Published in Reviews

Cooler Master UCP Series 900W is 80 PLUS Silver Certified

by on24 July 2008

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Review: We like it


The UCP 900W
from Cooler Master has 88 percent efficiency and as such this is the world's first PSU to get the 80 Plus Silver certification. For a PSU to be 80+ Certified it needs to be 80% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% load. Results based on official testing at 80plus.org showed us that Cooler Master achieved a typical efficiency of 88.14% at 50% load, and so its UCP 900W model got Silver certificate. We can’t confirm this, as we don’t have the right equipment for such detailed PSU testing, but what we saw is that it is very stable, has enough power for a couple of high end graphics cards, it is queit, and we like it a lot.

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Our first impression was very good, when you hold the PSU in your hands it's like you can fell the quality. The black metal finish looks very impressive and it would look good in every case. As you can see from the picture above and under, a nice "Ultimate" logo is painted on both sides, so you can see it always, no matter how you install the PSU in the case.

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The UCP 900W is one of three models you can find in Cooler Master`s High-End-Series UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection). The two other models are UCP 700W and UCP 1100W, also very efficient but with an 80-Plus-Bronze-Medal. All these certification issues might be a bit confusing, but just look at following table and it will be much clearer. Everything you have to do with UPS is to achieve good efficiency and the part will be awarded.

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This PSU comes with single fan, not a "normal" power plug, on/off switch and bunch of cables. The fan has a 120 mm diameter and you probably won't notice it's spinning at all, but in the end it does its job very well.  Even when it gets hotter it stays quiet.

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Hot air from the PSU gets out through a big grill on the back side where power connector is. 

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But this PSU doesn´t just look good from outside.

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The high efficiency is made possible by the use of the newest high-end electronic parts. The guys from Cooler Master printed some nice pictures on the package, so a normal user also can figure out which parts are mean like we did. Before you choose to open the PSU, you must be aware that the warranty will become void when you do this. We opened it to see what hides inside.

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Everything is nicely arranged, which assures unobstructed airflow.

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We are looking at an "in house" made PSU, and Cooler Master uses only efficient and good quality parts in it.

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The next picture gives you an idea about cable management. It is not modular, as with attachable cables it is harder to achieve 80+ Silver, so Cooler Master did not want to take that risk here.

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We also noticed that CoolerMaster uses an IEC 320 C19/C20 connector for the power cable. The power plug is different from the "normal" one and the power cable is a little bit thicker than the standard one. IEC 320 C13/C14 standard cable, that we can find on every corner, provides maximum current rating of 10 Amps at 220V, which is more than enough for this 900W PSU. But even we have one more level of security using UCP 900W PSU, with the power cable maximum current rating of 16 Amps at 220V, it is hard to get a replacement in case the cable breaks. We found one good thing about this cable, it is longer than the standard one.



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It's a nice thing to see the on/off switch make a comeback in Cooler Master's latest power supply.

Also not standard, there are two PCI-Express power cables that come with one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector. That way we can avoid excessive cabling going to our graphics card, but the current from both connectors runs over one physical cable and is always fed by the same 12V rail. We tried to run two 9800 GTX cards in SLI and we found it stable, but for safety reasons it is better to use separate rails using two additional 6-pin power cables.

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CoolerMaster includes a lot of connectors, so you won’t have any problems to connect all your hardware. There you will find one 24-pin connector, two CPU ( 4+4 pin) connectors - good if you have a dual CPU board, also two PCI-E 8-pin connectors and four PCI-E 6-pin connectors (we explained it before).

You'll have no trouble attaching all of your peripheral devices, as we have five 4-pin molex and 9 SATA connectors and if you have connected a floppy drive or sound card to your system there’s also one 3.5" connector to power it up. All these cables are are fully sleeved in black.

Tech specs:

  *Model                             RS-900-AAAA-A3
  *Type                              Intel ATX 12V V2.3 / SSI EPS 12V V2.92 
  *Dimension                      (W / H / D) 150 x190 x 86 (mm)
  *Input Voltage                 90~264V
  *Input Current                12A@115Vac / 6.3A@230Vac
  *Input Frequency Range  47~63Hz PFC >0.9
  *Fan                                120mm Fan
  *Power Good Signal        100~500ms
  *Hold Up Time                 >17ms
  *Efficiency                       >88%
  *MTBF                             >100,000hrs
  *Protection                      OVP / OCP / OPP / SCP / UVP / OTP
  *Operation Temperature   0~40°C (Nominal Imput Voltage)
  *Output                           900W
  *Max. Output Capacity     1080W
  *Certification                    SLI / 80 Plus
  *Regulatory                     NEMKO / TUV / CE / GOST / C-tick / UL / FCC



Connectors:
  *M/B 24 Pin Connector x 1
  *CPU 4+4 Pin x 2
  *PCI-E 8 Pin x2
  *PCI-E 6 Pin x4
  *Peripheral x 5
  *SATA x 9
  *Floppy x 1


All you need to know is printed on the back of the box.

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The front side is clear and nice, sports a picture of the UCP 900W PSU. This PSU comes with a 5-year warranty.

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In the box you will get your PSU, snuggly packed with a small manual.

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Conclusion:


Cooler Master offers a very god PSU. Efficiency is as good as it gets; and you won’t have to worry about the number of connectors and they are long enough to reach each power hungry part inside the computer case. The UCP 900W got 80 Plus Silver Certificate and that says enough about quality. It is almost silent and the fan does its job.

We believe its a very good bang for the buck and with it you are getting the high-quality power suppy. We easily recommend it.  

 


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Reviewed by Sanjin Radoš and Kemal Velić 

Last modified on 25 July 2008
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