Introduction

Gone are the days when a 235W or 250W PSU would do just fine in providing your system with a source of power for your system. Todays' PC and hardwares not only need power, but a clean and reliable source of it. There are many PSU manufacturers out there that has between them, provided a long list of reliable PSUs and one of them is none other than Enermax. They first caught the attention of the end-users with their 351, 451 and 651 series. Over the years they have worked on several other models, namely the FC series and they recently make use of that success and released their latest models, the FCA Series. It's basically an upgraded version of the FC Series, with a few changes. Does the new series live up to the well-known Enermax name? Let's find out!

XPCGear.Com was kind enough to provide us with the 365 and the 465 version of the FCA series. As you can see from the pictures above, not only is the PSU a new revision, even the packaging got revised. It's one of those few hardware packages that I will keep. :O) The PSU is neatly packed in bubble bag inside the box, together with a couple of cables, (non for the Asian power plug though), a bag-o-screws, User Manual (how many PSUs comes with that?), a 3-pin to Molex converter and also a couple of Enermax Sticker for you sticker-crazy folks!

The first I did when the PSUs arrived was to ensure that I got the voltage settings at the back of the PSU correct. Coming from the States, I was pretty sure it's set at 110V. :O) Now that's a little piece of good advice for you folks here in Singapore!! Don't ever forget that!! Just slide the switch and it's on 230V! You'll also find the rheostat or potentiometer as some of like to call it. This is to control the rotational speed, thus CFM, of the rear 80mm fan. The range of the rotational speed is from 1500 RPM to 3000 RPM, ±10%. This is a good feature to have as it allows the user to adjust the air circulation over the PSU components and also helps with the overall air circulation in the case too.

Most of you would have noticed the blue casing that these new Enermax PSUs comes in. Not only cases are getting colourful, even PSUs! Too bad it'll be stuck inside the case, never to be seen. Of course, if you have a huge-ass window that shows everything in your case, that's the different story altogether. I wonder if Enermax plans to have other colours available.... The gold-plated fan grills on the PSU fans matches quite nicely with the blue casing as well. Like most Enermax PSUs, there's an extra 92mm fan on the underside of the PSU case and it is temperature controlled.

More Details...

I'm not gonna bore with the full specifications but you can have a look at it here over at Enermax's Website. But here are a few things that you might like to know.

• +5Vsb : 2.2A (both models)
• +3.3V & +5.0V : 185Watts (365 model)
• +3.3V & +5.0V : 220Watts (465 model)
• 100K hours MTBF at 25°C ,70% full rated load

The total power ratings for both models is very respectable and is way better than some of the standard ATX PSUs out there, especially the generic ones. And like all Enermax PSUs, there's a lot of Molex connectors and should be enough even for the most demanding user. And in typical Enermax fashion, the main power cable is wrapped in woven mesh for neatness. Not only are the PSUs AMD Approved for cooling and power, it's also ATX 2.03 and ATX12V 1.1 compliant, thus providing full Pentium 4 support with the Aux Power Connector and the ATX12V connector. The cables provided are very lengthy and users of smaller cases might have a problem with cable routing.

A sneak peek inside the PSU reveals some of the highest quality components to grace a PSU. The pictures above shows the innards of the 465 model. The 365 model has the same basic layout with the exception of normal aluminium heatsinks, not gold-plated.

Installation/Testing

PSUs installation should be a snap, but with the Enermax, there are a couple of quirks you'll need to look into. First of all, the PSU itself. Due to the inclusion of the extra 92mm cooling fan under the PSU body, some cases with PSU support underneath might pose a problem. Another problem is with cases like the LiteOn FS020. They have an inverted PSU plate at the back that the PSU will be installed with the 92mm fan facing upwards. I don't see any problems with other cases. The picture below shows the PSU installed in Project Tivoli, a Chieftec mid tower.

Testing is done on my AMD Athlon XP1500 rig. It's not the most power-hungry system around, but it will give you a rough idea how well the PSUs stands up to it. A 465FC Series is also tested to give a comparison between them. Monitoring of the various voltages is done by Motherboard Monitor. Upon booting up, the system is left to idle for about 15 minutes and the readings are recorded down. During load, Sisfoft Sandra Burn-In Wizrd is running a continuous loop for about 1 hour.

System Setup

• MSI K7T266A-RU Mobo
• AMD Athlon XP1500
• 2 X 256MB Crucial DDR
• VisionTek GeForce 2 Ti 64MB
• 3Com 905C-TX NIC
• Live DE5.1 Sound Card
• Sony 1.44 FDD
• Samsung 52X CD-ROM
• Samsung 241040 CDRW
• IBM 60GXP 20.4GB
• Maxtor DM60 20.5GB
• Win98SE
• Senfu DIY House

PSU	EG465P-VE(FC)		EG365P-VE(FCA)		EG465P-VE(FCA)
	Idle	Load	Idle	Load	Idle	Load
3.3V	3.3	3.29	3.3	3.28	3.31	3.29
5V	5.0	4.98	5.0	4.98	5.0	4.99
12V	12.01	11.99	12.0	11.98	12.01	12.0

Conclusion

Once again, Enermax has done well with their new line of FCA Series PSUs. It continues the tradition of providing clean and reliable source of power for your PC, with very little fluctuations in the voltages. The abundance of power connectors also ensures that you won't run out of Molex connectors. The inclusion of the 92mm not only helps in cooling the various components of the PSU, but also helps in the overall cooling of the case. There's really no significant noise difference between the low and high settings of the rheostat-controlled 80mm rear fan and some may see the blue case as just a gimmick on the part of Enermax. But no matter how you think, there's no doubt that Enermax PSUs are one of the best, if not the best, out there and it has been proven time and again. Although it's a little more expensive, you can't simply strike it off your list when you go shopping around for a new PSU.

Pros

• Excellent quality and build
• Adjustable 80mm fan
• Nice blue colour
• An abundance of connectors and lengthy cables
• Comes with User Manual (How many PSUs have that?)
• Enermax stickers anyone? :O)

Cons

• A little on the expensive side
• 92mm fan grill could pose a problem during installation (not a biggie though)
• Not so suitable for small cases due to cable length
• Too bad it's not available in other colours. :O)

A big shout goes out to Ryan of XPCGear.Com of for providing us with the two PSUs for review. They are one of the first online stores to have these new PSUs in stock so if you need them, head on over and check 'em out. Once again, that's all for now from my VH crib. Email me or post in this Forums thread if you have any questions or comments. Thanks for reading!

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