Tomahawk is an entry-level power supply series from Enermax. Let’s see if the 500 W version is a good buy.

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Figure 1: Enermax Tomahawk 500 W power supply.

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Figure 2: Enermax Tomahawk 500 W power supply.

Enermax Tomahawk 500 W is a short power supply, being only 5 ½” (140 mm) deep, using a 120 mm fan on its bottom and active PFC circuit, of course.

Being an entry-level product, it doesn’t have a modular cabling system. Only the main motherboard cable and the ATX12V cable have a nylon protection. All cables use 18 AWG wires, which is the minimum recommended. The cables included are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector (18 ½” or 47 cm long).
• One cable with one ATX12V connector (18 3/8” or 46 cm long).
• One cable with one six-pin video card power connector (19” or 48 cm long).
• Two cables with two SATA power connectors and one standard peripheral power connector each (19” or 48 cm to the first connector and 5 7/8” or 15 cm between connectors).
• One cable with two peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector (19” or 48 cm to the first connector and 5 7/8” or 15 cm between connectors).

This configuration clearly shows that we are dealing with an entry-level product.

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Figure 3: Cables.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.