Technical data …
The basic weight of the CM Silent Pro M500 is approx. 2 kg (shipping weight approx. 3 kg) and the overall size is about 150x150x85mm.
The technical data of the 500 Watt power supply can be checked of course at any time on the attached label, whereby the M500 lable can’t be read on the usual side, when the PSU is installed. The Coolermaster Silent Pro M500 S-500-AMBA-D3 provides following voltage levels and amperages: +3.3V 20A ; +5V 20A ; +12V 34A -12V 0.50A ; +5VSB 2.5A
All voltages could be tested on different loads also with external measurements very well and pointed to a good technical conversion of the switched power supply. The combined total output values should not exceed the following ratings: At +3.3V and +5.0V up to 145 Watt, +12V up to 408 Watt and total consumption of all power lines should not exceed 500 Watt (continuous operation according to manufacturer with maximum load and up to 620 Watt peek).
These are manufacturer values, which one should not exceed, to avoid overloading and too high heat development. Apropos overloading – of course the PSU offers also all kinds of short-circuit-, overcurrent-, output- and input power protection, (OCP, SCP, OVP, OPP, OLP, OTP) which was tested successfully in the test attempt. Nevertheless one should avoid any installation failures, because under certain conditions it is possible to destroy the PSU, or other parts of the PC (up to a fire by e.g. cable fire with loose or wrong connections).
Furthermore, the power supply has an active PFC (Power Factor Correction) for the reduction of the reactive power, the EMV noise and improvement of the efficiency. Meanwhile at least the more inexpensive less efficient and bigger passive PFC (upstream throttle) is legally prescribed. So also here the company Cooler Master saved by no means and offers a power pack with 80PLUS certification, which has a .90 PFC.
Own measurements of the test system with ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard, AMD Phenom II 710 X3 CPU, 4GB DDR3-1333 memory, hard disk and ATI Radeon HD4870 PCI-E 2.0 video card resulted in an idle value of 140 Watt and a maximum value with full system load of 229 Watt. Switched off in the S5 mode, the test system with the Silent Pro M500 power supply needed max. 6 Watt. Above all the idle value of 140W with small load is thereby a little bit above the value of previously tested Cougar SX-700 power supply with higher total power – approx. 137 Watt. More power supply reviews will published here.
The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of the power supply is according to the manufacturer with 40°C about 100,000 hours, which distinguishes finally the reliability of the power supply, this time between 2 possible errors is enormously good.
For the high durability contributes also the high-quality Japanese 105 °C capacitors and also the 135mm fan. The 135mm fan reached thanks to temperature control an optimal adjustment of the volume for necessary cooling and it is nearly impossible to hear the fan with medium PSU load. So the CM Silent Pro M500 live up to its name.
Layout, Design and Features of the Cooler Master 500 Watt power supply unit …