The Power Supply

As is obvious from the specifications and the images, the PSU is longer than your standard ATX supply at 180 mm. We have seen plenty of high efficiency more powerful PSUs that fit within the standard 140 mm length, but as it will become more obvious in the next section where we look at the internals of the PSU, the X Silent Edge Platinum is packed with internal heatsinks. The fact that the unit weighs 2.65 kg seems to indicate that right away. Even at Platinum efficiency levels, it still means that at maximum load the PSU needs to passively dissipate at least 84 watts worth of heat within the thermal conditions of the case.


Besides the size, looking at the thin sloping grille and the heatsink-esque sides, it's obvious that Cooler Master wants maximum heat dissipation capabilities. However, one side instead of the heatsink structure is kept flat to include the specification sticker.


At the modular cable panel there are six EPS/PCIe cable sockets, the 10+18 pin ATX motherboard cable sockets, four peripheral / SATA cable sockets and one socket for the 12V-2x6 cable. Additionally, there are headers to connect the PSU to the PC and an external fan. The back in comparison looks quite uneventful with just an on/off switch and an AC socket.


If you're interested in such a supply, there's a good chance that you're an enthusiast who likes to know the status of their PC's components. With a PSU that's cooled passively it becomes even more important to at least have a general idea of how the PSU is doing thermally. Cooler Master allows tracking of the temperature as well as the power supply's efficiency and load using their MasterCTRL application. Of course, that requires connecting the power supply to the motherboard via the provided USB cable.