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Let's
do a little "case study" here. All
puns intended literally, let's take a look at all
the different components inside your computer
case. OK, so we have the Processor,
Motherboard, Graphics Card, SDRAM Modules, Hard
Drive, CD/DVD-ROM Drives and CD Burner, Sound Card,
Modem, Network Card and what the heck, let's throw
in two case fans for intake and exhaust and a CPU
Cooling Fan. Each and every one of these
devices draws power. All together, they draw A
LOT of power.
Today's
power supplies are changing with the times out of necessity.
They have better power handling capabilities, better
cooling features and power saving features as
well. The little meek 235 watt Power Supply of
the past is no longer able to handle the demands of
the Performance PC of today. In this short
piece, we are going to look at Power Supply that is
more than up for the challenge of providing all of
the components of your system with clean robust
power.
The
Enermax EG451P-VE
was supplied to us by our good friends at Outside
Loop Computers. These folks know how to
find and stock very high quality products and this
Power Supply is made of the "good stuff".
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| Specifications
and Construction Of The Enermax
EG451P-VE |
| You
never thought a Power Supply could be
this hip, did you? |
|
- 431 Watts
- ATX
- Meets AMD K7 and Intel 2.03 Version
- AMD
desirable Thermal Mechanical Configuration
-
Dual cooling fan design : intake fan for heat,
and exhaust
- ATX
Power Cable Tube Tied for neatness
- Equipped
with 6pin AUX and 4pin 12V (ATX 12V) power
connectors
- Gold-coated
terminals for high performance and faint
resistance improvement
- Fan
speed monitoring cable connector for
motherboards that support this
- Ball
bearing fan with thermal control function
- Very
Quiet
- High
MTBF - (Mean Time Between Failures)
Just
from the looks of this unit, you will note that it
is made of very high quality materials. First, the
internal design is VERY clean. With many Power
Supplies, if you take the cover off, you will notice
that things look like they have pretty much been
thrown in there. Perhaps that is because there
are many "leaded" and bulky components
that have to go into a Power Supply designs or
perhaps it is because they have to be low cost and
thus care and time (time is money) is not taken to lay things out
neatly. Regardless, the Enermax units look
clean as a whistle and are made up of high quality
transformers, capacitors, transistors,
chokes/filters, heat sinks and wiring.
On
a side note, the ATX cable harness is bound together
with a mesh tubing that really neatens up the cable
itself inside your case. Once again, quality
is evident throughout this product. Speaking
of cables and connectors, let's look at some of the
new connections that are available with this ATX 2.03
compatible unit.
There
are two new connectors for Auxiliary Power and
ATX12V. Both of these connection are required
for the new Pentium 4 / RAMBUS - i850 based
motherboards and perhaps will also be required for
future "Brookdale" chipset based Intel
boards as well as other high end motherboards. The AUX connector looks like half of an AT style power connector and the ATX12V
(for a 12 Volt source) is a unique 4 pin setup.
Now
that you've seen the construction and hook-ups of
this obviously "beefy" power source, let's
check out installing it and the performance
characteristics.
Installation,
a word on performance and the conclusion
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