The Enermax Liberty - Getting long in the tooth, but still worth a look
by Christoph Katzer on July 30, 2007 1:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
There is frankly no need to buy this power supply today since there are better performing units in the market. With this review we mainly wanted to show what the Enermax Liberty is capable of since it was a popular unit for a long time - it was also one of Germany's top selling power supplies. From the quality perspective it is still a very fine product that is relatively quiet and very stable. The efficiency is behind the top units of today, but if you own already a Liberty there is no need for a change (unless perhaps you're looking at quad cores, overclocking, and HD 2900 XT CrossFire).
Comparing the efficiency of the Liberty 500W to the other power supplies we've tested, it ranks at the bottom of the chart right now. However, it's important to clarify that we take the highest efficiency reached during testing for this graph, regardless of load or input voltage used. This is how most manufacturers rate their PSUs, but for a more realistic look at efficiency you should read the individual PSU reviews. At 81%, the Enermax still does quite well, relative to many inexpensive units. It doesn't reach 85% or higher efficiency, but we don't really expect that from older models.
One of the great things about the Liberty - particularly for anyone that already owns one - is that Enermax has provided a reasonable upgrade path by creating new cables. Purchase those separately, and you can be PCI-E 2.0 compliant. With the two 6-pin PEG connectors you already have a decent amount of support for high-end systems, and the upgraded inclusions take that a step further. In our version we had the new 6/8-pin PEG cables, which will be the case for all packages purchased this year.
All the DC outputs have been stable within the specified area and only came close to the lower limit during high performing tests combined with high temperatures. We have been surprised about the very stable 12V rails which have been generally within 0.2V of the ideal voltage. From the acoustic point the Enermax Liberty is surely not silent since you can clearly hear it at medium to high loads. However, as our graphs show it is well cooled inside and this protects the PSU from overheating.
Today, the Enermax Liberty has an average price of around $110 USD or 84 EUR. At a cost of $110 it starts to encroach on the realm of modern high-end power supplies, which in some cases are newer and slightly better in terms of performance and efficiency. Newegg currently has a $10 mail-in-rebate, but even at a price of $100 we would recommend looking around at some of the latest offerings from competitors. The Liberty 500W isn't a bad PSU by any means, but neither is it really class-leading in any area.
There is frankly no need to buy this power supply today since there are better performing units in the market. With this review we mainly wanted to show what the Enermax Liberty is capable of since it was a popular unit for a long time - it was also one of Germany's top selling power supplies. From the quality perspective it is still a very fine product that is relatively quiet and very stable. The efficiency is behind the top units of today, but if you own already a Liberty there is no need for a change (unless perhaps you're looking at quad cores, overclocking, and HD 2900 XT CrossFire).
Comparing the efficiency of the Liberty 500W to the other power supplies we've tested, it ranks at the bottom of the chart right now. However, it's important to clarify that we take the highest efficiency reached during testing for this graph, regardless of load or input voltage used. This is how most manufacturers rate their PSUs, but for a more realistic look at efficiency you should read the individual PSU reviews. At 81%, the Enermax still does quite well, relative to many inexpensive units. It doesn't reach 85% or higher efficiency, but we don't really expect that from older models.
One of the great things about the Liberty - particularly for anyone that already owns one - is that Enermax has provided a reasonable upgrade path by creating new cables. Purchase those separately, and you can be PCI-E 2.0 compliant. With the two 6-pin PEG connectors you already have a decent amount of support for high-end systems, and the upgraded inclusions take that a step further. In our version we had the new 6/8-pin PEG cables, which will be the case for all packages purchased this year.
All the DC outputs have been stable within the specified area and only came close to the lower limit during high performing tests combined with high temperatures. We have been surprised about the very stable 12V rails which have been generally within 0.2V of the ideal voltage. From the acoustic point the Enermax Liberty is surely not silent since you can clearly hear it at medium to high loads. However, as our graphs show it is well cooled inside and this protects the PSU from overheating.
Today, the Enermax Liberty has an average price of around $110 USD or 84 EUR. At a cost of $110 it starts to encroach on the realm of modern high-end power supplies, which in some cases are newer and slightly better in terms of performance and efficiency. Newegg currently has a $10 mail-in-rebate, but even at a price of $100 we would recommend looking around at some of the latest offerings from competitors. The Liberty 500W isn't a bad PSU by any means, but neither is it really class-leading in any area.
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26 Comments
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meeshu - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Disappointing once again to note lack of ripple data despite indication in the "Test Methodology" that ripple details would be provided for PSU reviews.Voltage output with increasing load is one consideration; cleanliness of voltage (ripple) is another issue.
poohbear - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
hey can u guys review corsair's HX620/HX520 psu? They're supposed to be kickass and im just curious how they'd rate compared to the psus u've reviewed. Thanks and keep these great reviews coming!wolfman3k5 - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
I'm sure that when they'll run out of stuff to write about (again), there will be a review about Corsair 520HX/620HX. Or maybe 2 years from now, who knows. They never wrote a review about the Enermax Liberty either back when it was "cool" to own one. Like I've said before, they do write PSU reviews only when they run out of stuff to write about.Cheers.
Bozo Galora - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
It is precisely because of unneccessarily nasty angry posts like this, that, after 8 years, I dont post on AT forums anymore, and haven't for about 4 months so far. I just visit for the articles now. However, it seems I cant even escape this immature trash talk even in the review comments.I have been a member of many forums - ars, Hardforum, abxzone, i4memory, xbit, techreport, xtremesys etc., all for the most part friendly co-operative back and forth type situations there. But only on AT do we see the anal retentive crowd post again and again what they dont seem to understand is hurtful (to the staff in this case).
Well, I like the PSU reviews, and if I were a mod, I would ban you permanently in a heartbeat. And if you like jonny guru so much - then go to his site, and keep your big mouth shut here.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
Thanks - I'm sure Christoph appreciates your comment!As for the reviews, you may have noticed that we didn't do ANY PSU reviews for a long time. Christoph is a new addition who is busily cranking out reviews. As with pretty much all of our content, we review what we're sent, and when people asked for some more reasonable PSUs he reviewed an Enermax Liberty 500W. There are, unfortunately, only so many hours in a day and so many PSUs in the lab, so I am not aware that Christoph has a 520W HX to review. Maybe he'll get one in the near future, maybe Corsair will send him something else, maybe they won't send units to Europe and we'll never get a review of one done. At some point, though, we need to establish a starting point and move forward, and that's what we're doing.
wolfman3k5 - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
You all might wanna check out jonnyguru.com for a decent PSU review...yyrkoon - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
I own, and think I would still prefer to own my Antec EA500 for much less. I keep hearing people putting Antec down for shoddy PSUs, but I own this EA500, and previously an Antec 450 SL, and have nothing but positive things to say about either. One of my friends however does sware by Enermax PSU's, but I think if I were to pay this much for a 2 year old(outdated) PSU, I think I would just pony up the extra for a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V(they are only another $40 usd . . .).Efficiency is one thing, and rock solid rails are another . . . We all know (or should) that Antec usually makes a decent PSU, Enermax does make a decent PSU, and that PC P&C(Seasonic) makes the best. Granted, anyone can put out a lemon(and sometimes that lemon is part of a 'run' that are all lemons).
piroroadkill - Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - link
The "Lemons" you refer to are pretty much all of the Antec TruePower and SmartPower PSUs due to their use of fuhjyyu capacitors on the secondary side - they have a pretty much complete failure rate - I personally own 4 antec truepower II powersupplies and so far I've opened two, and so far both have had this problem, and I'm not even slightly aloneyyrkoon - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - link
Actually, then lemons I refer to happen with ALL namebrands, and why you would purchase a known bad PSU based on its capacitors is un-bewknownst to me ...Spikke - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
I have the 620w Liberty and have owned it for nearly 2 years now. It started out on a Gigabyte K8N SLI-Pro, 4200+ X2, 150gb Raptor, 500gb Caviar, and 2x 7800GTX in SLI. It's now powering my new rig just fine Gigabyte P35-DS3R, E6850, 150gb Raptor, 2x 500gb Caviar, and a 8800GTX. It was a great purchase and I have not had a single complaint or problem with it in nearly 2 years. I would definitily not hesitate to buy another Enermax psu.