PC Power & Cooling Pro-Source 1500

INTRODUCTION

PC Power & Cooling (Acquired by OCZ in 2007) has long been a serious player in the computer power supply arena. We were pleased and surprised when they contacted us about a Uninterpretable Power Supply (UPS) called the Pro-Source 1500. The UPS arena is new for PC Power & Cooling but given their reputation for rock solid large single rail power supplies we're betting that the Pro-Source 1500 is just as dependable as the PSU so many people have come to know and love. While many PSU companies ran with the crowd and went modular and multiple rail PC Power & Cooling staunchly insisted the modularity in a computer PSU, and the removable power cords, change the PSU's ability to deliver clean power and add resistance to the delivered power. As for multiple rail PSU, PC Power & Cooling doesn't manufacture those, they stuck with large single rail PSU insisting that a single large rail delivers cleaner more dependable power. A company that refused to profit from trends and insists on doing things the single best way might not have the profitability of trendy companies, but you can bet that their product will be top of the line and no compromises were made in the manufacture of any of their products.

Little Known Facts About Wall Current

The Average Consumer is subjected to 120 various power problems each month, that's an average of (Approx) 4 times a day making power protection crucial for the safety and longevity of your computer (and electronics). Your every day surge protector isn't going to cover the gamut of power problems you can expect. A Surge protector protects against one thing, power surges. Spikes in power that exceed normal operating voltages. They don't protect against brownouts, and power sags or power blackouts. Most of the inexpensive surge protectors won't even protect (adequately) against power surges let alone any of the power brownouts, outages, or power sags. The most effective defense against power problems is to unplug the computer or electrical appliance, not a very feasible solution because unplugged you have a paperweight. The next best thing is a high quality Uninterpretable power supply. Those come in two common forms. Stepping Sine wave (Low quality UPS) and Pure Sine Wave Technology (High quality UPS). An Uninterpretable Power Supply is a combination of stored power, in the form of a battery (or batteries) and a collection of circuits that detect potential power problems from wall current and prevent power spikes, brownouts, power sags, and provide enough power in the event of a blackout to keep your system running long enough to shut it down and prevent damage and data loss. Higher end UPS also provide a software/hardware method of shutting the computer down in your absence ensuring that in catastrophic power loss situations your system is powered down safely.

Quotes About Power Problems

Power problems are the second leading, and most preventable cause of computer downtime. Source: HP Whitepaper: Increasing Single System Availability

Power problems are the leading cause of data loss, 15 times more frequent than computer viruses. Source: Contingency Planning

Sags in power supply can cause up to 87% of computer crashes. Source: AT&T Bell Labs

In the USA up to 150,000 people are affected by a power loss each day. Source: Power Planning Institute

Back To The Introduction

With the PC Power & Cooling Pro-Source 1500 using pure sine wave technology and providing 12 minutes of backup power at a 600 Watt draw we moved it to a mission critical role quickly. With the Pro-Source 1500 in place we no longer need to worry about a dirty power supply coming in from the wall contaminating our benchmarks. Across 3 weeks intensive testing, and hundreds of power readings both from the wall and (Past the Pro-Source) going to the Computer PSU we've come to know the capabilities of the Pro-Source pretty well. What we didn't realize, and is often taken for granted, is that the power from the wall (at least here) can be really polluted and fluctuates a lot. We held out for a few major storms and while a lot of the electronics were unplugged we kept a test rig running during thunder and lightning that would scare an electric company lineman into soiling his jumpsuit. The results are quite impressive.

About PC Power & Cooling

On April 19,1985, PC Power & Cooling began operations in a small warehouse just outside of San Diego, CA. Founded by Doug Dodson, a commodity trader and electronic hobbyist, the company's first products were custom fans to cool and quiet computers.

In 1986, the company introduced its Silencer 150 and Turbo-Cool 200, the industry's first ultra-quiet and high-performance power supplies. Other high-end products followed, the reviews were great, and the company continued to grow. In 1991, the company moved to its current facility in San Diego, CA.

Over the last 22 years, PC Power & Cooling has produced many innovative products including: the first CPU cooler, the first PC heat alarm, the first independently-regulated PC power supply, the first redundant power system, the first NVIDIA-certified SLI supply, the first One Kilowatt computer power supply, and the first power supply with its own certified test report (Turbo-Cool 1KW).

PC Power & Cooling takes pride in its loyal and knowledgeable customer base, its ultra-reliable product line, its professional and friendly staff, and its financial strength.