Features and Specifications
When looking at power supply specifications, the most important thing to take note of is the amperage supplied by the three main rails: +3.3V, +5V, and +12V. Other things to look at are the maximum power output of the supply, its efficiency, and whether or not it has active power factor correction. Here are the specifications of the Silencer 750 EPS12V as stated on the PCP&C website.


The majority of this specifications list is right in line with what we are used to seeing in modern high-end power supplies. However, there is one value here that sticks out to me like a sore thumb: the +12V rail amperage and configuration. In almost every single top-of-the-line power supply available today, you can find two or more +12V rails. These rails usually deliver something like 20A each. Doing the math to calculate wattage, a +12V rail supplying 20A of current can deliver a theoretical maximum of 240 Watts of power. When you consider that most modern computers consume around 200-250 Watts under full load, it is easy to see that 240 Watts on the +12V rail alone is more than enough. However, many gaming machines consume upwards of 350 Watts. Such systems also tend to have power-hungry video cards that are supplied almost exclusively by the +12V rail, along with many case fans, and fast hard drives that are also supplied by the +12V rail. With this in mind, manufacturers put more than 1 +12V rail in their systems so that one the two rails can supply the video card, while the other takes care of the rest of the system components. The problem with this, however, is that manufacturers tend not to label the separate +12V rails on their power supplies. This leads to consumers plugging in the ‘wrong’ plugs into the wrong places, resulting in unbalanced +12V rails, reducing efficiency and increasing strain on rails that could easily be sharing the load.

This is why it pleases me to no end to see that the Silencer 750 EPS12V power supply has a single +12V rail rated at 60A. Not only is the maximum theoretical output of this rail at an incredible 720W by itself, but the issue of having unbalanced +12V rails is eliminated by implementing this simpler, yet by all accounts more effective, setup. The only issue with a single +12V rail, and one of the reasons that the standard has been to produce multiple +12V rails, is that there is an electro-mechanical interference, or noise, that occurs when a mechanical device is being operated on the rail in question. For instance, if the +12V rail is powering a couple of fans and hard drives, there is going to be a certain amount of noise traveling through the rail. The severity of this problem can be regulated and minimized using various methods that the manufacturers choose to implement, and typically, if the interference remains below a certain level, it causes no problem at all. The immensely powerful +12V rail on the Silencer 750 EPS12V makes it an ideal power supply for systems running high-end graphics subsystems (SLI, CrossFire), impressive RAID arrays, and complex cooling systems. Not having dual rails assures that the load will be distributed appropriately across the single +12V rail, and all components will run optimally.

The final thing to note about the specs is the listed 83% efficiency. This is quite good for modern power supplies, and is even in excess of what is listed for the Antec Neo HE 550, a power supply that is marketed for its High Efficiency (HE).