Cooler Master 550W "Real Power" Power Supply

Performance Summary & Final Conclusions:

I can't stress enough to people the importance of choosing a quality power supply. After running the Cooler Master 550W Real Power through its paces, it has earned a spot on my recommended list for sure. As mentioned before, generally the voltage levels remained around ±1-2% of nominal specs, efficiency was also better than recommended levels. The HCI / power meter is a nice addition, letting the user know roughly how much power their PC is consuming in real-time. Lastly, the 120mm fan operated quietly while keeping the air flowing.

The only down-side is the derating factor under high temperature conditions. Most power supplies on the market will probably have similar results (I'm sure we will discover as we test more PSUs with our new rig), but it would have been nice if it was printed somewhere on the box. In reality, even a high-end PC will not come close to fully loading this power supply nor would the internal case temperature reach 40°C, but circumstances may be different for a heavily loaded server. Under more nominal temperature conditions, this power supply has a peak output capacity of ~650W.

You can view some compiled test results with other power supplies to better visualize how this PSU stacks up to the competition. Future PSU reviews will have their information added to that page.

This is the first review we have published on a power supply using our new load testing rig, so knowing what to expect in general from power supply test results is still somewhat of an unknown.