Hardware Secrets
Home | Camera | Case | CE | Cooling | CPU | Input | Memory | Mobile | Motherboard | Networking | Power | Storage | Video | Other
Content
Articles
First Look
Gabriel's Blog
News
Reviews
Tutorials
Main Menu
About Us
Awarded Products
Compare Prices
Datasheets
Dictionary
Download
Drivers
Forums
Links
Manufacturer Finder
Newsletter
On The Web
RSS Feed
Test Your Skills
Twitter
Newsletter
Subscribe today!
Search




Recommended
Switching Power Supplies A to Z
Switching Power Supplies A to Z, by Sanjaya Maniktala (Newnes), starting at $45.00
Home » Power
Enermax Liberty DXX 500W Power Supply Review
Author: Gabriel Torres
Type: Reviews Last Updated: April 13, 2008
Page: 5 of 10
$ Check REAL-TIME pricing for Corsair TX Series 80 Plus 850-Watt Certified Power Supply CMPSU-850TX $.
Wal-Mart: $164.98 TigerDirect: $129.99
CircuitCity: $129.99 Newegg: $139.99

Secondary Analysis

This power supply uses four Schottky rectifiers on its secondary, however they are connected on a way that is different from other power supplies.

Nowadays on power supplies with four rectifier packs we usually have two of them connected in parallel rectifying the +12 V line, one rectifying the +5 V and another rectifying the +3.3 V line. This reflects the current usage of power supply, where most of the power is pulled from the +12 V outputs. In the past most of the power was concentrated on the +5 V outputs.

On this power supply, however, the two rectifiers that are connected in parallel are in charge of the +5 V outputs and they are used, at the same time, for helping the rectification on the +12 V line. This is the first time we’ve seen such exotic configuration. To help you to understand this configuration, we have drawn a simple schematics of the secondary from this power supply on Figure 13.

Enermax Liberty DXX 500 W
click to enlarge
Figure 13: The secondary.

All four Schottky rectifiers are the same: DF40S4. Each pack can handle up to 40 A at 106º C (20 A per internal diode). Because of this different design, calculating the maximum theoretical currents is not so easy.

The maximum theoretical current each line can deliver is given by the formula I / (1 - D) where D is the duty cycle used and I is the maximum current supported by the rectifying diode (or by the freewheeling diode, whichever has lower current limits). Just as an exercise, we can assume a typical duty cycle of 30%.

Since the +3.3 V doesn't share rectifiers with the other outputs it is the easiest one to calculate: 20 A rectifying diode, 29 A maximum current [20 A/(1 - 0.30)] and thus 94 W maximum theoretical power. 

From what we understood the +5 V output is produced by the two rectifying diodes drawn on the bottom of the schematics with the two freewheeling diodes drawn in the middle of the schematics. This would give us a 40 A rectifying diode (20 A x 2), 57 A maximum current and thus 286 W maximum power.

Calculating the maximum theoretical values for the +12 V output is hard, and we may be wrong. We will consider only one rectifying diode (the top one), which would give us a 29 A maximum current and thus 343 W maximum power.

Enermax Liberty DXX 500 W
click to enlarge
Figure 14: Secondary rectifiers.

Enermax Liberty DXX 500 W
click to enlarge
Figure 15: Secondary rectifier and -12 V voltage regulator.

This power supply uses a thermal sensor on its secondary heatsink (see Figure 16; to take this picture we removed the secondary heatsink), which is used to control the fan speed according to the power supply internal temperature.

Enermax Liberty DXX 500 W
click to enlarge
Figure 16: Thermal sensor.

This power supply uses a PS223 monitoring integrated circuit (see it on Figure 16), which is in charge of the power supply protections, like OCP (over current protection). This IC also provides over voltage protection (OVP), under voltage protection (UVP) and over temperature protection (OTP), but not over power protection (OPP).

The active PFC capacitor is Japanese from Chemi-Con and rated at 85º C, while the electrolytic capacitors from the secondary are rated at 105º C.

Pages (10): « 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 »
Print Version | Send to Friend | | Bookmark Article | Comments (0)

Related Content
  • Zalman ZM600-HP 600 W Power Supply Review
  • Corsair TX750W Power Supply Review
  • Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850 W Power Supply Review
  • Antec TruePower Quattro 850 W Power Supply Review
  • Enermax Liberty ECO 500 W Power Supply Review

  • Recommended Deal.
    Power Supply TX850W 850W 12VCorsair Memory CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Active PFC Power Supply - Retail


    Newegg: $139.99 Wal-Mart: $164.98
    TigerDirect: $129.99 CircuitCity: $129.99

    RSSLatest News
    IN WIN LAN Party in Southern California
    November 20, 2009 - 12:37 PM PST
    Patriot Announces PS-100 SSD Series
    November 19, 2009 - 7:30 AM PST
    Antec Launches TPQ-1200 PSU
    November 18, 2009 - 11:30 AM PST
    AMD/ATI Launches Radeon HD 5970
    November 18, 2009 - 10:18 AM PST
    OCZ Launches Colossus SSD Series
    November 17, 2009 - 1:39 PM PST
    NZXT Unleashes Tempest EVO Mid-Tower Case
    November 17, 2009 - 1:06 PM PST
    nVidia Launches GeForce GT 240
    November 17, 2009 - 10:18 AM PST
    Arctic Cooling Announces Accelero TWIN TURBO PRO VGA Cooler
    November 16, 2009 - 11:46 AM PST
    PowerColor Announces PLAY! HD5770 Video Card
    November 13, 2009 - 12:51 PM PST
    G.Skill Announces Falcon II SSD Series
    November 11, 2009 - 3:31 PM PST
    .:: More News ::.

    RSSLatest Content
    Ultra X4 500 W Power Supply Review
    Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB Hard Disk Drive Review
    Nintendo Wii Fit Plus Review
    AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table
    nVidia Chips Comparison Table
    Gigabyte G41M-ES2L Motherboard
    Netflix on Playstation 3 Review
    CM Storm Sentinel Advance Mouse Review
    Titan Skalli CPU Cooler Review
    Nexus RX-6300 630 W Power Supply Review
    Gigabyte P55-UD6 Motherboard
    Nintendo Wii Review
    SilverStone Grandia GD04 Case Review
    Can We Trust the 80 Plus Certification?
    NZXT Gamma Case Review

    Our Most Popular Articles
    Maximum CPU Temperature
    1,078,222 views
    How to Find Out Your Motherboard Manufacturer and Model
    706,038 views
    nVidia Chips Comparison Table
    679,013 views
    Connecting Two PCs Using a USB-USB Cable
    593,285 views
    How To Correctly Apply Thermal Grease
    562,360 views
    AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table
    560,015 views
    ATI Radeon X1300 Pro Review
    487,912 views
    ATI Radeon X1600 XT Review
    477,079 views
    How To Perform a BIOS Upgrade
    394,401 views
    Sempron vs. Athlon XP
    338,484 views

    Latest Threads in Our Forums
    Ultra X4 500 W Power Supply Review
    by Merman
    Dell Inspiron 6000 Powers but will not boot...
    by pistonpete
    IN WIN LAN Party in Southern California
    by Hardware Secrets Team
    Getting A Hard Copy
    by Trevorrross
    Am I Making The Right Choice?
    by need2know
    Is it available to mount the Zalman cooler?
    by Olle P
    dsl modem prob
    by Sherry
    Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB Hard Disk Drive Review
    by Hardware Secrets Team
    Overclocking a dell xps 410
    by 6dracing
    How to recover mp3's, pdf & chm files, applications from formated harddrive partition
    by tomahawk 1705
    .:: Visit Our Forums ::.


    © 2004-9, Hardware Secrets, LLC. All rights reserved.
    Advertising | Legal Information | Privacy Policy
    All times are Pacific Standard Time (PST, GMT -08:00)