Computex 2008: Pre-show products

Cooler Master UCP PSUs

We met with Cooler Master's lead PSU designer, who seemed as completely enthused as ever about his products. Understandably so, as his products have just been the first to receive the Silver Award in the 80Plus certification program.

He was happy to demonstrate on one of the many units sitting around that they would easily hit more than 86 percent efficiency, using the exact same techniques and equipment we use in our tests (which was a satisfying surprise).

We went through all the details of the new 900W UCP unit, during which time he said Cooler Master was already designing a unit that was over 90 percent efficient, but currently the materials needed to make it were three times the price of the 86 percent - it was just not feasible yet.


Like we reported back at CeBIT, Cooler Master will now focus on a single AC-12V DC conversion, then DC-DC conversion for 3.3V and 5V which increases efficiency. The single 12V rail is then split into four and iron coils were added over each rail inside the PSU to reduce ripple.

The 3.3V and 5V converters also use separate daughterboard PCBs within the PSU and get solid aluminium capacitors specifically for them, while the other larger 85˚C capacitors were provided by Japanese manufacturer Hitachi (he explained that the three month lead time while Hitachi burn-in tested for the application was necessary, but quite frustrating).

The heatsinks and large coils are all focused so the air flows out towards the back, and the space between the large 85˚C capacitors and heatsinks is "that much larger than other PSUs" to keep them cooler. While the rails are rated at 22-25A each, we were told there is about a 130 percent tolerance so you can hit over 30 Amps without stressing them. Cooler Master said it decided to play it very safe because of component tolerance variation (and we suspect because it also wants to pursue a certain level of very high reliability and to live out its five year warranty).


On the whole, we were very impressed - the modular cables look particularly good for the units that offer them, although some of the connector choices could be better in our opinion. The lower wattage (we were shown at 700W) models also feature the same DC-DC conversion and high efficiency factor too, so depending on price Cooler Master could be positioning itself as a serious competitor to the rest of the industry.