• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Is This Combo Any Good

It is a quirky case, with the PSU at the front and intake at the back. If you wanted quiet, I would suggest the SLK3800B or the Sonata II instead. More conventional cases, easier to work with, easy to make quiet.
 
_Korruption_ said:
It is a quirky case, with the PSU at the front and intake at the back. If you wanted quiet, I would suggest the SLK3800B or the Sonata II instead. More conventional cases, easier to work with, easy to make quiet.
Click to expand...

Is the Sonata II case toolless, I can not tell from the description
 
Not completely, but I prefer using conventional tools and what-have-you to fasten stuff to the case. It is a very easy case to work in, if my SLK3000B is any indication.
 
At the back, but it plugs into male -> female extension. Some HTPC cases do the same thing.
 

Guru,

Since you are a Psu expert can you please share your knowledge with me

I am looking for a Psu around $80, if I have to spend a little more I will, that will be ok to sustain a Opteron 165 OC and very few devices. I also would prefer it to be modular, if not, atleast sleeved ... something tidy

I do not game so that should allow me to save a little $$
 
I had actually seen the Enermax Liberty 400W for only $75.99 at SVC the other day.

32A on the collective 12V rails. Not to shabby. And if it's anything like it's big brothers, it should kick a lot of ass for the money.
 
Oops. I was looking at the 500W.

But still... More than adequate.
 
As Rodney said: "This product is only 400W, but it performs exceptionally well."

That's true.

You can buy a lot of 500W power supplies that are out there, even good ones, and still be disappointed.

he gives out some amperage results
Click to expand...

No. He reads the voltages with a DMM while the PC is running under full load. That really doesn't tell me much, but I like 3DGM's reviews just the same. I just wish the "model" would actually contribute more. ;)
 
I better clarify what I mean by render a scene ... I am referring to rendering with maya or another similar 3d program ... I do not mean 3d game playing

Is your answer still the same with respect to the Enermax Liberty 400

On a side note, the above psu cost just under $80, I am willing to spend a little more ... with that said, is there another psu that you think is worth the extra $$

If so, please tell me



Thanks
 
I've rendered with Maya with a lot less of a power supply and an FX5200 AGP. RAM is going to be your big issue with Maya. ;)

If you're going to question a recommendation, why ask for one? ;)

You see guys.. this is why I don't ever give a specific answer to a "which PSU" question. ;)
 
jonnyGURU said:
I've rendered with Maya with a lot less of a power supply and an FX5200 AGP. RAM is going to be your big issue with Maya. ;)

If you're going to question a recommendation, why ask for one? ;)

You see guys.. this is why I don't ever give a specific answer to a "which PSU" question. ;)
Click to expand...

' Thats True ' ... Thats you're recommendation :D

Second, I wasnt questioning ' that ' statement I wanted to clarify what I meant by render a scene so I formed it in another question

Since you know Psus thoroughly well and since you do not like to recommend products on forums maybe you can make a list in tho form of a sticky or txt file atachment. In this list you can go over the psus you would consider for all types of users
 
I think David Hammock's stickied list is quite adequate. It doesn't have the Liberty's specifically, because they're rather new but it does have Enermax. And the Liberty is the finest thing I've seen come out of Enermax.

So taking that into consideration; if you look at the sticky and number of threads that suggest how you should read a power supply label and how it doesn't matter if a PSU is 200W or 600W because how the PSU is going to work for you depends on how the loads are distributed across the rails, etc. you can see why suggesting a 400W Enermax is actually quite an above adequate recommendation.

But I digress.. I'm starting to sound like an Enermax fan boy. And too often I get accused of being a fan boy of a particular brand because I go into far too detailed tangents that I use to justify a particular recommendation, which is... as I said.. why I typically don't do recommendations. ;)
 
I want to see your list too ;)

Speaking of reading a Psu label, how can you tell what the 2 12v rails combined do?

With the Liberty 400, I see that each 12v rail does 20a but I can not see what the combined 12v rail is ... I have not been able to read this on any label I see on the internet
 
lw3d said:
Speaking of reading a Psu label, how can you tell what the 2 12v rails combined do?

With the Liberty 400, I see that each 12v rail does 20a but I can not see what the combined 12v rail is ... I have not been able to read this on any label I see on the internet
Click to expand...

It's typically stated in Watts just below the two 12V rails. So if you want to know the Amps, just divide by 12.
 
For example, I can not tell the combined 12v amperage on this psu
Showimage.asp


I am considering theis combo, can you give me your thoughts on this case, psu, or combo in general ? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155
 
Yeah. Antec's funny that way. Aerocool does the same thing. I just reviewed the Turbine and there was no combined 12V rail rating there either.

But, to quote myself.....

For the most part, knowing the combined 12V rail really isn’t THAT important to the end user because 12V2 only goes to the CPU and you’ll likely only need 14A at the most. But since the difference between a 14A 12V rail and an 18A rail is 48W, you’ll likely see huge 12V2 rails so the power supply manufacturers can keep their maximum sustained power output ratings high.
Click to expand...

Moreso then anything, it can be used as a gage of quality. 40A combined doesn't do you anygood if 12V1 only puts out 20A. But it beats the pants off of a power supply with a pair of 20A rails that's only capable of 30A combined. ;)
 
jonnyGURU said:
Yeah. Antec's funny that way. Aerocool does the same thing. I just reviewed the Turbine and there was no combined 12V rail rating there either.

But, to quote myself.....



Moreso then anything, it can be used as a gage of quality. 40A combined doesn't do you anygood if 12V1 only puts out 20A. But it beats the pants off of a power supply with a pair of 20A rails that's only capable of 30A combined. ;)
Click to expand...

I know you are trying to tell me something about the Enermax Liberty 400 but I swear I can not figure it out.

This Psu stuff is new to me so PLEASE in laymans language what the hell are you trying to tell me about our little friend the Liberty 400 :D

I need to make a decision tonight on the Psu and case
 
*sigh*

Ok.

On most power supplies you have TWO 12V rails.

12V2 supplies power to the CPU. That's it. Your CPU may need 7A or 10A or whatever, depending on the CPU. Athlon XP, Pentium 4, dual core, etc.

12V2 typically has hellacious overhead. But that's Ok because the cost difference between making a power supply that can regulate 14A on the 12V2 and 20A on the 12V2 is a dollar. More money is spent on "Titanium" mirror finishes. ;)

12V1 is the one that gets a lot of stress. Your hard drives motors, fans, lights, optical drive motors, PCI-e video cards, etc are all on your 12V1. You can easily end up putting a 20A load on this rail.

Hmmm.. isn't that strange? Both rails have 20A capability. Interesting.

There's exceptions to this, of course. Take a quad rail power supply. You have one rail for your second CPU (via the extra two 12V wires on the EPS 8-pin connector) and one rail for hard drives. You'll also notice that the second CPU rail is the same as 12V2 and the drive rail is something relatively low like 8A. Despite this, one, two or three rails, the maximum combined output of the 12V rail is not that much differernt.

This is because the transistors that regulate these voltages are still being fed by the same switching transformer. The maximum output getting to these regulators is limited. This is where your maximum combined 12V comes from.

So you have "brand A", which is a single 12V rail PSU, and "brand B" which is a dual 12V rail. "Brand A" has a 34A 12V rail and "Brand B" has a pair of 20A 12V rails. So the "brand B" is better, right? Not necessarily.

Look at the label of "brand B" and underneath the two 12V rails it says: "Maximum Combined Wattage 408W." That's 34A. So, as far as 12V goes, the dual 20A rails can't really put out more juice than the single rail "brand A."

Open the two PSU's up and you find that they're both made by Fung Choo Flower Access and Bicycle Company of East Industrial Section, Szchehuan, China. The only difference is the additional transistor stuck to one of the heatsinks in the middle of the guts. That's it. Everything else is the same.

Now I personally prefer dual 12V rails. But I'm going to explain to you why a single 12V rail is actually better!

You know that 12V2 I told you about that can do 20A but you'll never need it? That's pretty much all overhead in a single CPU build. Even a dual core. You only need half of that. Let's say 12V1 really gets up to 20A. What's that? 30A? Let's say the maximum combined wattage for the two 20A rails is 30A. Getting jipped? Not quite. But you're left with 10A extra that's simply not usable! With a single 12V rail, you can at least have "access" to all of the additional juice. Every little bit helps, right? ;)

So why even bother with dual 12V rails? Because a single 12V rail that can actually SUSTAIN it's maximum wattage for any period of time without blowing up is very expensive. And they DO NOT run very efficient at the higher outputs. Two 20A rails putting out 34A runs cooler and more efficienctly than one 34A rail for the same cost in materials.

So why bother with a power supply with a high 12V2? Well, there is always the possibility that the consumer will have dual CPU's and need more power. And the likelihood that they will also have some PCI-e cards sucking up juice on the 12V1 isn't likely in that kind of build. If they do have multiple CPU's and high end PCI-e cards and are only using a 400W or 500W power supply, they're a fool. And of course, "overhead." Bigger, better, faster, grunt, grunt, grunt.

The other excuse is pure marketing fluff. What looks better on the shelf? 500W or 400W? 500W, of course. But what if the 400W has 34A on the 12V rail and the 500W has 18A? I'd take the 400W! This is where blanket statements like "must have at least a 400W power supply to use" piss me off. So if I have a 380W Seasonic, I'm up shit's creek so I should run out and buy a 500W Powmax?!!?! But the alternative is to go into long, elaborate explainations of how 12V rail ratings work and your video card or DFI manual would be twice as thick. That's right.. A DFI manual could have useful information in it! Who'd a thunk it?

So in a dual 12V rail PSU, the 12V1 is the most important. But the combined is also important because overhead is good and more output available on the combined 12V rails is simply put a sign of better quality, and quite honestly better voltage regulation and better efficiency at higher outputs then you would find in a power supply with lower output capability.

Remember: Almost everyone here is only pulling 250W from the wall. That's under 200W in your PC. Yet most of us have at least a 400W power supply. ;)
 
I'm just frustrated because I just built an NF4 SLI-D whatever and I didn't know what slots to put the dual channel RAM in. I actually had to fire it up and THEN it told me what slots I should move the RAM to, but in the manual there's no mention of which RAM slots are what. Things like that I frown down upon.
 
I found this write up about the Liberty, pretty impressive

Maybe the Liberty will be the next psu dfi street hocks :)

The ENERMAX LIBERTY series was introduced at the German Games Convention show in August and unites world records, innovations and highest performance with newest technology to the absolute freedom for any user.



There was one big trend this year in the power supply market: Power supplies (PSU's) with modular cable management and a single 12 cm fan. The advantages are low noise and tidy cases. Many manufacturers jumped onto this train by simply updating old models, creating the disadvantages of this PSU-trend: Increased temperature and resulting power loss and/or increased fan speed and therefore increased noise, making such update-models pure non-sense.





ENERMAX, devoted historically and totally to quality, has never followed this last minute panic, but waited for the very newest technology to set another benchmark to the world with its own modular cable management PSU series. The completion of its own new board design for power supplies is based on the newest technology and supports the highest standard for desktop power supplies, Intel ATX12V 2.2. This standard is the qualification for rue and full support of dual core and dual CPU systems including Intel's CPU flag-ship Pentium D 840 EE or AMD's 64 X2. This becomes visible by ultra-strong 12V rails, which each can provide at least 20A (=240 Watt) each, optimally even 22A (=264 Watt) continuously (combined with many other requirements). This true support distinguishes ENERMAX LIBERTY series from competition, which does not fulfill this standard. Some competitors even dare to write ATX 2.2, hoping to being interpreted as Intel ATX12V 2.2 but these have nearly nothing in common.




The new board design with the ultra-strong 12V rails enables even the LIBERTY 400 Watt model to support dual PCI Express graphic systems like SLI or CrossFire! Thus making it worldwide the ideal entry-level PSU for highest graphic performance!

ENERMAX LIBERTY series features an extraordinary innovation, ENERMAX ETERNITY connectors, which may not be confound with its modular cable management. Up to now, any user of any PSU from any brand (even including ENERMAX) had the problem of having fixedly defined 4p Molex and SATA connectors, e.g. 6*Molex and 4*SATA. If e.g. 7*Molex or 5*SATA were needed, everybody had a problem. The only emergency solution was to use Y-adaptors as 2*Molex to 1*SATA, which cause performance loss and instability and are blocking even 2, most likely needed, Molex connectors.

ENERMAX solution is as brilliant as simple: ENERMAX ETERNITY connectors feature every connector twice in pairs! Besides every Molex connector a S-ATA connector is placed. This means, whenever somebody would like to replace a connected Molex HD by a S-ATA HD, he or she can just unplug it from its Molex connector and use instead the S-ATA connector besides it! This can be done without any other reconnection of the system as before, if all S-ATA would have been in use. Following up a.m. example, you can connect now instead of just 6 Molex and 4 S-ATA devices up to the maximum of 10 Molex or 10 S-ATA devices as you like, now and forever. Without adaptors, nor any reconnection of the system, nor performance losses or instability, nor the purchase of a new PSU or as for cable management PSUs without purchasing spare cable strings, which sometimes cost nearly as much as a new PSU itself.

It goes without saying that ENERMAX LIBERTY series obtains all other features, which distinguish all actual PSU series made by ENERMAX:

* An efficiency of 80% in the entire load range of 30-100%, and not as others, only in very limited load ranges like full load.
* A simultaneous PFC value of 0.99, which assure mutually your minimal electricity bill.
* An intelligent, double ball-bearing fan, for ideal balance in between silence and performance.

Features:

- ATX12V Ver 2.2

Full compliance with the highest standard to desktop power supply design requirements recommended by Intel. Split 12V rails provide most stable current to CPU, GPU , MB and drives.
- ATX/ BTX/CEB/EEB

Convertible design to power ATX/BTX system and support Dual CPU entry-level server/workstation.
- Silent 120mm fan

Special design 12cm fan combines silence and cooling by intelligent speed control.
- Modular Cables

Smart modular cable management to optimize maximum air flow.
- Eternity Connectors

Unique 4-pin Molex + SATA connectors in pairs give you free choice on using either PATA or SATA devices.
- PCI Express x 2

Support Dual Graphic card setup (Sli or Crossfire)
- High Efficiency (80%)

High efficiency is achieve by using using high quality components and the skills of our designer to maximizes your power supply output and minimize wasted power. Efficiency is the measure of how much of the 100% power going in to the PSU is being used up and the unused power dissipate into heat through the heatsink. Lower efficiency means that more power is being wasted and also the PSU will generate more heat. .
- Maximum Shielding

Toughest EMI shielding protects your system and near-by appliances.
- Protection

Enermax has one of the highest protection standard on the market today, due to our advance design we offer the following type of protections:

OCP -Over Current Protection, UCP -Under Current Protection, OVP - Over Voltage Protection, OLP -Over Load Protection, OTP - Over Temperature Protection, SCP - Short Circuits Protection.
Click to expand...
 
I love the Liberty, but that's not a "write up" about the Liberty. That's a press release... aka: "copy." It's not a review, opinion, assessment, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top