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Enermax Noisetaker EG701P-VE Power Supply

The cables on the Enermax Noisetaker are wrapped to keep things organized and clutter to a minimum.  The ATX power cable and a second cable bundling the 12v AUX, old Pentium plug and an extra four-pin Molex line are sheathed in a silver mesh covered with a vinyl outer not unlike many rounded IDE cables.  Unlike rounded IDE cables, these lines were quite stiff and difficult to mold out of the way.   

     

The remaining standard Molex type power lines are wrapped together with a black sheath of sorts for the first seven inches of their length that binds them together.  At this point, the lines separate into four stands.  The first is approximately 27" long having two native SATA power connectors.  The next three are devoted to your Molex plugs.  The first of these is almost 33" long with three four-pin Molex connectors on it.  The next is approximately 28" in length with two four-pin Molex and FDD type connection at the tip.  The last is an even shorter 21" line with two four-pin Molex and FDD type connection at its tip.  Enermax bills its Noisetaker series as having separate 12 volt rails.  Independent 12 volt rails ensure that power to processor, mainboard and add in cards is clean and as noise free as possible.  This is the thinking behind the extra Molex connector bundled with the AUX cable as well.

Removing the outer cover of the power supply, which immediately voids the three year warranty on the Noisetaker, we find the unit's heatsinks and shrink wrapped internal lines.  You can readily see that these components are situated so that airflow is maximized within. 

Testing

To put the Enermax Noisetaker EG701 to task, we plugged it in along with several extra case fans and put the system it was in under a considerable load.  What I define as load is transferring a 25gb file, watching a DVD, while running the Hard|OCP's UT2003 benchmarking program.  We monitored the power supply by two methods.  The first by a simple hand held multi-meter and the second with ABIT's EQ system monitoring program.

Test Bed

  • AMD Athlon XP 3200+

  • ThermalRight ALX-800 Cooler with Tt Smart Fan 2 - 80mm fan

  • ABIT AN7 mainboard

  • Albatron GeForce FX5950 Ultra VGA

  • (2) 256 mb DIMM of Corsair XMS3500 DDR

  • Maxtor 80gb SATA HDD

  • Generic DVD/CD-RW combo drive

  • Generic CD-ROM drive

  • Six 80mm case fan

  • Windows XP Pro

We found all the rails to have steady constant power.  Minimal to no fluctuations were found.  Below is a cropped screen shot of the ABIT EQ screen showing the voltage readings over time.  I think this pretty much says it all.

Conclusion

Pricing on the street at around $150, the 600 watt Enermax Noisetaker isn't exactly cheap.  Keep in mind that this is not a no name, generic, no frills, gonna die in six months type of unit.  You get what you pay for.  Three year warranty, native SATA connectors, variable rate cooling fans, separate 12 volt rails and the Smart Fan technology allowing the fans to run for a couple of minutes after system shut down to name just a few reasons the Enermax stands tall.  The only drawback with the Noisetaker was the stiffness of the ATX and AUX power cables.  They were difficult to manage and mold out of the way.  While a pain in the arse, they can be worked with.  With this lone exception, we found the Enermax Noisetaker EG701 a worthy upgrade.  As we said in the beginning of the review, how often do you really upgrade your PSU?  So why not get the power you can grow with, the features to keep you happy and the warranty to back it all up?

Pros

  • High wattage PSU

  • Automatic and manual PSU fan speed control

  • Smart Fan Technology

  • Native SATA power connectors on PSU

  • Three year warranty

  • Separate 12 volt rails

Cons

  • Cable sheathing too stiff

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