Cooler Master is a famous brand among enthusiasts. The company started out as a maker of his PC cooling systems and quickly moved to the cases and power supplies that carry most of its current fame. Today, the company is globally recognized and manufactures hundreds of products, but never stops updating and upgrading its catalog.
Cooler Master has diversified into gaming PC peripherals and related furniture, but the company continues to focus on PC cases, coolers and PSUs, offering a wide range of products in all three categories. At the time of this review, Cooler Master offers an outlandish assortment of over 75 PC cases, 90 coolers, and 120 of his PSUs.
Today we take a look at the new XG Plus Platinum series, the latest power supply family from prolific PC peripheral maker Cooler Master. With RGB fans (and an RGB display), the XG Plus Platinum is a PSU like no other. The XG family ranges from 650 to 850 Watts and we are currently rating the most powerful unit in the series at 850W. XG850 Plus Platinum.
| Cooler Master XG850 Plus Platinum Power Specifications (Rated @ 50 °C) |
|||||
| rail | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | +5 Vsb | -12V |
| Maximum output | 20A | 20A | 70.8A | 3A | 0.3A |
| 100W | 849.6W | 15W | 3.6W | ||
| total | 850W | ||||
| AC input | AC100-240V, 50-60Hz | ||||
packing and bundling
Compared to most of the PC industry these days, Cooler Master is less subtle in its packaging design. The artwork is colorful and gorgeous, mixing geometric patterns with photography and striking colors. Last but not least, the unit is shipped in a very sturdy cardboard box, protected by a generous layer of packing foam.
Cooler Master also bundles a number of cable ties and some cable straps along with the XG Plus Platinum, in addition to a typical AC power cable, mounting screws, and a basic instruction leaflet.
XG Plus Platinum is an all-modular design with all DC power cables detachable, including a 24-pin ATX connector. All cables are bare ribbons with black wires and black connectors. No floppy connectors or adapters.
| Cooler Master XG850 Plus Platinum | ||
| connector type | hardwired | base unit |
| ATX 24 pin | – | 1 |
| EPS 4+4 pin | – | 1 |
| EPS 8 pin | – | 1 |
| PCIE 5.0 | – | – |
| PCI-E 8 pin | – | 6 |
| SATA | – | 12 |
| Molex | – | Four |
| floppy | – | – |
Cooler Master XG850 Plus Platinum PSU
exterior
The Cooler Master XG850 Plus Platinum PSU’s chassis measures 86mm x 150mm x 160mm (H x W x D), which is 20mm deeper than a fully ATX compliant PSU. The majority of modern PC cases occupy the length of such a high-performance PSU, but the slightly extended length can be a compatibility issue with certain small footprint designs. there is.
Cooler Master really wants their latest PSU to stand out from the crowd, so they opted for a custom chassis with an embossed left side and integrated fan finger guard. The embossed left side is visible if you put the unit upside down on the bottom of his regular ATX case. A sticker listing the unit’s certifications and specifications covers most of the top surface of the unit.
A typical on/off switch is located on the back of the unit, right next to a standard AC power outlet. The perimeter of the Cooler Master logo is printed next to the switch. Approximately half of the front of the unit is covered with connectors for modular cables, with a basic legend printed above each connector. Here you can also see a small connector for the internal USB cable that connects the PSU to the motherboard.
While the PSU is off, the right side of the unit is completely plain, glossy acrylic, unlike the unit’s metal matte body. There’s an RGB display hidden behind acrylic that shows the unit’s model and his three actionable numbers: output, temperature, and fan RPM. PSUs must be installed carefully as the acrylic is very fragile.
However, the real issue here is the orientation of the PSU itself. If the user chooses a case with her PSU compartment on the bottom, she’ll have to choose between exhibiting an RGB fan or a side panel display. Also, many products are designed with his PSU out of direct view, so even if the PSU is placed on top of the case, you may not be able to see the side panel display.
internal design
Cooler Master has rebranded the 135mm RGB fan inside the XG Plus Platinum unit. Fans have hydrodynamic sleeve bearings for quietness and reliability. The max speed is 1800 RPM, which is good enough for a fan of this size, but according to the graph printed on the box, the fan doesn’t even reach 1000 RPM under normal ambient conditions.
Cooler Master claims that the XG Plus Platinum’s internals are unlike any platform they’ve encountered so far, and that this PSU is a completely unique design. However, Huizhou Xinhuiyuan Technology may disagree with that claim. Nonetheless, we don’t have any details about the platform or how much his Cooler Master engineers were involved in its design.
The Cooler Master XG Plus Platinum PSU’s filtering stage is textbook, with a total of 4 Y capacitors, 2 X capacitors, and 2 filtering inductors. Some relays bypass the NTC for efficiency. A rectifier bridge is placed on the main heatsink of the inverting component on the primary side. Active APFC components are mounted on separate heatsinks on the sides of the unit. Nippon Chemi-Con supplies his APFC capacitor of a large 450V/680uF, which is placed right next to a fairly large filtering coil.
On the primary side of the main transformer, four transistors form a full-bridge inverting topology and four MOSFETs generate the 12V line on the secondary side of the transformer. It’s worth noting that these four of his MOSFETs are JMSL040SAG from JieJie Microelectronics, a company with never-before-seen products. By the way, the primary side MOSFET (NCE65TF130) is provided by NCE Power.
The 3.3V and 5V lines are generated through a DC-DC conversion circuit. This is a typical configuration for a high-efficiency certified unit, with the unique feature that the conversion circuitry is placed directly on the board using cable connectors rather than on his PCB as a standalone. Secondary capacitors, both electrolytic and polymer, are all supplied by Nippon Chemi-Con and Nichicon. Both are famous Japanese manufacturers.
