Once again the guys from Microplex has been asking us if we wanted to test a "state of the art" component (read the Addtronics 7896A review here) : the supersilent Enermax EG451P-V FM power supply which pumps out 430Watts / 15Amps on the +12Volt outlet !

Our converted Addtronics/VapoChill system (BD50F) which have a CreativeLabs GeForce2 and a raidsolution (3 HDD's running stripe0) with a PIII600e fc-pga (AbitBE6-2 mainboard) running at 912MHz* can without no doubt be classified as a pretty powerhungry system. This VapoChill BD50F compressor alone pulls out 112Watts (~9.1Amperes) from the 12V outlet with a 3Watt Pabst 120mm condenser fan running at 3500 rpm.

*(The Promise Fasttrak66 controller is quite sensible regarding high pci speeds - this PIII600e accelerated in VapoChill runs stable at a whooping 1025MHz- go here to see the results - when we use a single Fujitsu MPD3064AT HDD UDMA33.)

We did run this system with a AOpen 300W powersupply and experienced some strange random reboots - we could never find the source who caused this,and frankly we never tought of the possibility that the powersupply could be the cause. But after we have had a conversation going on with Microplex they have learnt us a couple of things regarding powersupplies : Did you know that a good powersupply will cut off the power good signal (and reboot the pc) to protect the peripherals if the values exceeds certain  limits ? - we didn't since we never have paid any real attention to the powersupply ! We have just taken them for "granted" --- probably like most of you have done !

AOpen has delivered different powersupplies for their cabinets : our three HX08 cabinets all came with Fortron/Sparkle/Powerman supplies (FSP300-60GT) which according to Microplex is very good powersupplies. But Microplex also says that AOpen has delivered powersupplies that they wouldn't recommend at all.

We decided to put AOpens FSP300-60GT powersupply under test by using Winbond Hardware Doctor to monitor the voltages -- first of all we set up the voltage-tolerances to be very small before the alarm went off .
And then we let the system undergo all kinds of tests : SYSmark2000,3DMark2000,Quake3 looped and a couple of stability testers.
AOpens FSP300-60GT powersupply caused the alarm to go off with values anything smaller than 4-5% on most of the values.Probably these values is pretty good for a 300W powersupply serving such a powerconsuming system like this.

With the 430W Enermax EG451P-V the same values could be lowered to 1-2% before the alarm went off ! - and after 4 days we haven't experienced a single reboot which before would have caused at least one each day !

Fans and noise

There are two cooling fans : one 8cm and one 9cm fan,the 9cm fan at the lower picture even has a visible ball bearing to brag of.And we can assure you that this power supply is quiet - even the very quiet VapoChill compressor are loud compared to the noise this powersupply make.

Main Specifications for EG451P-V

(EG451P-V FM specifications marked with yellow dot)

Need a bunch of connectors (count yourself !) with lengthy cords ? : we needed extensions when we used AOpens FSP300-60GT (Fortron/Sparkle/Powerman supply) to reach the three HDD's which we have installed in the bottom of the converted Addtronics 7896A cabinet : and we asked Microplex if they would send extensions with the Enermax powersupply because of this.Well - we didn't need to use them at all with this powersupply ! This FM model have fan monitoring,overload protection and are equipped with a super noise killer that works. Meets Intel 2.01 & 2.03 version as well as K7 specifications regarding powersupplies.

We have no problems recommending this excellent powersupply despite it's relatively high price !  

For a in-depth article on power supplies visit Net Express : This quote is from their site :
Choosing the Best Quality ATX Power Supply:
"A final company worth review is Enermax who also makes good quality power supplies."

Thanks to Microplex  for giving us the opportunity to test Enermax EG451P-V FM !