It seems that “masters of the coolers” decided to cover all users’ needs for power supply units and we got on test UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection) series that brings several innovations. The present state on the computer market confirms that multi CPU and GPU systems are not science fiction anymore. If you have Quad Core CPU with SLi or CrossFire GPU system in your computer case, soon you’ll realize that PSU is one of the basic things that you should choose very carefully for your configuration. Cooler Master promoted itself to a new level with its Real Power series, earning very enviable reputation.
| 80 Plus Certificate | |
| This certificate is created with one goal – to promote computer power supply units with higher energy efficiency. Only products with energy efficiency higher than 80% at 20%, 50% and 100% of load rate can be adorned with this certificate. More about 80 Plus you can check HERE . Models from UCP series 700W up to 1100W have “80 Plus Silver” medal. When the whole series was designed, PSUs for servers were taken as model. |
UCP series has “80 Plus” certificate. Cooler Master for now offers three models from UCP series (700W, 900W and 1100W). We got on test 900W and 1100W models that look identical, but only at first sight. All power supplies from UCP series have synchronized PFC (Power Factor Correction) that with 12V switching circuit design provides very high energy efficiency. In combination with separated 5V and 3.3V branch converted from maximized 12V branch, UCP series provides up to 88% efficiency. Most manufacturers put on PSU’s boxes info about power pick (maximum power that PSU can distribute in very short time period). Power for UCP series that CM regulates isn’t pick power but continuous power that PSU can handle i.e. transmit. Power pick for 1100w model is 1320W. We should also mention that Cooler Master for the first time on 900W and 1100W models used 8 electrolytes of “Solid” type and whole series is equipped with Japanese made capacitors. Both PSUs are compatible with new Intel’s ATX 12V v2.3 and SSI’s EPS 12V v2.93 standards.
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Units are packed into well designed and spacious boxes. For “Ultimate” series is provided 12cm fan. Fan position guarantees that all heat created in PSU will be transported outside the case, preventing creation of so called “heat balloons” inside the case. Depending on load level, fan will rotate faster or slower, which is very good solution. Differently from Real Power Pro series which didn’t have power switch, UCP series does have one. That should especially make happy overclockers. In fact, on Intel’s platform i.e. at motherboards based on it, in some overclock situations (when OC didn’t succeed) it’s required from user to close the current source and to press Power button on case or motherboard as long as it takes for voltage from motherboard to discharge. On both models are still present nonstandard power cable (noticeably thicker part that enters the PSU) and its quality is at very high level.
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From cables are present almost everything and what’s common for both models is next. Even two 8-pin connectors for processor can be dissembled and transformed into 4-pin (meaning - you can supply, for example, some server motherboard with 2 sockets). Beside 5 standard molex and 9 SATA power connectors, there is also one (just for saying that exists) floppy connector. Cables are really long and that’s praiseworthy. UCP 900W has one 6-pin and two 8-pin PCI-Express connectors while UCP 1100W has six 6-pin and three 8-pin and UCP 900W counts four 12V branches while UCP 1100W counts six of them. The good thing is branching of 6-pin from 8-pin connector so there is no need for stacking of cables. All cables are meshed and connectors are made from quality plastics.
Testing
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Testing was performed in following manner. Test processor was overclocked at 3.4GHz and it worked under 1.32V voltage. For GPU reference were used two ATi HD 3850 graphics cards in CrossFireX mode. It is more than clear that none of hardware present cannot completely use 900W and 1100W, so we wanted to determine voltage drop on branches. First we tested 1100W model. We measured idle voltage on EPS 12V branch, when the energy consumption is lowest. Voltmeter showed 12.17V on EPS 12V and load was 166W. After that we started defragmentation of HDD, QuadPrime95 and also 3DMark06 application. The consumption then summed 305W and voltage on EPS 12V branch varied in range from 12.08V to 12.11V (depending what test from 3Dmark06 application was performing and what matrix size for QuadPrime95 software was utilized in calculation process). For the 900W model we repeated the process. In idle mode voltage on EPS 12V branch was 12.18V while under load it varied from 12.07V up to 12.11V. For testing the voltage drop on GPU branches we got: in idle mode 12.19V for UCP 1100W and for UCP 900W we got the same figure. In full load mode, strongest model had drop for only 0.07V while “weaker” model was just for a bit worst – 0.08V. All in all, both models showed very little voltage drop and 12V wasn’t compromised which is great news but also this tells us that values in specification are truthful and this is where IT industry often “lies”.
| Specifications | Ultimate Circuit Power |
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| 900W | 1100W | |
| Efficiency |
88% | |
| Dimensions | 150 x 190 x 86 mm | |
| Power pick |
1080W | 1320W |
| Regulatory |
Nemko, CE, GOST, C-tick, TUV, UL, FCC |
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| Test configuration |
Intel Xeon 3350, ASUS Rampage Formula, 2 x Western Digital 320 GB SATAII, 2 x 1GB DDR2 Transcend Axe RAM1200+, 2 x ATi Radeon HD3850 |
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| Price [€] |
≈ 230 |
≈ 270 |
| Product HomePage |
Cooler Master UCP 900W |
Cooler Master UCP 1100W |
Conclusion
If you have some top PSU model from older Cooler Master series, you won’t have real needs for change it for new one, except if you are hard core overclocker or let’s say you have Skulltrail platform with two processors that you want to overclock – both tested UCP models have two 8-pin cables. Will you choose 900W or 1100W model depends only on number of graphics cards that you have at your disposal. One big plus is even five years warranty for UCP series (real rarities are manufacturers that give three year warranty). That’s one more proof that Cooler Master built in the most quality components. Still, as InsideHW always splits hairs we must say that only fault is that these models are not modular. But as we seen before, Cooler Master usually after launch of new series of PSUs launches corresponding M series, we can only hope that this will be done with UCP series and then those PSUs will for certain become in true sense of word - ULTIMATE.
