Enermax Modu82+ 625 Watt Modular Power Supply

It has been a while since we have reviewed a Enermax power supply. Our previous reviews of Enermax's power supplies have left us quite satisfied with their performance and build quality.  Today, we are going to take a look at the 'Modu 82+' series of power supplies.  The Modu 82+ series comes in three different wattages, the 425 watt, 525 watt, and 625 watt units (seemingly in one hundred watt increments).  Enermax gave us the 625 watt version to look at. This power supply is SLi Ready, Energy Star 4.0 compliant and 80Plus certified.

Upon opening the box, you will find the manual, screws, optional thumbscrews, two high quality velcro straps, a set of modular cables, AC power cable, and a pouch for storing unused modular cables.

Here are some of the main features and specifications from Enermax's Website:

The Power Supply:

The power supply features a glossy metallic grey colored housing and a gold colored fan grill, which looks great and is similar to the rest of Enermax's power supply line up.

The side is also imprinted with the word 'Modu 82+' and is featured on both sides.  I like the fact that on the other side, the logo is upside down.  This allows the logo to be seen regardless if the power supply is facing up or down.  It is clearly visible if you are using a case with a built-in window.

Looking at the top of the power supply, there is a Enermax label with their logo on it, the model number and a condensed specification list.  Note that there are three +12v rails each one supplying up to 25 Amps.  The 3.3v supplies up to 24 Amps and the +5v supplies up to 24 Amps. The efficiency is 80 percent or greater at 20%, 50% and 100% loads. According to the 80Plus test result page, this power supply has a typical efficiency of about 86%, which is great!

There is an large honeycomb style grill on the back which allows the 120 mm fan to exhaust hot air, an on/off switch and AC Power Input. This power supply does feature Active PFC, so there is no need for a switch to select the input voltage. 

There are seven available modular connections on the rear of this power supply, the black colored outlets are for the Molex, SATA and Floppy power connectors and the red colored outlets are for the PCI-e power cables.

The red socket on the power supply is a twelve pin connector.  Enermax states that this PSU is ready for the future, since hardware manufacturers might start using a new 10 or 12 pin power connector configuration.

This power supply features the following cables:

-A 24-pin ATX power connector

-A 4-pin +12v CPU power connector

-An 8-pin +12v EPS Power Connector

-A 3-pin fan speed connector (goes to motherboard)

-4x  6+2-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors.

-6x Molex Power Connectors

-9x Serial ATA Power Connectors

-1x Floppy Power Connector

Cooling:

There is a 120mm fan on the bottom of this power supply.  During testing, at idle loads, this fan stayed quiet. With loads, the fan barely made any changes in speed as noted by listening to it and through the 3 pin fan speed wire.  I'm very happy with the noise characteristics of this power supply.  Note the downward pointing rim, which is patented by Enermax.  They state that this method reduces air turbulence, therefore reducing noise.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty.

Inside the power supply,  there are two black finned heat sinks that are used to cool down the voltage rectifiers.  The main transformer is in the upper middle of the image, while the smaller transformer is beneath it.  The primary capacitors are both (1x) Hitachi and (1x) Nippon-Chemicon branded (85c rated for the Hitachi and 105c rated for the Nippon-Chemicon), while the secondary capacitors are Nippon-Chemicon branded.  This shows that Enermax's statement of all the capacitors being Japanese made is true. This power supply appears to be built by Enermax and does not appear to be an outsourced design.

The Primary capacitors are both Hitachi and Nippon-Chemicon branded.

The secondary capacitors are Nippon-Chemicon branded.

The fan inside is an Enermax branded fan. It has the model number EB122512H with a maximum draw of 0.30 AMPs.  Note that this fan features a proprietary four pin connector and replacing the fan will be nearly impossible.

For this power supply, the test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Case

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor @ 3.4 GHz (1.4v)

-ZeroTherm Nirvana 120 Heatsink

-eVGA nForce 680i SLi Motherboard

-4GB (2GB x 2) of OCZ Platinum DDRII-1066 Memory

-320GB x 4 Western Digital 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drives

-2x nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) Video Cards @ 715MHz Core / 1000 MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card

-Asus 16x DVD-RAM / 18x Samsung DVD-RAM Drives

-4x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

(Multimeter Results)

*For additional / larger pictures of the Enermax Modu82+ 625 Watt Power Supply, Click Here

*Voltages are at a 'Max Load' for a typical gaming computer, running Orthos, Sisoft Sandra Hard Drive benchmark and 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

Capacitor Brands:

Primary: Excellent

Secondary: Excellent

Primary: Hitachi and Nippon-Chemicon

Secondary: Nippon-Chemicon

Voltage Results:

+The results were excellent for this power supply, the results being well within range.  The voltages budged a bit when transitioning from an idle state to a load state.

Stability Results:

+Everything ran fine during testing, the system was stable and performed the tests as expected. 

Fan Speed Impressions:

+During the tests, the fan speed did not vary much, being nearly silent in idle mode. Nice!

Installation:

+ Installation of this power supply went well.  No issues fitting inside the test system's case.  The modular cables helped a lot in keeping the inside of the case neat and tidy.

Conclusion:

This power supply would be ideal for anyone looking to build a multi core gaming / workstation system with two or more video cards.  It is SLi Certified for up to two nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2's, which is fantastic. The amount of available power connectors is adequate and up to date. The fan is also quiet and is great to find in a 600 watt class power supply. At around $130 after a rebate, it is an adequately priced power supply.  If there was no rebate, this power supply would come in at around $190, which is expensive.  Let's hope that Enermax reduces the MSRP for this PSU or keep the rebate active.   Overall, this is an excellent and impressive power supply and should be purchased by anyone looking for a quiet PSU with high efficiency, great output performance, and build quality.

Pros +

-Excellent power output

-Three Year Warranty

-Fan is quiet at typical loads

-Modular cabling

Cons -

-Can be expensive

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply the Editors' Choice Award!

Home