PC Power & Cooling 1KW PSU Review

Have two video cards, two optical drives, three hard drives and a plethora of other components in your PC? If so, you might wonder if your PSU is struggling. Well, there’s certainly no struggling for PC Power & Cooling’s Turbo-Cooling 1KW. Check out our review of this powerful beast!

Introduction

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Many of you read last month’s review of the Antec True Control II 550W power supply. And last month we saw that the Antec PSU could not keep my system up when running F.E.A.R. on my power-hungry system. I have searched the web and found many end users running SLI complaining that their systems are shutting down when running F.E.A.R. NVIDIA has stated that the game makes the video cards pull as much power as they can with all the detail and effects in the game.

So I ended that review telling you that I would tell you what I did to solve the problem. Well, the solution was getting a PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW power supply (yeah, you read that right; 1KW = 1,000 watts). When the shipping box arrived, I was amazed at the size and weight of the box. Opening the box, I found a power supply that was very long and has a lot of weight to it. My next worry was whether or not it would fit in my Lian-Li V1200 case. Well, it did fit, but it was tight.

Features & Specifications

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Features

• 1KW Continuous (1.1KW Peak) @ 50°C
• Fits Std. ATX Cases (20” min. depth)
• +12VDC Rails Total 66A (70A Peak)
• High Efficiency with .99 Power Factor
• Ultra-Tight Regulation (+VDC @ 1%)
• Amazingly Quiet Cooling System
• Complete Array of Output Connectors
• EPS12V, SLI, and SSI Compatibility
• 5-Year Warranty; Unbeatable Support

Specifications

AC Input
Operating Range:	90-264 VAC .99 power factor auto-select
Frequency:	47-63Hz
Current:	15A @ 115V
Efficiency:	85%
EMI:	FCC-B, CE
DC Output
Output:	+5V @ 30A +12V1 @ 16A +12V2 @ 16A +12V3@ 36A +12V1,V2,V3 = 66A (70A pk.) -12V @ 0.8A +3.3V @ 30A +5VSB @ 3.5A continuous = 1000W peak = 1100W
Regulation:	1% (+3.3V, +5V, +12V) 5% (-12V)
Ripple:	1% (p-p)
Hold Time:	21ms
PG Delay:	300ms
Safety
OV Protection:	+3.3V, +5V, +12V
OC Protection:	+3.3V, +5V, ±12V
Agency Approval:	UL/ULC/CE/TUV
Environmental
Temperature:	0° – 50°C
Humidity:	10% – 90% RH
Fan Type:	30 – 52 CFM ball-bearing
Noise:	32 – 40dB(A)
Miscellaneous
Compatibility:	SLI, EPS12V, SSI
M/B Connectors:	24-pin, 8-pin, dual 6-pin video See Diagram
Drive Connectors:	15 (6 SATA, 8 Molex, 1 mini)
MTBF:	100,000 hours
M/B Compatibility:	See List
Dimensions/Harness:	See Diagram
Warranty:	5 Years

Testing

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PC Power and Cooling always points out to me that they test their power supplies in up to 50C environments. Well, I could not and did not want to run my house temperature up to 122F, but I did run it up to 85F for testing. I cannot think of many people that would keep the inside of there house that warm. For testing, I ran 3DMark05 for two hours with the CPU test also to get the machine nice and hot. During this time, I took readings off my voltmeter about every 10-15 minutes. Below are my results.

The test machine is listed below.

• Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
• AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
• 2GB Corsair 3500LL PRO
• 3 x 250GB Maxtor Diamond 10 in RAID 5
• DVD ROM
• DVD+/-RW DL
• PC Power & Cooling 1kW PSU
• Creative X-Fi Platinum Sound Card
• 2 x Reference 7800 GTX 512
• Windows XP SP2
• ForceWare 81.98 and DirectX 9.0c

And here are my test results.

RESULTS (V)
	+12V	+5V	+3.3V
Idle	12.22	5.00	3.28
Low	12.16	4.97	3.28
High	12.22	5.00	3.31

As we can see, the power supply maintained voltages within what we would expect of a good power supply. As with the last power supply I tested in this machine, I ran Quake 4, Pacific Fighters, Battlefield 2 all with out problem. Then we came to the big test — F.E.A.R. I played the game for over two hours in 85F heat in my house and not a single shut down or stutter.

Conclusion

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Well, I am very impressed with the PC Power and Cooling Tubo-Cool 1KW power supply. It held up to high heat testing and even stayed on running F.E.A.R in what I would call extreme heat in my house.

The Turbo-Cool 1KW is listed at $489 on PC Power and Cooling’s web site. That’s big money for big power.  If you are going to spend over $1200.00 on video cards, I would highly suggest  that you get a Turbo-Cool 1KW.

 

Pros:

+ A very stable power supply
+ Fan did not get that loud even with high heat testing
+ Should handle anything you can throw at it

Cons:

– Long (check length before ordering to make sure it will fit in your case)
– A little pricey, but hey when you spend $2,000-3000 on a high-end computer, you should have a great power supply.

Final Score: 9.5 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award