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Review :: PC Power & Cooling 1kw Turbo-Cool TC1KW PSU |
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Posted: 19/05/2006
Author: James Napier (XMS)
Hardware Acquired: PC Power & Cooling
Introduction
When
the subject of power supplies comes up in forums, there is always one
name mentioned: PC Power & Cooling. The general consensus amongst
PC enthusiasts is that if you need the highest quality power supply,
and money is not an object then there's no contest.
Back in
1986, the company introduced its Silencer 150 and Turbo-Cool 200 units,
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.
Today, demands for high-end power supplies are greater than ever. With the introduction of multi-gpu systems and some high-end processors consuming excessive power, consumers are starting to realize the importance of choosing a quality power supply to ensure trouble free operation of their machines.
Enter the PC Power & Cooling 1kilowatt power supply....
Packaging
When
I received the news that a huge box with "PC Power & Cooling"
written down the side of it had arrived for me, I could hardly contain
my excitement - and not without reason either, this power supply is
quite often regarded as the "big daddy" of all power supplies!
Unlike
every other power supply on the market the PCP&C 1kw doesn't come
with any fancy packaging. Instead PCP&C have decided to package the
unit up in a double-walled corrugated cardboard box with the name and
specifications of the unit printed on the front and sides. I very much
doubt that this unit will find its way into many retail outlets, which
could well be the reason why PCP&C chose to package the unit this
way - along with the fact that PCP&C can probably shift their units
on reputation alone, without the need for any marketing-gimmick
packaging.
Opening up the box, I was presented with an absolute
monster of a power supply - this unit is seriously huge in comparison
with other power supplies I've tested in the past. Also included in the
box was the following items (images below):
- Invoices/Receipts
- Turbo-Cool Manual
- Certified Test Report
- 24-pin to 20-pin ATX adapter
- Molex to P4-12v (4 pin) adapter
- 8-Pin EPS12v to P4-12v (4 pin) adapter.
- Power lead
- Case screws
- PCP&C Sticker
The
included 'Certified Test Report' sheet contains all of results obtained
from the testing of the power supply at the PCP&C factory. Just
browsing over the page we can see some very impressive results from the
rails under load and the efficiency of the unit (79.87%).
The
power supply comes with a 5 year warranty, which is possibly the best
warranty I've heard given for any kind of PC components. Obviously you
will void the warranty if you use the power supply in other than the
specified manner, so it maybe worth having a quick read of the manual
before you go ahead and rip the unit open or do anything else silly.
Also
included in the package is a "Powered by Turbo-Cool 1 Kilowatt"
sticker, for those of us without windowed panels who still want to show
off their purchase :)
Specification
The following specification has been taken in most part from the PC Power & Cooling website:
Developed
to power next-gen graphics and ultra high-end servers, the Turbo-CoolŪ
1KW delivers 1000 watts (one kilowatt) of continuous, rock-solid power
with a peak of 1100 watts! Built with three independent AC-DC power
modules, the Turbo-CoolŪ 1KW is an efficient, amazingly quiet,
EPS12V/SLI power supply with 66A (70A peak) of 12VDC in a form factor
that fits most ATX cases. Truly, the ultimate computer power supply!
- 1KW Continuous (1.1KW Peak) @ 50°C
- Fits Std. ATX Cases (20” min. depth)
- +12VDC Rails Total 66A (70A Peak)
- High Efficiency with .99 Power Factor
- Rock-Solid, Super-Clean DC Output
- Amazingly Quiet Cooling System
- Dual PCI Express Video Connectors
- 15 Drive Connectors (incl. 6 SATA)
- EPS12V and nVidia SLI certified
- 5-Year Warranty; Unbeatable Support
The
most impressive specification about this power supply is its ability to
produce 36a on the +12v3 rail, which in this model is dedicated to
PCI-E graphics cards and hard disk drives / molexes.
I can
confidently say that the Turbo-Cool 1kw will have no problems powering
any kind of SLI / Crossfire rig or servers with large RAID arrays with
ease.
PC
Power & Cooling do produce other versions of the Turbo-Cool 1kw, in
which the +12v3 rail is used for PCI-E connectors only, and is actually
Quad-SLI compatible.
Appearance
Measuring
in at 149mm x 86mm x 231mm (WxHxD) the Turbo-Cool is longer than your
average power supply. People with small cases, cases with PSU cages or
cases with fans situated at the top should take measurements before
considering this power supply.
Under normal circumstances the
Turbo-Cool would have no problems fitting inside my Silverstone TJ05,
however, with my dual radiator mounted at the top, the power supply is
about 50mm too long.
As you can see above, the Turbo-Cool is a simplistic 'no-bling' unit sprayed in matt black paint. The label on top of the unit informs the user of its vital statistics such as peak output and rail amperages. Proudly placed on the side of the unit is the Nvidia SLI Certified sticker.
The front of the unit sports an 80mm fan covered with a black painted fan grill. We can also see that the Turbo-Cool is capable of auto-detecting the input voltage (230v/110v) as a voltage switch has been omitted from the unit.
The back of the unit makes use of a honeycomb grill to allow for the 80mm fan placed around the front to pull air over the components. Also something you don't normally see on most power supplies is the inclusion of a small 'lip' with two screw holes. I can only assume that this can be used to bolt the end of the power supply to the top of a case, thus stopping the end of the power supply from 'sagging' downwards under the weight of its internal components.
Connectors
On
a power supply with 1kw of power, you'd expect it to have enough
connectors to take advantage of it. I'm pleased to say that you won't
be disappointed. The Turbo-Cool has enough connectors for almost any
kind of setup, including a multiple drive RAID setup.
I was slightly amused by the way that the cables were bundled together with an elastic band. A functional method I guess, and it kind of fits in with the simplistic theme of the rest of the packaging.
The cables are all sleeved in black nylon mesh with the ends finished off with black heatshrink. The sleeving job is very professional, but yet again quite primitive with the heatshrink being held in place by clear cable ties. In my opinion PCP&C would have been better to place the heatshrink over the cable ties in a similar way seen on other power supplies. This is just a minor gripe and would only really benefit in makes things look tidier.
Another minor cosmetic gripe is the use of White ATX/EPS12v connectors. In my opinion it would have looked much better if they had opted to use Black plastic on all of the connectors - including the molex's.
PCP&C have adopted the latest technology (24-Pin ATX and EPS12v) for their connectors, but have also provided backward compatibility for older systems by means of plug-in adapter cables, which provide 20-Pin ATX and 4-Pin PC12v connectors for older motherboards.
With 8 Molex and 6 SATA connectors, the Turbo-Cool actually holds the records for the most connectors on any power supply we've tested here at OC3D so far.
The only thing that I found slightly strange was the fact that the Turbo-Cool only has one floppy disk power cable. Most power supplies provide two at least, which is often required when boards like the DFI NF4 make use of a floppy connector to power certain parts of the board.
Looking Inside
Quite often the quality of a power supply can be determined by its weight. Heavy power supplies are generally of better build quality and on the whole perform better.
In addition to the weight, another way to determine the quality of a power supply is to take a look at its internal components. Generally power supplies with large capacitors and heat sinks are likely to perform better than units on the opposite end of the scale.
The insides of the Turbo-Cool 1kw are well arranged and very tidy, which will clearly aid in keeping good airflow through the unit.
I was most impressed with the number of heat sinks cooling things down, and also that PCP&C had gone to the effort of using thermal interface compound on the heat sinks to enable maximum heat transfer.
No expense has been spared when selecting a fan to cool the unit. Above you can see the installed 80mm fan manufactured by Delta, which are renowned for their high performance. At 12v this fan pushes an impressive 52cfm at a rather noisy 42.5dBA. However, the Turbo-Cool 1kw does employ a fan speed controller to keep the fan running at lowest possible noise levels when the power supply is not running hot.
Load Testing
In order for the results from all current and future PSU reviews to remain fair and comparable, Overclock3D uses a custom built Power Supply load stress tester.
The tester is capable of placing loads on the following rails:
+3.3v - 20a Load
+5.0v - 20a Load
+12v1 - 10a Load
+12v2 - 10a Load
+12v3 - 10a Load
+12v4 - 10a Load
(or 40a on a single +12v rail)
The results are collected from a Mastech MAS-345 Multimeter which logs its readings via RS232 to a PC.
Here we see some outstanding results from the Turbo-Cool 1kw. There was absolutely no voltage fluctuation on the +3.3v rail and only a 0.02v fluctuation on the +5v rail. This is without doubt the best results I have seen from a power supply tested by OC3D yet.
The trend continues with the Turbo-Cool 1kw breezing through our load tests with only small voltage fluctuations of around 0.05v. I am simply amazed by the amount of power this unit has and its excellent voltage regulation.
This power supply is clearly perfect for any server system or desktop PC with voltage sensitive PCI-E cards.
Temperature Testing
A new introduction to the OC3D power supply testing procedures is the testing of heat put into the case by the unit.
Quite often, the cooling methods employed by some manufacturers are inadequate, and result in heat from the power supply finding its way back into your case.
The OC3D Temperature Tester involves placing the power supply into a standard ATX case, and measuring temperatures at various places around the power supply after 30 minutes at idle and full load on the OC3D PSU Tester.
Ambient: Room temperature taken approx 10ft away from testing equipment.
In: Temperature taken 5" away from the PSU ventilation grill inside the case.
Out: Temperature taken 5" away from the PSU fan at the back of the case.
We can see here that the temperature inside the case compared to ambient varies by 1.3°C. This would imply that the cooling method used inside the Turbo-Cool is very effective at removing the heat from the PSU's components and expelling the heat out of the back of the case.
Noise Testing
At present Overclock3D doesn't have the correct equipment to reproduce accurate stats on the dBA output, so for the moment you will have to rely on my ear :)
Right from the word go the fan installed in the Turbo-Cool was clearly audible. Comparing the noise with some fans installed in my machine, I would say that the noise emitted was around 34dBA.
Under load the noise didn't appear to increase by much, which would suggest that the fan has been set to a speed capable of cooling the unit under most load conditions.
Check back on this review at a later date for professional noise level testing results.
Conclusion
The results given by the Turbo-Cool on the power supply load tests nothing short of stunned me. The OC3D PSU tester which normally leaves most power supplies crying for mercy was unable to make any noticeable hit on the Turbo-Cool's voltages.
At this point in the review I could comment on the lack of fancy packaging, or the different colored ATX connectors, but I'm not going to. Why? Because the PCP&C Turbo-Cool 1kw has never once claimed or tried to be anything more than a rock solid power supply.
If you're looking for a power supply that power any combination of PC both present and future, and have a spare $500, you should look no further than the Turbo-Cool 1kw.
Pro's
- Rock solid power and plenty of it
- Ability to power any kind of graphics setup.
- Very little heat escape into PC case
- High Efficiency
- Sleeved Cables
- Plenty of connectors
- 5yr Warranty
Con's
- May be over priced for some
- May not fix some ATX cases
A big thank you to PC Power & Cooling for providing this unit for review :)
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