Enermax Liberty 500w Modular PSU Review by NickS

[NickS]

Introduction
Well I had been pondering on the idea of a new PSU for a while now but never bit the bullet until recently. I wanted modular because of the wire management (and the lack of wires I use), and I wanted something a bit more powerful & efficient. So I looked around, read some reviews and settled on these three.

1. Silverstone Strider 600w
2. Corsair HX520w
3. Enermax Liberty 500w

I asked around and two of my good friends owned Liberties. One owned the 500w version, the other the 620w. They both said it was an awesome unit for the money and will power almost anything. I was tight on cash, so I went with the Enermax because it was the cheapest of the three. This will be my 3rd Enermax PSU and I've loved all my previous ones, so we'll see if this one lives up to the quality I've come to know and expect from Enermax.

Taking a Closer Look
I received the PSU today from Newegg, and tore open the shipping box quickly. I was greeted by this.



Quite a nice box, and if you've ever owned an Enermax PSU before you'll notice it's nicer and cleaner than the previous ones.



They included a lot of accessories. Power cable, 5x Screws, 2x Enermax Holographic Magnets, a Manual, product brochure, etc. Very nice package.



Taking my first look at the unit was like being in computer hardware heaven. It's one of the nicest looking PSU's (aesthetically) I've seen to date, and I've seen a lot. The paint job is just phenomenal! The unit features 1x 120mm fan covered by a beautiful gold Enermax grille.



The PSU bombards you with a plethora of colors. It's really quite a nice sight. I absolutely love the black/gold theme.



The back features a very breathable punched out honeycomb design. It has a standard on-off switch, and a power socket.



The modular interface of this PSU is really nice. It's spaced nicely, color coded and is keyed so it's impossible to misplace a plug which could lead to damaged hardware.



Looking at the label, you can see all the specifications of this PSU. They're quite impressive for "just" 500w!



I just had to show off the paint job to be honest. It's impeccable. Some people may think it's too "blingy" but I think it's just right.



The PSU uses the standard 20+4 Pin design for the ATX connector. The ATX connector is sleeved until about 2.5" to the end.



The PSU also has a 4+4 Pin design for the CPU power connector, my personal favorite. It also has a fan header so you can monitor the RPM of the 120mm fan.



The PSU's sleeving is different from the norm. It's a black/gold braided sleeve and looks really nice. All of the cables are sleeved until the first connector. While some may not like this, I don't mind it. It would be nice though, to see Enermax put forth that extra effort in the future to get the whole strand sleeved.



All of the cables included come in a nice Enermax Velcro pouch. This is a handy thing to include, especially if you only use two of the six cable strands included with the PSU. It'll keep them in one central spot and make them harder to loose.



The modular plugs go in gracefully yet tightly. They feel very secure and it'd be close to impossible to get them out without pressing on the tabs first.



The PSU comes with three rubbery caps to cover your unused modular connectors. I'm guessing this is to prevent dust and debris from building up.

Testing
For testing, I let the PC idle at desktop. Then I measured the rails with a Radio Shack 15-Mode Digital DMM and measured wattage with a Kill-A-Watt. I repeated this while running Dual Orthos, and Dual Orthos + 3DMark 2003. I chose 3DMark 2003 because it is the most GPU reliant of the four 3DMarks.

System Config
3800+ X2 AM2 @ 2.8GHz 1.63v
DFI Infinity NF UltraII-M2 modded to SLi w/Evercool VC-RE
2x1GB G.Skill 1GBGA DDR2-667 @ 940MHz, 4-4-4-12 @ 2.3v
2x XFX 7600GT "xXx" 590/1600 Stock
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 w/16MB Cache
Lite-On 16x SATA DVD Burner
AquaXtreme 50z DC Pump
2x Yate Loon 120MM @ Front & Back
3x Panaflo M1A 120MM, 7v @ Rad
1x Lian Li 120MM @ Side
1x Protechnic Electric 80MM @ PWM
2x OCZ 60MM @ XTC Fan Cooler
1x Evercool 50MM @ Chipset
3x 12" CCFL's, 2x Inverters
Enermax Liberty 500w


Idle






Orthos



I took a picture of wattage here. Voltages will be shown later.

Orthos + 3DMark 2003





Further Measurements (While running above test)



Left, amps drawn. Right, power factor.

Conclusion



As you can see, while the wattage went up the rails stayed very very stable. This impressed me thoroughly. It's a $104 Shipped (Newegg.com) modular PSU that is SLi compatible, has 8x SATA, 8x Molex, 2x PCI-E 16x, 8p/4p, and 24p connectors. It's an extremely future-ready PSU with enough connectors for ANYONE.

I highly recommend it to anybody looking for an amazing PSU. It's cheap enough for people on a tight budget, and good enough for people who can afford more expensive PSU's. There is also a 620w version for you people with 8800GTS SLi, etc.

For me, this PSU gets a score of 8.5/10 or a solid 85%.

Pro's
+Amazing Rail Stability
+Silence
+Size (SMALL!)
+1/2 Sleeved Cables
+Modular
+Good Packaging
+High Efficiency

Con's
-1/2 Sleeved Cables
-A tad pricey for some

Thanks for reading this review, and I can't wait to read all of your comments.