Cooler Master iGreen Power

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:48 am

Cooler Master's power supply has been praised highly of its high efficiency and stability. In the year of 2006, Cooler Master will launch a new series of power supply iGreen Power 430W/500W/600W.
iGreen Power is the world first power supply which achieves 85% efficiency through Double Forward Switching Circuit Technology. This intelligent circuit configuration stabilizes your running system without costing you a fortune.
While staying true to our original mission to provide the best products, Cooler Master is responding to the environmental concern around our globe. We make this iGreen environmental friendly - it has met the Energy Star and Blue Angel requirements.

Will we be seeing a review soon?

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:46 am

Well the bullshit..... AKA "marketing" all sounds very good.

However there is a HUGE flaw in their world dominating plan, as well all know (courtesy of SPCR) high efficiency is all very good and well, but PSU's tend to have the worst efficiency at the lowest power draw.

430W, 500W and 600W PSU's are total overkill for an awful lot of the people who visit SPCR.

If they brought out 250W and 300W PSU's with 85% efficiency, that would be something to shout about.

Andy

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:20 am

It has a smily face on it!

limee · Post by **limee** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:50 am

Mr Evil wrote:It has a smily face on it!

where?

Hifriday · Post by **Hifriday** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:21 am

andyb wrote:... but PSU's tend to have the worst efficiency at the lowest power draw.

430W, 500W and 600W PSU's are total overkill for an awful lot of the people who visit SPCR.

If they brought out 250W and 300W PSU's with 85% efficiency, that would be something to shout about.

Andy

I wouldn't be so quick to write-off these PSUs. Their specs actually lists efficiency at lower loads, and they are all above 80%!

430W Model Efficiency (Load) 81% (90W) / 85% (215W) / 82% (430W)
500W Model Efficiency (Load) 81% (100W) / 85% (250W) / 82% (500W)
600W Model Efficiency (Load) 82% (120W) / 85% (300W) / 82% (600W)

If their specs for the older RealPower550 is anything to go by, they claimed >75% and this was tested by SPCR between 73%-82% (from 65W-550W), which makes them quite believable.

Noise-wise however, their claim of 23dbA for the RealPower was tested by SPCR at a louder 29dbA which ramped up quite quickly with increasing loads. For the new iGreen series the specs are claiming a very low 17dbA, so even if we sprinkle it with lots of salt, it still has good potential to be a very silent PSU assuming they've also tweaked their "intelligent" fan controller.

Here is some more marketing-speak... Anyone know if this "double forward switching circuit" is really a new design, or just a new name to promote an old technology that apparently works well?

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:28 am

Looks Good

Andy

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:27 am

Here is some more marketing-speak... Anyone know if this "double forward switching circuit" is really a new design, or just a new name to promote an old technology that apparently works well?

This is old technology, just newly-applied. The circuit cost is a little bit higher than the single-switch design. Efficiency is higher, as they claim.

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:56 am

Yeah it looks nice, but it will dissapoint people, if the fan controller is anything like in their previous power supplies.

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:49 am

limee wrote:
Mr Evil wrote:It has a smily face on it!
where?

Top right picture, the red light just above the power switch.

narrasuj · Post by **narrasuj** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:59 am

Mr Evil wrote:
limee wrote:
Mr Evil wrote:It has a smily face on it!
where?
Top right picture, the red light just above the power switch.

Wow...sharp eye.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:03 pm

First Looks: Cooler Master iGreen Power Series @ HardwareZone

The dual ball bearing 120mm smart fan spins at around 800RPM at 50% load

What dBA does 800rpm usually translate to?

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:57 pm

^i dunno, but i seriously doubt that it would be only 28db at 2300RPM

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Tue May 09, 2006 7:41 am

SysOpt.com - Intelligent Protection: Cooler Master iGreen Power 500W Review

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:13 am

Mr Evil wrote:
limee wrote:
Mr Evil wrote:It has a smily face on it!
where?
Top right picture, the red light just above the power switch.

rofl I didn't even see it until I stared at it for 15 seconds...

vitaminc · Post by **vitaminc** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:50 am

Mr Evil wrote:
limee wrote:
Mr Evil wrote:It has a smily face on it!
where?
Top right picture, the red light just above the power switch.

godly
lol

i was trying to visualize a smelly face with the power switch, the red light, and the power plug.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:18 am

Looks promising. May turn out to be the first ever Cooler Master product recommended by SPCR! Hope to see a review very soon.

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Tue May 09, 2006 1:03 pm

Hifriday wrote:...Anyone know if this "double forward switching circuit" is really a new design, or just a new name to promote an old technology that apparently works well?

I would like to know the answer to that also. TomZ says it's been around a while. Does anyone know which switching circuit the S12 and NeoHE use? Seasonic's website says the S12 uses a "Forward Converter Circuit Design, Advanced design for high reliability & efficiency." I couldn't find which of the 3 circuits the Neo HE uses.

I agree, the iGreen sounds interesting but I am concerned about the smallish heatsinks.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:00 pm

sounds good, though, as they say, the proof is in the pudding

small heatsinks aren't neccessarily a bad thing - it could be explained by using more mosfets than standard (better explanation in the FSP Green Power and Zalman article discussions).

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Tue May 09, 2006 8:42 pm

I'm pretty sure I won't be buying any Cooler Master PSUs for a long while.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:58 pm

the iGreen sounds interesting but I am concerned about the smallish heatsinks.

If it is as efficient as they say it is, it won't need huge heatsinks. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:13 am

Sorry for resurrecting a year-old thread, but I thought I should post back because I just bought one of these (430W version - needed a PSU with a 24pin connector). The build quality seems very good, especially considering that it's a fairly cheap PSU. It's very quiet when idling, however, the fan ramps up quickly under even quite light loads, leading to an annoyingly loud noise level compared to the rest of my PC. I would therefore suggest that it's not suitable for a quiet system without modification.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:57 am

Howard wrote:how to select a psu http://psu.thetruck.net/ feedback appreciated.

Does this link work for you?

pcy · Post by **pcy** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 2:28 am

Hi,

The iGreen is not that quiet even on idle, but it ramps up very quickly indeed as you say.

I found a pic in the middel of thispage which explains why. OK, it's a year old now, but I bet nothing has changed. The HS is far too small, and the fins far to tightly spaced. The air just goes round them, not through them.

There is lots of air coming out of the PSU, but it's scarcely any warmer than the air going in...

Peter

chuckles98 · Post by **chuckles98** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:17 am

i have this psu, the 600W model, for the last 2 months. I don't know or follow any of this techy mumbo jumbo that you might measure it's efficiency, loudness etc by but it's been very good so far. I can't even hear it's fan over the sound of my p180's stock fans that are running on lowest speed