Posted: January 20, 2004
Author: Brian Anderson
Manufacturer: PC Power & Cooling
Source: PC Power & Cooling
Today we are taking a look that the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 ATX-Deluxe Power Supply (PSU). PC Power & Cooling may not be a household name in the power supply market, but they have been selling units since 1986, one year after the business was launched in a San Diego warehouse. For those familiar with PC Power & Cooling, they know the high quality found in each product, and for those unfamiliar, this review may serve as an introduction.
The 510 ATX-Deluxe is shipped in a rather generic cardboard box which contains the items pictured below. (A brochure, the power supply, the warranty document, the power cord, and 4 mounting screws).
Let’s take a look at the specifications as taken from their web site:
As you can see, this thing packs a wallop! With a Peak Power of <650W! If you take a look at the spec’s of many cheaper PSU’s you will see they are rated by their peak power, not their continuous power output. You also see the Regulation (variance) is very small. Most PC PSU’s have between a 5% - 10% variation, while this monster has 1% on the +3.3, +5, and +12 rails. WOW!
Let me first get this out of the way, and to set the tone for the rest of this review. I am in love with this PSU!! While I have always used high quality PSU’s in all of my systems, I have never used one of this quality. OK, enough of my drooling on the unit let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of this review.
First Look:
When I first remove this beast from its box I about hurt myself. This unit is HEAVY. I put it on a scale and the unit weighted over 4 ? lbs, not including the cabling weight. While weight alone doesn’t determine the quality of a PSU, it is generally a VERY good indicator. If you pick up one of those $20 450-Watt PSU, you will find it doesn’t weigh much more than your mouse. So let’s take a look on the inside of this unit to see why it weights so much.
The first thing you will notice this thing is packed! With heatsinks, capacitors, electronics, and all kinds of stuff. Again... WOW! The only thing you won’t notice is a 2nd fan on either the back of the unit, or on the bottom. Unfortunately, because this is missing it could cause overheating issues in some systems. However, let’s be honest. If you are paying the money to get one of these, then you are not an average user. Your system probably has enough airflow going through it that you almost have to bolt it down to keep it from flying away, or you’re using a water or heat-exchange cooling system. So this really should not present a significant problem for you.
For those of you with black cases, or windows in your case you will be happy to know they have given this unit a very attractive black finish. It should fit in nicely with any case, and for you LANer’s out there, it will look “purdy” when you are showing off the insides of your computer.
Connectors:
The Turbo-Cool 510 comes with a wide array of power connectors for you to use. Basically, if it doesn’t have it you don’t need it. All of the cables are braided to make them easier to route, and much more attractive in a system with a window. I also have to give these guys more kudos for the length of their cables. It’s like they read my mind, the cables are not too long, nor are they too short.
It comes with 5 Molex connectors for hooking up Hard drives, CD/DVD drives, and such. It has 2 “floppy” connectors as well. PC Power & Cooling really paid attention to detail on this unit. They have a Molex to floppy converter on one of the Molex connectors allowing you to use it either way. I personally found this useful because I was able to use that floppy connector to hook up my Radeon 9800 Pro card to it instead of having to use the cable included with the card. This keeps my case looking a little neater and cleaner.
They also include the standard ATX motherboard connector, and the P4 connector. As a testament to their forward thinking they have also included 2 SATA power connectors allowing you to connect 2 SATA drives with out needing any additional connectors.
The first thing you will notice this thing is packed! With heatsinks, capacitors, electronics, and all kinds of stuff. Again... WOW! The only thing you won’t notice is a 2nd fan on either the back of the unit, or on the bottom. Unfortunately, because this is missing it could cause overheating issues in some systems. However, let’s be honest. If you are paying the money to get one of these, then you are not an average user. Your system probably has enough airflow going through it that you almost have to bolt it down to keep it from flying away, or you’re using a water or heat-exchange cooling system. So this really should not present a significant problem for you.
For those of you with black cases, or windows in your case you will be happy to know they have given this unit a very attractive black finish. It should fit in nicely with any case, and for you LANer’s out there, it will look “purdy” when you are showing off the insides of your computer.
Performance:
OK, great... I have shown this is a nice looking heavy PSU with lots of stuff in it. However, those features alone do not justify the almost $200 price tag. Lucky for us, these guys knew that. Let us take a look at how this baby performed when put to the test on a dual processor AMD system with plenty of drives and expansion cards.
Test System:
• Tyan Tiger MP Motherboard
• Dual AMD Athlon MP 1800+
• 512MB ECC DDR PC2100
• Tyan G9800-M ATI Radeon 9800 Pro based video card
• SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer Soundcard
• EdiMax 10/100/1000 NIC
• Sil680A IDE RAID controller
• 2 – Maxtor ATA133 60GB HDD’s in RAID 0
• 1 – IBM ATA100 60GB HDD
• 1 – CDR Drive
• 1 – 48x16x48 CDRW
• Windows XP Professional
Testing Software:
• SisSoft Sandra 2002
• Aquamark 3
Comparison Power Supply:
• Enermax 431W
For these test, I read the results from both a digital multi-meter reading power from the ATX connector going to the motherboard, and from MotherBoard Monitor 5 software (where possible). I used the best quality power supply I had to run head-to-head with the 510 ATX-Deluxe, which is my trusty Enermax. I have always considered Enermax to be one of the best PSU makers for PC’s out there, so I figured it would be a great competition.
Let us take a look at what MBM 5 had to say:
For this test I used Sandra running both CPU’s at 100%. I ran it through 10 loops prior to reading the results to make sure that all components were all nice and toasty warm. As we can see here the competition looks pretty close here. On both the +3.3v and +5.0 rails the Turbo-Cool 510 comes out a little ahead, however on the +12 rail the Enermax pulls a little ahead.
Now let’s take a look at the multi-meter results running both Sandra (using the same methodology as above) and Aquamark 3.
Again we see pretty much the same results with the Turbo-Cool 510 coming in on top on the +3.3V and +5V rails, and the Enermax coming in on top on the +12V
However, there are a few very important facts missing from these graphs. The first is the voltage variation. For both the MBM 5 & multi-meter graphs I took the “average” voltage from the Enermax. I was seeing fluctuations of up to .10 - .12 volts on all rails. However on the Turbo-Cool 510, these are the EXACT numbers that were produced! There was 0 fluctuation on any of the rails. It also didn’t matter to the Turbo-Cool 510 if I put a load on the system or not, the readings were the same. And as most of us know on most PSU’s they produce different voltages under load then they do when the system is idle.
The other important fact missing is 3Dmark2003/2001SE. This was the original software I was trying to use to put the system under load. However I was unable to get a complete test when I was using the Enermax. Every time it would get to the nature game my hard drives would start clicking and the system would lock up or reboot (I had to boot to the XP CD and repair the HDD once). Yet as soon as I put the Turbo-Cool 510 in, these test would complete with out a problem. It seems that the nature game put such a load on the video card that it pulled too much wattage from the system and the hard drives were starved for power. Once again, I have to say… WOW!! And we have to ask ourselves was it the extra 79 watts that let the system run successfully, or was it the absolute unwavering voltage that the Turbo-Cool 510 produced? Very possibly it was the combination of the two.
Warranty:
Just to step things up a notch, the guys from PC Power & Cooling have included a 5 year limited warranty on this PSU. OK, once again I have to say it… WOW!!
Conclusion:
When I am given a product to review, I try my best to find flaws in the product because every product has them. Was I able to find one with the Turbo-Cool 510?? Well... Sorta... but not really... The only flaw I can say is the lack of a 2nd fan. But then again, I don’t really consider this a flaw. Simply because the inside of this PSU has no room for one; and to put one on the outside would look cheesy and really distract from the beauty of this unit. So while I wish they had one, I understand why it’s not there.
The Turbo-Cool 510 has immortalized PC Power & Cooling in my mind. This power supply is simply leaps and bounds above the rest of the field. While some may argue that it is too expensive, I would argue that it is fairly priced. After all, would you expect to pay the same or less for a BMW that you would a Saturn? Both might be very good vehicles but the quality, attention to detail, and warranty puts the Turbo-Cool 510 in a completely different league than the any other PSU I have used.
If you have demanding power needs that include lots of drives, high performance video cards, multiple CPU’s or just want the most stable power for your computer then save up your pennies and get yourself a PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 ATX-Deluxe.
I cannot believe it, but I am forced to give this unit a perfect 5 star rating!! This product is a MUST have!!
Pros:
• Attractive Look
• Braided Cables
• Perfect Cable Lengths
• Plenty of power connectors
• SATA power connectors
• Unwavering voltage
• Quality construction
• 5 year warranty
Cons:
• None
Special Thanks to PC Power & Cooling for providing the 510 ATX-Deluxe PSU to BigBruin.Com for review!
