PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860W PSU Review

Introduction and Features

The latest Turbo-Cool features 860W of clean, stable power in a compact chassis and was designed for professional users and high-end gamers alike.

The new Turbo-Cool 860 is the latest addition to PC Power & Cooling’s Turbo-Cool series of high performance PC power supplies.  It can deliver up to 860W of clean, reliable power for mission critical workstations and high-end gaming systems.  The new Turbo-Cool 860 features a compact chassis and allows fine adjustment of the DC output voltages on the three primary rails.  And it comes with four PCI-E connectors, is NVIDIA SLI certified, and is backed by PC Power & Cooling’s 7-year warranty.


PC Power & Cooling has been in the business of building high-performance PC switching power supplies since 1986 and they have earned one of the best reputations in the industry for performance and reliability.  Today PC Power & Cooling offers several lines of high-quality power supplies ranging in capacity from 300W all the way up to 1200W.  The Turbo-Cool units are specifically designed for high-end applications where clean power and reliability are the top priorities while the Silencer series puts more emphasis on quiet operation and a lower price point.

Turbo-Cool 860W PSU Key Features:

•    860W continuous power output (930W peak) at 50°C
•    Compact chassis (only 150mm deep)
•    Powerful single +12V rail (up to 64A/70A peak)
•    Rock solid, super clean DC outputs
•    Tight voltage regulation (+VDC @ 1.5%)
•    User adjustable DC voltages (+3.3V, +5V and +12V)
•    Four PCI-E and 15 peripheral drive connectors
•    24-pin, 8-pin, and 4-pin motherboard connectors
•    High efficiency operation (84% typical)
•    Heavy duty components (caps, inductors, heat sinks, etc.)
•    Active PFC with Universal AC line input
•    Automatic fan speed control circuit (single 80mm fan)
•    High reliability (200,000 Hr. MTBF)
•    NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 Ultra)
•    7-Year warranty, Unbeatable support 

PC Power & Cooling designed the Turbo-Cool series for professionals that require the very best, long-lasting industrial-grade components for their mission critical machines.  The target audience for the 860 now includes high-end gamers along with professional, industrial grade users.

Here is what PC Power & Cooling has to say about the new Turbo-Cool 860:

“Built for absolute stability and reliability, the Turbo-Cool 860 features adjustable rails, ultra-high efficiency, and a lifespan at least twice the industry standard.  NVIDIA® SLI certified to the highest level, the heavy-duty Turbo-Cool 860 is the ultimate power solution for today’s mission-critical and high-end gaming systems.”


The Turbo-Cool 860 ships in a glossy printed retail box instead of PC Power & Cooling’s traditional plain cardboard box (OCZ marketing at work 🙂  The 860 comes bundled with a power cord, mounting screws, Users Guide and a certified test report.


Establishing an accurate load is critical to testing and evaluating a PC power supply.  PCPerspective’s power supply test bench can place a precise 2,000 watt DC load on the PSU under test.  Each power supply is tested under controlled, real-world conditions up to its maximum rated load (at 40ºC), using both 115 VAC and 240 VAC line voltage.  Our current suite of tests includes:

•    DC Load Regulation
•    DC Line Regulation
•    DC Cross-load (unbalanced load)
•    AC Ripple and Noise
•    Power Factor
•    Efficiency
•    Differential Temperature
•    Noise


The Turbo-Cool 860W power supply was evaluated on both features and performance.  A full range of equipment was used to test the power supply under controlled load conditions. 

•    (2) CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V ouputs)
•    (4) CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
•    FLUKE 87-III True RMS digital multimeter (Accuracy ±0.05%)
•    Extech 380803 Power Analyzer (Accuracy ±0.5% of full scale)
•    Hitachi V-650F 60 MHz dual trace oscilloscope (Accuracy ±3%)
•    Powerstat Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA, 0-140 VAC
•    FLUKE  52-II digital thermometer (Accuracy ±0.3ºC/0.5ºF)
•    Extech Model 407738 digital sound level meter (Accuracy ±1.5 dB)
•    Custom Lian Li PC60 enclosure to simulate real-world operating conditions