Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 700w Modular PSU

Internals & Cables

Published: 16th April 2008 | Source: CoolerMaster | Price: £80 - £85 | Author: James Napier

Internal Components

In the past, many people have judged the quality of a PSU on its weight and size of internal components. However, with many manufacturers moving on to newer and more efficient ways of designing their PSU's, it has become increasingly obvious that this is no longer a reliable method for gauging a power supply's quality. By looking inside the M700 we should be able to identify some of the components used and get a good feel for the overall build quality of the unit.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 Inside

Despite the fairly compact dimensions of the M700, Cooler Master have managed to keep the internals of the unit fairly well spaced. This should hopefully help prevent any heat hot-spots inside the unit, and as we can see from above, has allowed Cooler Master to install much smaller heatsinks than those found on the M1000.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 Heatsinks

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 Input Filter

Taking a closer look around the interior we can see that the M700 is kitted out with a single capacitor manufactured by "Elite". The capacitor has a rating of 560uF / 400v with a maximum temperature of 85°C. While this is more than suitable for an average 700w unit, some manufacturers choose higher rated 105°C capacitors to ensure that even under extreme temperatures, the unit is able to perform reliably.

Also found inside the PSU is a single, unbranded, reasonably large transformer. As no smaller transformers are present in the unit we can only assume that all of the rails (3.3v, 5.0v, 12v) share this one transformer. In all honesty this is quite disappointing, but obviously we'll see if it has any negative affect on performance over the next few pages.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 120mm Fan

The 120mm fan used inside the unit is manufactured by Cheng Home Electronic with a model number of CHB12012BS. Searching Google reveals very little about this fan other than a rotational speed of 2000RPM and a possible output of 72CFM at 16dBA. This does sound a little unrealistic, but we'll find out for sure in the noise testing results.

Cables & Connectors

The modular power supply is one of those inventions that has the PC enthusiast communities split down the middle. Some think that the modular design is a great design - keeping the inside of your PC tidy while also maximising airflow. Others believe that it is unreliable and can cause increased resistance where poor connectors are used. Of course not all modular PSU's are made equal, so let's see what the M700 has in store.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 Modular

First off the M700 isn't 100% modular. As we can see from above, Cooler Master have decided to hard-wire the ATX and 4/8-Pin CPU cables into the unit. This is more than likely because these cables will be required in almost every hardware configuration, and components such as the motherboard and CPU require the cleanest possible supply of power.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro Modular Connector

Cooler Master have gone for their own proprietary 5-Pin flat connector design for use with the Molex and SATA connectors, but have stuck with the tried and tested 6-Pin PCI-E style connectors for powering the PCI-E cables. Both of these methods offer extremely sturdy connections that should have minimal impact on performance.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 Cables

The M700 comes with a decent bundle of modular cables which are all professionally sleeved in mesh up to the last connector with zip ties and heatshrink finishing the ends off. To prevent the end-user from accidentally plugging the PCI-E cables in around the wrong way, Cooler Master have coloured both the modular PCI-E sockets and plugs in a rather garish dayglo green.

While on the subject of the PCI-E cables it is also worth mentioning that despite the connectors on the PSU only being in 6-Pin PCI-E format, the cables provided with the unit also support the very latest 8-Pin PCI-E graphics cards.

Cooler Master Real Power Pro M700 EPS-12v

The M700 comes with a 24-Pin ATX connector and no way of reducing the connector down to 20-Pin. People wanting to use this unit on an older style 20-pin ATX motherboard will need to purchase a 24-Pin to 20-Pin connector separately. Quite a few of the most recently released motherboards still utilise the 4-Pin (P412v) connector, and for this reason Cooler Master have included both P412v (4-pin) and EPS12v (8-pin) cables on the M700 to ensure full compatibility.