Cooler Master protect the power supply in a soft, high grade felt bag and they are using high grade 18AWG flat cables, perfect for cable management and maximising air flow. We think the modular backplate is well laid out and all the peripheral cables are vertically mounted into the V Series to ease installation. The chassis paintwork is deep and very resistant to damage which can often occur to a lesser finish after installing into a system case. Technically the V Series 1000W power supply is rock solid and exhibits no weaknesses. Ripple suppression is class leading and well within the industry tolerance guidelines. Our sample peaked at just under 93 percent efficiency at 50 percent load, a fantastic result. Cooler Master have adopted a very high grade fan inside the V Series 1000W supply which spins very slowly until the last 15% of load. It emits very low levels of noise across the load range and ensures that the components inside have adequate airflow. The fan profile has clearly been optimised for low noise levels, which will please many enthusiast users. Under our stress test, the unit also delivered almost 1,200watts of power before shutting off safely, so there is clearly some additional headroom above the rated 1,000watts. A good indication of the quality components used by Seasonic. At time of press we have no indication of UK cost, but we would expect it to be competitively priced in the high end sector. Pros: excellent build quality. delivered almost 1,200Watts before shutting off. high grade components inside. efficient. low noise. high grade cabling. 100% Haswell compatible. 5 year warranty. Cons: a few more SATA and Molex cables would be useful. stiff competition in this sector. Kitguru says: As good as its gets in the high end.