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Up for review today we have the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe ATX power supply which is their newest addition to their wide range of products. The power supply is the most overlooked component when building a system and the wrong power supply can cause instability, and sometimes even failure of other hardware or even the power supply itself. So, what does it take to be a quality power supply? Just how well does the Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe perform? Read on to find out.
Appearance and Features
The Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe comes very well packaged in a plain brown box. Why a plain brown box? Well, with a reputation such as PC Power & Cooling has, I don't think that you would really need any flashy packaging to try and sell you one of their power supplies.
There's no way this unit is going to be damaged in shipping, even if you do get a disgruntled FedEx eployee handleing your package. A+ to PC Power & Cooling on the packaging aspect of this unit.
Appearance
The Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe is one very good looking power supply. It has a matte black finish and almost every inch of the external wiring is sleeved black.
What's up with this? There's no switch to choose what voltage is being inputted. Well, that's because it doesn't need one. Why doesn't it need one? Well, the Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe automatically detects what voltage is coming into it and adjusts itself accordingly meaning that the user does not have to mess with a switch and make sure it's in the right position.
Features
This power supply packs a lot of very nice features. As I have already mentioned, all of the wiring, with some minor exceptions, is sleeved. You will find no lack of connectors on this unit either. It has a standard 20 pin ATX connector and a 4 pin P4 connector which is becoming commonly found on many newer AMD boards. There are 7 standard molex connectors and one floppy connector. Also, the wires are plenty long to route them anywhere in a mid-tower case and even in any full tower
Also included is this adapter so that if you need a second floppy drive connector, all you need to do is hook up this adapter and you're all set to go.
Woah! What are those? Well, PC Power & Cooling decided to include two SATA power connectors (each on its own set of wires) which means that when the buyer of this unit goes SATA, they will not have to try and find any power adapters as there's already two included. This is a very nice feature and, to the best of my knowledge, PC Power & Cooling is the first to do this
Specs and Internals
Specifications
Every computer enthusiast knows how important having good rails with plenty of power is. The Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe is definitely not lacking in the power department.
Output:
+5V @ 40A
+12V @ 34A, 38A peak
-5V @ 0.3A
-12V @ 2A
+3.3V @ 30A
+5VSB @ 3A
power 510w
peak power 650w
Regulation:
1% (+5, +12)
5% (-5, -12)
1% (+3.3)
Fan Type: 30 - 44 CFM ball 30 - 44 CFM ball
Noise: 34 - 44dB(A)
Notice the wattage amount. 510 watts is what it can normally put out, but look at the peak. Under good conditions, this unit can put out an astounding 650 watts of power! PC Power & Cooling rates the wattage of their power supplies different that most companies. Most companies take the peak power which the power supply can output and call that the rating. However, under real world conditions, the power supply can't achieve such ratings because the ratings from that company age given under power supply temperatures which are normally not obtained. PC Power & Cooling is different in that they rate their power supplies not with their peak rating, but with what the output will be under normal operating conditions.
The fan is a little on the noisy side, but with so much power, it needs good cooling and that is provided by one fan which throttles up and down in speed depending on the temperature inside of the power supply. The Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe is also designed so that it only needs one fan to cool it. If you're looking for something more on the quiet side, PC Power & Cooling has got you covered there too with their Silencer series of power supplies. I do not have one here for testing, but I hear from user experiences that they are very nice units.
Also, PC Power & Cooling really stands behind their products with a 5 year warranty! That is something that is very nice to see.
A Peek Inside
First off, a warning. Do not open your power supply unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. It is very dangerous and if you bump the wrong thing, you can get a serious electrical shock which could cause serious injury, or even death. FastLaneHW.com and its staff are not responsible if you open your power supply and injure yourself in the act.
One of the things that makes the Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe different than an ordinary power supply is just how much is in it. Here it is compared to an Enermax 431watt unit (Enermax is on the right). There is a lot less unused space, that's for sure, and what fills that space just makes the unit so much better.
Also notice that the components used are not small or cheap, but instead are of extremely high quality and much beefier than what is found in cheaper units. It is also said that generally the more a power supply weighs, the better it is. I certainly hope this proves to be true because the Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe is the heaviest power supply I've ever used.
In the last picture you can see a row of potentiometers. What does this mean? This means a great feature for the overclockers. If a certain rail needs some more power, they are easily adjusted to give more power. For this review, I left the pots untouched as to give a better example of how this unit performs without modification or tweaking.
Enough with the features and how good it looks, now on to the best part, how does this unit perform?
Testing
Testing
The system which I tested this on is as follows:
Abit NF7-S rev. 2
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ at 3200+ speeds with 1.7v
1 GB Corsair XMS Pro series Twinx3200LL
1x 80GB 7200rpm Western Digital SE
1x 120GB 7200rpm Maxtor 8MB cache
Gainward GeForce 3 ti200 64MB Golden Sample
4x LiteOn DVD burner
Generic 12x DVD drive
SoundBlaster Live
For the most accurate method of reading the voltages, I used a digital multimeter at the ATX power connector.
For idle, the system was allowed to idle for 30 minutes and then 5 voltage readings were taken and averaged.
12v: 12.12v
5v: 5.16v
3.3v: 3.39v
For load, Folding@Home was allowed to run for 30 minute and then 5 voltage readings were taken and averaged.
12v: 12.12v
5v: 5.15v
3.3v: 3.38v
Very good rails with almost no fluctuation. That is what we all like to see.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe is by far the best power supply I have ever worked with. Not only does it look great, but it performs very well. The rails are spot on and are extremely stable. There are many features packed into this unit. This unit is a bit overboard for a system like you would build for your grandmother to check her e-mail and play solitaire, but that's not who this unit is designed for. This unit is designed for the hardware enthusiast and the overclocker who demand only the best componants and this is certainly the best of the best. To purchase this unit, you can head on over to www.pcpowercooling.com where it is (as of the writing of this review, 12/7/03) on sale for $197.10. A little expensive, but you get what you pay for, and here you are getting the best of the best. A PC Power & Cooling power supply is an investment I think all hardware enthusiats should make.
Pros:
Lots of power
Great rails
Adjustable potentiometers
5 year warranty
Good looking
Sleeved
Cons:
A little pricey (but worth every penny of it)
Overall I award this product with a score it has definitely earned, a perfect 10 for 10.
FastLaneHW.com would like to extend a big Thank You to PC Power & Cooling for providing us with this awesome unit for review.
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