Verdict: Far too noisy whatever its colour
The box of the iGreen claims that it's 'super silent', emitting just 17dBA, and up to 85 per cent efficient. These are pretty bold claims, as it's almost impossible to prove if something is quieter than 20dBA, even in a certified listening room; plus it's incredibly hard to make an 85 per cent-efficient PSU - we've seen just one in the three-year history of Custom PC.
The iGreen is a fairly traditional 600W PSU, splitting its output across three 12V rails and the usual 3.3V, 5V, -12V and 5VSB rails. It isn't a modular PSU, though, so its cables are hard-wired in. 12V1 supplies power to the motherboard, CPU2 and first PCI-E plug, and 12V2 to CPU1 and 12V3 to the second PCI-E plug. This is a sensible arrangement, although it would have been better to separate CPU1 and the first PCI-E connector, as components using these can be very power-hungry. Cooler Master claims that the 3.3V and 5V rails can each output 20A, up to a maximum of 166W. However, in our tests, the output on the 5V rail dropped to 4.74V at 100 per cent load, just below the minimum 4.75V stipulated by the ATX spec. All the other rails held up under load, with 12V1 able to deliver 16A, 12V2 14A and 12V3 8A.
It failed to live up to its claimed 85 per cent efficiency, although its figure of 82 per cent is still very good. However, an inexcusable characteristic of the iGreen is how ridiculously noisy it is. Although we weren't able to measure the noise level, it became so noisy at anything above 75 per cent load you could hear it in the room next to our lab.
CONCLUSION
The iGreen only just failed to be 100 per cent stable, and it's also efficient. However, unless you have the hearing of a squid, it's way too noisy for comfort.
