![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , July 02, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
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?
Build Quality
The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR features a single 80mm fan design that is, according to PC Power & Cooling, the correct cooling solution. The truthfulness of this assertion is certainly open to interpretation as a number of high end and extremely well performing power supplies utilize different fan form factors and PC Power & Cooling is trying to sell a product that only fits this category. The major downside to this fan design is that to move a sufficient volume of air to cool a high output power supply, such as the OCZ ProXStream and PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR, it must spin very fast resulting in elevated noise levels. While these 80mm designs are not great for quiet computing environments the key criteria in our evaluation is whether or not the cooling solution is sufficient, not necessary its sound level or form factor and our comments on such later are not absolute decibel values.
External Build Quality
The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR comes dressed in basic black. The finish is matte and resistant to scratches which plays into its industrial class build quality and applications nicely. I find these finishes to be the ones that work best as they are resistant to scratching when the unit is being moved around during testing. Beyond that the unit is fairly standard with no outstanding features as it is a single 80mm design with fixed cables with the only unusual feature being the placement of the power label on top of the unit as opposed to on the side. The unit is very functional in external build quality but it isn't going to win any beauty contests.
All of the cables on the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR are fixed and provide a serviceable length of ~22 inches to the first connector with many of the last connectors extending out beyond 26 inches. This unit should be able to reach any component in most cases no matter the placement of the power supply within the case. Alternatively, PC Power & Cooling can tack down a custom wiring harness with customer specified lengths for all leads if the product is ordered directly from them or sent back to them. As such the lengths indicated today are the ones found on the standard retail unit and do not represent the entirety of possible configurations of this unit.
Internal Build Quality
Once the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR is opened up we are left with an interesting layout. The unit appears to be three separate small power supplies in one housing as each of the vertical PCB’s houses a primary, transformers, rectifiers, and a secondary. Indeed the first version of the 1KW had 3 12v rails which PC Power & Cooling had changed once they jumped back on the large single 12v rail bandwagon and it is easy to imagine how that may have worked.
The interior of the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR is the most crowded and obstructed we have seen to date surpassing the recent Olympia 1000w as is apparent from the view through the fan location. In order to cool this setup PC Power & Cooling has employed a three bladed Delta fan rated at 0.42A at 12v. This fan is going to have to work exceedingly hard in order to cool this unit as there are no good airflow paths inside this unit. The primary capacitor on each PCB is a Hitachi 330uF 450v capacitor. The secondary is packed full of Teapo capacitors that have earned poor reputations for reliability in other products but seem fine when properly cooled in power supplies. Win-tact built PC Power & Cooling units have been sporting these capacitors for a long time now with no large number of failures attributed to them. However, in a $500 power supply better secondary capacitors wouldn’t be out of place as long as they had the same electrical properties. Finally on the secondary we see the cables sheathed all the way into the power supply but the unit, like many others, lacks a wiring guard to prevent damage to the wires. This is a very inexpensive piece that is oddly lacking in this and some other high end power supplies.
The overall build quality of the Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR is very good. The design of the unit is a bit unorthodox but the components for the most part outline a high quality build. The exceptions to this are the restriction on airflow and the secondary side capacitors being from Teapo. While Teapo capacitors are typically not problems in well cooled power supplies and we typically don’t knock companies for using them, those power supplies and companies usually aren’t selling a $500 unit. Ultimately though, Win-tact design/builds seem to do fine with Teapo capacitors so we can’t ding them too much for using them and maybe soon our opinion of Teap capacitors will change if we continue to see them perform successfully.