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| PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU Review |
| 12:18 22 December 2006 by Kraig "Perma Spun" Neet |
December 18, 2006
MSRP $199
Introduction
The good people at PSP&C gave us their 750w PSU for spin in the ole
HWH labs. The crazy thing about it is that they wanted us to pit their
750w PSU against the 1,000w CoolMax PSU that I had previously
purchased. They are that confident in the quality of their lower
wattage PSU that it will outperform even a significantly larger PSU. I
am totally up for the challenge, I just hope the hardware is!
The Company
On April 19,1985, PC Power & Cooling began operations in a small
warehouse just outside of San Diego, CA. Founded by Doug Dodson, a
commodity trader and electronic hobbyist, the company's first products
were custom fans to cool and quiet computers.
In 1986, the company introduced its Silencer 150 and Turbo-Cool 200,
the industry's first ultra-quiet and high-performance power supplies.
Other high-end products followed, the reviews were great, and the
company continued to grow. In 1991, the company moved to a modern
facility in Carlsbad, CA.
Over the last 21 years, PC Power & Cooling has produced many
innovative products including: the first CPU cooler, the first PC heat
alarm, the first independently-regulated PC power supply, the first
redundant power system, the first NVIDIA-certified SLI supply, and the
first One Kilowatt (continuous) computer power supply, the Turbo-Cool
1KW.
PSU & Specs
PCP&C has a lot of information on their website about this
particular PSU. They have made some changes to the PSU design in order
to achieve a quieter performing PSU. I actually owned a 510w SLI PSU
about a year ago but got rid of it due to the thermally controlled fan
making so much noise, even at idle it was far too loud for me. It was
easily the loudest part of my machine. I loved the PSU but the noise
made it useless to me so I traded it off. This PSU looks very different
from the previous PCP&C I owned. This one features the
"ultra-quiet" new cooling system design. Here is a rip from the
PCP&C site:
Our new
Silencer 750 EPS12V power supply gives you legendary PC Power and
Cooling performance and reliability along with a unique ultra-quiet
cooling design, brilliant copper finish, and a price that seals the
deal.
>>750W @ 40C (825W peak)
>>90% less noise per watt
>>EPS12V, NVIDIA" SLI™ certified
>>83% efficiency with .99 PFC
>>12VDC output @ 60A
>>24, 8, 4-pin M/B connectors
>>2 PCI-E and 15 drive plugs
>>Automatic fan speed control
>>Copper finish (Black on request)
>>3-year warranty and support
Below you can easily see how PCP&C has made this PSU quieter than
previous models. All it took was a relatively simple design change and
wallah, the noise is gone. Makes you wonder why you didn't think of
that hunh? LOL! I am so very glad that this change was made because now
I know I can have the best of both worlds when it comes to obtaining a
premium PSU. With the 750w PCP&C I can have 1) stable rails and
high wattage 2) low noise. Usually those combinations in a PSU are hard
to come by but not if you get a PCP&C PSU with "Ultra-Quiet"
technology.
Now let's take a look at the PSU itself. The PSU and cables were well
packaged from the factory. It all looks very snug with the interior
cardboard folds pressing all of the components tight up against each
other. No damage from shipping with this package!
Here we see the PSU out of the box with the cables up tight for
shipping. Its good to see the black sleeved cables. There is nothing
worse than spending a considerable amount of hard earned cash on a PSU
just to see the ugly naked cables going everywhere. PCP&C sleeves
all of their non-proprietary end user power supplies. The last shot you
see there is the whole thing sprawled out on the floor, looks kinda
like a bronze squid doesn't it?
Lets pull the cover off and take a deeper look inside this beast.
Notice the tow dominant heatsinks? Those babies keep the important
parts of the PSU cool while you are enjoying your favorite game or
multi-tasking while the computer is running.
Now we can see from the front the two towers of doom! Yeah, PCP&C
went all out on getting some heavy duty cooling for the insides of this
PSU. The last pic you can see a tight close-up of the high capacity
capacitor.
Installation
Installation of the PSU was a breeze. Nothing noteworthy to write about
this except for the way it fit into my mid sized ATX tower. Its roughly
7 1/2 inches from end to end, which is very good for such a high end
and large capcity PSU. Other brands that are of equal wattage are
considerably longer and have trouble fitting into a mid sized ATX
tower. Great job PCP&C on fitting all 750w into this short
container. The last pic here you can see the unit fully installed.
There is no clutter to speak of here. I like that, Its important to me
to keep my case nice and relatively clean. I hate having cabling
hanging all over the place inside of my computer case.
System Specs
>>AMD FX-62 @ 3.0Ghz
>>2 x 1Gb Crucial PC-8000
>>2 x 7900-GTX SLI OC'ed @ 800/1945
>>Asus M2N32-SLI
>>Western Digital 80Gb SATA
>>1x 120MM Fan 3 x 80mm Fans
>>Front Panel Fan Bus
>>Creative X-FI Fatl1ty
>>NEC 3500 DVD/CD Combo
Performance
Performance is extremely impressive with this PSU. I tested the 12v
& 5v rails with my trusty multi-meter on idle and load to see if
there was a droop in voltage. A droop in voltage is the bane of cheaper
power supplies and is a condition for RMA on more expensive models. I
am happy to say that if you were looking for a droop with this PSU you
probably need to look elsewhere. This 750w PCP&C supply is as
stable as a rock!
5v Idle & Load
12v Idle & Load
The system that this PSU needs to power is quite substantial in the top
end. I used a nice and accurate PSU wattage calculator called "eXtreme
Power Supply Calculator 2.0" at .
I typed in my system requirements and my total wattage for my AM2
system is 628W. That’s actually more than I thought it would be. I have
used this PSU on the above mentioned system for about a month with zero
problems. This PSU easily handled it. My current system project is a
Intel quad core system and yes I used the PCP&C PSU. The components
in this system are as follows.
Intel System Specs
>>Intel 6700-XE "Kentsfiled" @ 3.732Ghz
>>Vapochill-LS
>>eVGA 680i Motherboard
>>2 x 1Gb Crucial PC-8000
>>2 x 8800-GTX SLI @ 648/1053 2x 245w TECs
>>2 x 74Gb Raptors Raid O
>>1 x WD 320Gb SATA
>>NEC 18x DVD Ram Drive CD Burner
>>1 x Floppy
>>Nexus Fan Bay
>>2 x 92MM fans
>>1 x 80mm Fan1 x 60MM fan
>>2 x UV Blue CCF Lights
The on-line wattage calculator must not be able to correctly add up a
Kentsfiled setup because the total came to 1,702w for my massively
OC'ed Quad core 6700-XE with 2 x 8800-GTX in SLI. The PSU did not even
hiccup! It handled it easily and I was tremendously impressed. I was
able to benchmark my system with the FutureMark 06 graphics testing
suite and received an all time personal record of 18,369 with my
8800-GTX SLI cards running @ 648/1053.
The Challenger
I originally bought this 1,000w CoolMax PSU to power my above mentioned
Intel dream machine. Much like most people when we all heard that the
NV 8800-GTX cards would need 2 dedicated PCI-e connectors there was a
rush to go out and buy the big nasty 1-kilowatt bank account drainer. I
was a bit thrifty and luckily found it on sale for a measly $300. LOL…!
The CoolMax 1,000 did not have 4 PCI--e connectors on ly 2. I was
planning to use the double molex pci-e adapters on the other 2. This
PSU was pretty loud when loaded and the internal thermistor was
triggered to kick in the ear bleeding exhaust fan. The PCP&C was
much quieter. I then tested the rails of this 1 kilowatt monster and
was very pleased to find even tighter and a bit more stable voltages.
Even though the volts are a little bit higher and just as stable it
doesn’t justify another $100 over the price of the PCP&C 750w.
Remember from the earlier PCP&C specs the 750w PSU peaks at 825w. I
do not know what the peak is of the 1,000 kilowatt is but I am almost
positive that it’s the advertised 1,000w which is a shame. I really
appreciate the fact that PCP&C does not advertise their power
supplies at their peak wattage. The best value is definitely the
PCP&C 750w.
Conclusion
This PSU has impressed me! The fact that all of this power and
versatility come in a $199.00 package is unbeatable. What I really
apprecieated is the 4 x PCI-e connectors for my 8800-GTX SLI
configuration. It really helped my setup to have 4 dedicated PCI-e
connectors without the clutter and eye sore of the usual dual molex
plug pci-e adapter connectors that come with the cards. Also of
noteworthy mention is the lack of noise that is usually accociated with
a high end PSU. PCP&C has really out done themselves with this
power supply. I highly recommend this PSU to moderate builders and
extreme enthusiasts!
The Good:
>>4 x PCI-e power connectors, sleeved cables
>>750w of power
>>low noise exhaust fan
>>stable voltage
>>moderate price
>>etc…
The Bad:
>>none
I award the PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU a 10/10 and a HardwareHell Gold Award
Thanks to PC Power & Cooling for providing this unit for review. |
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