Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT

[Spyke]

I had this sucker not even a year, powered a 7900GTX with an opteron for the later lifespan, and a 6800GT all before that, and only recently a 8800Ultra. I had issues of failing to post, failing to poweron, I decided to open it up (knowing I would lose my ability to RMA but i hate junk PSU's), and found this.

Loaded with CTC garbage!


Oh oh, I see a bulgly leaky piece of crap!


Seriously, whats with PSU makers these days? This power supply was expensive.

[Per Hansson]

Send a mail to Enermax, manufacturers need to start owning up to their crap

A 140$ PSU (currently) with crap caps is just so wrong on all ends it makes me sick, so what, they saved like 5$ on the BOM, great works guys, really great!

It looks like atleast Antec partially took the advice of their screaming customers on forums and went up a notch in capacitor quality (which coming from Fuhjyyu and going up notch isn't exactly what I'd call very impressive. But atleast they are trying)

As long as PSU manufacturers don't use ALL the capacitors in the PSU from one of the top 5 Japanese brands I wont recommend it to any of my friends, or use them in any of my PC builds, that's for sure!

(And currently that list is a very very very short list)

[linuxguru]

Those vents look like Jamicon (not too bad) or Choyo (crap) - but the PSU is seems OK otherwise. You should be OK with a recap.

[Sparky]

Still a PSU of that caliber shouldn't have any sort of crap caps in it. I'm disgusted with Enermax. Glad I didn't get a liberty.

Wouldn't be surprised if that is the reason why I've heard of some of these liberties blowing stuff up.

[Spyke]

Yeah I ordered a Corsair (seasonic) to replace it. According to the reviews of the ELT620AWT on Newegg, one should stay clear of this ticking timebomb. The Corsair has much much better reviews.

I'll most likely just recap it and put it in a lowend machine for my girlfriend. It'll be run at maybe 15% at the most there.

[kc8adu]

ctc?
new one to me.
look like jamicon or any of several crap brands.

[Per Hansson]

Originally Posted by Spyke

I'll most likely just recap it and put it in a lowend machine for my girlfriend. It'll be run at maybe 15% at the most there.

Be sure to send a fanmail to Enermax telling them how much you like their new capacitor choices

Heck, throw in a link to this fan thread too!

Also, may I ask on what rig you had the PSU? And some small info on how it was cooled?

[Spyke]

It was in a Lian-Li V1200B chassis, all thats in the bottom chamber is hard drives and the PSU itself, which has an intake with a 120mm fan. The PSU should of had a lot of cold air supplied as its seperated from the main heat generating components, (mobo, video card, etc)

Specs are:
Opteron 170 @ 2.8ghz
6 hard drives.
(and for the majority of the year, a 7900GTO (rebadged GTX) video card)
Not even a week ago I upgraded to an 8800 Ultra and this happened.

An 8800 Ultra draws about 60 more watts than a 7900GTO so this power supply should be able to handle that. It should of been maybe at half load only.

Yes I will email Enermax, as I'm quite disgusted with this.

[starfury1]

I have one and no haven't open it yet

There are reports they go BOOM if worked to hard.
search our forums for comments links
(Not good enough Enermax!)

Its turning out to be an expensive piece of crap
from some reports and yours only adds to it

You shouldn't have to re engineer something this pricey.

[yanz]

hmmm, well... if i buy something, i expect to be able to use it until im done with it, not until it's done with me...

[starfury1]

Yantz

I should add at the time reviews were good on it so thats why I got it
I have an older one thats still going great and they had a rep for making decent supplies.

Jonny G pulled his excellent rating as issues started to appear.

The Corsair (seasonic) HX620W (whatever) got a very good review
even when given a real pounding

The Liberty seem fine on lighter loads but thats not what its spec to be.
For the price you pay, just not good enough.

[Signal]

Yikes... I have two of these Liberties 620W and not a good thing to see.

I agree that if it's being touted as a "Built for High-End gaming system, or heavy-duty server/workstation" by Enermax than it should be using quality parts. Especially for the price.

I had replaced one Liberty with a PPC due to a suspected problem with noise and very small spikes on the voltage lines (checked with a scope) so I have one to crack open.

The PPC doesn't show the same noise as the Liberty did but I have more questions on that. Since it's a more general question on PS switching noise I'll start a new thread on that.

[Galvanized]

Bottom of tier4 http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103

Member here and over at AnandTech, Rubycon(works/lives on a cruise ship) had a 620 Liberty shut down...just stop working, like the plug had been pulled. The ships circuit protection offered this. So she removed the unit, plug it into an unprotected circuit and it blew-up, sending out roman candle like sparks. She now runs a moderatly loaded Seasonic 700W in her gaming rig. She is a serious hobbiest, an uber geek lady.

Minerva, AnandTech member and knowledgeable tech, had her 620 Liberty flash-bang under load. It took no other hardware with it.

As I recall. About 6~8 620 Libertys have been posted over at AnandTech that had the majic smoke come out.

I have never seen pics of one open after the fact. If I ever do they will posted on this board.

[yanz]

Originally Posted by starfury1

The Liberty seem fine on lighter loads but thats not what its spec to be.
For the price you pay, just not good enough.

yep.. quality of components can really makes or brakes a hardware durability (& capability)...

but it would be interesting to see if a recapping will cure all the problems this enermax psu has..

It looks like atleast Antec partially took the advice of their screaming customers on forums and went up a notch in capacitor quality (which coming from Fuhjyyu and going up notch isn't exactly what I'd call very impressive. But atleast they are trying)

honestly i doubt that. if they really concern bout the issue, whatever the oem they use, they would ask specifically to only use jap caps or samxons from them.. $3-5 for output filtering caps is not much methink..

[Galvanized]

The Seasonic provided Antec Earthwatts uses OST in the secondary and a Hitachi primary. Called building to a price-point. *sigh*

yanz,
Corsair has the VX units out now and Zippy/Emacs has released the new quiet Serene PSUs. All of these units are 80Plus certed.

[starfury1]

Thanks Galvanized for posting

I don't know if he pulled the review of it but I couldn't find it.

I do vaguely remember from the review that as this thing was pushed (I think) some odd things were happening and partly this was why I was looking for it to re-read what jonny said about it.

This box was running on a 350W (probably not ) channel well so the load cant be too great on the Liberty 620W.
(for the orginal psu see the psu piccie post thread, caps started to pop their tops. It came with the box and was on the to do list (like get rid of)

I would recommend caution with them anyway if you got one....if you haven't, buy a PSU that can take a beating and has proven its self on the battlefield of power hungry computers.
(if you really need this level of wattage)

Cheres

[Galvanized]

starfury1,
Here is all of jon's reviews he did using the old proceedure. He says nothing bad about the Liberty in this review.
http://jonnyguru.com/psu6.html

*thinks of OZ, half a world away* Cheers!

[Rubycon]

Is it possible to peek inside without taking off the cover?

I'll have to check to see if one of the bore scope lines will fit through the confines of the fan grille.

[Big Pope]

Nice and good design power supply! It still a good PSU after replaced with good cpas.

I saw the crapped caps are 3300uF 10v D10mm, the problem is here.

All quality 3300uF 10V caps are D12.5mm in the market, no quality 3300uF 10v caps in D10mm, be care!

I suggest to be used with 3300uF 6.3v D10mm instead of 10v with right size, it is because the rail is not 12v. There is no problem used with 6.3v caps instead of 10V caps.

[Spyke]

Just following up here, my kind reply back from an Enermax ticket. (Or lack thereof and a closed resolution)

<!--- Information ----->
Name: Spike
Last Update: 09-08 06:52 Case ID (Status): Closed
Description: Junk Capacitors

09-08 06:52 Tom

26-07 10:22 Spike
I'm quite disgusted with the fact that expensive power supplies of Enermax use junk capacitors. From now on I'll stay clear of Enermax and tell everyone else to do the same. I expected this Liberty to last longer than just 11 months.

Need pics of the junk caps? Here: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?p=35515

I don't care about RMA'ing the unit as honestly I rather just throw it in the trash pile instead of getting something back that would be identical with the same crap capacitors included.

http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/ti...cket=79pPRc.P5