Internal Features
Moving away from our +12V rail theme for a while, let’s take a look at some of the other internal features of Cooler Master’s Real Power Pro 850W PSU. As is the case with most power supplies, the first thing you can see when you open up the RPP850 is the heatsink and cooling system. The particular heatsinks used in the RPP850 are basically the traditional right angle fins with smaller fins protruding in the opposite direction of most of the fins. Surface area is just as high as any other comparable supply, but the heatsinks lack the original design creativity we have seen on other supplies like the Silencer 750 from PC Power & Cooling. This is not a drawback by any stretch of the imagination, and the standard heatsink configuration used here is actually quite efficient in terms of space and cooling capacity. The active cooling in the RPP850 is provided by a 135mm fan that, suffice to say, is very quiet. Power supplies with a large, single fan cooling system tend to be far more quiet than their small fan or dual fan counterparts. The RPP850 is no exception to this rule, as the power supply cannot be heard above the hum of the Logisys 120mm LED fan mounted in the rear of the case. The 135mm fan is thermally controlled by the temperature sensor that is strapped to one of the heatsink fins (as seen in the picture).


Probably the second thing you will notice about the RPP850 is that it has two transformers. Modern power supplies, especially those touting a crazy-high maximum output and multiple +12V rails, are being made with two transformers. Some of these two transformer power supplies are, in reality, two smaller power supplies bolted together in one package. This was the case on many of the first power supplies that had maximum power outputs of 1kW or close to it. However, the RPP850 has two transformers integrated into the same PCB. This design has an increased efficiency over the previously mentioned one, because the current has less distance to travel, and will thus lose less heat. The fact that it has two transformers is also key, because this power supply claims to have 6 +12V rails, and output 850W of power. Having two transformers is an absolute must for such a PSU, since there is no way to draw 6 genuine +12V rails in addition to the various other rails from just one transformer.

The last thing to notice about the RPP850 is the mass of wires that are extruding from the side and out the back. This is the most important feature of the RPP850 for us, because it is where we will be able to tell whether or not the 6 +12V rails are indeed 6 +12V rails. What we are looking for are leads. The leads will be coming out of the power supply’s PCB in groups of two, each lead made up of one or two wires. As is the case in pretty much all power supplies, +12V lines in the RPP850 are represented by yellow wires. Therefore, each set of yellow wires coming out of the PCB is assumed to be a +12V lead. We would have to look really hard to find out what was what on the PCB, considering the bulk of wires is tremendous, but Cooler Master made it really say by labeling the PCB for each set of leads, or each rail. After a decent amount of finagling and eye strain, we were able to identify separate leads for all six +12V rails. What this means, quite simply, is that Cooler Master really has managed to squeeze six dedicated +12V rails into the Real Power Pro 850W power supply. We tried the best we could to take pictures of all the different rails, but it was pretty hard to do this thanks to the rigidity of the cables and the overhead heatsink. Nevertheless, here are the pictures.