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- Date:
- Monday , May 23, 2011
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Enermax MaxRevo 1350W Power Supply Review
Enermax has long been a favorite of ours when it comes to power supplies for heavy hitter enthusiasts pushing huge system wattage loads. Today it is launching a new flagship product that comes to up touting a huge 1350 watt usage rating. Does Enermax continue its top shelf legacy?
Conclusions
The Enermax MaxRevo 1350W is the newest flagship product from Enermax and it marks the lucky 13th power supply from Enermax that we have reviewed. Over the years Enermax has been somewhat of a divided house with its bargain offerings of late being rather mediocre and its premium enthusiast offerings being significantly better. Since today’s MaxRevo is again firmly in the enthusiast realm we certainly are looking forward to seeing whether or not Enermax still has the chops to cut it in this difficult and hotly contested market segment after some of the less than impressive budget offerings of late. So let's see how the MaxRevo 1350W fared today.
HardOCP’s testing methodology is intended to very much push power supplies to their advertised wattage rating in temperatures that will represent some of the hottest computer enthusiast cases. So if a unit passes all our testing it is definitely not something to take lightly. In fact we expect more power supplies to fail our testing than make it through unscathed.
Build Quality
The build quality of the MaxRevo 1350W is perhaps the best we have seen from Enermax to date. If you have seen any of Enermax' Revolution85+ units or Galaxy EVO units then the exterior of this unit is going to immediately look familiar as it recycles many of those design elements. The fit and finish is excellent again and the actual finish itself is incredibly durable and sharp looking powder coat we have seen before. The finish is incredible well done. One of the points that does change here is the modular interface is now fully modular which some people will like, and some people won’t, but obviously that is up to the end user. We also see the unit changes things up a bit as it is decked out in "Gold" trim for its efficiency tie in. Lastly on the exterior, the cables are all sleeved in the multicolor weave we have seen before but on some cables this sleeving is woefully short. Moving to the interior of the unit, we find the cleanest layout and integration from Enermax to date, and perhaps from any vendor overall. When it comes to the unit's internal build quality we can find few faults as even the soldering and modular interface are well done with this unit. In addition, the unit is stocked with Matsushita and Rubycon capacitors which are hard to top. Capping off this excellent build quality is the fact that all of this is backed up by excellent documentation and Enermax’ 5 year warranty.
Load Testing
The load testing results for the Enermax MaxRevo 1350W are, overall, a pass and at times very good. However, on the not-so-good side of things in absolute terms we have the unit’s 12v regulation kicking off the party. While in specification at all times, the 12v rails dropped by a range of values from 0.2v to 0.41v. The 0.41v value on this unit occurred on the motherboard connector and this change is larger than what we saw from the Galaxy EVO 1250W. The minor rails however were very well behaved as they saw changes of 0.06v (5v) and 0.05v (3.3v). Where this unit really started to shine in comparison to previous products performance was its efficiency. The unit is advertised, quite heavily, as being 80Plus Gold complaint (and almost 80Plus Platinum) and in our load tests this seems to be right on. At 120v AC input the unit ranged from 86.91% to 90.20% while at 100v it ranged from 85.91% to 89.12%. When we then look at 80Plus’ actual parameters we find that the unit ranged from 87.39% to 91.18% making this unit fall solidly within the prescribed 80Plus Gold parameters. Due to these efficiency values the unit was generally very cool running, though during the Torture Test it did post a peak exhaust temperature of 68C, which is somewhat to be expected.
Moving on to the Transient Load Test results we see that the results posted by the MaxRevo 1350W are a pass and even at times split the results that we saw with the our previous Revolution85+ units (1020W and 1050W). In our testing today, the MaxRevo 1350W saw peak 12v changes of ~300mV to ~360mV which is an increase over those previous units and not what were expecting from a larger capacity unit. The loaded 5v responses on the other hand ranged from ~140mV to ~150mV which makes them better than the 1020W model and about even with the 1050W model. All in all, this makes for a passing unit in all regards though some of the results are a bit anachronistic.
DC Output Quality
The DC Output Quality of the MaxRevo 1350W today was excellent overall. Indeed, the MaxRevo 1350W did better in some regards than what we saw from the Revolution85+ 1020W and Galaxy EVO 1250W (though it did slightly trail the Revolution85+ 1050W). During our testing today, the peak trace amplitude on the 12v rails was just ~30mV (which is one quarter of the ATX12v specification limit) during the full power tests. This is particularly impressive when you consider how large the 12v load was in this test. When we look at the minor rails we find that they are a touch better behaved as they saw peak trace amplitudes of ~25mV. These results taken together are very good overall and make this one of the better aspects of this very good unit today.
Noise
The Enermax MaxRevo 1350W is an 80Plus Gold rated power supply with a large (139mm) overhead fan and one of the cleanest layouts we have seen to date. These items should allow it to be a reasonably quiet power supply, for a 1350W power supply. In our testing the unit was certainly quiet through 50% of its rated output. However, once we hit 75% the fan started to develop a distinct pulsing sound that was cyclic but low pitched. Throughout the rest of testing this sound grew and by full load the unit was clearly audible in our testing environment. Now, while not the quietest unit we have ever reviewed it is a 1350W unit and the noise was low pitched and had it not been for the cyclic nature likely would have gone rather unnoticed. All in all, I would not necessarily recommend this for a 1350W HTPC. Then again, I would not recommend building a HTPC that took 1350W’s of power either. The MaxRevo 1350W is an enthusiast power supply and in hardcore enthusiast rigs full of video card fans it likely will not be your loudest component even at full load.
Paul's Thoughts:
Of all of the classes of power supplies we have reviewed to date the 1300W+ range has had the fewest examples cross our test bench. In fact, we have seen less than a half dozen, or so, power supplies of 1300W or more and this puts the Enermax MaxRevo 1350W in competition with a relatively small group of power supplies. Among this rarefied group of power supplies we have seen some good units, and some bad units, but when things get to these extreme power levels we have yet to see any unit that is amazing in all facets of our reviews. Today, the Enermax MaxRevo 1350W is no different as it had its ups and downs. It is by far the most efficient power supply in this realm we have seen, which is certainly a good thing when we start talking about more than 1kW of power, and has some of the better DC Output Quality that we have seen in this range. When this unit did show some less than superior results they were, perhaps predictably, in the 12v regulation. With up to 112A available (and 108A used during our testing today) on the 12v rail the 12v rail regulation is likely to be looser for a number of reasons and so 2% or 3% regulation at such extreme power levels may look worse than 1% at lower power levels but it is not without some serious asterisks next to it. From that perspective it is kind of hard to really fault the one 12v rail that showed not the best regulation today; and this unit is still one of the best we have seen in this output range.
The Bottom Line
The Enermax MaxRevo 1350W is the largest capacity power supply that we have seen from Enermax and one of the few 1300W and up units we have ever tested. This particular market segment is certainly a niche market segment but more than that it is an extremely hard market segment for a unit to do everything exceptionally well in. Today, things are no different with the MaxRevo 1350W, however while the MaxRevo 1350W did not do everything exceptionally well it did so in some areas and then did the absolute best we have seen from this segment in others. The 12v regulation on this unit was generally in line with other 1300W and up units (save for one 12v rail and the Transient Load Tests) as was the noise output which makes the unit generally in the middle pack for this output capacity range. However, the minor rails had very good regulation, the efficiency was the best we have seen from such a powerful unit and the DC Output Quality was overall some of the best we have seen in this range.
All of these excellent points easily put this unit a leg up on the competition we have reviewed to date in this output capacity range. On top of all of that, this unit is easily the best built unit we have seen from Enermax and one of the cleanest units we have seen from any manufacturer to date, which is definitely another area that Enermax has improved upon today. With all of that said, and as the market stands today, there are relatively few units in the 1300W and up market segment for sale, but among those units the Enermax MaxRevo 1350W certainly has to be considered one of the best.
(Editor's Note: We are a bit split on what award we should give here as this unit surely deserves an award today. Given build and performance alone, we would likely give the MaxRevo 1350W a very solid Silver Editor's Choice Award and possibly a Gold although the 12v rail regulation gives us a bit of precaution. We however do not give awards on build and performance alone, we have to bring value into the equation as well. Seeing Enermax MaxRevo 1350W at $299.99 on Newegg today puts it firmly under many 1300W and 1350W competing units and right into competing with many 1200W units. Given that we think it is worthy of a Gold today.)
