Where does one begin with a product like this, from and outstanding company like PC Power & Cooling? PCP&C has been the PSU manufacturer of choice for many die-hard overclocker and PC enthusiasts. PCP&C has been manufacturing some of the best units for years with their main focus, power. Clean, stable, and efficient power has been driving PCP&C since 1985. Over the years their reputation has grown ever so high due to a simple reason; their products are known kick ass and takes no prisoners. They have never sacrificed the quality of their units and constantly strive to out-do themselves

Here at PC Apex we have had many power supplies cross our paths but none have ever been the “King”. If you are a loyal PC Apex member you would have seen the teaser I posted a while ago. Yes, PC Power & Cooling has bestowed upon us their award winning Silencer 750. This PSU has been on many enthusiasts’ minds with its revised “Silent” operation and a whopping 60 amp 12 volt rail! Ok enough talk, now its time to put up or shut up….

Specs

The Silencer 750 is a power supply designed for low noise with excellent performance and is SLI certified.

AC Input
Operating Range: 90-264 VAC
.99 power factor
Frequency: 47-63Hz
Current: 12A
Efficiency: 83%
EMI: FCC-B, CE

DC Output
+5V @ 30A
+12V @ 60A
-12V @ 0.8A
+3.3V @ 24A
+5VSB @ 3A
Continuous = 750W
Peak = 825W
Regulation: 3% (+3.3V, +5V, +12V)
5% (-12V)
Ripple: 1% (p-p)
Hold Time: 16ms
PG Delay: 300ms

Safety
OV Protection: +3.3V, +5V, +12V
OC Protection: 135% OPP
Agency Approval: UL/ULC/CE/CB/RoHS
Temperature: 0" - 40"C
Humidity: 20% - 80% RH
Fan Type: 22 - 55 CFM ball-bearing
Noise: 28 - 42dB (A)
Compatibility: EPS12V / NVIDIA SLI certified
M/B Connectors: 24-pin, 8-pin, 4-pin, dual 6-pin Video
Drive Connectors: 15 (6 SATA, 1 mini)
MTBF: 100,000 hours
Warranty: 3 Years

Dimensions/Harness

Image from PCP&C

Package

The shipped unit was in a fairly plain white box. Not much flash going on but the name on the box says it all. Shipping was handled with a well secured cardboard box with open space all around the unit. Upon opening the box I was greeted with a certified test report, installation manual, and product brochure.

Each unit is tested and certified by a Chroma 8000, the leader in power testing equipment. With a client list including the likes of Intel, AMD, and Lockheed Martin, it’s obvious why PCP&C uses them as well. The Silencer 750 is run through a customized 15 step test sequence and if any one test fails, the unit is rejected. Each report is labeled with the serial number of each unit and is stamped with a raised seal of approval from PCP&C. From this report a couple of very impressive things really jumped out at me. First, being the incredible 83% efficiency. The second is the peak power of over 830 watts, talk about bonus!

The Silencer 750 was a surprising copper color (black is an available option) and large. The specification sticker is centered on top of the unit with the serial number and SLI ready on the side. Looking at the top I noticed right away there weren’t any holes to allow adjusting pots for dialing in voltage values.

Looking at the backside, the cooling was supplied with only one 80mm fan and is accompanied with the power connection. Note the missing voltage selector next to the on/off switch which means this is an automatic switching PSU between 100 – 240 VAC (the PSU specs list that this unit can operate with as low as 90 VAC!). The inside has plenty of open vents for airflow. This is quite a surprising design compared to some other units with 120mm or 140mm fans.

Cables

All the cables are sleeved in black but the sleeving stops at the first plug on the multiple plugged cables. With SATA drives becoming ever more popular and easy to use, it’s refreshing to see 6 power connectors for SATA drives. This will allow you to really tap into that 750+W of power should you decide to run a large array of SATA drives.

Most motherboard's extra power connectors have evolved into a 8 pin connector but to stay compatible with older boards, PCP&C has also included a 4 pin option.

There are 8 molex connectors, 2 with 3 each cable and one with 2 and a mini connector.

For the SLI/Crossfire crowd, there are (2) 6 pin plugs to handle the most power hungry video cards.

Last is the ATX connector, which is a solid 24 pin. I found this confusing as a 24 to 20 pin adapter was not included. I know PCP&C wants to stay away from added connections. This is the main reason why you will never see a modular cable installed on a PCP&C unit, an extra connector adds resistance. Added resistance equals a loss of power. A couple more reasons why you won’t see modular cables on a PCP&C unit is the possibility of pin damage and loose connections that can lead to more serious problems. The lack of the adapter is understandable but why not have a connector that has the 4 pins detachable instead of making the end user purchase an adapter?

Inside the Silencer 750

I was assigned the task of modding a Turbo-Cool 510 SLI for the PimpRig Tribute Case so before I ripped into this unit I took some comparison pics to show some main design differences between the two units. First thing I took note of is the larger size, 1.5 inches longer than the TC510.

The vents are slightly different and the holes on top of TC510 are not on the Silencer750. Does this mean there is no adjusting the Silencer 750? Adjusting a PSU out of factory specs is done at the end users risk and is only a feature for true enthusiasts who are looking for that little extra juice to push their systems farther. Let’s take a look inside and find out what we have.

With the covers off, the pots on the TC510 are clearly visible but there are none to be seen on the Silencer750.

Inside the Silencer750 the added space was well used with plenty of clear space for airflow over the entire length of the unit; even the aluminum heat sinks are large and streamlined for smooth airflow. With the smooth airflow PCP&C was able to reduce the turbulent airflow to bring the dB levels to a minimum and airflow to a maximum. Yes, they probably could have compacted the inside a little more for space but airflow would have been sacrificed which may have raised noise levels as well as reduce the already tight cooling capabilities.

The 80mm fan inside is an ADDA AD0812UB-A71Gl providing the airflow and is connected to a thermal controller to regulate the fan speed. The automatic controller for the fan increases the fan speed as needed; with most systems one would be lucky to use half the wattage the Silencer has to offer.

ADDA Fan Specs
Airflow: 50 CFM
Dimensions: 80 mm L x 80 mm H x 25 mm W
Power Rating: 5.4 W
Speed: 3900 RPM
Termination Style: Wire
Voltage Rating: 12 V
Product Category: DC Fans
Current Type: DC
Noise: 42dB

The wire harness is fed through a rolled edge on the inside of the unit, with a zip tie holding the bundle together. Here one will notice the sleeving is just short of being inside the unit. With a couple movements the sleeving will get strung out as already can be seen in the pic and will only get worse if moved too much. An inch longer with the expandable sleeving and the zip tie would have helped out with this problem. After looking all through this unit I was unable to find any adjusting pots; so this unit might be frowned upon by some enthusiasts.

Installation and Testing

After picking up some larger drives I needed to move into a different case. I picked up an older version of the Lian Li PC-V1000B, this case was larger and could hold more HDDs and had a nice smooth look to it. Now if I could only get some time to mod it. :) My test system specs for this review are:

AMD 64 X2 3800 @ 2.1 GHz
DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
Corsair XMS4000 OC 210 FSB
2 XFX 7900 GT
3 250GB Seagate’s
1 400GB Seagate
1 200GB WD
Lite-On Dual Layer combo drive
Icy Dock removable drive cage

Installing the Silencer750 was a bit of a task in my Lian Li PC-V1000B case. Mine is the older version so I had to drill out the divider to fit the Silencer 750 in. Talk about a tight fit, right up to the hard drive cage. To keep room for the wire harness, I had to install the unit upside down to clear the HDD rails. Once all was in and running I went through some benchmarks to put the unit under load.

For monitoring the voltage I used a digital multimeter and recorded the voltage each time I added a device. The devices I will be adding are an extra DVD-ROM, 2 HDDs, a Waffer PAC 400, and 9 120mm fans from a server rack. All voltage readings were monitored while cycling each of the devices off, on, and running.

Why did I even bother with hooking any of this stuff up? With everything I threw at this unit, the voltages stayed at 12.00, 4.99, and 3.34! All of this was during full load running 2 Folding@Home apps (Team 596) to have the dual cores running at 100%. We all know that you can’t fully trust onboard sensors, for me they were reading stable voltages but incorrect values. Not even with the added Waffer PAC 400 (which has an 80 watt peltier) did the voltages waver any! I could make a graph but what would the point be? The 60A 12V rail took no prisoners and didn’t care to even take a name.

Conclusion

What can I say? Rock solid voltage rails with no variation under load. Near silent operation, I hear more noise from the HDDs spinning up and the northbridge fan than I do anything else on my system. I know it’s a matter of opinion and different people can hear different pitches from different devices but the Silencer 750 doesn’t add much, if anything, to the overall dB levels on this system. No fancy lights, no modular cables, and no over sized fans for cooling. This is just raw, stable power from a trusted source in the power supply industry.

A down fall for some users will be the longer housing. If you are considering this unit, make sure you check the dimensions that the case you plan to install this in will allow. Another issue might be for the true enthusiast that likes to dial in voltage settings for that little extra OC. This wont be possible with the absence of potentiometers; but would this adjustment even be that necessary with such solid voltages? The cable selection will handle today’s high end SLI or Crossfire systems; although it would have been nice to see the sleeving done a bit better. The MSRP is at around $199, a steal at that price for such a stable, quiet and beefy PSU. The PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 is a nearly perfect PSU with an almost perfect score at 9.5 out of 10 and is definitely worthy of a PC Apex Elite Pick award.

The Elite
- Solid voltage rails
- Whopping 60A 12v rail
- Plenty of connections
- Efficiency rating of over 83%
- Improved airflow for less dB levels
- Pretty beefy at 750W
- Near silent operation

The Rejected
- May be too deep for some cases
- No option for 20 pin Motherboards
- Not all the cables are sleeved all the way

A huge thanks goes out to PC Power & Cooling for sending us this review unit.