Enermax Revolultion87+ 1000-watt Power Supply Review

Introduction and Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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Enermax is on a stretch of refreshing their lineup, making sure that they have a solid offering for any enthusiast.

First up was their high wattage MaxRevo, followed by their Platimax 600W and now their new Revolution 87+.

We've even got another one in the works from the folks at Enermax so they are very busy bringing you the latest and greatest in PSU technology. The new Revolution 87+ comes feature packed with 80Plus Gold efficiency.

Let's tear into their new power supply and see if it is up what we expect from Enermax.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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Enermax still uses a quad rail design for the Revolution 87+ instead of the industry favoured singe 12V rail. It makes it a little bit more difficult for the end-user, but often results in better regulation. The quad 30A rails will provide enough power for whatever you can throw at this unit. The minor rails are rated for 24A each, but only have a paltry 120W combined load. This isn't quite what we would expect from a next-gen power supply.

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The Enermax Revolution 87+ comes packed with everything we check for. It has both native and modular cabling; all of which is fully sleeved. All your protections are present including over-temperature protection. As you would expect, the unit is rated for 100% continuous output at 50C. Enermax gives you all that you could ask for and more when it comes to features.

Enermax has an MSRP of $239 on the Revolution87+ 1000W unit. This puts it at the high-end of the 1000W 80Plus Gold rated market. Unfortunately we have nothing else to say about the price of the unit as it doesn't appear to have hit the market at the time of writing this article.

We would suspect that there will be a few e-tailers that will price it a tad bit more competitively, but that is only speculation. Enermax backs the Revolution87+ with a five year warranty.

The Packaging

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Enermax boxes the unit in black and gold with a brushed metal appearance.

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The back crams as much marketing and information as it can. It is rather overwhelming unless you know just what you are looking for.

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The bottom features just the logo and Revolution987+ branding.

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The top contains the I/O specification chart and a very solid list of cables/connectors. For those wondering what wattages the Revolution87+ will come in, this picture tells all.

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The right side is a copy of the bottom.

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So is the left side... it would have been nice if Enermax would have used some of this dead space to spread out the information on the back.

Inside the Box

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Here is the unit just as it arrived with the top open.

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As you can see, there is no padding to protect the unit. It is simply protected by the cables that surround it on three sides and cardboard on the other three sides.

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As has become the norm, Enermax has located the I/O specification label for the Revoltuion87+ on the top of the power supply.

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Enermax uses the same design as the MaxRevo for the Revolution87+.

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Lettering is reversed on the other side so that it is displayed properly no matter where you install it in a case.

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The modular connections on the front are well labeled. Not only do they show what cables to use, but show what rail each pin of each connector is on.

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The back houses the standard honeycomb mesh grill. It is open almost as much as can be with the exception of the added Enermax logo.

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The bottom houses the 139mm twister bearing fan that cools the unit.

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The back houses the standard honeycomb mesh grill. It is open almost as much as can be with the exception of the added Enermax logo.

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Included with the power supply is the user manual, AC power cord, Velcro cable ties, mounting screws, case badge, CableGuard clip and a product brochure.

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Seven modular cables are included; two for PCI-E connectors and five for peripheral connectors.

Cabling Arrangement and A Look Inside

Cabling Arrangement

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Enermax provides a decent selection of cables and connectors that will suit just about anyone's needs. We say decent for a multitude of reasons. The natively wired PCI-E cables are a tad short and will likely prove to be hard to utilize if you are routing cables behind the motherboard tray and around to a video card.

There is also the strong selection of Molex peripheral connectors along with the floppy connector. A few more SATA connectors would be nice along with just including a Molex to FDD connector.

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Rail distribution is fantastic for the four rails on the unit. 12V1 is wired for the 24pin Main and natively wired ATX/EPS12V connectors. 12V2 utilizes one of the dual GPU/CPU/RAM connectors as well as three of the peripheral connectors. 12V3 does the same, but for only two peripheral connectors. 12V4 rounds things off for the natively wired PCI-E connectors as well as the last GPU/CPU/RAM connector.

A Look Inside

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Popping the bottom off, we see that Enermax has kept it simple. The clean design allows for good air penetration to all the components.

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A pair of Nippon Chemi-Con caps adorns the primary side of the power supply. There are others who have reported getting the unit with Panasonic capacitors here. Either way, it still comes with Japanese capacitors on the primary side.

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More Nippon Chemi-Con can be found on the secondary side of the PSU.

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Cooling the unit is Enermax's own EA142512M-0A fan.

Test Results and Final Thoughts

Test Results

Our load tests utilize a couple of FAST ATE active load testers and a variety of other equipment such as an oscilloscope, power conditioner, temperature probe and a power consumption meter. You can read more about our standard testing approach here.

The tests performed are based around six conceivable setups that are out there and progressively load down the PSU up to the power supply's limits or 1000W, whichever comes first. Since our test equipment's equal to that of the Enermax Revolution87+, we can test it to the maximum.

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Let's start by taking a look at the voltages to see how well this unit did during testing. Starting with the 12V rails, we see 2% regulation from start to finish across all the rails. 12V2 showed the most significant voltage drop from Test 1 through Test 6, dropping a total of .18V. 12V1 and 12V4 showed the least voltage drop from Test 1 through Test 6, dropping a total of .16V. The 5V rail also stayed within 2% voltage regulation and a total drop of .06V. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was within 1% with a total voltage drop of .04V.

DC output quality was excellent from start to finish and arguably one of the strongest points of the Revolution87+ 1000W. Starting out, we were barely able to see a ripple on the scope during Test 1 where we measured noise at a low 8mV peak to peak. This steadily increased as the loads also increased. By the time we had reached around 50% load, the unit ripple had crept up to 13mV. Under full load, we saw that the noise on the 12V rail had crept up to 24mV.

The Enermax Revolution87+ is rated for 80Plus Gold efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 87%/90%/87% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the Revolution87+ blew this out of the water while on our test bench. At no time was the unit close to failing for efficiency. As a matter of fact, the unit was extremely close to passing for a Platinum efficiency rating.

Final Thoughts

Once again, Enermax delivers a unit that performs well in all aspects.

The Revolution 87+ 1000W unit comes packed to the brim with features and extras. It also proves that it is worthy of the Enermax name with top notch performance from start to finish. Voltage regulation is excellent on all rails. The DC output quality and efficiency are also flawless.

It's hard to fault a unit in a big way when the only things you can find wrong with it are the price and the cable selection and connector availability.