Cooler Master 500 W Power Supply Unit Review
Cooler Master Thunder 500 is a high efficiency & low cost 500 W power supply. This SMPS (Switch Mode power supply) is specially designed by Cooler Master for users who need more connectors and power from power supply for various CPU peripherals at cheap rates.
Thunder Series from Cooler master is a premium series of thunder power supply and is quite popular amongst gaming users. This series has good built quality components to deliver the rated output. Let's have a quick look at the technical specifications of the product :
Model : RS-500-ACAB-M3
Dimensions : 150W x 140H x 86D
Input Voltage : 180~264V AC
Input Current : 5A
Power Good Signal : 100 ~ 500 ms
Hold up time : >17ms
Efficiency : >85%@ normal Load
MTBF : >100,000 Hours
Protection : OVP / OCP /OPP / SCP
Fan : 120mm Fan
Output Capacity : 500W
Operation Temperature : 0~40C
Connector : MB 20+4 Pin x 1
CPU 12V 4+4 Pin x 1
PCI-e 6+2 Pin x 1
SATA x 6
4Pin Peripheral x 3
4Pin Floppy x 1
SATA Connectors : 6
Intel Complaint : Yes (Intel ATX 12V v 2.3)
This model is RS-500-ACAB-M3. Front side of the box claims the model to be of 500W of output. However, adding the individual output as claimed on the box comes out to be around 554W. It is 85% efficient. The delivered output comes to be around 470W - which is decent.
The power supply has two cables which are protected by Nylon sleeves - first one is the motherboard 20/24 pin connector cable and the other one is the PCI connector cable. Rest wires are of good built quality but they are not covered with nylon sleeves. The good thing about the wires are that they are long enough with ample of distance between the connectors on the same cable. The distance between the power supply and the first connector for each cable is approximately 40 cms whereas distance between the two connectors on same cable is approx. 12 cm.
This power supply unit comes with the double 12v power rails which provide sufficient amount of power and resistance in case of overloading. It is equipped with a milti layer protective design i.e. Short Circuit Protection (SCP), Over voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), Over Current Protection (OCP). It also has a smart speed control for its 120mm fan, however this feature is quite common nowadays.
Overall, I would recommend this power supply for a user who has more than normal peripherals on the Motherboard and for beginners in the gaming world.
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