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Cooler Master X Silent Edge 1100W review

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We had a bit of fun with the Cooler Master Launches X Silent Edge Platinum 850 in a prior thread but below is the link to the 1100w review.

CM is one of two brands (as in just brands) with in house PSU design teams that I know of. For those of us that have been around a while, CM and other brands like Thermaltake were brands you avoided twenty , fifteen, even ten years ago without doing research. Both have stepped up their game (as has the industry in general) but CM's current catalog is rather performance impressive and Thermaltake relying more on Channel Well and not cutting as many corners has been refreshing in their offerings as well.

As for this unit? They are out of their minds for $400 but hey props to the 15 year warranty (assuming they don't fight each RMA tooth and nail) and quality performance for a passive PSU.



https://hwbusters.com/psus/cooler-master-x-silent-edge-1100w-the-strongest-passive-psu/

The Cooler Master X Silent Edge 1100W is an interesting product. It is the strongest passively cooled PSU available on the market today, thanks to an advanced cooling system with heatpipes that its chassis incorporates. This PSU is entirely made by CM’s team, both design and production and this is impressive, given that it is not as easy as it sounds to design your own PSU platform and also build it. The design is weird, though, to say the least. Given the pair of MCUs that I found at its internals, I expected a semi-digital design, the least, but I found instead analog controllers in every vital circuit. Having the digital controllers in place doesn’t say much if you don’t have the corresponding firmware, and this is CM’s next goal: to fully utilize these controllers. However, from the moment they are not utilized fully in this PSU, they could be omitted, vastly lowering the production cost.


Although the X Silent Edge achieves a top overall score, it feels to me that it is an intermediate stage to something great. Without any doubt, CM needs to work in this field to gain more experience, and this PSU is a stage towards the ultimate goal, which is to release a fully digital PSU. Other experienced OEMs didn’t even manage or simply didn’t want to make this step, but CM did that, and I respect its team for that. Back to the X Silent Edge, it scores top performance in some areas. Still, some performance factors need improvement, including the load regulation on the minor rails, efficiency at light and super-light loads, and especially the 12V rail’s transient response in ATX v3.1 scenarios, which are the toughest ones. Lower vampire power at 230V would be good, too.


During all test sessions, we didn’t encounter any coil whine issues, which are usually a major headache in passive PSUs, where there is no fan noise to cover them. The X Silent Edge performed amazingly well in this section, and since we always need dead silent PSUs for our hemi-anechoic chamber, it will probably replace the ones we currently use. If you are wondering, I didn’t test the PSU at 115V because its max power drops to 850W, which is still higher than everything available in the passive PSU market today. It would be a pain to have graphs of >1000W and 850W units at the same time; it would be like two separate reviews in one, leading to confusion in the end.


The Cooler Master X Silent Edge 1100W is not affordable; it currently costs 400 dollars, while its normal price is $510! The X Silent MAX 1300W, which is not fully passive, is more affordable at $459. The fact is that passive units are typically way more expensive than normal ones because of the technology involved and the RMA risk! CM also made a move that I don’t agree with, providing a crazy-long 15-year warranty to these units. I hope this doesn’t backfire on CM.


The Cooler Master X Silent Edge 1100W is the best-performing passively cooled PSU, meeting eye-to-eye units with active cooling. On top of that, it is by far the strongest passive unit available in today’s market. Yes, it needs further development and improvements in various sectors, and above all, it needs to get rid of all analog controllers and fully exploit its pair of MCUs. Still, I believe I will be wrong if I do NOT give it an editor’s choice. I am very strict with editor choice awards; I only provide this award on special occasions, and this is one of them. I hope CM continues the development of this platform and seriously considers my comments to improve it. It should also drop the ridiculously-long warranty period and provide something more down to earth.
 

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The bigger capacity passive PSU has, the more strange it is. With what is available on the market, so without going in-house solutions (like Monsterlabo), it's hard to cool passively more than 200W of whole system load. And than we loose the point of such unit. Not even counting building fully active system with fans running inaudibly allowing better results. I also wouldn't count popular dust point - there was barely any in my RM1200x Shift after one year of pc being turned on for more time than off and regularly pushed rather enough to turn the fan on. XSE seems something between a halo product and given it's price one low volume, but high margin, aiming all of these devoted fan haters willing to pay whatever just to get "ultimate option" shouting with biggest numbers. And then hoping for no coil whine...
 
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It also had a great promo deal, as CM were giving away a monitor for free with early pre-orders. If I lived in the U.S., I'd have grabbed one in a heartbeat - but for $510, which is surely going to be the price here and in EU, absolutely no way. But I do admire the fully passive route.
 
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15 year warranty.... defensible confidence or a gamble?

Personally not interested in going passive for the higher premiums but it is nice to see CMs tackling the go-passive challenges at the higher end. In specialized work environments where noise is a critical factor, these units definitely have a place.
 
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Look at those 10,000-hour capacitors at 105°C; for each 10°C cooler the life doubles, so let's take 105°C -> 55°C which is five doublings

2^5 x 10,000 hr = 36 years
 
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