The Enermax Liberty - Getting long in the tooth, but still worth a look
by Christoph Katzer on July 30, 2007 1:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cables and Connectors
The cables come in a very nice bag that can be store unused parts. On the front of the PSU we find the jacks where the cables connect. There are six black and two red jacks. The black ones are reserved for the peripheral devices like optical drives and hard disks. The two red jacks are marked PCI-E and are keyed so that only the right cable can be connected (in case the color of the jacks didn't already clue you in).
You cannot plug a wrong cable into any of the jacks because of the design. The black sockets have one of the six holes closed, making it impossible to accidentally insert one of the red cable connections. Likewise, the red sockets have notched corners on the top-center hole to prevent the use of a black cable. Some modular PSUs assume that color coding of the cable connections is sufficient, but Enermax takes the extra step to ensure that no mistakes will be made on the part of end users.
In our new edition of power supply there's a 6-pin PEG cable attached that can easily be transformed into an 8-pin PCI-E 2.0 connector. The GPU side has the standard 6-pin connector with two additional cables for use with newer graphics cards, while the other side that connects to the PSU is split into two cables. The red plug connects to the standard PCI-E power jack and the second connector gets additional power form one of the black jacks. The additional 12V power will thus be drawn from the second 12V rail. This is a very clever move since the second 12V rail will typically not be loaded as much and still has power to deliver. Also, by using up one of the black connections, there is one less cable for connecting devices like HDDs, DVDs, fans, etc. so hopefully the total power use will remain within the rated spec.
The cables are all long enough for average cases. The Molex connectors have a maximum length of 65cm and the SATA connectors reach 5cm less to 60cm. The difference on these cables is that the user will find SATA and Molex connectors together on each cable. Large full-tower cases or designs where the PSU is located on the bottom may have difficulty with the included cables, but for more typical cases the will work fine.
The cables come in a very nice bag that can be store unused parts. On the front of the PSU we find the jacks where the cables connect. There are six black and two red jacks. The black ones are reserved for the peripheral devices like optical drives and hard disks. The two red jacks are marked PCI-E and are keyed so that only the right cable can be connected (in case the color of the jacks didn't already clue you in).
You cannot plug a wrong cable into any of the jacks because of the design. The black sockets have one of the six holes closed, making it impossible to accidentally insert one of the red cable connections. Likewise, the red sockets have notched corners on the top-center hole to prevent the use of a black cable. Some modular PSUs assume that color coding of the cable connections is sufficient, but Enermax takes the extra step to ensure that no mistakes will be made on the part of end users.
In our new edition of power supply there's a 6-pin PEG cable attached that can easily be transformed into an 8-pin PCI-E 2.0 connector. The GPU side has the standard 6-pin connector with two additional cables for use with newer graphics cards, while the other side that connects to the PSU is split into two cables. The red plug connects to the standard PCI-E power jack and the second connector gets additional power form one of the black jacks. The additional 12V power will thus be drawn from the second 12V rail. This is a very clever move since the second 12V rail will typically not be loaded as much and still has power to deliver. Also, by using up one of the black connections, there is one less cable for connecting devices like HDDs, DVDs, fans, etc. so hopefully the total power use will remain within the rated spec.
The cables are all long enough for average cases. The Molex connectors have a maximum length of 65cm and the SATA connectors reach 5cm less to 60cm. The difference on these cables is that the user will find SATA and Molex connectors together on each cable. Large full-tower cases or designs where the PSU is located on the bottom may have difficulty with the included cables, but for more typical cases the will work fine.
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26 Comments
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swaaye - Saturday, August 4, 2007 - link
I've bought a few AX400s and an AX450. On the surface, they seem to be great PSUs. Very quiet with that 120 mm fan. I don't think they have very good efficiency. Newegg only says >65%. I would like to see a review of one of them as well.miahallen - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
A8N-SLI DeluxOpty 165 @ 2.5GHz
8800GTX @ 621/999
4x SATA2 HDD
Antec P180b
I bought the Liberty 500W about a year ago and it has served me very well. I am very picky about noise, so I swapped the fan for a low noise Yate Loon model...best change ever. Now I cannot hear it at all!!!
It's interesting you mention good reliability, there seems to be lots of unhappy users on forums around the web having had problems with the Liberty series (mostly the 620W version from my experiance). I also replaced my 500W 6mo after purchase, but not because it failed, it just developed a rattle that drove me crazy. Enermax was very prompt at replacing it with a brand new one! Speaking of failures, I have a good friend who bought the 620W on my recommendation, and his blew up last week?! Whoops! Anyhow, thanks for the great review, you've endulged my confidence in the investment I made :)
JarredWalton - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
So I'm not sure I understand... you bought the 500W and swapped the fan for a Yate Loon, but then the PSU developed a rattle and you got a new unit? I don't know what causes a rattle in a PSU, but usually it's the fan, which you had already replaced.... Since you had already opened it, wouldn't it have been easy to just fix the issue yourself? Or was there something else causing a rattle? (I'm also surprised any manufacturer would replace a PSU that you had opened to swap fans.)Anyway, one of the unfortunate aspects of PSUs is that a company can make an excellent product in one market and a lousy one in another. Sounds like the 500W Liberty might be great but the 620W has issues. I know I had a test system (from ABS) where a 620W failed during the two weeks of stress testing and benchmarks. They sent a replacement, which seemed to work fine, but long-term I couldn't say whether it was really stable.
xsilver - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
just goes to show that old psu's are not outdated by any means.its funny that psu's are one of the few (only?) components that dont drop massively in price years after release.
is there a review of the corsair hx520 in the works? thats the psu that most people seem to be recommending for higher end systems and I feel will be the benchmark for performance/value
Final Hamlet - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
What I am really longing for is the review of the new 1TB-F1 hard-drive by Samsung. Any ETA available?Thank you.
Le Québécois - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
Any chance you could review one of the newer Enermax model from the Galaxy or Infinity series?Great PSU reviews btw, keep them coming !