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- Date:
- Wednesday, April 16, 2008
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Enermax MODU82+ 625w
Enermax is a name that carries a lot of weight with enthusiasts and the company is stepping out with a new mid-wattage PSU that delivers 625 watts plus a whole lot of marketing claims. But what about good clean power? We find out.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the MODU82+ 625w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
If there is nothing else good to say about Enermax packaging you can always say you know exactly what you are getting inside the box. The MODU82+ box looks as if Enermax has printed the entire user manual on the outside of the box in various sections. Among this cornucopia of information, which covers all members of the MODU82+ family not just the 625w model we are looking at today, is the power table (reproduced below), the connector count, fan speed graph, and a number of marketing points. Among these is the use of what Enermax calls a "patented air-inlet with optimal aero-dynamical design reducing noisy air turbulence" or what everyone else calls a beveled edge.
Moving on, the packaging claims that the MODU82+ is 84-88% efficient, however these values are derived at 230v input as opposed to 115v that 80Plus tests units at. With that in mind we checked the 80Plus website and while the MODU82+ 525w is 80Plus certified (for the wonderfully colorful and thought invoking Climate Savers 2 level of efficiency) we don't find the MODU82+ 625w on the 80Plus website at the time of writing. However, a bit of looking around turns up this pdf on Enermax's global website indicating that the unit is indeed 80Plus certified and by the numbers on it should be a Climate Savers 2 unit.
Another of the bullet points of interest on the rear of the packaging indicates that the unit is SLI and CrossFireX ready. After a quick check of both the SLIZone website and the CrossFire website we find that none of the new MODU82+ models are currently certified for any level of SLI or CrossFire. These units are new to the market so this may just be a delay in getting the information updated on the needed pages as this unit should be capable of supporting at least some level of either SLI or CrossFireX as is indicated by the power label below.
Lastly, the MODU82+ like previous Enermax power supplies is covered by a 3 year warranty. While the is decent it is far behind the longer warranties we have become accustomed to seeing from the high end power supply brands over the last year or so.
The power label of the MODU82+ 625 shows a unit that has 96% of its output capacity available on the 12v rails totaling 50A. This an extremely large percentage of capacity on the 12v rails and should prove very useful with modern systems as they have become more 12v heavy in loading. At the same time, the rail distribution of the MODU82+ falls in line with other Enermax units we have seen to date in that all three 12v rails have a possible 25A available to them in any combination up to a total load of 50A. This should not be an issue but the layout of these rails seems a bit odd. 12v1 supports the motherboard and EPS/ATX connector and is allocated a total of 25A while 12v2 has 2 PCI-Express connectors which are allocated 25A. This 25A seems a bit high for the motherboard and ATX/EPS connector but it is not as odd as 12v3 which has 2 PCI-Express connectors, 6 Molex, and 9 SATA connectors while only getting 25A as well. While 25A means that one rail could draw 300w alone from the unit, a rail with 2 8 pin PCI-Express connectors (that are specified for a possible 150w each) added to all those remaining Molex and SATA connectors seems to be a less than ideal arrangement. This unit is just a 625w unit but users should pay close attention to the provided information when loading this unit so as to keep their SLI or CrossFire configurations on 12v2 if they have a large number of peripherals powered by Molex/SATA connectors.
Once we open the packaging of the MODU82+ we find the power supply itself, the modular cables, a pouch for those modular connectors, a set of screws, an Enermax case badge, and the documentation. Like previous Enermax power supplies the documentation that Enermax provides really is the star of the show. Included in the manual is the rail distribution (read this part), all the electrical specifications, warranty information, a rough guide for choosing a UPS, and pertinent information regarding this units specification compliance. On the UPS front it is important to note that while previous Enermax (and indeed other brands) discouraged the use of modified sine wave UPS systems the MODU82+ lists modified sine wave UPS systems as being compatible with this unit. As with previous Enermax reviews, if there is nothing else positive to say about the MODU82+ after this review it cannot be said enough that Enermax really does an outstanding job informing their customer about exactly what they purchasing.