Enermax Whisper II 2.0 535W SLI

Examination:

Un-wrapping the Whisper II, it's certainly not the sexiest power supply we've come across; however, inside the casing is where the real magic occurs. Although it may look like a stock or generic casing, it features ATX +12V version 2.01 specifications, dual +12V rails, high efficiency, ring core technology, and plenty of other electrical safeguards. Some of these electrical protections include OCP (Over Current Protection), UCP (Under Current Protection), OVP (Over Voltage Protection), OLP (Over Load Protection), OTP (Over Temperature Protection), SCP and (Short Circuits Protection). At the rear of the 535W unit, it features an 80mm exhaust fan, power input, power switch, and a fan-controlling knob. This knob is used to control the fan speed, and ultimately the noise level, of both the exhaust and intake PSU fans. While the side of the power supply displays the EG565P-VE FMA label which shows the number of amps available on each DC voltage rail as well as Enermax's S²FC²A², which respective stands for 8cm fan speed monitoring by M/B & adjustable (FMA), smart & silent (S²), 2 thermal fan-control fans (FC²), and two adjustable fans (A²).

On the underside of the unit, is a 120mm intake fan for driving some of the heat away from the CPU socket area while at the same time serving to cool the innards of the Enermax PSU. Unlike the exhaust fan, the intake is formed from clear plastic and utilizes ball bearing technology. In addition, on the underside is the Enermax logo stamped into the casing. Popping off the power supply cover, we were exposed to the insides of the unit. Inside, we found two relatively tiny heatsinks used to cool off the various power components. Although the heatsinks are incredibly smaller than the ones found in other high-end power supplies, there shouldn't be much of a cooling problem as long as there's adequate airflow throughout the system.

Assisting in EMI shielding, is an Enermax Ringcore that serves as the same general purpose of Ferrite cores, by suppressing electro-magnetic pulses from leaking to other power components that are attached to the power source. One of our complaints about the Whisper II comes in way of its sleeving techniques. Rather than sleeving the entire cable length, Enermax only sleeves the first portion of the cable, leaving the rest of the wires simply bare. Although sleeving is generally a cosmetics practice and prevention against possibly damaging the cables on any computer fans, we would have liked Enermax to sleeve all of the cables, but this small amount of sleeving is better than nothing. Complying with the latest ATX specifications, the connectors available from the 535W PSU are a 20/24-pin motherboard, 8-pin P4 CPU, two 6-pin PCI Express, four Serial ATA, seven 4-pin molex, two FDD, and one PSU fan monitoring connector. The main motherboard connector is like many of the recent power supplies where there is a sliding 4-pin connector so it can be connected to either a 20 or 24-pin motherboard. For motherboards that continue to use 4-pin P4 connectors, Enermax has included an 8-pin to 4-pin adapter. The two PCI Express connectors are designed for use with graphics cards and mainly NVIDIA SLI-compatible solutions.