Cooler Master V-Series V SFX Platinum SFX 3.42

The Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W isn’t just your standard SFX power supply, Cooler Master has set out to break boundaries with their 1100-watt and 1300-watt models which are crazy numbers for a SFX form factor power supply. To reach those wattages in such a small form factor there are a few big sacrifices that are obvious when checking things out. The biggest is their definition of SFX where the housing dimensions fit the form factor but all of the modular cable connections stick out significantly past that. The V SFX Platinum 1100W also doesn’t have a power switch at all which is a big change and could be an issue if anything goes wrong and you need to power things down quickly.

An SFX PSU with 1100W max power. This will be fun, I said to myself. Some years ago, SFX units couldn’t go above 550W and now CM has an even stronger SFX unit than this one, with 1300W max power! Till I get to that, read the V1100 SFX Platinum’s review, since 1100W are enough even for a mightly RTX 4090 and a potent processor.

Today we're looking at a rather remarkable power supply from prolific peripherals producer Cooler Master. The company has put together a 1100 Watt, ATX 3.0 compliant unit that fits entirely within the SFX form factor for compact PCs. The resulting PSU is by far the most power-dense unit we've ever reviewed, and is a significant feat of engineering in and of itself. But Cooler Master and their OEM, Sysgration, are also testing the practical limits of the SFX form factor with their design. Even with no cubic inch wasted, regulating over a kilowatt of energy – and spiking as high as two kilowatts – is a lot of work for such a small power supply. So Cooler Master has needed to make some trade-offs here in terms of price and power quality in order to meet their overall power delivery requirements, resulting in a PSU that does well at delivering raw power, but it's especially well-rounded overall.

An SFX unit with 1300W max power, is it possible? Yes! Cooler Master did it, the V1300 SFX is the strongest SFX unit available in today’s market. There is a catch, though, it can only deliver its full power with 230VAC input. Basically, this PSU is a V1100 SFX destined for 230V grids, so it can deliver 200W more.