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
Efficiency
Room Temperature
Since the design of the Liberty is a few years old, we didn't expect incredible results. The efficiency is not very high compared to our most recent models, though we did measure an efficiency of 81% maximum which would have been good 2 years ago. For the most part, efficiency is in the 75-80% range with loads of 20% to 80%.
Power Factor Correction
The PFC is very good at lower input voltages, while as usual we see worse results at 230VAC. Scores of .99 or higher are desirable, which the Liberty achieves on 115VAC. The 230VAC result is not unusual, and for a two year old model we won't complain too much. On higher-end PSUs we would like to see PFC break .99 at high loads even on 230VAC, but it's certainly not a bad result.
OCP Test
In the OCP test we use a function from the Chroma to see how much load each rail can take. The test puts on an additional 5A each second on the test rail until either the OCP kicks in or our Chroma will shuts down from overpowering.
The Liberty performed well on the two 12V rails. The OCP was based at the usual amount of 24A. The 3.3V rail kicked in quite early; instead of the promised 28A we could only reach 25A and at the 5V rail we could only reach 29A instead of 30A. This is not a critical flaw, however, since the performance during testing was still very good and the 12V rails tend to be much more important than the 3.3V and 5V rails.
Room Temperature
Since the design of the Liberty is a few years old, we didn't expect incredible results. The efficiency is not very high compared to our most recent models, though we did measure an efficiency of 81% maximum which would have been good 2 years ago. For the most part, efficiency is in the 75-80% range with loads of 20% to 80%.
Power Factor Correction
The PFC is very good at lower input voltages, while as usual we see worse results at 230VAC. Scores of .99 or higher are desirable, which the Liberty achieves on 115VAC. The 230VAC result is not unusual, and for a two year old model we won't complain too much. On higher-end PSUs we would like to see PFC break .99 at high loads even on 230VAC, but it's certainly not a bad result.
OCP Test
In the OCP test we use a function from the Chroma to see how much load each rail can take. The test puts on an additional 5A each second on the test rail until either the OCP kicks in or our Chroma will shuts down from overpowering.
The Liberty performed well on the two 12V rails. The OCP was based at the usual amount of 24A. The 3.3V rail kicked in quite early; instead of the promised 28A we could only reach 25A and at the 5V rail we could only reach 29A instead of 30A. This is not a critical flaw, however, since the performance during testing was still very good and the 12V rails tend to be much more important than the 3.3V and 5V rails.
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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.