Specifications

As has already been stated, efficiency is 80 PLUS Gold, and this unit is fully modular, Haswell ready, and capable of delivering its full power continuously at up to 40 °C, while the ATX specification recommends a threshold of 50 °C or more. All necessary protections are include, even OTP, which is nice to see since it is very important in PSUs. Cooler Master also used a new fan with an LDB bearing, which looks to be identical to an FDB bearing. This Silencio fan is quiet and will last for quite a while. Its inclusion is a major difference to the older VSM units that used double-ball bearing fans instead.

These new V units don't feature a semi-passive mode even though it is becoming a more and more prevalent feature lately. This isn't necessarily bad as long as the fan spins at low speeds at light loads. We actually prefer to have the fan spin at low speeds at light loads rather than not at all, which puts some stress on such sensitive parts as electrolytic caps. At only 14 cm deep, the V650 is incredibly compact, and it weighs very little. At five years, its warranty is also long enough, but it is expensive, which puts it up against some tough competitors.


The single +12V rail can deliver the PSU's full power on its own, which is typical of modern PSUs that use VRMs to generate the minor rails. Speaking of the latter, these can provide enough juice to feed every modern system a 650 W PSU could cover. The 5VSB rail is as strong as in most PSUs nowadays.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

Compared to the V550, the V650 has two additional SATA and three additional 4-pin Molex connectors. We would prefer it if Cooler Master were to ditch these additional peripheral connectors for two more PCIe and another EPS connector. This PSU is strong enough to feed two high-end NVIDIA VGAs, and it is a great shame that it only has a PCIe cable with two connectors. Most high-end mainboards also feature an additional 12V socket aside from the standard EPS socket, and we are against the use of 4-pin Molex adapters to increase the number of EPS and ATX12V connectors.

The cables are long enough, as is the distance between connectors, although the 4-pin Molex connectors could afford to be a bit further apart to avoid compatibility issues. Every connector uses 18AWG gauges, which is as the ATX specification recommends.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to talk about when it comes to its power distribution.