Cooler Master Real Power M1000 PSU Review

Page 3 - Tests

Test system

The computer we tested Cooler Master Real Power 1000W with, is the best available to us, being at the same time one of the most powerful and not so mainstream gaming machines.

• Motherboard: ASUS M4AT79 Deluxe
• processor: AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition
• Video cards: 2 x HD 4890 DDR5 1GB Sapphire
• Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair
• Hard drive 1: Western Digital Velocity Raptor 10 000 RPM 150GB
• Hard drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 7200RPM 300GB
• Optical drive: Optical ASUS DVD+/-RW 20x
• Cooler: 4 case fans

PSU's tested and compared

• In Win Commander 750W
• Hipro 580W
• Seventeam ST-750P-AF
• Raptoxx Exxtreme Series RT-EBAD1200 1200W

Testing methodology

Tests for PSU voltages in idle and under load modes were made with the above mentioned configuration. Later we decided to run tests for energy efficiency with few more PSU's, in which test we would measure the amount of power consumed from the system while performing the exactly same operations with the exactly same hardware but with different PSU. That would show with great preciseness the difference in effectiveness of the "80+" models that were in the ModReactor lab.

For the tests we used a good multimeter. We measured the power consumed with a plain home Power Meter, that can be obtained anywhere for about 12$ - 20$ and has accuracy of +/- 1W, which is quite acceptable.

Results

The voltages of Cooler Master Real Power 1000W were just right. It has near perfect, stable +5V line, stable and also close to ideal +12 and +3.3 lines, still not as good as the best we've seen (with our old friend Raptoxx).

Now let's see how much power does Cooler Master Real Power 1000W consume.

At lower consumption Cooler Master Real Power 1000W Е is the best, but it is a high-end PSU after all. At any other load it shows equal or lower results than the rest of the pack. The "green" statements of the manufactures are true as it seems.

Random thoughts

Cooler Master Real Power 1000W has six 12V lines, that is quite of advantage according to the manufacturer. A tad odd statement, but then again this is a 1000W PSU, there is a lot of current to go around.

And now time to talk about the Real Power part. Cooler Master decided to be frank with their customers and had marked their products with real ratings, i.e. М1000 means that the stated 1000W are in no way a peak value that can be supported for 15 minutes only, not at all, the PSU can indeed run at 1000W load indefinitely.

As for the connectors length - it is as it should for a PSU of such class. We have everything we need at the places we need it. The only thing we didn't like are the two CPU power cables – Really, fellows...

As you might have noticed the back of the PSU is missing something we're very found of. That's right, there is no power switch, odd really, we can think of only one reason for that – Cooler Master are so confident in their protections, they thought its presence is unnecessary. Well, yeah, you can but still... it feels kind of awkward.

And speaking of protection, let us share some of our experience with them. Turns out Real Power M1000 has VERY serious protection. During testing, one Core i7 system was for no apparent reasons refusing to power up, while everything was apparently alright it just wouldn't boot. So we tried exchanging PSUs. By the time we unplugged the Raptoxx, a rather substantial smoke cloud was urging us to leg it to the nearest window. Most probably the faulty motherboard is to be blamed (since it died), still Cooler Master Real Power proved beyond any doubt its reliability. We should have trusted it.