Enermax or CWT!?

[DeludedGuy]

Looks like the 450W CWT is is then!

[funnelhead]

I agree with silentdeath, but bear in mind that any 'future proofing' will receive a btx shaped kick in the nuts....

[spazman]

another reason to get the cheapest one

[Some bloke]

I would personally say it's better to pay the extra for the 550W, simply because it is equivalent to the TruePower range, so has much better voltage regulation and significantly quieter stock fans. The latter was important in my own decision as I wanted a quiet PSU without resorting to modding, since last time (with an Enhance 460W - which, in my defence, is very awkardly laid out and modder-unfriendly) this resulted in a couple of sharp reminders of the power of electricity and a dead PSU within a few weeks.

I believe that some traders at computer fairs sell certain models, and that CWT do manufacturer lower-rated A series PSUs, but I haven't visited a computer fair in years so I'm not sure if anything below the 550 is available in the UK. All the evidence points towards them being internally identical to the Antec TPs, I haven't seen anything to indicate otherwise.

i have a 550w cwt and the rails never drop atall however much load i put on it. the rails are slightly high (= good) when measured with multimeter but the mobo sensor reads them low (still within 3% though!) which is due to resistance in nf7-s rev22 mobos and the EPS12->ATX converter that has to be used with these psus (comes with them).

Interesting - I've also noticed low MBM/BIOS readings with mine, and although I've suspected it's at least in part due to inaccurate hardware monitoring, I haven't yet examined it with a multimeter (partly for reasons of personal safety mentioned above), so couldn't be sure the PSU itself isn't responsible for the readings.

Compared to my Qtec 550W, the +12v line is almost identical (averaging about 0.25-0.3v out at 1.9vcore nominal, 1.82-1.86v actual under load), but the +3.3v and +5v are out, over 3% at some times in the case of the former. This would be consistent with your claim, but I've also tried it in the 8K7A+ downstairs, and 3.3v/5v were almost spot on while 12v was out by around 0.3 again - if the converter caused the inaccurate monitoring with both boards, the other two readings would surely be lower on the 8K7A+. I suppose I'll have to try the multimeter now...

[Lee H]

I've got the 550w CWT power supply - its awesome, the cables are LONG as hell as they can reach the bottom of my casetek case with no issues, and it is also very quiet indeed. Only thing that could improve it is more SATA power and of course neon fans in the PSU unit itself

Lee

[overfloe]

the atx cable on the enermax is super stiff.. i dont like it good power rating though

[SilentDeath]

neon fans in a psu? WHATS THE POINT!!! imo CCFLs make things look rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe.

[Lee H]

heh Silent - each to their own I suppose

It is a "classy" PSU and I might just 1 day change my fans but atm the light from the UV light and Abit red light glowing on the NF7-S looks funky enough when added with the light from my gainward FX card

Roll on payday so I can afford a decent cooler such as the thermaltake Sub Zero 4G and have a nice play with that.

Lee