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Enermax ECO80+ 620W Power Supply Review

Enermax produces some of the best computer power supplies in the world and has a great reputation for doing just that. We take a look at what Enermax does when it gets green and drops the price point for those of us on an enthusiast system building budget with the ECO80+ at 620 watts.

Overview

The first thing we are going to look at with the Enermax ECO80+ 620W is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.

I hope that green is everyone’s favorite color today because wow do we get a lot of green with the ECO80+ 620W packaging. The box is covered in marketing points about various things such as efficiency, cooling, electrical safety on the outputs, SLI compliance, and unique features of the units fan design. We also find the usual power label (though for all members of the ECO80+ family), connector count (again for all members of the ECO80+ family), fan speed graph, and efficiency curve. With all of this focus on efficiency we checked the 80Plus website and there we find that the ECO80+ 620W is indeed certified for Climate Savers 1. We also double checked the SLIZone website and found that the ECO80+ 620W is certified for SLI, but only for 7900GTX SLI which seems to be a bit dated. Lastly, the Enermax ECO80+ 620W carries a 3 year warranty from Enermax which is not really that good of a warranty if this unit was being marketed as a top of the line unit, but since it is not there is nothing really wrong with 3 years.

The power output and distribution for the Enermax ECO80+ is just about identical to the Liberty Eco 620W. The two 12v rails of the ECO80+ 620W have a total capacity of 48A which is ~96% of the unit’s total capacity if necessary. The minor rails output capacities for this unit are identical to the last two Enermax units that were ~620W. The ECO80+ breaks from the Liberty Eco by reducing the number of peripheral and PCI-E connectors while keeping the same output capacity. This is almost certainly in order to maintain product segmentation rather than any kind of electrical limitations in this unit. Overall though, the unit is decently well appointed for a ~600W lower end product, and the dual 12v arrangement is not nearly as problematic as it could be.

Once we open the packaging of the ECO80+ 620W we find the power supply itself, a set of screws, an Enermax case badge, some zip-ties, and the documentation. With previous Enermax power supplies the documentation that Enermax provided was really a high point for the unit’s overall packaging. However like with the Liberty Eco 620W the current manual shipping with this unit is much abbreviated and unique to this unit is a huge foldout product catalog from Enermax. The only information covered in the fold out manual now is the warranty information, some of the electrical specifications, pertinent information regarding this unit’s specification compliance, and connector types. Once more the 12v rail assignment is not included which would certainly be helpful. Enermax has certainly cut a few corners with the manual while at the same time bolstering the advertising with this unit (thanks for the product guide) which is not exactly the direction we would like to see things go. Let's move now and see how the rest of the unit looks.