Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850W Modular Power Supply Review
Introduction
It’s been an absolute age since we took a look at a Cooler Master power supply and since I’ve been reviewing power supplies I’ve yet to come across one. However, today we have quite an exciting power supply from Cooler Master that will probably get any enthusiast really excited. The Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850W PSU is just jam-packed full of features such as a FULLY modular design, an integrated fan controller, 80 Plus Gold certification, a passive fan mode up to 20% load and a beautiful aluminium finish around the fan grille which just compliments the textured black finish beautifully. As you can probably tell I am a fan of this power supply’s design but the real test will have to be how it performs in our tests.
The Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850W is part of Cooler Master’s extensive Silent Pro series which includes the Silent Pro Gold, Silent Pro M, Silent Pro M2 and of course the Silent Pro Hybrid. Cooler Master’s choice of OEM producer for this particular is Enhance but Cooler Master have extensively modified these PSUs to meet the things they expect such as Silence, aesthetics and just generally quality of finish. Without any further ado let us proceed through this review.
In all honesty I would still go for the XFX 850W Black Edition, has all the same features bar the fan controller which I wouldn’t use and about £25 cheaper. Also it’s made by a much more reputable OEM.
You must remember that most of the potential buyers of this PSU will only buy it for the inclusion of the gimmicky fan controller, they don’t mind paying top dollar and are probably oblivious of the OEM which I can’t comment on because I’ve never dealt with an Enhance built PSU.
You must also remember that the only reason why the XFX PSUs are cheaper is because of a subsidy by XFX. Once XFX remove that subsidy PSUs built by Enhance and other less prestigious OEMs will always be cheaper than Seasonic built units. So in the grand scheme of things this unit is actually very well priced irrespective of the fan controller.
It seems mad that they would subsidies it so much, I guess either that or everyone else is making huge profit on them. I guess I better get an XFX psu soon before the prices go up! 😛