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PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR

If PC Power & Cooling has anything, it has a great reputation for making awesome computer power supplies. Today we weigh in on the self-proclaimed "Biggest, Baddest Power Supply - Period!" Is their 1 kilowatt PSU that big, and that bad, and what about value?

Introduction

Since we began our power supply reviews one company has been requested by our readers more than any other and today we present our first review of a PC Power & Cooling product. PC Power & Cooling was originally founded in 1985 by Doug Dodson and specialized in fans but the company quickly moved into the realm of computer power supplies. Over the years the PC Power & Cooling name has become most popular from their branding of the Turbo-Cool and Silencer lines of power supplies. That string of 21 years as an independent company recently ended when PC Power & Cooling was acquired by OCZ. Today’s power supply was procured and tested before that acquisition and it has been explained to us by OCZ that the product will not be going through any changes. When we asked OCZ in Taiwan at Computex if the review being conducted would fully represent future product they reassured us it would and to go ahead with the review in confidence.

Today we will be looking at the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR (T1KWSR) which is produced in conjunction with one of PC Power & Cooling’s manufacturing partners Win-Tact. Win-Tact is one of PC Power & Cooling’s longest running OEMs having built the Turbo-Cool series for a number of years now.

Win-Tact was formed in 1994 and by 1996 was a full service design to production manufacturer of power supplies. They remain an almost unknown to US consumers as the majority of their products are not aimed at the end user but rather to integrators of different product types. Indeed most people never know that that slot machine they just hit the spin button on runs on a Win-Tact power supply (WP203F11), or is humming along in the server chassis behind closed doors. During their tenure though as the OEM behind the Turbo-Cool line of power supplies their products have been regarded as some of the best in the business.

The Biggest, Baddest Power Supply - Period?

The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR is the current premier power supply offering from PC Power & Cooling and as such it is proclaimed to be:

PC Power & Cooling’s product page continues the proclamation of this unit being the premier product in the power supply realm as it states:

Selected by AMD for its Quad FX Platforms and by NVIDIA for its Dual 8800GTX demos, the new SR version of the renowned Turbo-Cool 1KW delivers 1000 watts (1 Kilowatt) of continuous, rock-solid power with a peak output of 1100 Watts! Built with three AC-DC power modules (see inside view), the Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR is an efficient, amazingly quiet, EPS12V / SLI / CrossFire power supply with 72A (80A peak) of 12VDC in a form factor that fits most ATX cases. Truly, the ultimate computer power supply!

From the product page provided PC Power & Cooling certainly pulls no punches in aiming this unit for the top of the power supply market going so far as to claim the unit is the ultimate power supply. Certainly PC Power & Cooling has amazing PR for their product and the word of mouth from satisfied customers drives legions of users back to PC Power & Cooling time and time again, but is the 1KW-SR really that good? Is it the "biggest, baddest power supply – period?” Today we will find out.

First, let’s see what we have to look forward to when we purchase the PC Power & Cooling 1KW-SR power supply in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.