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- Date:
- Thursday , July 02, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Enermax Liberty Eco 620W Power Supply
Enermax has been one of our favorite computer Power Supply Unit builders for many years. It has constantly driven quality products into the market place. Today we kick the tires on the Liberty to celebrate the upcoming 4th of July.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Enermax Liberty Eco 620W 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.
As has become almost customary from Enermax we see that the Enermax Liberty Eco 620W packaging contains almost as much information as most companies pack into their entire user manual. The plethora of information plastered upon this unit’s bruised creamy exterior covers all members of the Liberty Eco line and includes things like the power table (reproduced below), connector count (reproduced below), efficiency graph, fan speed graph, and a TON of marketing points. Among the things we find in this marketing information are a lot of nifty names for standard features but still a few points of interest. To begin with, like some of Enermax' other units (MODU82+ 625W and Infiniti 720W), this unit is rated at only 40c but shares the same advertised heavy duty components (especially capacitors) as other Enermax units. Further, we find that the unit is listed as being 80Plus certified but not SLI or CrossFire certified. This is also interesting as that while not listed as being certified for SLI or CrossFire, the Liberty Eco features the same forward looking 12pin proprietary connector found on the MODU82+ and other Enermax units. Now, given that the MODU82+ 625W is SLI certified I would expect that sometime in the future we will see the Liberty Eco become certified as well. Lastly, nowhere on the packaging is the warranty listed, however we find in the manual that the warranty length is listed as being 3 years. For a value oriented unit, this is not the same travesty that it is for enthusiast quality units and so we cannot really be too critical of this point today.
The power output and distribution for the Enermax Liberty Eco 620W is very interesting. To start with, the output specifications are very close to those posted by the MODU82+ 625W in a number of ways. While there is only a 5W difference in combined capacity between the two units, the 2 12v rails of the Liberty Eco 620W have a total capacity of 576W compared to the MODU82+ 625W's 3 12v rails totaling 600W. Moving on, the minor rails output capacities are identical between these two units and this is once more certainly sufficient for a unit in this market segment. The only gripe we would have with this unit so far would be the rail layout. The Liberty Eco 620W has 2 12v rails individually rated for 30A each. However, with this split we find that 12v1 houses all the peripheral connectors which isn't necessarily bad, but this means that 12v2 houses the highest draw connectors (EPS and 8 pin PCI-Express connectors excluding the two 8 pin PCI-Express connectors on 12v1) all by itself. Overall this should not be a problem now, but if Enermax' ambitious outfitting of this unit with a 12pin connector proves to be prescient, this could be problematic down the road.
Once we open the packaging of the Liberty Eco 620W 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. With previous Enermax power supplies the documentation that Enermax provided was really a high point for the units overall packaging. However this time, while including many items of information previously included, the current manual shipping with this unit is much abbreviated. Of important note, is that the 12v rail distribution is no longer listed but users still get most of 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 once more important to note that while previously Enermax (and indeed other brands) discouraged the use of modified sine wave UPS systems the Liberty Eco lists modified sine wave UPS systems as being compatible with this unit. With the new manual Enermax has certainly cut a few corners that are not in keeping with other Enermax units we have seen, so let's move now and see if this corner cutting carries over in other parts of today's review as well.