| Enermax Noisetaker EG475P-VE SFMA 2.0 470W PSU - Page 2 of 2 |
Physical Features (continued):
Here are some internal views of the power supply. Note that by removing the sticker covering the screw of the power supply, your warranty will be void.
 
Inside, it looks like any other power supply. The unattractive white material is most likely a nonconductive material used to prevent electrical parts from coming into direct connect. Unfortunately, no adjustable Potentiometer was found inside the Noisetaker.
 
Below are some select photos of the cables included with the Noisetaker. Note that included in the first picture below is an adapter that allows owners of both 20pin and 24pin motherboards to use the power supply. With most boards, expect to use this adapter. It does make for a slightly more cluttered installation. The SATA connectors are also pictured, along with the 4-pin 12V power connector, 6-pin AUX connector, and the 3-pin fan monitoring connector.
 
Test System:
The Enermax Noisetaker 470W power supply was benchmarked in two stages, with voltages taken at idle and load. The power supply was connected to the test system (specs listed below) and voltages were taken directly from the 20-pin motherboard connector. A Cen-Tech (model P30756) multi meter was used to test the power supply with the black lead touching a black wire on the motherboard connector and the red lead moved to the respective voltage line. (yellow being the 12.0v line, red the 5.0v line, and orange the 3.3v). This particular computer required using every available molex connector (all seven of them), a few even needed to be daisy-chained to power everything. This wouldn't be an issue if the test system had SATA hard disks installed instead.
System Specs:
• AMD Mobile Athlon XP2400+ (1.75v) processor w/Thermalright SLK947U & 120mm Vantec Tornado
• DFI nForce2 Ultra Infinity 400 Rev. A
• 2x 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200 memory (OC 'ed to 240FSB*10, 2.8V)
• 2x Maxtor 80GB hard disks in RAID-0
• 1x optical device (CDRW)
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB video card
• Vantec Nexus fan controller (controls Tornado and 2 CCLs)
• 1x PCI Device (Highpoint RocketRAID 454)
• Antec Performance One P160 (super mid tower) case
• 2x 120mm case fans
Performance and Results:
After the power supply was installed for a few days, we took the average voltages of the power supply at idle and load. Please note all benchmarks were made with the FSB overclocked to 240MHz. Load was simulated by running the distributed computing tool known as Folding@Home. Load voltages were only taken after stressing the computer for a minimum of one hour. Here are the average idle and load voltages taken directly from the 20-pin motherboard connector. As you can see, there was very little (if any) fluctuation on the rails. Voltages were taken multiple times to ensure these results were correct. The largest fluctuation existed in one of the 12V Rails, but it was only a difference of 0.02V.
For comparison purposes, we put the Enermax Noisetaker up against a reputable Antec 430W power supply on the same test system. Both systems were well within their specifications, but the Antec had just slightly less fluctuation. When graphed, the results are very close, demonstrating the good job both companies have done to stay well within the industry standard of +/- 10%.
The Enermax Noisetaker was at most 3% from a "perfect" line voltage (12.00V, 5.00V, and 3.30V).
Conclusion:
The Enermax Noisetaker 470W power supply is one of the few products that works as good it is looks. The power supply includes just about everything an enthusiast could expect: SATA connectors, dual 12V rails, 24-pin motherboard support, and 6-pin auxiliary connectors for modern video cards. Best of all, this power supply is stable! During our tests, the rails fluctuated at most 0.02V. These fluctuations of under 3% are well within the industry standard of +/- 10%. The only retailer currently listed on Pricegrabber for selling this model is Tiger Direct expect to spend $136.00 plus shipping. Keep in mind that this is a "quiet" power supply that is compliant with ATX 12V v2.0, and you pay approximately $50 more than similarly rated products for these features.
The Enermax Noisetaker 470W has extremely stable voltages that hardly fluctuate. With a 3-year warranty, this is one component of your system you won't have to upgrade for a long time. These qualities earn the Noisetaker 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):  
Pros:
• Inaudible over other case fans
• Supports the latest hardware (SATA, 24-pin motherboards, 6-pin AUX connector)
• Close to "perfect" voltage rails, less than 3% fluctuations in the voltage rails
• Fans continue to cool 2 minutes after system shutdown
• Shiny blue finish
Cons:
• Users without SATA devices may find the number of 4-pin connectors to be lacking
• The fan controller knob should affect fan speed regardless of case temperatures
Special thanks to Maxpoint for supplying the Noisetaker EG475P-VE SFMA 2.0 470W PSU to BigBruin.Com for review!
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com forum and feel free to discuss this review.
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