1200W PSU Roundup 2014

Cooler Master V1200 Platinum Review

Manufacturer: Cooler Master
UK price (as reviewed): £198.14 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $299.99 (ex Tax)

Cooler Master is another old hand at the PSU game and it’s not surprising that its V1200 Platinum is a solid product. This fully modular PSU is attractively designed and at 192mm is also one of the smaller models in the test. At 2.2kg, it's the lightest PSU here too. A nice extra is the included ‘hybrid fan controller’, with which you can change the fan operating mode from auto to hybrid, where it will stay off at lower loads. Also impressive is the seven year extended warranty.


The V1200 is cooled by a 135mm temperature controlled fan, which is semi-passive. Cooler Master includes flat cables for Molex and SATA connectors, of which there are nine and 12, respectively. The model takes the crown when it comes to PEG connectors, there are 12 6/8-pin types – frankly we can think of no useful purpose for those, other than a mining rig. All cables are pleasantly long, making installation in large cases a painless affair.

Looking at the test results, Cooler Master delivers good, but not outstanding performance. For an 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU the average efficiency of 90.7 percent is mostly unremarkable and the ripple levels are a bit higher than we would like for this class of product. However, no part of its performance could be considered remotely bad, and operation is fortunately whisper quiet too; we measured just 26 dB(A) at 500 watts load.