Cooler Master 650W Real Power Pro

Author:  Jason Dumbaugh Date:  2007.06.25 Topic:  Peripherals Provider:  Cooler Master Manufacturer:  Cooler Master

For years, Cooler Master has been a trusted manufacturer of excellent quality cases, fans, and power supplies. This image has proven true with their new 650W Real Power Pro, which promises "bead core protection from PCI-e connectors, worry-free power failure detector and an over 80% efficiency rating." Whether it's the gloss black finish, the totally vented back, the overload indicator LED, or the Chrome Cooler Master logo on the fan, this is clearly a beautiful power supply. I might add I was impressed with the professionalism expressed in the box it came in as well. I almost didn't want to open it because I stared at the box for a good 20 minutes. This review will cover the packaging, specifications, and power statistics of the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 650W ATX power supply.

Rear view	Side View	Top View

Packaging:

Connectors:

The Real Power Pro 650W comes with: 1 x 24-pin power connector 1 x 4-pin CPU power connector 1 x 8-pin P3 connector 2 x 6-pin PCI-E connectors 6 x Molex power connectors 6 x SATA power connectors

Features:

(from coolermaster.com)
1.Eco-design for energy and money saving by Active PFC. (>0.99) / High Efficiency (>80%)
2.Ultra-silent operation with intelligent 120mm fan speed controller makes superb heat dissipation at low noise (17 dBA)
3.Compliance with the newest Intel standard ATX 12V V 2.2
4.Compliance with the newest SSI standard EPS 12V V2.91
5.PCI-e connector with bead core protection to minimize EMI for reducing noises.
6.Worry-free Power Failure Detector will light up when Over-Voltage, Under-Voltage, Over-Temperature, Over-Current, Over-Loading, and Short circuit occur.
7. Three Year Warranty

Comparison to other Cooler Master Models:
(note: all are SLI ready and have 120mm fans)

(click to enlarge)

Specifications:

Thermal Design:

The Real Power Pro 650 uses a single 120mm fan which proved to not only cool the power supply well but also run nearly silent.

Cooler Master has really put a lot of thought into the cooling and layout of this power supply which includes a thermo couple which senses heatsink temperature and dynamically throttles the fan to compensate for heat. We checked the PSU several times and as we mentioned it not only ran cool but also dead silent.

Testing Voltages:

We used a machine with a relatively high power draw to test this power supply. Our machine was configured as follows:

Dual Socket Dual Core Opteron 2220
4GB DDR2 ECC Ram
SAS Cannister Array with 6 Seagate Drives in a Raid 0
Western Digital 74GB Raptor SATA Drive
Tyan S2927 Motherboard
EVGA 7900GS Video Card

As you can see this configuration would not be kind to most power supplies. Does drawing this much current bring down the 650 Real Power Pro? Did the power requirements cause ripples in current or unsteady voltages? Judge for yourself.

Molex:

Although the shut down voltage was a bit high, it's still not high enough to worry about. Had it been 12.25V or so, we would have worried. The power supply was completely solid once booted into windows, and didn't even flinch when we torture tested it in Prime95 on a dual-core, dual socket AMD Opteron server. The 650 Real Power Pro from Cooler Master performed almost flawlessly under strenuous power draw for more than 24 hours without any issues and remained cool the entire time.

Wall Voltages:

0.98A	115W	119VA

59.9Hz	0.96PF

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
Ultra silent fan
constant high power output
overload indicators
many different connectors
great price

Cons:
hard to find (the 850W is available everywhere)

Conclusion:

The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 650W is a fantastic Power Supply for the money. If you can find one, get it. The 850W is available almost everywhere I've checked for an MSRP of $250. This is definitely one of the most impressive power supplies I've seen, and would recommend it to anyone.