![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Navigation
Install the app
How to install the app on iOS
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
More options
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Enermax PRO82+
- Thread starter backwoods
- Start date
BillParrish
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
- Messages
- 7,519
I do not care for ENERMAX due to an issue I had several years ago in a batch of cases+power supplies I used in a customer build and have not looked at them since. Your question made me look up a review.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/551/10
Overall a decent review covering the internal build and with decent testing methods. Since your concern is the noise and ripple lets summarize the above.
ATX spec 12V is 120mV - unit tested at 50mV
ATX spec 5 and 3.3 is 50mV - 13.2 mV at +5 V and 9.4 mV at +3.3 V
As the article mentioned some other units tested better. I personally like to see very low noise and ripple as in most instances it is an indication of the quality of the overall design, you cannot make a crappy supply with good noise and ripple figures. On the other hand you can make a very good supply and trade off some noise and ripple for other things. This is what I think happened here. The output filtering components are all there and of good/excellent quality so it seems to me (all I can do is guess without a circuit schematic) that moderate amounts of noise and ripple where deemed acceptable as a trade off in the very high efficiency the supply demonstrates and they are still at worst less than 1/2 of max per the spec. Couple of years ago these values would have been considered excellent. It is only the last generation or two that we have started to see supplies with the very very "quiet" outputs.
Good build quality
outstanding efficiency
was tested at 50C with excellent power output results
was tested at 50C and internal temps where only a few deg above ambient (cooling works well)
noise and ripple 1/2 of spec, there are better but that all in all is not bad.
So I think I need to not automatically say "no" to an enermax supply. I agree completely with the reviewer, it all boils down to the price you can get one at. At $100 I would be looking at Corsair just because I have experience with them and know what I am getting etc. etc. But if I could find one of these for $80 I might give it a try.
So no IMO the noise and ripple are certainly not "bad" well within spec and the efficiency seems very good and most of my customers run their machines 24x7 so it does add up.
Another thing is that a good motherboard VRM is going to remove a lot of that noise and ripple so it should not get to the CPU. If I was going to use that supply with a $50 PC chips board (lol if they are still in business) I might be mildly concerned but would just buy a better board.
Someone who had actually bought/used one of these will certainly have a better take on it but IMO the review has many more positives, no negatives and the noise/ripple is acceptable so I don't count is as a pro or a con and it all falls back to what you can get the thing for.
I did not like this and frankly it worries me more than the ripple.
Soooo. is it a power supply or an arc welder ?
That is a show stopper for me. The protection circuity is not (or should not IMO) be designed to save the power supply, it should be (IMO) designed to save components the power supply is connected to. So I am not impressed the power supply did not blow up, thats not the point, if there is a short or board failure I want the OC and OV stuff to kick in so I have some chance of saving the CPU and video card. So as I write this I even more change my mind - This is unacceptable and makes it a "no buy for me" at any price.
Hows that for a susprise ending ? All based off of one review so take with a grain of salt.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/551/10
(below 20 mV on +12 V outputs, while on the reviewed power supply noise level at +12 V outputs were around 50 mV during test number five). But the results were not bad at all: 50.2 mV at +12V1 input from our load tester, 51.8 mV at +12V2 input from our load tester, 13.2 mV at +5 V and 9.4 mV at +3.3 V. Just to remember, all values are peak-to-peak voltages and the maximum allowed set by ATX standard is 120 mV for +12 V and 50 mV for +5 V and +3.3 V.
Overall a decent review covering the internal build and with decent testing methods. Since your concern is the noise and ripple lets summarize the above.
ATX spec 12V is 120mV - unit tested at 50mV
ATX spec 5 and 3.3 is 50mV - 13.2 mV at +5 V and 9.4 mV at +3.3 V
As the article mentioned some other units tested better. I personally like to see very low noise and ripple as in most instances it is an indication of the quality of the overall design, you cannot make a crappy supply with good noise and ripple figures. On the other hand you can make a very good supply and trade off some noise and ripple for other things. This is what I think happened here. The output filtering components are all there and of good/excellent quality so it seems to me (all I can do is guess without a circuit schematic) that moderate amounts of noise and ripple where deemed acceptable as a trade off in the very high efficiency the supply demonstrates and they are still at worst less than 1/2 of max per the spec. Couple of years ago these values would have been considered excellent. It is only the last generation or two that we have started to see supplies with the very very "quiet" outputs.
Good build quality
outstanding efficiency
was tested at 50C with excellent power output results
was tested at 50C and internal temps where only a few deg above ambient (cooling works well)
noise and ripple 1/2 of spec, there are better but that all in all is not bad.
So I think I need to not automatically say "no" to an enermax supply. I agree completely with the reviewer, it all boils down to the price you can get one at. At $100 I would be looking at Corsair just because I have experience with them and know what I am getting etc. etc. But if I could find one of these for $80 I might give it a try.
So no IMO the noise and ripple are certainly not "bad" well within spec and the efficiency seems very good and most of my customers run their machines 24x7 so it does add up.
Another thing is that a good motherboard VRM is going to remove a lot of that noise and ripple so it should not get to the CPU. If I was going to use that supply with a $50 PC chips board (lol if they are still in business) I might be mildly concerned but would just buy a better board.
Someone who had actually bought/used one of these will certainly have a better take on it but IMO the review has many more positives, no negatives and the noise/ripple is acceptable so I don't count is as a pro or a con and it all falls back to what you can get the thing for.
I did not like this and frankly it worries me more than the ripple.
We could also complain that over power (OPP) and over current (OCP) protections did not’t kick in as we expected, but since this power supply survived to our overload tests without burning we don’t think this is really an issue.
Soooo. is it a power supply or an arc welder ?
That is a show stopper for me. The protection circuity is not (or should not IMO) be designed to save the power supply, it should be (IMO) designed to save components the power supply is connected to. So I am not impressed the power supply did not blow up, thats not the point, if there is a short or board failure I want the OC and OV stuff to kick in so I have some chance of saving the CPU and video card. So as I write this I even more change my mind - This is unacceptable and makes it a "no buy for me" at any price.
Hows that for a susprise ending ? All based off of one review so take with a grain of salt.
Last edited:
The Pro82+ series is very good quality. If the price is right, it would be a good choice.
That would be wise, since Enermax makes some of the best PSUs on the market (especially when it comes to their higher-wattage stuff).So I think I need to not automatically say "no" to an enermax supply.
Your concerns are understandable, but realistically the average person wouldn't load the PSU up to a point where that would become a problem. And many other quality PSUs also lack true OCP (the Corsair HX520 and HX620 as an example).Soooo. is it a power supply or an arc welder ?
That is a show stopper for me. The protection circuity is not (or should not IMO) be designed to save the power supply, it should be (IMO) designed to save components the power supply is connected to. So I am not impressed the power supply did not blow up, thats not the point, if there is a short or board failure I want the OC and OV stuff to kick in so I have some chance of saving the CPU and video card. So as I write this I even more change my mind - This is unacceptable and makes it a "no buy for me" at any price.
PCP&C PSUs probably don't have any better OCP, considering they're based on the same design as the Corsair HX series PSUs I mentioned which also do not have OCP. In any case, chances are that your system won't consume enough power to make that a concern. Please post your full system specs and from that I'll be able to tell you if you need to worry about anything.should i be scared that enermax over power (OPP) and over current (OCP) protections did nott kick in .
would a pc power cooling silincer be safer choice.
BillParrish
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
- Messages
- 7,519
I think my point was missed, the protection circuity is not for the protection of the power supply and it does not matter what the PSU is powering. If your CPU voltage regulation circuity on the motherboard happened to fail causing a low resistance short the power supply would put out tons of current. Lots of smoke and a small fire to follow until the short melts and opens or the power supply does finally blow up or the AC circuit breaker pops. The protection is supposed to kick in to prevent any of that from happening and limit damage, to the power supply AND the other components. It not working is kinda like having an empty fire extinguisher in the kitchen. But these kinds of faults are rare. I have built over 100 machines some in service of 4+ years and never seen one happen. Typically the power supply just stops working or the board just stops working. Some further checking found that it is not uncommon for the protection circuity to be ineffective on many PC supplies. Some further explanation, I come from a telecommunications power supply design background and this kind of thing would have got me instantly fired (and I would have deserved it) . So I am perhaps more sensitive than most people. But why the hell have a circuit that does not work ? A 10 cent fuse in the +12 lines would be better. Anyway if you can get one cheap /shrug you could do a lot worse.
BTW going now to check [H]'s power supply testing methodology and see if the protection is tested, LOL as many reviews as I have read I honestly cannot recall because until lately it was all noise and ripple. Nice that the designs even in the lesser expensive units now have (mostly) acceptable values. It was not many years ago that most did not meet spec even with the CB stamp on the supply.
BTW going now to check [H]'s power supply testing methodology and see if the protection is tested, LOL as many reviews as I have read I honestly cannot recall because until lately it was all noise and ripple. Nice that the designs even in the lesser expensive units now have (mostly) acceptable values. It was not many years ago that most did not meet spec even with the CB stamp on the supply.
Last edited:
I suspect that in such a situation, the PSU does have protection that would kick in. Not having OCP that will be triggered by going a bit over the PSU's rated output is a completely different story from what you're talking about. Gabe only tested that PSU to a point where its ripple suppression was in spec, but that doesn't mean that there isn't still an OCP circuit that kicks in at more catastrophic levels.I think my point was missed, the protection circuity is not for the protection of the power supply and it does not matter what the PSU is powering. If your CPU voltage regulation circuity on the motherboard happened to fail causing a low resistance short the power supply would put out tons of current. Lots of smoke and a small fire to follow until the short melts and opens or the power supply does finally blow up or the AC circuit breaker pops. The protection is supposed to kick in to prevent any of that from happening and limit damage, to the power supply AND the other components. It not working is kinda like having an empty fire extinguisher in the kitchen. But these kinds of faults are rare. I have built over 100 machines some in service of 4+ years and never seen one happen. Typically the power supply just stops working or the board just stops working. Some further checking found that it is not uncommon for the protection circuity to be ineffective on many PC supplies. Some further explanation, I come from a telecommunications power supply design background and this kind of thing would have got me instantly fired (and I would have deserved it) . So I am perhaps more sensitive than most people. But why the hell have a circuit that does not work ? A 10 cent fuse in the +12 lines would be better. Anyway if you can get one cheap /shrug you could do a lot worse.