Thanks for the review, and especially for continuing this new trend of testing/guesstimating noise levels if the PSU is fed fresh air rather than air from the inside of the chassis. I modded my regular ATX case with a "cold air intake" for the PSU, and going forward, only consider cases that either have a separate chamber for the PSU or can be easily modded for the same effect.

Nice review. I'm building a fairly low power system soon (785g mobo with 45-65W Athlon II) and had mostly settled on the Nexus Value 430. Looks like this Enermax is a good competitor... though it's probably a wash as to which is better.

I work for a helicopter company... I'll have to bring in that fan and see if we can apply that shape to our rotor blades

Nice review, quick to the point too.

This is a nice addition to the recommended fleet. I would never need more than 350 watts of power, so the extra $$$ on a fancy psu is a bit irritating.

In the chart on the bottom of Page 5, does anyone else using firefox get blank boxes in the first column? I have to read it in IE....

Good work on the review. Enermax is a lot more readily available where I life than Nexus or even Seasonic. Good to know there are choices. Although going forward, I'm leading towards only building picopsu systems.

Looks fine for me in Firefox 3.5.5

In the UK Scan have them on Today Only from £38.51 for the 350W to £73.59 for the 620W.

Hello,

Very nice review Devon!

I have a guess as to how the "batwing" blades push more air: the reason the blades are swept forward is that it decreases the angle of attack (which is quieter) but then the air "slips" in towards the hub. So, the "kink" in the blade stops this slippage somewhat and that part of the blade pushes more air than it otherwise would. And since this is at the middle of the blade, the linear speed of the blade is greater than in near the hub.

Also, it is also a 9 blade fan -- maybe they are comparing it to a 7 blade?

An aside: if the blades were swept backward, then the air would "slip" out and off the blades and this would greatly decrease the amount of air that was shifted. And again straight blades are noisier, all else being equal, than swept blades. So, that's why almost all fans have swept forward blades.

Here's a 3-pin 1500RPM version of the Magma fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214001

I'm still curious about the forking cables - I was looking for a pic of that but failed to find one in the review. Sure, you can always find pics elsewhere, but it would be nice to go back to the custom of having those "octopus" pics here
All in all, a nice review of a v good PSU.
Those Magma fans have v good feedback from quiet/silent enthusiasts here as well. Expensive as they are they are popular - must be for a reason.

Well spoken

And thanks for a good review of a very interesting product.

Hopefully, it'll soon be avaible around here, but that's another story.

In UK Ebuyer have the "batwing" fans in 80 and 120mm versions at £6.49 and £9.19.
They appear to be 3pin connection and 92mm=2200rpm / 120mm=1500rpm rated.
Seb

There's a closeup, but no "octopus" pic. I'll keep your request in mind for the future though. I think we stopped using them because they ended up being so small ... I guess we figured they weren't that useful.