Date:
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Enermax ECO80+ 620W Power Supply Review

Enermax produces some of the best computer power supplies in the world and has a great reputation for doing just that. We take a look at what Enermax does when it gets green and drops the price point for those of us on an enthusiast system building budget with the ECO80+ at 620 watts.

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Load Testing

For those of you that are curious as to some of the reasoning and equipment behind our PSU testing program here at HardOCP, we have put together a living document that shares a lot of the behind the scenes of the program. The testing we are conducting today is exactly as described in that document and will begin with a range of loads tested at 120v input including our torture test and then move on to the same set of tests at 100v input but without the torture test.

120v Load Testing Results

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Test #1 is equal to approximately 25% of the rated capacity of the ECO80+ 620W at 45C. This makes Test #1 equal to 177W by loading the 12v rails to a combined 12a, the 5v rail to 2a, the 3.3v rail to 1a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. The results of Test #1 show the DC output voltages all starting off above nominal with the 12v rails being the highest at above 12.3v. The unit’s efficiency is starting off well at 82.71% with an exhaust temperature of 46C. Interestingly, the PF is starting off a bit low at 0.96.

Test #2 is equal to approximately 50% of the rated capacity of the ECO80+ 620W at 45C. This makes Test #2 equal to 332W by loading the 12v rails to a combined 24a, the 5v rail to 3a, the 3.3v rail to 2a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #2 sees across the board drops in the DC output voltages lead by 12v1 with a total change of 0.08v. The efficiency has moved up here in Test #2 and now comes in at 84.48% with an exhaust temperature of 50C.

Test #3 is equal to approximately 75% of the rated capacity of ECO80+ 620W at 45C. This makes Test #3 equal to 484W by loading the 12v rails to 36a, the 5v rail to 5a, the 3.3v rail to 3a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #3 sees another across the board drop in DC output voltages lead by 12v1. However, the 5v rail has shed 0.06v as well which is significant. The efficiency has moved off of Test #2's high as it hits 83.16%. The exhaust temperature has moved up slightly to 52C and the PF stays level at 0.98.

Test #4 is equal to approximately 100% of the rated capacity of the ECO80+ 620W at 45C. This makes Test #4 equal to 624W by loading the 12v rails to 48a, the 5v rail to 4a, the 3.3v rail to 3a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. In the final regular test we see the 12v1 rail drop by 0.11v while the other rails drop slightly or stay the same (3.3v). The efficiency has dropped to 81.36% with an exhaust temperature of 55C.

120v Load Testing Summary

The 120v load testing results for the Enermax ECO80+ 620W were good all around and surprisingly better than the Liberty Eco 620W's but similar to the MODU82+ 625W's. The voltage regulation was better on the 12v rails as they dropped by 0.26V compared to 0.31v for the Liberty Eco. The efficiency was better as it ranged from 81.63% to 84.48% which just edged out the Liberty Eco. These results are interesting as these units are just about identical and do perform closely to one another with a slight edge to the ECO80+ across the board. Let's move on to the 100v and see if that pattern continues.