The Test: Enermax Liberty 500w powering WHAT?

[Gig4moller]

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I thought it would apply most here, and I dont want to make a new one for it, but..

I'm buying a new PSU this week, Im still unsure whether to get the 520 or 620w version from corsair. See my sig for specs, I'm currently using a antec smartpower 450w and I fear it's gonna fail pretty soonish.
What I want from a new psu is that it will be able to power penryn/barcelona together with a HD2900XT. Will the 520w handle this or should I spend some more on the 620? I personally think the 520w will do fine but one can never be sure enough :<

[NickS]

520w should be fine. 8800GTX = HD2900XT in power usage, probably a hair more.

Penryn will use less power than C2D (45nm).

So yeah, 520 shld be fine.

[YanBooth]

I would say spend the extra on the 620, I think it's worth it to have the insurance of having enough power no matter what.
Good luck.
-yan

[NickS]

If his budget allows, sure. Though, you seem to think bigger = better.. *glances at your sig.*

JK man, just pickin' on ya a bit.. though, your rig & PSU = case & point in this thread.

[YanBooth]

I was going to mention that I can't really talk in this thread because of that fact, but I bought my psu in the period when people were promoting high power PSU's.
I'm going to be sucking at least 100 watts on fan's alone when I get around to creating my custom case, plus two water cooling pumps, so its nice to have the insurance; this is why I said the 620w was worth the extra dough.
-Yan

[Gig4moller]

My budget does allow yeah, so I'll order the 620

[xlink]

Because it's stupid money. Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you need to blow it on stupid stuff.

Plus, the nice thing about this is, I now realize I'll never need a new PSU.

Future chip & GFX card designs will use less power. ATi has already vowed that R600 will be its last power chugging GPU they make, and future ones will be more efficient.

I think he's just saying it would be wise to drop the extra 30$ for a good 600W PSU over that 500W PSU...

and i happen to agree in that case.

but for me, your review has it's merits. it means I wont' need to buy a new PSU for my next video card and harddrive.

[apexracing]

The Enermax Liberty 500w isn't exactly a "bad" PSU, either. it's one of the few units that actually lives up to its claims reliably. I trust my Enermax more than any Thermaltake or those cheap 700w ones.

Perhaps it's one of those things, where if you try very hard to break it by over-stressing it, it can break but, by that time it's already done more than what most people expect of it.

Most people will judge a PSU by maximum amps on the rail or how many rails it has and the maximum wattage. But, can it reliably offer those maximum values? In most cases, I doubt it. This is where the Liberty seems to do its best, as an all-rounder. Don't over-stress it too often and it goes on for ages.

[xlink]

The Enermax Liberty 500w isn't exactly a "bad" PSU, either. it's one of the few units that actually lives up to its claims reliably. I trust my Enermax more than any Thermaltake or those cheap 700w ones.

Perhaps it's one of those things, where if you try very hard to break it by over-stressing it, it can break but, by that time it's already done more than what most people expect of it.

Most people will judge a PSU by maximum amps on the rail or how many rails it has and the maximum wattage. But, can it reliably offer those maximum values? In most cases, I doubt it. This is where the Liberty seems to do its best, as an all-rounder. Don't over-stress it too often and it goes on for ages.

ehh, enermax just takes 550-600W PSUs and underrates them...

[Jodiuh]

I know I've said this before, but a friend of mine ran an OCed e6600 and dual 8800 GTX w/ an Antec NEO HE 550.

[SPQQKY]

I almost got a PCP&C 750w, but I realized I'm quite happy and well within my needs with my Enermax 535w Whisper PSU.

[perkam]

I almost got a PCP&C 750w, but I realized I'm quite happy and well within my needs with my Enermax 535w Whisper PSU.

So nice for you !!!



Perkam

[SPQQKY]

So nice for you !!!



Perkam

Is that sarcasm or is it that you think I should have spent the $200? It's a lot of money for me, being divorced and with two kids, I honestly don't think I need the extra power.

[perkam]

Is that sarcasm or is it that you think I should have spent the $200? It's a lot of money for me, being divorced and with two kids, I honestly don't think I need the extra power.

Just playin :p

I get surprised at some of the comments made here and how they would sound when applied to other pieces of hardware

For example:

WOOT ! I get to keep my 1gb of Ram !!!

or perhaps

WOOT !! I get to keep my old cpu !!!

With every piece of hardware, the decision not to upgrade should be accompanied by a renewed confidence in the hardware's ability to handle future applications (be it hardware or software)..as the type with previous gen CPUs or GPUs being able to handle current games due to a driver update, or it is determined that a new game is heavily optimized and doesn't require an upgrade.

This applies to PSUs as well...only when you are confident that the current hardware can handle future hardware in the near future should a decision not to upgrade be taken.

The "one psu powers all" approach, or any other approach for that matter that is applied exclusively to one piece of hardware...annoys me to no end.

That's all Not doubting your whisper can handle ur rig...just my thoughts on the whole thing.

Perkam

[SPQQKY]

Well, that's why I decided to keep my money and the Enermax. I will probably never go SLI, though it's not a totally impossible path. But I have a low power Opty and even when I do decide to get a new vid card, I still think I am way within my limits.

And I do not even classify a PSU in the same ballpark with a video card or cpu. Delivering clean, sufficient power is totally different than a video card being able to handle a new game or a cpu being able to keep up with todays software. My video card may not have hardware support for DX10 games, but my PSU has support for a card that can.

[NickS]

Well, that's why I decided to keep my money and the Enermax. I will probably never go SLI, though it's not a totally impossible path. But I have a low power Opty and even when I do decide to get a new vid card, I still think I am way within my limits.

And I do not even classify a PSU in the same ballpark with a video card or cpu. Delivering clean, sufficient power is totally different than a video card being able to handle a new game or a cpu being able to keep up with todays software. My video card may not have hardware support for DX10 games, but my PSU has support for a card that can.

Which is a good thing. Your 535w isn't the best unit Enermax ever made but I'm confident it'd handle an OC'ed C2D rig w/8800GTS well

[rockfella]

Nice review How did you calculate the power draw from wall? Which instrument you used

QX6700 @ 3.8GHz and a 8800GTX @ 650/1100 and I was drawing ~400w in 05.

Man, people really overestimate their power usage.

[rockfella]

Bump!

[Tonucci]

Running near max capacity is not advisable imo. I'd aim at something like 70% max (even lower if noise if an big concern) of the unit capacity. After that point, output quality, noise, temps, efficiency, regulation etc starts going downhill. There are exceptions of course but it usually works this way.

Nothing wrong in recommending an 550W for an rig like this. Specially when price differences are so small.

3D mark runs only tell you so much. We should be prepared for the possibility of higher peaks. Better safe than sorry.

One more point is, cheap power consumption measuring devices like killawatt and powerangel are not accurate. They get lower readings compared to proper equipment due to latency issues. The difference is not big but its substantial, so its worth noting.


EDIT: lol, i just noticed this is an old thread.

[fps_dean]

I think where people get confused is if you add up the peak draw of every component in your system, you would find you need over 1000W! Of course, not everything is drawing peak at once (ever).

You are 100% right. And it's extremely rare for a component to hit its peak power requirements - most of the time it doesn't even come close.

Still nice to have a little extra power so you don't abuse your PSU too badly... but 900-1000+ watts is going to last a very long time.

[[B]attery]

i have an enermax 465w psu that i've been running since i built my first socket a pc with an unlocked barton (not the mobile.) i'm currently running an e4300 @ 2.4gz (270x9) on an asrock 775-dual vsta and a 7900gs, a 20gb ide drive, a 120gb ide, a 160gb sataII, and about 5 fans and a combo drive. i don't have the tools to measure how much power i'm drawing, but i'm wanting to upgrade my motherboard to a gigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R and overclock my proc to ~3ghz and get an 8800gt. opinions on whether or not my psu will handle it or now, or how long?

[jcool]

I used to run my Q6600 at 3,8 and vmodded 8800GTS from a Liberty 500.. had to change PSUs because DFI boards don't work with the Liberty, so I was using a Corsair HX520 for the time. The Liberty was running clsoe to its limit, emiting lots of heat too (I swapped the fan because its stock fan sucks). The Corsair handled it better, but the Liberty lasted 1,5 years and still works fine, even though I ran 24/7 with 350-450W continuous (nongaming/gaming).

I'm not a big fan of oversized PSUs either, but I just upgraded to a 650W FSP because I plan on getting a 4870X2 soon. Seeing as my CPU alone eats 250W loaded, I'm gonna need all of 600W

[Lestat]

i have started a killa-watt thread if you guys wouldnt mind posting your results there.
i would like to start a sticky for anyone interested in seeing what various systems are pulling for power to help them gauge what psu to buy.

[Aerou]

I agree that a good 500w can handle a quad + 2xG92, but not much OCed. Considering that this is the XS forum, it seems funny to me to say PSU is doing alright while running Orthos, because there is no real load to the gpus! I am writing this, because I was OCing a Q6600 yesterday and while running Linpack at 4GHz my 530W unit went to its knees. It took 420W from the socket and that's with a lame 7300GS card. It is somewhat short-sighted not to divide applications like xtreme OC, slight OC or stock and just say that a 500w can handle it all. So to anyone runnin near the units capacity and saying it's completely fine, try this - run F@H on every gpu and Linpack (Intel Burn Test) on the cpu and watch your PSU turn into smelly fireworks

[jcool]

I agree that a good 500w can handle a quad + 2xG92, but not much OCed. Considering that this is the XS forum, it seems funny to me to say PSU is doing alright while running Orthos, because there is no real load to the gpus! I am writing this, because I was OCing a Q6600 yesterday and while running Linpack at 4GHz my 530W unit went to its knees. It took 420W from the socket and that's with a lame 7300GS card. It is somewhat short-sighted not to divide applications like xtreme OC, slight OC or stock and just say that a 500w can handle it all. So to anyone runnin near the units capacity and saying it's completely fine, try this - run F@H on every gpu and Linpack (Intel Burn Test) on the cpu and watch your PSU turn into smelly fireworks

Seems like your 530W unit is utter crap then. If it pulled 420W from the wall and went down, I'd throw it out of the window. A decent 500W unit like the Corsair HX or Enermax Pro82 series (according to your sig, you have one) can hold at least 600/700W respectively.