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
Inside - Primary Side
Looking down on the PCB there is nothing really special about it since it's a pretty typical design. Enermax placed the transient filter stage at the side of the PCB located next to the exiting air. Most of the filtering is done on a separate PCB with capacitors and coils. Two black and white colored cables pass the electricity through a fuse to the primary side.
Even though things may look a little disorganized, the components are doing their job. The rectifier bridge has its own little metal cooler since it will produce heat. It sits directly between the two big coils, making slight contact with the one on the right. On the left side we can find the PFC IC which as usual is on a separate PCB. We found a chip on this PCB manufactured by Texas Instruments called UCC3817AN, which combines PFC and PWM control into one chip. The PWM control stabilizes the DC outputs that are then passed to the components later. Combining these two chips is pretty typical for modern power supplies; if they're not combined the chip for the PWM control is usually located on the secondary side and will then have the protection functions for the rails integrated instead.
Looking down on the PCB there is nothing really special about it since it's a pretty typical design. Enermax placed the transient filter stage at the side of the PCB located next to the exiting air. Most of the filtering is done on a separate PCB with capacitors and coils. Two black and white colored cables pass the electricity through a fuse to the primary side.
Even though things may look a little disorganized, the components are doing their job. The rectifier bridge has its own little metal cooler since it will produce heat. It sits directly between the two big coils, making slight contact with the one on the right. On the left side we can find the PFC IC which as usual is on a separate PCB. We found a chip on this PCB manufactured by Texas Instruments called UCC3817AN, which combines PFC and PWM control into one chip. The PWM control stabilizes the DC outputs that are then passed to the components later. Combining these two chips is pretty typical for modern power supplies; if they're not combined the chip for the PWM control is usually located on the secondary side and will then have the protection functions for the rails integrated instead.
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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 !