Cooler Master V550 Review

Performance Analysis

The all-important 12V rail is perfectly stable across all of our load tests, always staying within 1.5 percent of the ideal value.

Average efficiency is basically the same as the other two 80 PLUS Gold PSUs in the charts, hovering around 90 percent for the most part. Its best performance is at 400W load, where it manages over 91 percent efficiency, and the result of 89.38 percent at full load is very respectable too. Similarly, the V550 maintains good efficiency at low loads, which is important to consider if your system will frequently be idle.


The ripple values are not chart topping but they're still excellent, and the V550 is capable of delivering very clean current even when under full load, where it registers less than 40mVpp – you have nothing to worry about in this department.

The Silencio FP fan lives up to its namesake by remaining nice and quiet, even when the V550 is at full load, although in our testing it didn't switch off at low loads. Still, noise shouldn't be a worry with this PSU either.

Conclusion

The V550 is undoubtedly a good power supply. It delivers solid electrical numbers across the board, comes with fully modular and flat cables and is very well suited to space-limited small form factor builds thanks to its 140mm length. It uses high quality components and is quiet in operation as well.

The problem, however, is the price. With an MSRP of £90, the V550 is extremely expensive for the wattage it offers. Rival PSUs, like the EVGA SuperNova 550W, for example, offer the 80 PLUS Gold rating and full modularity for as low as £60. Alternatively, for the same cash, you could step up to the awesome Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W (though note its 200mm length) or, if space is truly at a premium, stretch your budget a bit further a nab the SFX SilverStone SX600-G. As we said, the V550 is a decent product, hence its high score, but in the context of the wider market it's too difficult to recommend if the MSRP holds true, so it misses out on an award.