Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Tuesday , June 09, 2015
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Cooler Master G550M 550W Power Supply Review

Today we spend our time with a computer power supply from Cooler Master that is towards the lower end of the wattage scale coming in at 550 watts. Cooler Master claims "notably higher efficiency and voltage stability than other designs." We will see if its Bronze efficiency G550M PSU will stand up to our gauntlet and its own claims.

Introduction

Cooler Master Co. LTD. is a company that is well known for producing enthusiast computer cases and has been in business for almost 25 years. In addition to cases Cooler Master has product lines for CPU and GPU heatsinks, case fans, various accessories, and power supplies. Cooler Master’s entry into the power supply market has been rather mixed with some good products, and some that could use improvement. Today, we are reviewing one of Cooler Master’s middle of the road products targeted specifically at gamers the G550M ( RS550-AMAAB1 ) which is produced in conjunction with CWT.

Channel Well Technology (CWT) was founded and began manufacturing power supplies in 1993. Since 1993 Channel Well Technology products have shown up under various guises including Antec, Xclio, 2theMax, CWT, Thermaltake, Xigmatek, and Corsair. While most familiar to our US users from when it used to provide OEM services for Antec, CWT is one of the more complete OEM manufacturers as it has a fairly high level of vertical integration providing transformers all the way up to its well designed independently regulated SMPS. Recently however, CWT has begun stretching out and is providing OEM services for a number of brands as today’s unit demonstrates.

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Mid Market, But is it a Middle of the Road Performer?

The Cooler Master G550M is one of just a handful of Cooler Master power supplies we have seen over the years and over the years the results of our reviews have been rather mixed. Today, the Cooler Master G550M comes in as another mainstream unit from Cooler Master. Unfortunately, in the past, the mainstream products and "gamer" oriented products we have seen from Cooler Master have by and large fallen on the wrong end of that mixed spectrum. With that in mind, we are very curious to see if Cooler Master is able to shake that air of mediocrity, or worse, in their mainstream offerings today with the GM Series. Before moving on though, what does Cooler Master have to say about this unit?

GM Series

The GM Series is semi-modular to reduce the number of unnecessary cables for better cable management. The single +12V rail on all GM Series power supplies allows for superior load balancing and GPU compatibility.

Ok, that is not a whole lot to go on so let’s move on and see what we can expect when a user purchases the Cooler Master G550M in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.