| Reviews about the Turbo-Cool 510 AG |  |
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PC Power and Cooling 510W Deluxe Power Supply Company: PC Power and Cooling
Turbo Cool 510 ATX With a Twist: PC Power and Cooling is known for their excellent power supplies. You may have see them featured in magazines such as Maximum PC. Over the years Maximum PC has what they call their "Dream Machine of the Year" and it features all of the hottest hardware available. For the last 5 years they have chosen PC Power and Cooling power supplies as their top pick for the "Dream Machine" because they are of the highest quality, reliable, and come with a nice warranty. You will not see many of these PSU's in the average machine and even some of the high end machines. This is do to a hefty price tag, close to $200 per unit. Many people probably think that this is overpriced but the price comes from the quality components used to produce these power supplies. PC Power and Cooling uses much larger heatsinks, capacitors, and other components when compared to other brands. The last power supply we reviewed from PC power and Cooling was their Turbo Cool 510 ATX. Since then, they have released the 510 ATX Deluxe, which has a few new features such as serial ATA power connectors, expandable and flexible tubing for the cables, and adjustable potentiometers that are accessible from the exterior of the casing. Turbo Cool 510 ATX Deluxe Specifications:
Examining the Turbo Cool 510 ATX Deluxe Exterior:
The Turbo Cool 510 ATX Deluxe comes packaged with an AC power cable and four screws for mounting the power supply in a case. Unlike the previous power supplies we have reviewed from PC Power and Cooling, the 510 Deluxe comes with a on/off power switch. It is much easier to use rather than pulling the power cable out every time you need to power down. The fan used to cool the unit is a Nidec BETA SL. The maximum amount of air the fan can move is 44 CFM and has a sound rating of 34dB. That is louder than most users would care for, but you can have PC Power and Cooling replace the fan with one that produces less noise. The Nidec BETA SL is the only fan cooling the entire unit. The 510 Deluxe does not need more fans because the front of the power supply is similar to a mesh screen. There are small holes that allow air to pass through. In addition, as we will show you next, the unit has some massive heatsinks that aid in cooling.
The 510 Deluxe provides seven (7) 4-pin drive connectors, one (1) floppy connector, two (2) SATA power connectors, a 20-pin ATX connector, and a 4-pin 12V connector. There are enough to cables to suit most of the systems out there but there will probably be a few users who have tons of lights, fans, drives, and other components. They will have to use adapters if they need more connections than what is included. We are really pleased to see the addition of the serial ATA power connectors. These are nice because some drives and/or motherboards do not come with the power cables. Also, using the SATA power adapters takes up an extra 4-pin drive connector leaving less for the rest of the system. The major difference between the Deluxe and non-deluxe is that most of the cables are covered with braided wire harnesses. This allows for a much cleaner look as well as keeping the birds nest of cables under control. Some of the ends of the cables are not wrapped, because they are much shorter thus not needing the tubing. At the end of the wrapped tubing, heat shrink tubing is used to make sure the braids do not slip.
Examining The Turbo Cool 510 ATX Deluxe Interior:
Taking a look at the inside of this power supply gives more insight on why it costs so much and performs so well. You can see that the 510 Deluxe uses a massive heatsink, heavy duty capacitors, a heavy duty transformer, and many other high end components. All of these aid in providing better power, cooler operation, and extended lifetime. If you were to open up some of the other "500W" power supplies, you'll notice that they do not use as high a quality of parts and they also weigh much less. Perhaps, you have read articles about choosing power supplies and the author talks about the weight being a decent judge of how well the PSU in constructed. We agree that weight isn't the best way to determine if a power supply is good but it can give you an idea of what kinds of materials are inside. The other feature, the one the overclockers like most, are the adjustable potentiometers. These allow for the individual tweaking of the 5V, 12V, and 3.3V lines. Generally speaking, PC P&C do not have low rails but some motherboards have bad power regulators and do not supply the proper voltages to the rest of the system. Low rails can result in system instability at stock speeds and the issue becomes worse when trying to overclock a system. So it is easy to see why this can be such an important feature.
The retail version has the pots inside of the PSU and there are also wholes cut into the top of the casing to allow for easier adjustments. Our review unit has external potentiometers though, which can be custom ordered from PC Power and Cooling at an extra cost. These pots are not extremely sensitive so that you will not accidentally over-volt any of the rails, but you do not have to turn them a lot to get the rails to move either. These external pots are great for adjusting voltages on the fly, especially in extreme applications. Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe Test Setup:
For our testing procedure we take direct readings off the 20-pin ATX connector that goes to the motherboard. We find that using this method is the most accurate way to monitor the voltages coming directly off the power supply. For more information on why we test this way, please read this article. Two sets of readings are taken. One set is taken at idle, which we simulate by letting the computer sit at the desktop while not running any applications. The other set of readings are taken at full load, which is simulated by running Prime 95. We monitor the voltages and check for fluctuations as well.
Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe Test Results:
Excellent results here with the 510W Deluxe. We are not surprised by the performance of this power supply considering all the ones that we have reviewed from PC Power and Cooling have all done very well. You can see that there is almost no change in the voltages from idle to load. Less than 1% variance was recorded on all the rails with the 12V not showing any change. Testing out the potentiometers, we turned them a bit to see how sensitive they are and they are just right. They require enough turning so that any change in voltages will be intentional and not just a slip of the finger. As we stated earlier, even though the power supply performs well, the actual voltages from the board may be very different due to design and power regulators (mosfets). This is where the pots would really come handy. The fan cooling the unit does move quite a bit of air and for some users, it could be too loud. It is all a matter of preference and how much the consumer can tolerate. Personally, we do not think the noise level was high but our MAX3 motherboard has OTES and an active northbridge cooler making it difficult to determine the added noise from the PSU. Conclusions: The PC Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe is a very nice power supply with plenty of features. The addition of the on/off switch, serial ATA power cables, and the wrapped tubing is just the icing on the cake. The performance of the unit is what one would expect for $230, well for almost anyone. We have tested quite a few power supplies in the past and PC Power and Cooling has always been one of the top performers. The main issue with most consumers is going to be the price, which is going to depend on the buyer. If you have the money to shell out and want the best, then we can highly recommend this power supply. Keep in mind that the 510 Deluxe is backed with a 5 year warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee including freight. Most of the PSU's that we review do not come with warranties much over a year. Just think of it as a long term investment. For users who are not that picky about power supplies, then you might want to look into a different model or brand. We always like to say that the PSU is one of the most overlooked components in a system, but also one of the most important, especially for overclockers and people who need a reliable system 24/7(servers). The Good:
The Bad:
Overall: 9.5/10
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