I took the above spec to mean that it could supply 32A sustained over both
12V rails, with a max of 18 for any one rail.
No that goes back to what I wrote about "peak" ratings for
Enermax. It might supply a peak of 32A for a brief moment,
or 18A peak on one rail.
I looked at this PSU because it had dual 12V rails. My current PSU suffers
from a slight voltage drop on 12V when the CPU is under load, and then there
is a noticeable speed drop of the case fans (which makes an audible change
to their tone). This is annoying. The voltage drop is about 300mV, but the
rail still stays with 12V +/-2%.
Fans plugged into motherboard or power supply leads?
It is typical for a motherboard's 12V rail to drop unless
that CPU power is isolated on the board... some are, maybe
even most are by now. A 300mV drop could be a sign of
nearing full capacity load of the current supply but on 12V
rail it's not necessary so, because the typical PSU still
regulates based on 5V too, so if 5V current remained
constant instead of rising proportionately with 12V, then
12V will indeed dip. Even on those PSU that have dual 12V
rails, it's not actually two independant 12V circuits on any
of them, AFAIK. Rather the voltage produced is a bit above
12V and the rails split after a bridge of two low-ohm
resistors. Regardless, it's most likely better than the
winpower psu, though did you mention it's wattage?
Regardless there probably isn't *any* PC winpower PSU that's
as good as the Enermax... not that the Enermax is "great"
but certainly a step above generics.
Are Enermax no good then?
My primary grip is their overstated capacity... and that
they're priced similar to other makes that DON'T overstate
the capacity.
What about Thermaltake? I thought they only made
fans. I need something quiet.
Thermaltake makes nothing, they just slap their labels on
other products, kinda like Antec does... except that
"almost' all thermaltake fans are crap excepting a few of
the fancy ones on their silent boost heatsink (relabeled
panaflo) and another 'sink whose name escapes me at the
moment. Their PSU are relabeled Sirtecs, and are certainly
a better value but I've not auditioned any of the newer ones
with SATA connectors, the older ~420W series is an
outstanding value at around $40 but it doesn't have such a
bias towards 12V power as some of the others... though
perhaps their higher ~480+ watatge models do, i haven't
bought any Thermaltakes in a while either.
The Fortrons are usually pretty quiet, though any decent
power supply will have thermal fan adjustment such that if
it's getting hot the fan speed will pick up... making it
louder but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In such
situations it could be a sign that the case air intake needs
either higher surface area (open) and/or an intake fan(s).
You might consider models with 12cm fan underneath but that
does take up a bit of room in the PSU, generally the best
~500W power supplies scarsely have room inside for the
components and one fan, let alone multiples. That's another
issue to be aware of, that if the PSU has more than one fan
but isn't physically longer than average, there was some
kind of tradeoff made to allow for the 2nd/3rd/etc fan(s).
Usually it's more than just a shorter/smaller heatsink,
especially on units that have active PFC jammed in there
too. Regular ATX/PS2 form-factors need modernized IMO, the
volume allocated was from a time when systems used 50W.
Frankly I'd go with a Sparkle/Fortron at any price point you
choose, as per $ they seem best built, but most aren't too
pretty if that matters.
