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
Temperatures
Room Temperature
During the room temperature test the temps of the heatsinks is very low. At only 50°C on the secondary heatsink and 40°C on the primary it is definitely a good result. This has a lot to do with the fan, which begins increasing its rotational speed rapidly at loads above 50%. The heatsink design helps as well, as it leaves enough air so that components under it can be cooled as well.
Fan Speed
Room Temperature
The curves of the two different ambient temperatures look similar; they only differ in maximum speed and the point at which the fan starts rotating faster. At room temperature fan speed starts ramping up at around 40% of load (around 250W). The curve then goes steadily up to its highest point of almost 2000 RPM. With higher ambient temperature the fan starts to spin faster at 30% load which is an approximate 190W. We measured a difference of about 250 RPM between the two ambient temperatures.
Acoustics
Room Temperature
The two tests at room temperature and high temperature show clear differences in terms of noise levels. We measured 5dB(A) more under high temperatures when the fan was spinning 250 RPM faster. Enermax doesn't make a big deal about noise levels and has always stated that they prefer to have a well-performing power supply which can only be done by a fan that actually moves enough air through the housing. Enough air means that the fan needs to spin at higher speeds, and that means it will produce more noise. In comparison to some of the higher power units we've looked at the Liberty does quite well at being quiet; then again, it's only providing a maximum of 500W vs. 850W on some of the units we've tested.
Room Temperature
During the room temperature test the temps of the heatsinks is very low. At only 50°C on the secondary heatsink and 40°C on the primary it is definitely a good result. This has a lot to do with the fan, which begins increasing its rotational speed rapidly at loads above 50%. The heatsink design helps as well, as it leaves enough air so that components under it can be cooled as well.
Fan Speed
Room Temperature
The curves of the two different ambient temperatures look similar; they only differ in maximum speed and the point at which the fan starts rotating faster. At room temperature fan speed starts ramping up at around 40% of load (around 250W). The curve then goes steadily up to its highest point of almost 2000 RPM. With higher ambient temperature the fan starts to spin faster at 30% load which is an approximate 190W. We measured a difference of about 250 RPM between the two ambient temperatures.
Acoustics
Room Temperature
The two tests at room temperature and high temperature show clear differences in terms of noise levels. We measured 5dB(A) more under high temperatures when the fan was spinning 250 RPM faster. Enermax doesn't make a big deal about noise levels and has always stated that they prefer to have a well-performing power supply which can only be done by a fan that actually moves enough air through the housing. Enough air means that the fan needs to spin at higher speeds, and that means it will produce more noise. In comparison to some of the higher power units we've looked at the Liberty does quite well at being quiet; then again, it's only providing a maximum of 500W vs. 850W on some of the units we've tested.
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26 Comments
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meeshu - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Disappointing once again to note lack of ripple data despite indication in the "Test Methodology" that ripple details would be provided for PSU reviews.Voltage output with increasing load is one consideration; cleanliness of voltage (ripple) is another issue.
poohbear - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
hey can u guys review corsair's HX620/HX520 psu? They're supposed to be kickass and im just curious how they'd rate compared to the psus u've reviewed. Thanks and keep these great reviews coming!wolfman3k5 - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
I'm sure that when they'll run out of stuff to write about (again), there will be a review about Corsair 520HX/620HX. Or maybe 2 years from now, who knows. They never wrote a review about the Enermax Liberty either back when it was "cool" to own one. Like I've said before, they do write PSU reviews only when they run out of stuff to write about.Cheers.
Bozo Galora - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
It is precisely because of unneccessarily nasty angry posts like this, that, after 8 years, I dont post on AT forums anymore, and haven't for about 4 months so far. I just visit for the articles now. However, it seems I cant even escape this immature trash talk even in the review comments.I have been a member of many forums - ars, Hardforum, abxzone, i4memory, xbit, techreport, xtremesys etc., all for the most part friendly co-operative back and forth type situations there. But only on AT do we see the anal retentive crowd post again and again what they dont seem to understand is hurtful (to the staff in this case).
Well, I like the PSU reviews, and if I were a mod, I would ban you permanently in a heartbeat. And if you like jonny guru so much - then go to his site, and keep your big mouth shut here.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
Thanks - I'm sure Christoph appreciates your comment!As for the reviews, you may have noticed that we didn't do ANY PSU reviews for a long time. Christoph is a new addition who is busily cranking out reviews. As with pretty much all of our content, we review what we're sent, and when people asked for some more reasonable PSUs he reviewed an Enermax Liberty 500W. There are, unfortunately, only so many hours in a day and so many PSUs in the lab, so I am not aware that Christoph has a 520W HX to review. Maybe he'll get one in the near future, maybe Corsair will send him something else, maybe they won't send units to Europe and we'll never get a review of one done. At some point, though, we need to establish a starting point and move forward, and that's what we're doing.
wolfman3k5 - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
You all might wanna check out jonnyguru.com for a decent PSU review...yyrkoon - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
I own, and think I would still prefer to own my Antec EA500 for much less. I keep hearing people putting Antec down for shoddy PSUs, but I own this EA500, and previously an Antec 450 SL, and have nothing but positive things to say about either. One of my friends however does sware by Enermax PSU's, but I think if I were to pay this much for a 2 year old(outdated) PSU, I think I would just pony up the extra for a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V(they are only another $40 usd . . .).Efficiency is one thing, and rock solid rails are another . . . We all know (or should) that Antec usually makes a decent PSU, Enermax does make a decent PSU, and that PC P&C(Seasonic) makes the best. Granted, anyone can put out a lemon(and sometimes that lemon is part of a 'run' that are all lemons).
piroroadkill - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
The "Lemons" you refer to are pretty much all of the Antec TruePower and SmartPower PSUs due to their use of fuhjyyu capacitors on the secondary side - they have a pretty much complete failure rate - I personally own 4 antec truepower II powersupplies and so far I've opened two, and so far both have had this problem, and I'm not even slightly aloneyyrkoon - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
Actually, then lemons I refer to happen with ALL namebrands, and why you would purchase a known bad PSU based on its capacitors is un-bewknownst to me ...Spikke - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
I have the 620w Liberty and have owned it for nearly 2 years now. It started out on a Gigabyte K8N SLI-Pro, 4200+ X2, 150gb Raptor, 500gb Caviar, and 2x 7800GTX in SLI. It's now powering my new rig just fine Gigabyte P35-DS3R, E6850, 150gb Raptor, 2x 500gb Caviar, and a 8800GTX. It was a great purchase and I have not had a single complaint or problem with it in nearly 2 years. I would definitily not hesitate to buy another Enermax psu.