Cooler Master V1200 Platinum 1200W Review

Efficiency, PFC and Voltage Regulation

Voltage Regulation

To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage.

Voltage regulation is excellent across all the major and minor rails, even the obsolete minus 12 volt rail has very good performance. The impressive point for prospective buyers is that the 12 volt rail holds its voltage stable under even the highest loads with minimal droop making it ideal for demanding multi-GPU or multi-CPU systems.

Note that the V1200 offers a single 12 volt rail but we’ve had to split it into four virtual rails in order to cope with all of the amps on our load tester.

Power Efficiency

Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test 230v power supplies.

Efficiency was a fraction off 80 Plus Platinum in our testing but it was close enough for us to say it meets that certification. The slight discrepancy observed can be put down to small variations in production assembly standards and random margin of error in recording equipment.

Power Factor Correction

Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source – Wikipedia).

PFC starts off a little lower than we’d like but rapidly increases to a solid level from 40% load.