Enermax 460w Power Supply - Articles / Reviews

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Enermax 460w Power Supply

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Maxpoint
Apr. 24, 2003

Introduction

Enermax has been producing top of the line computer parts for 10 years. Every time they release a product, you can expect great functionality and quality. Besides computer cases, one of their main markets is Power Supplies. Enermax has some of the best PSUs right now, and today we have a 460 Watt high end power supply courtesy of Enermax.

Included Items

Enermax includes a power cord, 3 to 4-pin pass through connector, mounting screws and a few stickers with the Enermax logo. The 3 to 4-pin connector is for the exhaust fan, which we will get to in the next section.

The Product

This power supply is meant to be very quiet while providing a great deal of power. At 460 watts, this thing is a beast.

The main housing of the power supply isn't much different in most respects, but there are two features that are worth noting. First off is the 92mm fan on the bottom of the PSU. Most power supplies have either one or two 80mm fans, but Enermax has gone a bit further by putting an 80mm and a 92mm. The 92mm fan is clear, while the 80mm is black. Both of the fans are quiet fans that are controlled by thermal sensors. One sensor is located within the PSU, while the other is outside on a little wire. This way it can monitor both the heat generated inside the PSU along with how hot the case is.

The fan grills are unique too, as they have a gold look (probably copper material) which catches your eye. Although when's the last time you've shown off the butt-end of your computer?

One pretty nifty thing is that the exhaust fan is not controlled from within the PSU. There is a 3-pin connector outside of the PSU that you can connect to your motherboard, a rheostat, or a speed monitoring device. You may not care to control or monitor the fan, so Enermax decided to throw in a 3 to 4-pin pass through connecter. This way you can connect it to a 4-pin molex connection and have the fan run at full speed all the time. When set up this way, the power supply was still quiet.

The Wires

Included with this PSU are several connections, allot more than any PSU I've ever seen. Here is a simple list of what connections there are:

9 4-pin molex
2 4-pin floppy
1 ATX power
1 AUX power
1 12v power
1 3-pin fan connector

The ATX power wires and the wires containing the AUX power and 12v power are both covered with copper sleeving under a clear tube. This helps reduce EMI, keeps the wires together and helps the overall airflow of the case, but since it is so tightly wound, it is hard to bend the wires.

The Inside

I took a look inside this PSU expecting the same old aluminum heat sinks used in almost every other power supply out there. To my surprise, Enermax decided to use copper heat sinks! Also notice how clean and organized the inside is. Wires are grouped together with plastic tubes and zip-ties. Oh what a joy these things are to me, because it just goes to show how much care Enermax puts into their products. Along with the thick wires, and 92mm fan, the inside of this PSU is built well.

Testing

Now to test the PSU, the main thing we are looking for is how close the actual voltages are to the required voltages to run your computer components. The standards are 3.3v, 5v, and 12v. A 5% margin of error is probably the most any PSU should provide.

Test Rig Specs

AMD Athlon 1.4 GHZ CPU
BIOSTAR M7VIG Motherboard
512 pc2100 DDR RAM
Geforce 3 Ti200
ATI TV Wonder
SB Live 5.1
Lite-On 16x DVD ROM
40 gig 7200 rpm Seagate Hard Drive

To test the voltages we are running Motherboard Monitor 5. We will first run the test with the computer idle. Here is a chart of the voltages:

Idle test
As you can tell by the chart, all the voltages are very close to the required voltage. Now we need to make sure the PSU provides the correct voltages under stress. With the stress test, we will be running Unreal 2, Scan disk, PowerDVD, and rendering with 3D Studio Max. Here is the chart of the computer under stress:

Stress test
As you can tell, there was hardly any difference. Even under stressed conditions, this power supply holds up well.

Conclusion

Enermax has unleashed yet another great product that provides great power with quality construction and helpful features. For being as powerful as it is, this PSU is very quiet, even under loaded conditions. With great care taken into heat dissipation, such as copper heat sinks and two fans (80mm and 92mm), it isn't surprising why Enermax is one of the most trusted companies for power supplies. I can't really think of anything bad to say about this power supply...

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