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I've got the power ...

I already tried to make you aware of the importance of power consumption these days. It really is remarkable what a PC consumes (power wise). Manufacturers really need to take a good look at this problem as it is a growing concern. Let's do a little math with an average to high-end PC okay ? Take a dual core AMD64 Athlon X2 4400+ GHz based PC armed with the now mid-range Radeon x1800 GTO, three HDs, a DVD-writer and CD Writer. When windows boots it'll use up no more than like ~150 Watts.

The minute you overclock your processor and graphics card, and use the HDs and optical drives, your wattage will rise easily to about 350-380 Watts and can, at very stressful points, peak even higher. That still leaves plenty of room to play around. However, for every additional HD or optical drive you need to add 10 Watts and that's where the problem nowadays is.

Do you choose the never ending Guru path of upgrades in the form of SLI or Crossfire graphics cards ? Add another 75-100 Watts to the margin we just set. Do you have a dual CPU based rig or Dual Core processor ? That'll cost you about an extra 80 Watts and then there is additional cooling to ventilate all these "hot" gadgets. Therefore always choose a PSU with plenty of 'breathing' space for future upgrades and devices.

At this time I suggest you get at least a 400 Watt PSU for any mediocre PC, where that number was 300 Watts two years ago. With a lot of HD's and extras like active fans and case-mods such as lights, or if simply powering a high-end gaming rig, go for something even higher than 420 Watt. Starting with a 520 Watt PSU today is not really that bad of a specification for today's high-end computers.

But obviously if you are a true Guru .. you go for Quad SLI & a Conroe processor right ? We need some more powah !

Right, let's talk about the Galaxy.

gal·ax·ies

1.  
   1. Any of numerous large-scale aggregates of stars, gas, and dust that constitute the universe, containing an average of 100 billion (10¹¹) solar masses and ranging in diameter from 1,500 to 300,000 light-years. Also called nebula.
   2. often Galaxy The Milky Way.

Okay so yeah .. it is a little awkward name for a PSU, but hey .. for a change I'm just glad they didn't call it Zeus or something Greek God'ish.

So next to being a really capable PSU, what does this PSU have to offer also ?

Features:

• Smart fan function  - The Smart Fan technology was developed by the folks at Enermax to protect your investment. After your system shutdown, the two ball bearring fans continue to run for another 2 mins to cool off your power supply and components . It also has a heat sensor that will allow the fans to run for more then 2 mins if the temp is greater then 40c after the 2 min. This will greatly increase the life your power supply and components.
• Five +12V Rails - Independent 12V rails supply to MB/CPU and drives in order to provide stable and clean current to noise-sensitive devices, such as: CPU, add-on cards.Meet UL 240VA safety requirements. It also separate the motherboard rails and video card rails to ensure maximum power to your PCI Express video card.
• High efficiency (85%) - 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. .
• Quad GPU support - Five individual +12V Rails allows the power to support up to 4 PCI E graphic cards.
• Power Guard - The PowerGuard uses LED light and internal buzzer to indicate current power supply status. Under abnormal situation, the PowerGuard will turn off the power supply to protect your system.
   

As you can see some key features are advanced security if anything happens then the PSU is intelligent enough to shutdown fast. Let me show you what happens slash what's needed to have the Enermax Galaxy shutdown to protect itself and your expensive gear on each voltage rail.

We actually tested the audible power guard by simply disconnecting the ATX mainboard cable so we could see what would happen. An immediate PSU shutdown was initiated after which the PSU started beeping in bursts of two audible beeps. Pretty much stating that there was an unusual system shutdown. With the click on the backside button (we'll show you in a minute) the alarm stops. Overall very impressive features.

I'll trust Enermax with the rest of the electrical circuit protections as our test system is roughly worth 2 grand.

Here is the voltage distribution per rail displayed courtesy of a colorful Enermax table.

As you can see that's a mountain of power.

For us Guru's most important obviously are the are five 12volts rails, I mean it's fantastic that there are two of them if you decide to do some SLI/Crossfire gaming you are good to go. There's even a dedicated 12 volts rail for your dual-core processor if you choose to do so. Anyway add up the 12 volts rails and you'll notice that you'll have 85 AMPs at your disposal.

But four 12v rails are really intended for your SLI/Crossfire compatibility, and one 12v rail for later systems with dual dual core (QUAD)  CPUs.

Power Factor Correction - PFC

The Enermax PSU we tested was model EGA1000EWL , I mention this specifically as this model has a very nice feature called active PFC. To put it in simple terms, Active PFC PSUs are more expensive and from a power consumption point of view more efficient. Power Factor Correction (PFC) allows power distribution to operate at its highest efficiency.

There are two types of PFC, Active PFC and Passive PFC. This PSU has active PFC. Active PFC uses a circuit to correct power factor, Active PFC is able to generate a theoretical power factor of over 95%. Active Power Factor Correction also markedly diminishes total harmonics, automatically corrects for AC input voltage, and is capable of a full range of input voltage. Since Active PFC is the more complex method of Power Factor Correction, it is definitely more expensive to produce an active PFC power supply.

Right, allow me to commence with both the beginning and the end results straight away. Ladies and gentlemen .. it's time to start the the sexy photo shoot.