PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-PFC Power Supply

While the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC is nothing special to look at on the outside, the innards of the PSU is quite impressive but we'll get to that a bit later. You probably noticed that there is no power switch on the back of the PSU, while that may be a bit of an annoyance PC P & C said that they'll be adding an external power switch very soon. Thanks to the active PFC (Power Factor Correction) the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-PFC does not have the usual 115V/220V switch on the back. The Turbo-Cool PSU will just automatically detect what type of power you're using and switch accordingly.

As you can see PC Power & Cooling relies on honeycomb air vents to help keep the power supply cool. The honeycomb design is much more efficient in letting the air travel (less turbulence) then the regular slit type vents.

The Turbo-Cool 510-PFC has a total of eight molex connectors, two floppy as well as the main ATX, ATX12V and Aux power lines. We would have liked to see the main ATX power connector wrapped in some wire loom which protects the wires from potential damage. We were very surprised to see how flexible and moldable the cables were. While the wires are much softer then we're use with other power supplies, they're also quite tough and difficult to break

Officially rated at 510W, PC Power & Cooling is not like most other manufacturers when they quote wattage, voltages or amperages. Instead of using peak values which makes the PSU look better, PC P & C lists their sustained values instead and they're still mighty impressive!

According to PC P & C the Turbo-Cool 510 PFC is able to provide 510W of power (at 40 degrees Celsius while most other manufacturers get their maximum wattage readings at 25 degrees Celsius) and the 3.3V can deliver 30 Amps, 5V line 40 Amps and most importantly 12V line can pump out 34 sustained Amps (38 Amps during peak loads). FormFactors.org dictates that voltages during peak loads can only vary 5% which is what most manufacturer's adhere to but PC Power & Cooling does one better, their Turbo-Cool 510-PFC PSU will only vary 1% while under stress.

The Importance of the 12V Line...

While the computer industry has made great strides in the past few years, unfortunately most generic power supply manufacturers have not kept up. What I mean by that is modern processors (AthlonXP, Pentium 4's) draw their power from the 12V line, however most PSU's on the market are still built around the 5V rail where the Pentium 2-3 processors got their power.

According to Intel a Pentium 4 3.06 GHz processor draws 9.7 amps off the 12V rail itself, if you're using a generic 300-400W PSU that leaves very little room for anything else. You can guess what happens when the processor does not get enough current, mainly hard locks and spontaneous reboots when under heavy load.

PC Power & Cooling employs a detachable 80x80x20mm Nidec BETA SL glass fibre fan which can push 44 CFM of air 35.8 dB of noise. Because both the frame and blades are both glass fibre, the fan weighs much less then a standard 80mm case fan. If in the future it the fan breaks down or starts making a lot of noise being detachable it can be easily replaced.

PC Power & Cooling means business here with their Turbo-Cool 510-PFC, just take a look the RF shielding on the power connector and notice how it's missing on the Enermax. With the PC P & C even the power going into the PSU will be clean!

The inside of the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC is very impressive from the high gauge wires to the massive aluminum heatsinks. With the PSU disassembled, we began to peer into the power supply. Unfortunately the fuse is soldered to a riser PCB off the main circut board, we would have preferred to have the ability to replace it should the fuse blow.

For those enthusiasts/overclockers out there, the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC has adjustable internal pots (potentiometers) so if your voltages are starting to dip too low, take off the cover and adjust them. PC Power & Cooling does offer the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC with external adjustable pots but it's not listed on their website, you'll have to specify that when ordering.

With all the things going for the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC, we're expecting to see some rock solid voltages no matter what we throw in its way. All voltages were read from the BIOS from the motherboard.

PCStats Test System Specs:

Computer Hardware:
Processor:	Pentium 4 2.66B
Clock Speed:	20 x 172 MHz = 3.44 GHz
Motherboards:	AOpen AX4SPE Max
Chipsets:	i865PE
Videocard:	ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
Memory:	2x 256MB Corsair XMS3500 CAS2
Hard Drive:	40GB Maxtor DiamondMAX+
CDROM:	NEC 52x CD-ROM
Floppy:	Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Heatsink:	Swiftech MCW5000-PT
PowerSupply:	PC Power & Cooling 510-PFC
Software Setup	WindowsXP Build 2600 Intel INF 5.00.1012 Catalyst 3.4

Listed Voltages	AMP	Lower Voltage	Upper Voltage	Jitter
+3.3V	30A	3.33V	3.36v	0.03v
+5.0V	40A	5.06v	5.10v	0.04v
+12V	34A	12.00v	12.10v	0.10v
-12V	2.0A	11.99v	12.02v	0.03v
-5.0V	0.3A	4.99V	5.01v	0.02v
+5.0Vsb	3.0A	5.00V	5.00v	0.00v

Those voltages are simply awesome! Please keep in mind these were our values with the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC at stock, we did not tweak the internal pots for higher voltages! With my old Enermax 550W, the 12V rail dips to about 11.45V with the system overclocked and that caused stability problems when running at high speeds.

The performance of the power supply speaks for itself, it's rock solid even with a highly overclocked system. Of course this performance comes at quite a steep price, the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-PFC retails for $255 CDN ($189 US) which makes it the most expensive consumer/desktop PSU on the market.Despite that, it seems their customers are happy as they have an excellent life time rating 9.59 on Reseller Ratings.

A good yard stick to use when measuring manufacture confidence in their own products is warranty. Most power supply manufacturers on the market will only provide a one year warranty, some provide a three, PC Power & Cooling is so confident in their Turbo-Cool 510-PFC that they offer a five year warranty!

The Turbo-Cool 510-PFC is not the prettiest power PSU on the market but then again PC Power & Cooling does not resort to flashy gimmicks like multiple fans or fans with LED's to attract their customers. Rather they rely on the quality of their components to sell their products.

The glass fibre Nidec Beta SL 80mm fan was extremely quiet and you're definitely not going to hear it during operation. For those overclockers out there, if your voltages start to dip below what you'd expect you can adjust them with the internal pots.

The only downer that can be associated with the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC is its high price. Like all things in life though, if you want the best you'll have to be prepared to pay for it.