Enermax Revolution 950W PSU Review

Features:

• World’s first PSU series with 85-91% efficiency @ 20-100% load and compliant with ENERGY STAR 5.0. Certified by 80 PLUS® organizations. (88-91% for ERV1250EGT model)

• Ready for most upcoming CPU generations by 12P sockets for possible connector changes, by complying to latest EPS12V PSU design guides for compatibility & by ZERO LOAD Design for C6 state functions.

• Ready for most upcoming GPU generations by 12P sockets for possible connector changes, by six massive 12V rails for perfect load distribution & by ZERO LOAD Design for Hybrid Mode functions.

• Non-Stop industrial class performance at 50°C/122°F ambient.

• Industry-leading “Asymmetric Hybrid DC-to-DC” topology with the world’s highest efficiency & most stable performance.

• Ultra-quiet 13.5cm fan with intelligent RPM control guarantees cool performance and silent operation.

• PSU status monitor with 4-mode LED (Off / Stand-by / OK / Fail).

• Patented air-inlet with optimal aero-dynamical design reducing noisy air turbulences.

• Keeping PSU fan running for 30-60 seconds after shut down to dissipate the remaining system heat prolonging lifetime by up to 20%.

• World's first EPS12V PSU with 99% 12V output capability.

• SSI PSDG 2009 support for latest Intel® Core™ Extreme/i7, Xeon™ and AMD® Opteron™ and SLI™ or CrossFireX™ and AMD GAME! or AMD GAME! Ultra systems and downward compatible with SSI PSDG 2008 1.0, EPS12V 2.92, 2.91, 2.8.

• For PCI Express 2.0/DXX next-generation graphic cards with 6+2P (8P) PCIe connectors.

• Full-scale electromagnetic filtering protects your system against radiation interferences. (CE EMC EN61204 compliance.

Specifications:

Testing:

In order to effectively test the Revolution, we installed it into what we consider to be a typical system for this class of power supply.  We will take a look at both idle and load numbers, both in software and with a DMM.  Below is the system we used:

Our main test test uses the popular software OCCT, which stresses the CPU and the GPU simultaneously, and then graphs the voltages over the period of an hour.  Below are the graphs for 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails:

In the above graph, the green line represents the CPU load, and the brown line represents the actual voltage measurement.  In the case of the 3.3V rail, we see a small variance between 3.25V and 3.265 under load, while idle sits at 3.28V. 

The 5V rail was very stable, showing a minimum of 4.95V and a maximum of 4.975V under load, and 5V right on the money during idle.

The 12V rail varied between 12.1V and 12.15V during load tests, and ran at 12.225V at idle. 

Because software testing doesn't have the best visibility to the actual voltage measurement coming from the power supply, I like to confirm results with a DMM.  To do this, I measure the 12V rail in one of the PCI-e plugs as it is plugged into the video card.  I measure at idle when the system is sitting at the desktop, and then again during the OCCT stress test.  In both cases the probing is done for several minutes to look for any variation.  Here are the results:

As you can see, the DMM reads a bit higher than OCCT does.