PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W Quad CF

[W1zzard]

PC Power and Cooling is without doubt one of the best power supply manufacturers out there. Recently they have been bought by OCZ and we are now seeing the first products which are geared for the masses. The Silencer 750W Quad CF comes with an ATI CrossFire certification and boasts four PCI-E power connectors. In our testing we saw excellent regulation qualities and very high efficiency of up to 82%.

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[OnBoard]

The name "Silencer" suggests that this is a very quiet PSU that has been designed to reduce the annoying fan noise. Even though the differences are small, the PCP&C Silencer 750W is the quietest PSU we tested so far, when considering both idle and loaded noise levels. However, it is still not "quiet" or "silent", you can definitely hear the fan spinning and I fail to understand why no single manufacturer can run their fan at extremely slow speeds with the high efficiency ratings of modern PSUs.

Maybe the new Zalman ZM750-HP can do it?
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=322&code=015

At least my 600w version is silent, but my system isn't pushing it to the limits (and I have too much fans to know for sure, might just remove a couple now that it's getting colder)

 

[Weer]

The most effective PSU cooling would be to have the fan intaking air, not exhausting it.

 

[mcloughj]

psu noise is one of the most annoying things about my setups. And despite claims of silence or quietness you can always hear the damned things. I suppose the solution would be a well ventilated case with a passive psu, but i'm not that brave!

 

[mcloughj]

Maybe the new Zalman ZM750-HP can do it?
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=322&code=015

At least my 600w version is silent, but my system isn't pushing it to the limits (and I have too much fans to know for sure, might just remove a couple now that it's getting colder)

I know this will seem like an odd question but is it really silent? and was it worth the price?

 

[W1zzard]

Maybe the new Zalman ZM750-HP can do it?
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=322&code=015

At least my 600w version is silent, but my system isn't pushing it to the limits (and I have too much fans to know for sure, might just remove a couple now that it's getting colder)

i got the zm850-hp here, its the next psu review

 

[Weer]

W1zzard, you should explain the benefits of having a single +12v rail.

 

[Robert_GameXpert]

Well I have the 750CF, had it for a couple of weeks now and I love it. looks amazing, performs excellent and it is really quiet. My case fans are actually noisier, and when I am gaming and things heat up, I still cannot hear the fan. Voltage are very stable and it has really made my PC (with a window) look so much better.
Great review of the PSU- it is without doubt one of the best PSU's on the market and thoroughly deserves 9.6.

 

[Sasqui]

"PC Power & Cooling does not make any modular PSUs because they see no reason to build a unit that performs less well just for a little bit of extra convenience."

Thats a bummer - that "little" convenience is big - in aesthetics, maintenance, and building. Quite a unit though.

 

[Robert_GameXpert]

In aesthetics, the unit looks great regardless, maintenance? I don't particularly see how some extra cables would make for more difficult maintenance really, and building is a sinch with this - I just tied up the cables with the supplied band and stowed them in the bottom chamber of my Antec 900. Yes it is quite a unit, but it is true that a modular setup would look slightly neater, but it is down to peoples own tastes I guess - youre PSU is one of the better modular units out there in my opinion anyway

 

[Sasqui]

In aesthetics, the unit looks great regardless, maintenance? I don't particularly see how some extra cables would make for more difficult maintenance really, and building is a sinch with this - I just tied up the cables with the supplied band and stowed them in the bottom chamber of my Antec 900. Yes it is quite a unit, but it is true that a modular setup would look slightly neater, but it is down to peoples own tastes I guess - youre PSU is one of the better modular units out there in my opinion anyway

Done builds with and without, I recall my first one with modular for a friend (we all remember our first, right?). The sweetest part of that was having 2 leftover cables and one of the cleanest looking builds I've ever put together - and it was easy, planning and routing cable by cable, topped off with cable ties. It's just frustrating to deal with cables and connectors that are superfluous - sorting out a huge bundle with some you'll use and some you need to "stuff" smewhere.

And as far as aesthetics, sheathing does the most! I do like the hiper, but the damn extension cables in thier modular system really do suck - the are a molex piggyback type, probably the weakest link in the chain.

 

[OnBoard]

i got the zm850-hp here, its the next psu review

Nice, can't wait! Will be interesting to see how it compares to others. I somehow trust your testing more than some random reviews out there =) Will be also interesting to see what you say about the heat pipe and is it the same one as in this, that could probably use wider fin space, but seems to work like this too.

 

[OnBoard]

I know this will seem like an odd question but is it really silent? and was it worth the price?

Well it was just under 100€ and corsair's HX520W was the same price here, so yes it's worth the price I was going for ZM500-HP as first, but it was just 10€ cheaper than this 600w version, so not really a hard decision.

Has been silent so far, the fan speed turns up depending on load not temperature and like I said my system is not pushing it to the limits. Found this little diagram to give you and idea

"In the ZM600-HP the fan started out from 1000rpm and stopped at 1600rpm."
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/other/atx-psu7/11gr5.png

Just opened side panel and touched the side of the PSU and it's almost cold to touch Back end is "warm" as the heatpipethingy is there, but barely any air comes out, so I'm quessing it's going that 1000rpm now.

I'll go take couple 40mm 5V fans out (they were sucking out GPU hot air trough the card slots for summer) and turn VF900 to 5V. Then I'll spin the atitool cube and burn cores with Intel TAT and listen if I hear the PSU

EDIT: so did some load testing and couldn't hear a thing from the PSU. TAT with 100% on another core and atitool cube spinning for 10min. Both cores with TAT and there wasn't enough CPU power left to spin the cube more than 25FPS

Bare in mind I have 3x80mm 17db 1600rpm and 2x92mm 19db 1600rpm (one is cpu cooler) running in the system, but all fan noise is low hum and not irritating. If you have only 1 system fan and a silent cpu cooler you might hear something. Though that systems airflow is so low (my case fans are combined 52CFM in and 60CFM out) that I doubt it will be used for high end gaming rig and PSU won't be pushed anywhere near the limit and it will still be silent

Hope this answered your question

 

[HAL7000]

W1zzard, you should explain the benefits of having a single +12v rail.

Weer, I couldn't agree with you more...at PC Power&Cooling's website they explain the benefits of the single rail.
IMO a single rail is so much better than a dual, it avoids overloading one rail more than the other. why do you think OCZ bought this company out....a great PSU.....

I have the same one (copper color though) in my system now and never had any issues at all.

As for modular, I am glad they don't build them. Again on there website they explain the myths of the power supply.

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/myths/

It makes good reading.

 

[W1zzard]

Weer, I couldn't agree with you more...at PC Power&Cooling's website they explain the benefits of the single rail.
IMO a single rail is so much better than a dual, it avoids overloading one rail more than the other. why do you think OCZ bought this company out....a great PSU.....

I have the same one (copper color though) in my system now and never had any issues at all.

As for modular, I am glad they don't build them. Again on there website they explain the myths of the power supply.

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/myths/

It makes good reading.

even though it gives some good info, it still is marketing material posted by a company for their own products

 

[mcloughj]

Hope this answered your question

It sure did! i might give it a close look when I'm ordering stuff next!

 

[HAL7000]

even though it gives some good info, it still is marketing material posted by a company for their own products

I understand completely, but the information that they bring to the table makes good sense. Before I used PC P&C PSU's I was using FSP and Silverstone for my personal computers. A while back, I stumbled on their product via a review, visited their site, read their myth buster, searched other sites and gathered opinions around the net and work....came to the conclusion, that in todays world, with power hungry systems a single raid is far superior than a dual or quad rail system, IMO.
Overloading a dual or quad rail psu is far easier in todays world than a single rail. With my next system build, I plan on overclocking more than I ever have, (esp. after joining TPU and listening to everyones advice). So with a single rail power supply my chances of overloading the single rail is less than if I was using a dual or quad rail psu. I find that my system stability is more evident with the clean uninterrupted power of my PC P&C psu. This also makes sense why they don't make a modular psu's either.
All I suggested is that it made for a interesting read. Now that OCZ owns them I will wait to see how they market this product and how it may change. Time will tell.