PC Power & Cooling MK III Silencer 1200 review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

It's good to see a PC P&C power supply on the test bench again. Admittedly I am very impressed with it. The work done on this unit is a little substandard, a very distinct feature is the new modular looks with the pin style modular connectors, very impressive .. but there is a flaw with the design. Let me explain:

The male connectors are placed in the PSU, and the female connectors on the cabling. Now the PSU side modular connector have been protected with a plastic cap, but if you have sweaty hands and are fooling around in the PSU area, god forbid you touch the male connectors. The connectors whould have been reversed, female on the PSU and male on the cables. Then again, leave the plastic caps on and make sure you are aware of it and you'll be fine of course.

Right, with that remark out of the way, really impressive is what comes to mind when reviewing the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt. It was a pleasure to test the the unit alright. It obviously had no issues whatsoever with what we threw at it, then again we reached just over 700 Watt which is not a lot for this PSU. While passing 700 Watt load we do can confirm that the power efficiency is most definitely excellent as it performed smack down where it needs to be with other Platinum tested models, while being a 1200 Watt PSU at lower power consumption you'd expects lightly worse efficiency, but that was not the case and makes the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt amongst only a very few PSUs which can manage that.

At a price of roughly 349 USD the product pricing is not cheap though, but realistically you do get what you pay for, an obscure nearly evil PSU with super high efficiency levels, great looks, great connectivity and of that funky switch which allows the PSU to be drop-dead silent up-to 600 Watt.

Stability wise we have very little to complain about but we have to state this ... we couldn't load up-to 1200 Watt -- at 700+ watts voltages remained drop dead synchronized. But we'll trust that some other reviews will show some ripple tests yet have no doubt the product will come out totally clean. Fantastic is obviously the massive single +12V rail, it has just so much power to handle multiple heavy duty graphics cards. I mean almost 100 AMPs. Bare in mind that one graphics card uses 15A on average these days so yeah, you got some spare.

Aesthetics then, the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt looks great with its white design but you probably want to use a chassis that matches the 'color'. Size matters as well, while not really big in size 18 (deep) x15 (width) x8.6 (height) CM in its dimensions. That's only slightly larger opposed to your regular ATX power supply. So it'll fit in pretty much any chassis.

The modular cables look individually sleeved when you first glimpse at them, these are however normal black coated cabled in a flat design. They will look great in any chassis with the dark tones. Great to see is that the connectors themselves are all black as well. The added benefit obviously is very clean looking wiring for that ultimate finish. The native connected cables have been sleeved black for you.

Yeah, modular designs are the way to go and I'm happy that the Mk III Silencer got that royal treatment as well. You use what you need in terms of wiring, keeping the innards clean and tidy, plain and simple. And overall the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt is a great looking PSU, a tiny hint longer than your typical ATX sized PSU though. Now combined with the Platinum factor -- the certified model at 92% efficiency at 50% load -- the PSU seems to be a winner. Our tests show that the PSU positions itself where it needs to be be.

But lets round things up. The PSU is very efficient, has good looks, though white is a bit of a dangerous color for most dark chassis, then it's modular, is stable, comes with all dark cabling and connectors and then we have to acknowledge it's silent as well. So it's all good really.  The one thing that could hold you back is the pricing. But keep in mind that this is sheer quality you guys ! The 7 year warranty that you receive with this product IMHO does make up for the price premium. There's very little else to say other than confirming that the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt is simply a downright kick'ass product that will be recommended by many.

Keywords that continuously pop through my mind are its extremely high efficiency - being darn quiet (even at 700W load is was just silent), plenty of power for overclockers.

The weird thing is that these days we see more and more kilowatt+ PSUs then ever with the finest efficiency levels. The industry trend however is that energy efficiency and thus achieving an overall lower power consumption has become a priority. High-end Graphics cards are under 150~200 Watts these days, CPU's under 100 Watt. And that makes 1200 Watt power supplies a little hard to recommend as a requirement.

But remember, a PSU is the most efficient at 50% load, making this power supply perform superb (in efficiency) at 600 Watt. Up-to that point it's fanless as well ... and that's a great testimony of where we are anno 2012. Extreme performance versus extreme efficiency, it does come at a price but together with that massive 12V rail. the modular connectors, the sheer design and that 7-year warranty .. the Silencer Mk III 1200 Watt just is a huge win in my book.  Very nice and very much recommended if you are an enthusiast PC users that overclocks and needs a little extra.

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