PC Power & Cooling's Silencer 750W
As good as the hype suggests?

We've had more requests to review PC Power & Cooling PSUs than any other brand, and for good reason. PC Power & Cooling has a reputation for building some of the best high-performance PSUs around. Is there anything to the hype?

Not at first glance.

Sure, the CrossFire Edition of this Silencer 750W PSU happens to be painted a particularly striking shade of red, but that looks to be more CrossFire branding than PC Power & Cooling flexing its muscles. The muscle is there, though; you just have to look under the hood.

Beneath what looks like (apart from the red, of course) a rather standard PSU lurks a monstrous 12V line capable of pumping out a whopping 720W. Coaxing 60 amps from a single 12V line is impressive enough on its own, but even more so when you consider that all the other PSUs in this round-up—and indeed most of the industry—have to split 12V power between multiple lines to achieve similar output capacity.

Given its grunt, it's surprising the Silencer isn't peppered with cooling vents or massive fans. The unit relies on a single 80mm cooling fan at the rear—an odd choice given the Silencer name.

What might surprise most folks about the Silencer is that it really isn't that expensive. The unit sells for around $170 online, not a drop in the bucket by any means, but not unreasonable given the Silencer's 750W output rating. Don't forget PC Power & Cooling's five-year warranty, either.

Power delivery should be the Silencer's real strength, and it looks pretty good in our DC voltage tests. The 12V lines are a little low, but still within about 1% of nailing 12 volts exactly. Voltages remain consistent as the load on the PSU increases, as well.

AC ripple isn't much of a problem for the Silencer. Most of the lines average about 10 millivolts, and the 12V PCIe connector's AC content drops even lower under heavier loads.

The real kicker comes when we look at efficiency. Forget 80 Plus; the Silencer practically maintains 85% efficiency across our test loads.