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Friday, 23 February 2007 |
In a world where video cards are requiring more and more power, it's important to supply them with efficient and clean power to keep everything running smoothly.
| | | Many power supplies these days often over-state their specifications and it's us, the consumer, that takes the hit when our hardware gets punished from an underperforming power supply. Well, Coolermaster are here to change that - with their new Real Power 850W power supply aimed at the enthusiast, Coolermaster hopes to bring efficiency, high power and price within a reasonable range for consumers. | | | | | | Introduction (Real Power 850W) |
| | | Don't be fooled by a no-name power supply boasting 800W, 900W or even 1kw of power - these often supply unclean and unstable power and rarely get close to their advertised wattage. Coolermaster isn't one of those companies, with their reliable power supplies in the past we put their new Real Power brand to the test and find out just how it shapes up on todays modern machines. | | | | | | | | | | Product Details & Specifications (Real Power 850W) |
| | | Product Name: "Real Power Pro 850W "
Product Manufacturer: Coolermaster (Coolermaster Homepage)
Manufacturers Description: In the constant battle to keep your computer on par with the newest games and graphics, you would need an equally impressive Power Supply to keep up with the high demand. Cooler Master has just the power supply to meet all your outrageous demands. A powerful and beastly machine with the highest efficiency and stability out on the market, the 850W Real Power Pro is your one and only choice.
Dimensions: 150(W) x 180(L) x 86(H) (mm)
Noise Level: 28.0dBa | | | | | | | | | | | Lab Test System Specifications (Real Power 850W) |
| | | CPU: Intel Pentium D 920 2.8Ghz
Motherboard: eVGA 680i
Memory: 2GB Corsair XMS2-Pro DDR2-5400
Video Card 1: PNY XLR8 8800GTX
Video Card 2: PNY XLR8 8800GTX
Power Supply: Coolermaster Real Power 850W | | | | | | | | | | Initial Testing & Results (Real Power 850W) |
| | | There are a few things to mention before we go onto testing this power supply. Firstly is that it has six, yes six, +12V rails. Providing more than enough power for those dual or quad SLI systems and 2-way server systems. In addition it also has 4 PCI-Express connectors for those cards requiring 2 power connectors or even quad SLI.
We fired up some basic tests and measured the voltage output to ensure stability. Here are our results!
Test 1: SuperPi
- 3.3V Idle: 3.34 Volts
- 5.0V Idle: 4.99 Volts
- 12.0V Idle: 12.07 Volts
- 3.3V Load: 3.32 Volts
- 5.0V Load: 5.009 Volts
- 12.0V Load: 12.10 Volts
Test 2: Prime95
- 3.3V Idle: 3.33 Volts
- 5.0V Idle: 5.01 Volts
- 12.0V Idle: 12.04 Volts
- 3.3V Load: 3.34 Volts
- 5.0V Load: 4.991 Volts
- 12.0V Load: 12.021 Volts | | | | | | | | | | | Extreme Test (Real Power 850W) |
| | | We wanted to push things to the limit with their SLI promise for the G80 series. So, we launched some games that use the SLI configuration and closley monitored the power output.
Test 1: Counter-Strike Source
- 3.3V Load: 3.32 Volts
- 5.0V Load: 4.997 Volts
- 12.0V Load: 11.995 Volts
Test 2: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
- 3.3V Load: 3.294 Volts
- 5.0V Load: 5.013 Volts
- 12.0V Load:12.003 Volts
Test 3: Battlefield 2
- 3.3V Load: 3.31 Volts
- 5.0V Load: 5.022 Volts
- 12.0V Load: 12.04 Volts | | | | | | | | | | | The Conclusion (Real Power 850W) |
| | | Wow. Well, this power supply has more than met my expectations! With the rock solid stability provided at all times it's very impressive. Even when we tax the system hard with a dual 8800GTX SLI game with full load the Coolermaster Real Power 850W doesn't break a sweat and continues to provide a solid supply of power to the required components.
The Real Power 850W is very quiet in terms of noise, not quite as quiet as the Seasonic 500W power supply but much quieter than most standard power supplies today. One thing that should be noted is that the RealPower 850W is different in size than most standard ATX power suppies, coming in approximately 1 inch longer, for exact dimensions see the beginning of this review.
Finally, the fact that all the cables come sleeved with this power supply make managing the plethora of cables painless. Airflow aside, it just looks cool. The Coolermaster RealPower 850W exceeded our expectations on the test bench and for this reason, it gets our Must Have Hardware award.
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