Introduction

We would like to thank Cooler Master for supplying the review sample.

Cooler Master's Silent Pro M series has been around for a long time and it was time for a fresh series to take over, so the M2 was released as replacement. Currently the Silent Pro M2 ranks third in CM's PSU series portfolio, below Silent Pro Hybrid and Silent Pro Gold. The most noteworthy difference of M2, in characteristics, to the two aforementioned series is the efficiency certification which dropped to silver and bronze levels in order to retain lower prices.

The new M2 units come in six flavors with capacities ranging from 420W to 1000W. The two stronger units with 1000W and 850W have Silver efficiency while all others are Bronze. Here we should note that at the time of the review no member of the M2 series was officially certified but we are pretty sure that this is just a matter of time.

Today's review subject is the Silent Pro M2 1000W which like all other M2 units uses a semi-modular cabling system, features a single +12V rail and it is made by Enhance Electronics, the same OEM that also manufactures the Silent Pro Hybrid and Gold units for CM. The M2 1000W is also equipped with a 135mm HDB (Hydro Dynamic Bearing) fan, according to CM, which besides silence promises long lifespan compared to a plain sleeve bearing one. Finally the warranty is set at five years, providing long peace of mind to the future buyers.

Specifications

According to CM efficiency is 80 Plus Silver but at least at the time of the review the 80 Plus organization hadn't evaluated this unit. Unfortunately, as Enhance the OEM of this unit uses to do, the max operational temperature reaches only 40°C so it is 10°C lower than what ATX spec recommends (not requires). Thankfully the unit is equipped with all protections including OTP so if its internal temperature goes high it will shut down to prevent damage. The cooling fan according to CM is equipped with a Hydraulic Dynamic Bearing which ensures a longer lifespan along with quiet operation. However when looking up the fan's specific model number (DFS132512M) the original manufacturer, Young Lin Tech, states that this fan uses a plain sleeve bearing. To clarify this we fully disassembled the fan and shed lots of light on this matter. More about this on the corresponding page of this review (A Look Inside).
The dimensions are the standard ones for a PSU with 1kW capacity and the weight is increased thanks to the large heatsinks that Enhance uses. Finally the warranty is set at five years, showing CM's confidence in this product and unfortunatelly the MSRP is on the high side.


Let's startwith the minor rails. These are pretty strong at 180W combined, a power level that most likely no contemporary PC system will take advantage of. On the contrary the +12V rail, which is mostly used nowadays by almost every component, needs high power to cope with power hungry systems and in this case it can deliver up to 80A in a single rail so it won't run into any problems, even with high-end VGAs, CPUs etc. Finally the 5VSB rail with 15W total capacity has 2.5W more power than the minimum seen in modern PSUs. We would highly prefer though, to have 20W or more power.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

As you can see the fixed cables are very few whereas the number of the modular ones is large enough, something very convenient. Of course all fixed cables are fully sleeved while the modular ones are flat (ribbon cables). The unit has a sufficient number of connectors and strangely enough isn't equipped with any 4+4 pin EPS12V connectors but instead both are two 8pin ones. Also the main ATX connector is a 24pin type and not 20+4pin, as most PSUs use. Apparently CM wanted to cut any ties with the past. Also cable length is adequate but the distance among connectors is too short at mere 100mm while the ATX spec recommends 150mm. Most likely this won't be a problem for the PCIe connectors, since usually they are connected in pairs on the power sockets of the VGAs with small distance between them and probably for SATA connectors, but for the 4pin Molex ones this could be an issue. Finally the 24pin ATX connector, the two EPS and all PCIe ones use 16AWG wires while all other connectors use 18AWG.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail we do not have anything to comment about its power distribution.

Packaging

The packaging is rather large and features nice graphics along with a matching combination of purple and white colors. In the front, right corner we find the 80 Plus Silver badge along with the five year warranty logo while underneath there is a small text describing the copper-aluminium heatsinks used in the internals, the modular cabling system and the HDB fan. A small photo of the unit along with the capacity description can be found in the front, bottom left, corner. On the rear side the most important info is depicted on two charts showing the fan and the efficiency curves. Finally, the specifications of the M2 1000W and its power distribution table can be found on one of the box's sides.