Enermax Revolution 85+ High Efficiency PSU
by Christoph Katzer on November 6, 2008 4:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Temperatures, Fan Speed, and Acoustics
The high efficiency means that this power supply needs to dissipate less heat, which is icing on the cake. The temperatures on both heatsinks are so low that you could practically run this PSU fanless. Once we hit 100% load, temperatures start to increase, but we don't expect very many users to come anywhere near that point. What's interesting is that fan speed begins to ramp up faster than temperatures, and in fact the temperature graphs drop between the 80% and 100% load marks. Still, better safe than sorry. As for the exhaust temperature, it's very close to the heatsink temperatures, so the heatsinks and fan are doing a good job of getting heat out of the power supply.
As we saw in the temperature graph, fan speed begins to ramp up at around a 500W/50% load. It spins at 750 RPM up until the 50% mark, at which point fan speed ramps up linearly until the maximum 1500-1600 RPM at 100% load.
Noise levels for the first half of the graph are extremely low, but unfortunately noise increases rapidly with fan speed beyond that point. This is a real pity, since the heatsinks aren't even that hot and it certainly would be possible to run the fan at a lower speed. The starting point of 18dB(A) is not something you will even notice, and we couldn't hear any ticking noises either (something we have seen in non-PWM controlled fans). However, the final output of 29dB(A) definitely doesn't qualify as being silent. The good news is that you can use this power supply up to a load of around 800W and still have an acceptable amount of noise, which is sufficient for even triple SLI systems -- and those will create plenty of noise just from the graphics cards. Truthfully, for a unit delivering over 1100W of power, 29dB(A) is not at all something we would call a poor result.
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houe - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
Seems odd to have a "efficient" 1000 watt computer. If you care about low power I doubt you'll be putting a 1000 watt supply in your rig. Any computer that consumes 200 watts at idle is probably not a computer you'll want to run 24/7 so the efficiency probably isn't going to matter too much. That being said it still seems like a cool power supply.Rezurecta - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
Thank you for the dumbest comment ever.MadMan007 - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
I don't think it was dumb and certainly not the dumbest comment ever. He asked why they start at 800W (should have said 850W but whatever) and he's right about the real power draw of systems. Having super high power PSUs is fine but I'd love to see efficiency like this starting with a 400-500W unit not 850W. A mega-PC is going to draw lots of power anyway. The 82+ line does fill the lower power draw range, maybe that's why they started this higher, but that doesn't make the question dumb.Christoph Katzer - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
People just need to understand that at the moment it's just still too expensive to build units around this wattage that have 90%+ efficiency. You don't wanna pay $150 for a 500W PSU because you can run your normal one for years and ending up with the same price.MadMan007 - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
Fair enough, at least that's a reason and not saying 'dumb comment' :) The 82+ line is nearly as efficient and does have some low power options so Enermax may feel they already have that segment filled.Over time the design changes that increase efficiency should trickle down yea?
Rezurecta - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
That was for iwodoThe0ne - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
I'm not sure you know what YOU'RE talking about making that comment to Iwodo, unless of course you prefer to stick to your configuration that requires more than 850W. In which case, carry on.700W for my configuration.
IP35 Pro with Q6600@3.2GHz, 4Gig, 9800GX2, 2 DVDRW, 5 Hard Drives, 6 internal Fans for the case, misc USB devices
So I don't know about you but I think his question is very valid. The dumbest I think would be someone who came up with the question afterward not thinking more about what the other person was addressing.
legoman666 - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link
Lol, you're out of your mind if you think your system uses anywhere near 700w. Buy a Kill-A-Watt and report back some real usage numbers. I imagine it's closer to 300-350w @ full load.gochichi - Monday, November 10, 2008 - link
I know right? I've been "bad" and left my little Inspiron 530 with the power supply that came with it and I'm running a Radeon 4850 (fairly power hungry, but not wacko hungry) in it and it runs perfectly. At most it's rated at 350W and it's a Quad-core system with some other goodies.The way I see it, burning DVDs, playing Blu-rays, playing games are some of the most energy consuming things you can do. However, you do either one or the other. I'm sure my system would have power issuues if I played Crysis, burned DVDs and watched a blu-ray all at one time. But you know what? My system, though it's beefy can't handle those things at one time anyway, so who cares.
This powersupply is super nice though. Over the top? Yes. But it's so nice it just doesn't matter. This guy is for systems running Raptors and X-fire and all that stuff. Even if you're not running that stuff though, it's perfectly quiet at loads of 500W or below. So even when you're not pushing it, it's still classy. It's like a Corvette cruising at 65MPH, it's still awesome.
Big thumbs up to this power supply. Expensive junk is bad, but really good stuff for $300.00 is alright by me. Not for me, but if you own it... I'm kind of jealous.
The people at the top end have to have a power supply, and I think this is it for them.
The0ne - Friday, November 7, 2008 - link
The 9800GX2 video card alone already requires a minimum of 580W. How am I out of my mind for paying heed to the requirements? Do you mean to implied that I'm a sucker for believing all power supply ratings and I should instead do my own measurements when finding a power supply? Tell me, do you do this when selecting your own components?The only reason I bought the 700W was because my Nfinity 600W was not efficient enough to run the system after I installed the video card. So while the power efficiency might be low, I still need a ADVERTISED power supply of 700W+
Maybe you're psychic?