Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W

Though not quite so immediately impressive as the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro, the Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W still distinguishes itself with a slightly more elaborate box than the majority. Sadly, once inside things are less impressive with all the accessories just shoved in around the PSU and the modular cables all bundled up with one big cable-tie.

That said, the PSU itself is a very handsome thing, finished in a tough matte black paint job with a neat CoolerMaster badge on the top and enormous 130mm fan underneath. We also like the modular cables, which instead of being braided, are all bonded together in flat strips with black cabling used throughout - this is definitely a stylish piece of kit.

Also in the box you get two sound deadening soft rubber mounts for each end of the power supply. These are supposed to sit between the PSU and the case and help to prevent vibrations passing from one to the other, theoretically reducing noise slightly. This wasn't something we managed to test, but we know from past experience these can make a very small difference if your PC is already very quiet. Accompanying these are a mains power cable and four black mounting screws.

The flat ribbon-like design of the cables actually makes them particularly easy to manhandle and they seem less prone to becoming tangled, which is a big bonus. The length and layout of the cables isn't particularly inspiring, but they do the basics. Interestingly there are three SATA cables, that each have three plugs and are 75cm long, but only one Molex and floppy cable (3 x Molex, 1 x floppy, 75cm). This makes sense as fewer components use Molex and floppy connectors nowadays, but it's certainly quite a drastic reduction compared to some. Meanwhile the PCI-E cables both terminate in an 8+2 pin connector and are 50cm long.

In terms of performance, like all the PSUs on test, the Silent Pro M passed our stress tests without a hitch. However, it didn't overly excel itself, or indeed live up to its name, in the noise level tests. With a reading of 39dB while our test system idled, this was among the loudest of the PSUs on test. Like the OCZ Fatality, though, it somewhat made up for this by hardly increasing in volume when the system was under load (40dB).

Verdict

A number of the PSUs in this roundup have gone for a super-cool all-black colour scheme, but the Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W definitely takes the crown with not just black casing and braiding but black cables as well. We also like the easy to handle flat cables. It wasn't the quietest unit on test, but this is countered by a good price.