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- Date:
- Friday , April 13, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Enermax Galaxy DXX Series PSU
Enermax is one of the better known names in the power supply industry, but does their Enermax Galaxy DXX have what it takes to pass muster? Built to a different specification for dual 300 watt video cards??? I don't think you can buy those....yet.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Galaxy DXX is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The first thing we notice in the Galaxy DXX packaging is the absolutely huge amount of information the packaging contains, down to the fact the ink is vegetable oil based (I think ROHS may have gone a bit far here when the packaging is edible). Since the packaging of the Galaxy DXX contains such a large amount of information about our power supply we will break it down below in table form. Included on the box in all this information is an interesting table on the back that breaks down the efficiency of the unit as between 81% and 85%, sadly for our North American readers this appears to be at 230v as is documented in the user manual and reinforced later in our testing. Also prominently displayed on the box is that the Enermax Galaxy DXX is an "industrial design" rated to run at 50c 24/7.
Conspicuously absent from all the packaging and documentation is any form of SLI certification. A search of the SLIzone website also shows a lack of certification for any level of SLI. SLI certification though is not the be all and end all for a power supply, and quite frankly seems to not be as important as it once seemed as people routinely run SLI setups successfully on units not on NVIDIA’s list. That coupled with demonstrations Enermax has made with the unit and the inclusion of the Galaxy 1000W on the Crossfire Certification list, not to mention the seemingly tailored to R600 specifications of the Galaxy DXX, makes the loss of SLI certification more of a loss for NVIDIA then Enermax. I am certain that once the R600 Crossfire Certification list becomes available we will find the Galaxy DXX on that list as well.
As we see from the box information the Galaxy DXX is clearly geared towards extremely demanding systems and small servers. The unit has 900w of it's 1000w capacity available on the 5 12v rails that are divided up much differently than we are used to seeing from ATX12v power supplies. While this rail distribution could be quite confusing Enermax does a great job of disclosing the rail distribution in the included manual, which we will discuss below. We also see the unit is billed as being Quad CPU Quad Core Quintuple Graphics + 24 Drive ready. By the connector count it would seem this is indeed theoretically possible, however the practicality of such a setup for most users is questionable.
Included in the packaging is the Galaxy DXX itself, a box full of the modular cables, a pouch for those modular connectors, a set of screws, and a load of documentation. This unit more so than any other unit we have seen to date demanded a detailed user manual in order to properly understand the Galaxy DXX and Enermax did not disappoint. Included in the manual is the rail distribution, all the electrical specifications, warranty information, the decoding of the Power Guard feature (also found on the box), and pertinent information regarding this units specification compliance.
Most of the power supplies we evaluate at least pay lip service to the various iterations of the ATX12v specification. The Enermax Galaxy DXX however more closely follows the EPS design standard which results in a very different power supply, included in this is the minimum loading requirement. The minimum loading requirement is very important to keep in mind when using the Enermax Galaxy DXX and, briefly, means that if the system load is below 50w the units PowerGuard feature will sound an audible alarm and the unit may shutdown. If a user ignores this loading requirement it may result in an improper diagnosis of a faulty power supply.
The good news is all this information is documented in the Enermax Galaxy DXX's user manual, which is a must read for this unit.