Cooler Master Real Power M1000 power supply

Before getting down to the nitty gritty, and the PSU itself, let's start with a look at the part's retail packaging.

Sleek and simply is the name of the game here - NVIDIA's SLI certification gets a mention (and certainly, two GeForce 8800 Ultra's in SLI should be no problem for this PSU), but that aside we are simply left with an elegant shot of the power supply itself, showing off its 135mm fan and modularity.

The rear of the box outlines a few key features in more languages than you can shake a stick at.

Now on to the interesting stuff, courtesy of the Real Power M1000's specification.  As you'd probably guess, this PSU is an ATX 12V v2.3 specification, 1000 Watt rated (surprise!) part, with active PFC.  Where things get interesting is looking at the output properties of the M1000 - Where Thermaltake's ToughPower featured quad +12 Volt rails, Cooler Master one-ups it by featuring no less than six +12V rails, with a total output of 960 Watts, while giving the +3.3V and +5V rails 250 Watts to play with.  Unfortunately, I don't have any details as to exactly how these six +12V rails are broken down as regards supplying the various aspects of connectivity available to the PSU, so all we can say at this point is 'Blimey, that's a lot of 12 Volt rails'.

Of course, power output aside, the actually connectivity on offer is of equal important when it comes to choosing a power supply, and it's of no surprise given its target market that the Real Power M1000 is pretty comprehensive on this front.  Built into the body of the PSU itself is a 24-pin motherboard connector (which, unlike Thermaltake's offering, can't be 'reduced' to a 20-pin connector), and both 4-pin and 8-pin +12V CPU/motherboard connectors.  The rest of the connections on offer are modular ones, consisting of two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors, two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors, two sets of four Serial ATA power connectors (making eight in total), two connectors featuring three Molex connectors and one featuring two Molex and one floppy drive power connector, giving the PSU eight Molex connectors in total.

While this leaves the Real Power M1000 a little behind Thermaltake's ToughPower 1000W (which features three 6-pin and three 8-pin PCI Express connectors and one additional floppy connector) in the connectivity stakes, it still offers what should be enough for anybody at this present time, and adequate power connectors to run two Radeon HD 2900 XT board's in a CrossFire configuration.

So, that's our basic 'science bit' out the way, let's crack open the box now and take a look at the power supply itself. The entire surface of the Real Power M1000 is a rather beautiful glossy, reflective black, making it look rather excellent is power supply aesthetics are your thing.

First up, we can see the interface where the various power connector modules are plugged in - Everything is both well laid-out and nicely colour coded, so there shouldn't be any mistake as to where everything goes in the PSU.  Four PCI Express power connector slots are offered, together with six slots for Molex, floppy and Serial ATA power connectivity.

The underside of the Real Power M1000 features a 140mm fan with intelligent speed control, which acts to both pull air out of the chassis while also cooling the PSU's components.  The air is exhausted through the grille which makes up the rear of the M1000.  We can also see the mains connector here - No on/off switch is present on the PSU itself however, which is quite an oversight to my mind, and a bit of a shame in all honesty.

One elegant touch on show with the Real Power M1000 is that all of the modular cables come in this rather nifty case.  Considering you only want to connect the minimum number of cables you need initially, storing the others to use later if and when you upgrade, this is far more preferable than a simple plastic bag or the like to keep all of your spare cabling safe.  Nice thinking Cooler Master!

Aside from the power supply and cables themselves, the Real Power M1000 comes bundles with a mains power lead, screws, Cooler Master sticker, and a key ring.