PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 PSU review
Almost a half year ago I published a review of the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 power supply and today I'm taking a look at the 610W model. The Silencer 610 is less expensive and features a single powerful 49A +12V line, that's 11A less than the +12V rail of the Silencer 750.The Silencer lineup features a 750W, 610W, 470W, and 360W model. Soon we can also expect a 500W Silencer, that model was presented at CES 2008 in Las Vegas this week.
As most of you know by now PC Power & Cooling was acquired by OCZ last year. The PSU was shipped to me in PC Power & Cooling's typical package. Nothing fancy here, just a regular cardboard box with some text printed on it:
All the contents were well protected by bubble wrap.
Update 11 February, 2008: OCZ is now shipping the Silencer PSUs in a new retail box. They also informed us that the Silencer series received 80+ certification, meaning that all Silencer units have an efficiency of over 80%.
Inside the box is the PSU, a bag with screws, a power cable and a very short manual. The power cord shipped with this PSU is a 6' (180cm) long 18AWG UL cord that can be used with power supplies up to 650W.
Lets take a look at the features and specifications of the PCP&C Silencer 610:
610W Continuous @ 40C (670W Peak) Up to 90% (10dB) Less Noise per Watt EPS12V / NVIDIA® SLI Certified 80+ Certified (83%); .99 Active PFC +12VDC @ 49A (Large Single Rail) 24-pin, 8-pin, 4-pin M/B Connectors 2 PCI-E and 15 Drive Connectors Automatic Fan Speed Control Circuit Black Finish (Copper on request) 5-Year Warranty and Tech Support
The PSU has a matte-black finish and features some stickers, including one that notifies you that this product passed NVIDIA's SLI certification. Compared to other PSUs targeted at gamers or enthusiasts this unit looks rather boring.
Just like the other Silencer power supplies this model is cooled by a single 80mm fan. PC Power & Cooling claims a single 80mm fan is more efficient and less noisy than a top-mounted 120mm fan under PSU loads of over 50-60%. The fan used in the Silencer 610 is temperature-controlled and has an airflow level of 22 to 55 CFM. Depending on its RPM the fan has a noise level of 26 to 38dBA.
The right side has no vents but the left side has a couple.
And on the rear of the unit are lots of vents to suck cool air into the PSU.
The top features a sticker with the max output of each rail. There's 24A on the +3.3V line, 30A on the +5V line, 49A on the +12V line, 0.8A on the -12V line and 3A on the +5VSB line. Unlike cheap 600W power supplies you can be sure that this PSU can continuously output 610W, it can even bear peaks of 670W.
One of the things many people dislike about the PC Power & Cooling power supplies is that they aren't modular. This is a feature that many enthusiasts love as it makes cable management easier and seriously reduces cable clutter.
However, PC Power & Cooling sticks with their philosophy that modular plugs are a bad thing so probably we won't see modular PSUs from PC Power anytime soon. The firm claims modular cables reduce overall performance and reliability. On their PSU myths page, the firm says modular plugs can cause a voltage drop as big as would occur in 2 feet of standard wire.
Added: January 8th 2008
Product reviewed: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 PSU
Reviewer: Thomas De Maesschalck
Score: 9/10
Page: 1/4