Enermax Revolution D.F. X 1050 PSU Review

Nov 30, 2023

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell 20 hours agoFeatured Tech News, Featured Tech Reviews, Power Supplies, Reviews

It has been a long time since we last looked at an Enermax power supply, so when they contacted us recently offering some 2023 review samples, we jumped at the chance to look at one of their new Revolution D.F. X units. These power supplies are 80 Plus Gold rated, fully modular, and adopt quality Japanese capacitors to help ensure longevity.

Enermax are releasing three units in the D.F. X range. We are looking at the 1050 Watt unit today, but there are also 800 Watt and 1200 Watt units also available. Enermax sent us USA pricing for the three supplies. The 1200W model is $199.99, the 1050W is $169.99 and the 850W is $149.99. UK availability right now seems sparse, but we found the 1050W listed on Grooves for £135 HERE.

Enermax back this unit up with a 10 year warranty.



Product features overview:

The Enermax box is colourful with some key points listed along the top right corner – including ATX 3.0 Ready, PCIe 5.0 Ready, and 80 Plus Gold certification – alongside the use of Japanese capacitors.

The rear of the box goes over some of the same key points from the front, alongside some diagrams showing the cables, connectors and power delivery figures.

Unfortunately Enermax only wrapped the sample box in plastic so it had a few impact knocks on the side of the box – and the sticker inside took a hit as well. This sticker can be applied to the power supply to add a bit of colour if you aren't interested in the RGB effects.

The cables are all sleeved for ease of routing during the build phase. The motherboard cable is 65cm long. The CPU 4+4 connectors are 60cm and 70cm respectively. The 12VHPWR 12+4 pin cable is 60cm long. The PCIe 6+2 pin cable is 2×65/15cm. The 2xPCIe 8 pin – 12VHPWR splitter cable is 60cm. The 12x SATA cables are 4×45/15/15/15cm. The 4P Molex cables are 2×50/15/15cm. The extra dual PCIe 8-pin to 12VHPWR cable may come in useful.

The Revolution D.F. X 1050 power supply is nicely finished and without the sticker applied is a neutral colour scheme to fit into any themed build. Many new chassis hide the power supply anyway, so its not so much of an issue now.

The power supply measures 140mm x 150mm x 86mm.

The large 120mm fan is hidden behind a metal grill, with the ENERMAX badge in the centre. We will take a closer look at this fan when we open the unit later in the review.

One side of the power supply is home to the vented panel, power connector and power switch. There is a button beside the power switch. This is used to enable or disable the RGB lighting. Yes, you read that correctly.



There are 14 built in smart lighting modes and you can either switch modes by this button or by the M/B Sync option. One of the side panels is ARGB and this implementation means you don't need to have software installed to use the RGB lighting effects.

The modular bay on the other side of the unit is clearly laid out and labelled for ease of use during the build phase.

The 1050 Watt PSU can deliver 87.5A to the +12V rail. It can deliver 20A to both +3.3V and +5V minor rails (130W).

Enermax are using a 120mm fan labelled ‘PFERS-12M' with a rated maximum speed of 2,100 rpm, 12V 0.28A. This is a Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan (FDB) with a life span rating of 100,000 hours of use.

Enermax are keen to promote their ‘Dust Free Rotation (DFR) function. Basically they claim this fan spins in reverse to expel dust from the insides of the unit when it is first powered up. Enermax call this a ‘self cleaning mode'. While the fan reverses direction on start up, it is difficult to actually test if this would help remove stubborn dust over the years. It's certainly an interesting idea!

This looks to be a SANR (sometimes known as Casecom) OEM design in conjunction with Enermax. We don't often get to look at many of these units, so it is interesting. We have seen some of these units in Aerocool and Kolink PSUS in the past and are known for high ;performance to dollar; designs. This is a half bridge LLC resonant converter with DC to DC circuit design offering good output efficiency and voltage stability.

It is reassuring to see the adoption of 105c rated Japanese capacitors from Rubycon. These capacitors are 450V 390uF for a total of 780uF.

The unit has OCP, OVP, UVP, OPP, OCP and SCP protections.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load.

We test ambient temperatures at 35c in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:• SunMoon SM-268• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)• Extech Power Analyzer• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter• SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)

• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

We test in a single +12V configuration.

Combined

DC Load

The load regulation of this power supply is fairly decent across the board.

The power supply managed to deliver 1110W before shutting down safely.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

The D.F. X 1050W handled our cross load test very well, holding stable results across the range.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum. ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs, the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.

Ripple noise suppression is really good on both primary and secondary rails.

The efficiency results are excellent, peaking at 92.3% at around 50% load. This drops to around 89.6% efficiency at full load. These are solid results for an 80 Plus Gold rated unit.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide

10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves20-25dBA – Whisper30dBA – High Quality Computer fan40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator50dBA – Normal Conversation60dBA – Laughter70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output110dBA – Orchestra120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine130dBA – Threshold of Pain140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The fan remained very quiet in our test environment, becoming audible at around a 600 Watt load, but never intrusive. The fan ramped up quickly after a 750 Watt load was demanded from it, then hitting a peak around 38dBa at full load.

The large fan spins up quickly in the last 400 Watt of load output, ensuring good airflow across the components.

Pushing the PSU well above its rated limits generates an efficiency of around 89%. Not really practical, but interesting nonetheless.

As we said initially in this review, it has been some time since we have received an Enermax branded PSU for review at KitGuru. The Revolution D.F. X 1050 has proved in our testing to be a solid PSU design with some interesting selling points.

While the RGB side panel is an interesting concept, many new case designs go out of their way to hide the power supply in a lower compartment. I do like how Enermax have opted to include a physical button on the unit to control RGB patterns. This negates the need for messy software installs.

Technically the unit is capable, if somewhat unremarkable. The 80 Plus Gold Certification is what we would consider an enthusiast entry-level point in 2023 and this unit achieves this certification based on our testing.

In other areas, the Revolution D.F. X 1050 proves a solid design. Ripple suppression falls well within industry rated parameters, achieving 15mV and 20mV on the +3.3V and +5V rails respectively. The +12V rail peaked at 35mV under full load situations. Load regulation is pretty good as well.

The unit runs pretty cool due to the excellent 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fan, and the adoption of 105C-rated high grade Japanese capacitors from Rubycon should ensure long term stability. Enermax back this power supply up with a full 10-year warranty for ease of mind. We have no ‘real world' way to test the ‘DFR' (Dust Free Rotation) function for this review but in theory, if nothing else, it should help remove some dust particles from the unit over the years.

Right now, Enermax appear to have some struggles with getting stock in the United Kingdom after Brexit, but official pricing for the D.F. X 1050W is said to be $169.99. The unit doesn't appear to be for sale right now on Amazon (LINK), but you can get it from Newegg for £178.99 (HERE). The best price we have found is from Grooves who appear to be importing them for £139 (HERE). At £140 it is a great deal and should make a final shortlist – at £180 there is clearly a lot more competition.

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Pros:

Cons:

KitGuru says: The Enermax Revolution D.F. X 1050 ships with a few interesting features, such as RGB support without a reliance on a bloated software install and a ‘Dust Free Rotation' Fan function to help remove excess dust from inside on start up. Technically it delivered good power across the full range and is backed with a 10 year warranty from Enermax.

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