Memories with you around the corner Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 Power Supply Unboxing

While NIVIDA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards are widely utilizing 12+4 pin 12VHPWR power supply slots, power supply brands are also stepping up to the plate with new models that natively support 12VHPWR cables and comply with the new Intel ATX 3.0 specification, Cooler Master's GX III Gold 1050. Cooler Master's GX III Gold 1050 is also under this trend, with 80 Plus Gold & Cybenetics Platinum certifications and 90-degree vertical 12VHPWR cables, can it provide stable power supply for high-end graphics cards?

Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 Power supply specifications:

Specification: ATX 12V Ver. 3.0
Input Voltage: 100-240V
Input Current: 13-7A
Input Voltage Frequency: 50-60Hz
Size: 160 x 150 x 86 mm
Fan: 135mm Fan
Conversion Rate Certification: 80 Plus Gold & Cybenetics Platinum
Power Cables: Fully Modular Cables
Warranty: 10 years
Protection System: OPP/OVP/SCP/OCP/OTP/UVP/Surge and Inrush Protection
Cable Connectors: 1x 24 Pin Motherboard Connector, 2x 8 Pin CPU Connector, 1x 12+4 Pin 12VHPWR Connector, 3x 6+2 Pin PCIe Connector, 12x SATA Connector, 4x Molex(Peripheral)

 

90 Degree Vertical Corner Cable Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 Power Supply Unboxing

Cooler Master's GX power supply series has been around for quite some time, and this time around, the GX III Gold is available in four wattages: 750, 850, 1050, and 1250 W. The most important feature is that it is ATX 3.0 compliant and natively supports 12VHPWR cables.

∆ Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050.

∆ Product Features.

∆ The official website features the markup.

The ∆ specification table, as well as the fan curve, conversion rate graphs, and so on.

 

The GX III Gold 1050 has an "Innovative, Streamlined Design" on its official website, but I think that for the power supply, as long as there is enough ventilation and cooling for the internal components to dissipate the heat, that's enough, after all, most of the power supply is installed inside the chassis and you can't see its appearance at all.

In a volume of 160 x 150 x 86 mm in length, width, and height, a full range of mesh holes are provided to give the fan sufficient air intake space.

The power supply is separated into two non-woven bags after unpacking, and the texture experience is a bit better than plastic bags during the unpacking process.

∆Packed in bags.

∆ Full-integrated mesh.

The ∆ dimensions of 160 x 150 x 86 mm and a length of 16 cm are considered to be an average size for a kW power supply.

∆ AC/DC specification.

 

The GX III Gold 1050 uses an intelligent temperature control fan that supports ZERO-RPM mode, also known as the Fan Smart Stop function. According to the chart provided by Cooler Master, the fan will not rotate until the GX III Gold 1050 40% is loaded, which allows for an optimal zero-noise environment for standby or low load use of the computer.

∆ Use reminders.

∆ Large area cooling mesh, power switch only; but no smart fan stop switch, so the stop function is built-in by default and cannot be turned off.

 

GX III Gold 1050 uses full-module power cables, users can match their PC needs to install the required cables, in the entire cable and chassis to hide the cable space will be more convenient and friendly, each slot is clearly marked to match what cable to install, users should confirm before installing the installation, do not vigorously out of the miracle!

∆ Fully modular power slots.

 

Underneath the integrated mesh is a 135 mm FDB fan, Hong Hua HA13525H12SF-Z, with 12V/0.5A specification and an isolator, and a maximum fan speed of 2300 RPM.

The ∆ filter keeps small foreign objects out of the power supply.

∆ 135 mm FDB fan.

The ∆ fan is Hong Hua HA13525H12SF-Z.

 

After disassembling the GX III Gold 1050, you can already see the internal materials, from DC-DC to 3.3V/5V/-12V, this part of the introduction can be referred to other people's unboxing, but the most special thing is that the Cooler Master has replaced the heatsink with an anodized violet heatsink with its own logo engraved on it, the Cooler Master has a better cooling performance than the traditional heatsinks. The Cooler Master has better cooling performance than traditional heat sinks and was able to reduce the ambient temperature by an additional 5°C in a 25°C ambient temperature test.

∆ GX III Gold 1050 teardown.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the GX III Gold 1050 uses a full modular power supply cable. The full modular cable is designed with a black flat cable, which is flatter and more friendly to the chassis' cable space, especially in cases where the cable space is not deep enough, so the flat cable can be more convenient for cable routing and covering the side panels.

∆ Line presentation.

∆ AC power cables.

∆ Line Printing.

 

An ATX 24-Pin motherboard power connector, I personally like to use black flat cable for 24 Pin, because 24 Pin is often the most difficult cable to install and occupies the most space, so the GX III GOLD 1050 flat cable is the best cable to install, but be careful not to bend it too much.

There are two CPU cables, one is a straight 4+4 pin cable and the other is a single 8 pin cable, which means that there are two CPU 8-Pin connectors in total, which can satisfy the needs of high-end motherboards with dual 8-Pin requirements.

The ∆ motherboard 24 Pin uses black flat cable and the softer nature of the body is much friendlier to the whole cable.

∆ CPU power cables are single 8-pin and 4+4-pin each, totaling dual 8-pin.

 

There are three PCIe power supply cables for the graphics card, all of them are single 6+2 Pin setup, which is quite suitable for the security of the graphics card power supply and the appearance of the whole cable, you don't have to worry about the y-shaped double-header installation loading problem, and you don't need to worry about there will be a small head hanged there when you don't need to use it, but if there are more than one PCIe device that needs to be powered up, you may need to think about how to arrange it.

∆Three single-ended PCIe 6+2 Pin power cables are suitable for users who require security and cable integrity.

 

There are a total of 12 power connectors on the three SATA cables, and one large 4-Pin cable has four large 4-Pin power connectors.

∆ Three SATA power cables.

∆ A large 4-Pin power supply cable.

 

GX III GOLD 1050's native 12+4pin (12VHPWR) braided cable can reach 600 W power supply limit. Cooler Master has added some small designs on the connector details, such as increasing the thickness of 25% and the plugging/unplugging force of 12%, etc., which is labeled to bring better safety, and the author really feels it requires more force than other 12VHPWR cables on the actual plugging/unplugging. In the actual plugging and unplugging, I really feel that the force required is more than other 12VHPWR cables.

The 12VHPWR consists of 12 pins powered by six 12V and six ground pins. The upper 4 pins are the Sideband Signals signal detection ports, and the manufacturer uses the Sideband Signals' SENSE 0 and SENSE 1 pins to form four different combinations of ground and open pins, allowing a single 12VHPWR cable to deliver up to 600W of power output. Through the SENSE 0 Pin and SENSE 1 Pin within the Sideband Signals, the two pins are arranged in four different combinations of ground and open circuits so that a single 12VHPWR cable, which can provide a maximum of 600W of power output, can be switched to four different power caps of 150W/300W/450W/600W to control and inform the graphics card of the maximum (auxiliary) level of power that it can draw from it.

∆ Native 12+4pin (12VHPWR) braided cable.

∆ Maximum power supply per strip 600 W.

∆ 12+4 Pin Display.

∆ Bending distance display.

 

The most important feature of the GX III GOLD 1050 is the 12VHPWR braided cable, which uses a 90-degree vertical bend design for better aesthetics for NVIDIA TRX 30/40 series graphics card installations.

∆ Vertical display.

∆ Displayed above the connector.

∆ 4-Pin Sideband Signals Signal lines are held in place with clear adhesive.

∆ With MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT Graphics Card installed on the display.

 

Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 Power Supply Pressure Test

This time, I used the author's daily barebones test platform to test the Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 power supply, processor using Intel Core i9 13900K, and MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT graphics card to match the test, software using OCCT and AIDA64. The software uses OCCT and AIDA64 FPU + FurMark double grill to conduct two kinds of stress tests for players' reference, and HWiNFO 64 to view the values reported by the motherboard loop control chip and record them, using the software to monitor there will be a deviation of 1~3% on the data for reference only.

∆ Verify that the graphics card power supply is plugged in.

∆Mounting with MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT will result in approximately 2 cm of protrusion.

Testing Platform

Processor: Intel Core i9 13900K (MSI Game Boots_on)
Cooler: Valkyrie E360 (full speed)
Water-cooled fan: LIAN LI UNI FAN P28 (full speed)
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY ( BIOS version: 7D29v1G )
Memory: T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 8000 MT/s 2x 16 GB
Graphics: MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT
Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 22H2
System Drive: Plextor PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 512GB
Gaming Disk: Intel 670P 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD (Solidigm)
Power Supply: MONTECH TITAN GOLD 1200W
Graphics driver: GeForce Game Ready 551.23

 

First, the OCCT was used to conduct a load stress test on both the processor and the graphics card. After a 20-minute stress test, the motherboard's Super I/O controller reported values to view the data, firstly, the +12V was maintained at a maximum of 12.168V ~ a minimum of 12.072V, and then the +5V was maintained at a maximum of 5V ~ a minimum of 4.930V.

The 16-Pin 12VHPWR used in the graphics card has also been documented to maintain its operating voltage at 12.417V max ~ 12.278V min.

∆ OCCT Software Stress Test 20 min.

 

Next, AIDA64 FPU + FurMark, which is commonly used to test the stability and temperature of processors and graphics cards, was used to conduct a high-load stress test by double-baking both software programs at the same time, while HWiNFO 64 was used to view the information provided by the motherboard loop chip and record the data.

After twenty-five minutes of testing, the +12V was maintained at 12.096V max ~ 12.072V min, and the +5V was maintained at 4.94V max ~ 4.93V min.

∆ AIDA64 FPU + FurMark software stress test and data collected during the test.

∆ 12VHPWR Wire Voltage.

 

Barebones Thermal Imager Thermal Dissipation Observation

The FLIR ONE PRO Thermal Imaging Camera was used to observe the temperature of the Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 PSU cables during the burn-in test on the bare test bed for your reference.

The 90-degree vertical 12VHPWR wire of the ∆GX III GOLD 1050 was tested at a process temperature of 43.1 °C. The temperature of the ∆GX III GOLD 1050 is the same as that of the ∆GX III GOLD 1050.

∆ CPU power supply cable is 43.8 °C.

∆ Maximum temperature is 39.3 °C at the power supply outlet cooling surface and 38.9 °C at the heat source point above the power supply.

 

Conclusion

The Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 is labeled as Intel ATX 3.0 compliant, 80 PLUS GOLD and CYBENETICS PLATINUM certified, and comes with a 10-year warranty. These specifications basically meet the needs of high-end hardware in the current market. The price in Taiwan is NT$6,290, and if the PC demand is higher, there is also a 1250 W option; if you want to save some budget, you can lower it to 750 W and 850 W to make a choice.

The biggest feature of the product: 90 degree vertical 12VHPWR braided cable, a single cable can provide 600 W power supply limit even with RTX 4090 can be used without any worry, as to how to install the cable depends on how the graphics card power supply slot is set up, for example, the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT graphic card that the author tested this time is 4-Pin on the top, the cable has to go over the top of the graphic card backplane. For example, the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT graphics card that I tested this time is a 4-Pin card on the top, and the cable has to go across the top of the back panel of the graphics card. However, there are a few graphics card power supply slots that are upside down (for example, ASUS), and you can go up from the bottom of the entire cable hole to the top of the cable to make it look good, but if the graphics card is displayed in an upright position, then the MSI direction would be more suitable.

In the latest Intel specification, 12V is allowed to have a certain offset value (+5% to -7%) of the actual 12V voltage due to the characteristic of POWER EXCURSION, i.e., the lowest actual voltage value of the 12V circuit should not be lower than 11.20V; and the highest value should not be higher than 12.60V, the GX III GOLD The GX III GOLD 1050 complied with this standard during testing.

But as for the vertical cable bending issue in recent months, at least the Cooler Master GX III Gold 1050 is sold as a single unit, so if there is a problem, at least there won't be a situation where the graphics card manufacturer decides that it's a cable problem, and then the cable manufacturer doesn't offer a warranty, and if it does happen, at least Cooler Master won't be able to shirk some of the responsibility.