I'm going to be completely honest here. For this review, I was thinking of putting on a silver wig, fastening on a bulbous prosthetic chin, and talking in a high pitched squeaky voice while shaking my head back and forth like it was about to fall off. But then I thought about it some more and remembered the judge said I wasn't supposed to do that anymore. That, and I really don't care whether millionaire X is doing a show at time Y, or whether millionaire Z is taking over millionaire W's time slot. I have a... what do you call it... you know, that thing that hooks up to the TV that gets a lot of stations in different time zones... riiiiight... a SATELLITE DISH.

So, if you folks don't mind, I'm going to leave all the late night TV network talk show stuff to those who give a darn and review one of those power supply things like I'm supposed to. And also make sure my pants aren't on the ground or my hat is on sideways.

Today, we'll be taking a look at what is only the third unit I've had come across the review table to garner 80 Plus Gold certification - the Enermax Modu87+. As you can see by the above picture, we're dealing with the 700 watt model in the line.

As usual, the box has a lot of marketing goodness on it, on more than one side. Above, you can see one of the sides. Friends, this printing is nigh impossible to read, and not just because this whole panel is devoted to marketing points in every language on Earth but English. Without good lighting, the gold on black type isn't easy to see. Mr. Fuji took several pictures, and this was the best one.

Aha! I knew I'd find the English marketing points! Since there is no way y'all will be able to read this, unless your name is Steve Austin or Superman, I'll just go ahead and reprint it for you. Well, most of it anyway. I better put the optometrist on speed dial so I can call him up in a hurry if need be.

• 87PLUS ready!
  Extreme efficiency PSU series with 87-92% efficiency @ 20-100% load. Certified to meet 80 PLUS® GOLD requirements.
  -I intend to test this on the coming two pages. Will it stay Golden even while the hot box has its way with it? We shall see. Maybe. I might be blind by then.
• SpeedGuard
  The world's leading patented fan control starting with unmatched 330RPM to a maximum of 1000RPM for optimal cooling and minimum noise.
  -I think I know what they're getting at here... they're saying this unit can get the fan started at a slower speed than usual.
• Dynamic Hybrid Transformer Topology
  Technological breakthrough topology using a staged dynamic transformer array for extremely high efficiency with the most durable and stable output at any load.
  -Uh, ok then. We'll have to wait for page four to see what the deal is here.
• Hybrid Capacitor Array
  High-performance capacitor array of heavy-duty solid capacitors & Japanese electrolytic capacitors to ensure tightest DC stability and regulation.
  
• C6 & Hybrid Ready!
  Maximum compatibility with C6 & hybrid states of current and future CPU & GPU generations by ZERO LOAD design (no minimum load).
• TWFJSPW SDR QISNSI... aaah, my eyes! Where are those eyedrops, ah here we go. Son of a... that was Pepsi! That's gotta be it, to my left here. Let's try this again.
• TWISTER FAN INSIDE!
  13.9cm Twister-bearing fan with low noise and long lifetime. (100,000 hours MTBF, Patented)
  -Wait, a fan bearing twisters? Am I going to need Reed Timmer here while I load test this?
• Future Ready!
  12P modular design for possibly upcoming new CPU and GPU 10P and/or 12P connectors.
  -I've been seeing this from Enermax units for several months now. To date, there hasn't been much talk of standards changing enough to make this a priority. My advice for you, dear reader, is to just look at whether or not this unit meets your needs today. These kinds of changes could be years away, and by that time we could all be living on the moon or underwater or something else cool like that.
• DXXI Ready!
  100% 6+2P (8P) PCI-E connector to support new generation > 300W DXXI graphic cards.
  -Oh boy! I'm going to start whistling Dixxi! Who's with me?
• 24/7 @ 50°C Ready!
  Non-stop industrial class performance at 50°C ambient.
  -We'll find out the truth of this statement on page three.
• Gaming Ready!
  ATX12V v2.3 support for latest Intel® Core™ 2 Duo/Quad/Extreme/i7/i5, and AMD® Athlon™ 64X2X4 & Phenom™ II and SLI® or CrossFireX™
• World Ready!
  100-240VAC in with automatic adjustment and active PFC for global useage.
  -This is one of the side benefits of Active PFC. You are unlikely to find an APFC unit that cannot be used worldwide.
• HeatGuard
  Keeping shjkhrw asfo gjkof... oh great. Eyedrop time again! Gaaaaah! That was coffee!!! Why do I keep eyedrops in a drinking cup? Uh, no reason. I hope this part is over soon.
  Keeping PSU fan running for 30-60 seconds after shutdown to dissipate the remaining system heat and prolonging system lifetime.
• SafeGuard
  Industry-leading octuple protection circuitry of OCP, OVP, AC UVP, DC UVP, OPP, OTP, SCP, & SIP.
  -What, no NBC protection? There's a 1929 Duesenberg parked across the street RIGHT NOW. It's been there ever since my opening paragraph. What am I supposed to do about that?!
• CordGuard
  Fixing the AC cord tightly to avoid accidental shutdowns of your PC.
  -This is actually not new to the industry. You will find power cord retention clips on many industrial grade power supplies out there.

Whew. That took a while. I'm now convinced Enermax could turn anything into a marketing bullet point. But wait, there's more. In addition to the above bullet points, there are graphs and tables and icons galore on this side of the box, extolling the countless virtues of owning this here Enermax product. I tried to have a good long look at them for you, but it was like driving against the blinding sun after a rainstorm. As a wise Dalek once said, my vision is impaired - I cannot see.

And the printing doesn't even stop once you open the lid for the first time. As best I can tell, that little blurb there is a multilingual statement that Enermax has a support forum at forum.enermax.com for all your support needs.

The Modu87+ comes with a lot of goodies: modular cables, a bag for those modular cables, some velcro ties, an AC power cord, a retention clip for the power cord, a little Enermax sticker, some screws, and a manual.

Speaking of the manual, here it is now. It's decent in terms of information supplied therein.

And here's the Modu87+ itself. And again I find myself reaching for the eyedrops... could they have used a more tacky looking fan? Sure, it's most likely there because this is an 80 Plus Gold unit and they want to highlight that fact, but man... why not a straight black fan, with simple understated gold highlights on the rest of the enclosure? That fan doesn't look like gold to me, it looks like cheap gold colored plastic.

Another angle. Are... are those blue heatsinks I see in there? Ok, forget gold highlights on the enclosure. Make the fan black and the heatsinks gold, and you'll have something I like looking at. I'll pardon the modular connectors because it's good to be able to tell easily what cable goes where, but I think Enermax really needs to do some more work on the aesthetics of this unit.

I will say that the mirrored finish is rather nice though.

Oh, so that's what you do with that little rectangular sticker that came with the unit... you put it there, above the AC receptacle. That's a good place for it.

Though it pains my eyes to see the fan from straight on like this, here you go. The fan.

Here's our load table for the moment. Notable is the combined 12V capacity of this unit, which adds up to 696 watts. That's right, you can pull almost the entire capacity of the unit right off the 12V rails. And since this spec is only four watts from the total rated capacity of the unit, you will need almost a zero load condition on all other rails to do it without overloading the poor thing.

Here's a close-up of the modular cable connectors on the unit. It's rather easy to tell what does what - the black ones are for peripheral cables and the red ones are for PCI-E cables. These are all on 12V2 or 12V3 or both, depending on the connector. The manual goes into which goes on which rail, but here's a spoiler for you. From left to right on the black ones: V3, V3, V3, V2, V2. The red ones use both V2 and V3. On the connectors, the top six pins are 12V. Of those six pins, the right three are 12V2 while the left three are 12V3. Confused yet, would we?

Now this, I like to see. A modular unit with only the ATX and CPU connectors hardwired to it. All three of these are on 12V1, by the way.

The modular cables. Supplementing the main unit's awful gold/black/blue color scheme, now we get sleeving with red on it. I now wish I could switch my eyes over to black and white for the rest of this review.

And now we come to the fun part - the load testing. As always, the SunMoon SM-268 will be the Ed McMahon to my Johnny Carson, and will be doing most of the work for me. It's a fancy electronic load thinger that has the ability to simulate working loads on these power supply thingers in precise steps. It will be assisted today by a Brand 4-1850 power meter, a USB instruments oscilloscope, a multimeter, and a dual probe thermometer. Since this is a triple 12V unit, and my auxiliary 12V electronic loads are refusing to play ball today, I'll sum them into one big 12V rail for testing.

Those of you who have been to the site before know how my tests work already. For those of you who haven't, here's a quick rundown. First, some room temperature tests. Going off the load table from the unit's label, I will choose a set of five balanced progressive and two lopsided unbalanced loads, and then run the unit through its paces to see how good a unit it is in general.

Following that, I'll run a load test at a really low load to see what happens when the unit is operating at a load the 80 Plus program doesn't test for.

Then, I'll do some overshoot transient tests. These involve loading the unit to 100% and looking for turn on spikes with the scope that go out of the ATX spec. All units have these spikes, but some control them better than others.

Finally, the real fun starts - the hot box. I'll lock the poor Enermax in a hot environment and see if it can really handle full power at high temps. When that's done we'll look at the DC output scope shots, take the unit apart, and then I'll try to figure out how to score this unit. Let's get going.

First things first - the unit did meet its Gold certification. But only just. See that number on test five? That's just barely sticking to Gold. I have to wonder how this unit will handle heat, if we're just barely holding on here in the cold tests. I might be in for a surprise though - you see, units that are this efficient don't heat up a whole lot. While most units I test drop their certification at the hot box door, this unit is so efficient it actually has a chance to keep it.

Before we do the hot boxing though, we need to discuss this unit a little more as we look at the voltage readings. I must admit, I was expecting slightly better voltage regulation, particularly on the 3.3V rail. 3.41 volts is a rather high starting off point. While this is not outside ATX spec, it is slightly over the 3% mark. All this while the rail itself barely holds on to 3% regulation. I'd like to see that tightened up a bit, Enermax, especially since this unit uses the VRM approach to the minor rails.

Over on the other two rails, the 5V is also not quite as stable as it could be, though it is not in any danger of going out of spec either. We have just over 3% regulation on that rail, making it a slightly worse performer than the 3.3V rail is. But those two rails are the minor ones - what about the 12V side of it? Well, that's the highlight of the voltage regulation on this unit. While I did not get the magical 1% number I've seen on some of the better units I've tested, it's still within 2%, which is very nice to see. Wait, see? See? Gasp... I CAN SEE AGAIN! Oh what a glorious day! Now, all I have to do is not look at that fan or the box again, and I'll be ok.

Moving on up to the east side, let's take a look at the low load efficiency test. This is what I like to see here. This unit managed almost 85% at a load level that drops most designs below the 80% mark. Why do most designs act like that, you ask? Well, it's because when you optimize a design for efficiency at the loads 80 Plus tests at, it starts to affect efficiency at lower load levels. Most SMPS designs don't do so well with efficiency at low loads by nature. This unit almost pulled off a Silver result in this test. Excellent.

Overshoot Transient Testing - Enermax EMG700AWT
VSB On	VSB to Full, 12V	Off to Full, 12V

But, if the low load test was excellent, this test is actually below average. Most units I test keep these waveforms at slightly lower levels than this, on all three scope shots. Now, let me make this clear - this is not out of spec. The spec is for these spikes to stay below 10% over mean value, and none of these are even close to going that high. But all the same, I was hoping for a bit better spike suppression. Not a big deal, but just a little bit of a downer in the face of such an efficient design.

It's time for hot box testing, the part where I take the Modu87+ and lock it in an old ATX case that gets all the heat from the SunMoon ATE ducted into it. While the box can hit temps over fifty degrees on the biggest units, this one is too small in capacity to get the box that hot. All the same, prepare for some toasting and roasting.

Well, you can color me impressed right now, but use the dull crayons. I have sensitive skin. This unit not only still kept its Gold certification in the hot box, it actually did a bit better efficiency than it did cold, almost across the board. Wow!

That said, it did something else it didn't do cold - start the 3.3V at an even higher voltage. It's still in spec, not to worry, but it's getting high enough to pass the 4% mark there. The 5V rail also shared in the trend, though it never really made a move at the high end of the spec.

The real pleasant surprise is over on the 12V rail. It must have heard me talking about it, because it's just a wee hair away from that 1% number I covet so much. Very nice. And all this while fighting off 46 degree ambient temperatures, too. Enermax can be proud of these results, I think.

Oscilloscope Measurements - Enermax EMG700AWT
Test #	+3.3V	+5V	+12V
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Test 5
Test CL1
Test CL2

From the goodness of improved performance in the hot box, we now come to this - yawningly average ripple and noise suppression. 12V is at about 60mV, or half the spec. 3.3V is at 25mV, or half the spec. But the 5V rail has decided it's out to impress us, as it's sitting there like it's trying to impersonate a ruler. It's just too bad the 12V rails aren't as keen to make us drool, though half of the ATX ripple spec is still very good performance.

Time to take apart the Enermax. I'm going to put some tinted goggles on to prevent the recurrence of blindness.

My eyes! The goggles do nothing! You should be looking at a fan hub picture above.

Eep. All the heatsinks are blue. The color scheme on this unit is like mashing your hand down at random on a piano keyboard and calling it a song. And then auto-tuning a <insert flash in the pan would-be superstar here> song from it.

As always, the AC filtering starts here. This little board holds one X capacitor, four Y's, and a coil.

The underside of the PCB reveals some sloppy-ish looking soldering in places, but this isn't worth complaining about. As Enermax units go, it's actually improved from some other units from them I could name.

What the... what's happening at Enermax HQ? First our dear Anita Chiu gets replaced by Lora Lo, and now this. Who is Iamcmf? What is Iamcmf? People, I worry that our friends in the engineering department over at Enermax are slowly being replaced by aliens, for this name is clearly not intended to be uttered by the human vocal apparatus.

In this shot, you can see the two VRMs that supply the 3.3V and 5V rails, as well as the wee blue heatsink that holds a 20A bridge rectifier.

The back of the modular connector panel holds a lonely polymer capacitor.

Topology for this unit turned out to be of LLC resonant design. Controllers used are the CM6901, which can also be found in the Seasonic X series units, and a CM6502 for the PFC duties.

A close-up of some of the 12V secondary filter caps. The polymers appear to be Enesol brand, while the electrolytics are Nippon Chemi-Con.

The one big blue heatsink I left in the unit houses the 12V secondary parts. There are four IRFB3206 parts on it, two for rectification and two for freewheeling, and a diode for the 5VSB circuit bolted to the sink.

One of the VRM control chips. Each VRM is handled by one of these, an APW7073A.

Primary capacitor is this here big bad Rubycon.

It looks like Iamcmf is also responsible for the modular connector board. Alien or not, it looks like he/she did a good job.

This is the PFC heatsink. Two K20J60T's and a diode.

The primary heatsink. One 2SK3067 and two G20N50C's for switchers.

Just before I put the unit back together, I spotted this near the two VRMs. It appears that Enermax provided for a way to adjust the minor rails, as well as a 5V sense line that wasn't used.

Performance (40% of the final score) - the Modu87+ does what it does pretty well. It holds reasonably stable voltages, it is extremely efficient, it keeps ripple and noise to about half the ATX spec or lower, and it is very resistant to heat. That said, it is not the best performing unit I've ever seen. Except for the efficiency, there is room for improvement on just about everything here from voltage regulation to turn on spike suppression. With this in mind, I'll give the unit an 8.5 for performance.

Functionality (20% of the final score) - a fan that stays spinning after shutdown. Modular cables that combine SATA and Molex connectors on some of the cables. Enough PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors to run two video cards. A little retention clip for the AC power cord. Can't really complain about anything here. 10.

Value (30% of the final score) - this unit has yet to hit the market, so I'm currently unable to find a retail price on it. Fortunately, Enermax has told me what the MSRP is: $219. Eep. Let's ignore the fact that you can get a Corsair HX850 for far cheaper, just for a second. Among the other Gold units currently on the market, you have the OCZ Z series 850W coming in at around the $219 mark, and the Seasonic X-750 around the $180 mark. Of these other Gold units, it cannot be argued that this unit is able to beat the Seasonic in terms of performance, even as it comes in more or less even with the OCZ unit. Still, the OCZ is also more powerful a unit. I would have to say Enermax needs to work on getting this price a bit lower. 7.

Aesthetics (10% of the final score) - I like the mirrored finish. I like the... umm... mirrored finish. That fan's just too gaudy to like. The blue heatsinks can be seen through the fan and through the exhaust grille, and are bright enough to look awfully out of place with the general color scheme. And if that isn't enough, the sleeving has red highlights on it too. Less is more, Enermax. 5.

Summary

Our third 80 Plus Gold unit to be tested here at the site has come and shown us what it's made of, and has turned out to be quite a decent power supply. The Modu87+ 700 watter is incredibly efficient, it keeps its voltages relatively stable, and it has good ripple and noise suppression. Unfortunately, it doesn't do quite enough to stand out from the pack. The MSRP is on the high side, and the performance could stand to be improved yet by just a bit. When all is taken into account, this is a very good but not great power supply.

The Good:

• highly efficient
• good voltage regulation
• decent ripple suppression
• very quiet

The Bad:

• fan is a rather tacky shade of gold
• blue heatsinks
• high MSRP

The Mediocre:

• I think that Duesenberg is still out there. Where's that NBC protection when you need it?