Lepa G1000-MA 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review

Introduction, Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Hopefully by now our readers are familiar with the Lepa brand. We have taken a look at a few of its power supplies and have been pleased with what we have seen.

This should be expected though as the company is Enermax's own house brand of power supplies and are essentially rebranded units with different fan grills and logos. Aside from that, you can expect no differences from a Lepa branded power supply and one from Enermax, with the exception of a few extra goodies in the box.

The unit we have on the test bench today is the Lepa G1000-MA. It is a 1000W power supply rated at 80 PLUS Gold efficiency with both native a modular cabling. After taking a look at the unit, we came to realize that it is simply a rebrand of the Enermax Revolution87+ which we reviewed here.

The difference seems to be that this time around, Lepa also changed the case. As such, we expect it to perform almost identical to what we saw before and would be disappointed otherwise.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

I/O specifications remain unchanged from the Revolution87+. The Lepa G1000 features four 12V rails. Each is rated for 30A while the share a combined maximum load of 83A or 996W. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 24A with a combined maximum output of 120W. The G1000 also features a standard 3A 5VSB rail. Total combined maximum output for the G1000 is 1000W.

One of the things that you will often see with house brands is that features will often be removed from the product. It isn't something that Lepa seems to do; at least as far as performance features are concerned. The G1000 features a full set of protections, including Over Temperature Protection. All cables are sleeved, both native and modular. The unit is rated for 80 PLUS Gold efficiency and 100% continuous output at 50C.

The Lepa G1000-MA has an MSRP of $209.99. That is $30 cheaper than what the power supply retailed for under the Enermax name. At the time of writing this article, the price was even cheaper over at Newegg and could be had for $179.99 after $30 mail-in rebate and free shipping. That makes it one of the cheapest 80 PLUS Gold power supplies on the market. Unfortunately, Lepa only offers a three year warranty on its power supplies which is very strange considering the same power supply from Enermax carries a five year warranty.

Packaging

The simplistic packaging highlights a few features on the front. LLC Resonant and DC-DC tech are simply ways that power supplies increase efficiency.

There is a nice feature list on the back. Not much is out of the ordinary here except the Zero Voltage Switch. A ZVS allows for reduced energy loss and less heat generated. As is the case, it is typical for less heatsinks to be needed within the unit.

There is also a nice connector list on the back of the packaging. Unfortunately there isn't a list of cable quantity or cable length here with it.

I/O specifications are located on the back as well for those who are curious.

Both top and bottom of the box contain nothing more than a glimpse of the power supply.

The sides are both blank with the exception of Leap's logo. It would be nice to see things a little more spread out and a bit more information available.

Inside the Box

Everything is sectioned off inside the box and is relatively well protected. The revised packaging over the Revolution87+ makes it much easier to get everything out.

The I/O specification label can be found on top as well as the serial number.

Both sides feature the same logo, just inverted on the opposite side. This side has a small rub mark on it from where it was against the cardboard with no foam, bubble wrap, or plastic between it. It is a minor cosmetic defect that could be avoided easily.

The back is standard with the honeycomb venting as well as the AC input and on/off rocker switch.

Here we find all of the modular connectors for the G1000 power supply. Unfortunately when Lepa changed the enclosure for the PSU, they didn't re-include the labels for rail distribution which was something that we really liked with the Enermax Revolution87+.

The bottom contains the 140mm fan for cooling the G1000. Both the fan and the grill are a bit different from the Enermax model.

All of the modular cables are fully to help with both cable management and airflow.

Also included with the power supply is the user manual, mounting screws, and AC input cord. This is the one area that Lepa power supplies tend to differ in that they don't include the extras such as the CableGuard clip, Velcro cables ties, and case badge that you typically find inside with an Enermax power supply.

Cabling Arrangement and A Look Inside

Cabling Arrangement

The cable selection for the Lepa G1000 power supply is very well rounded and should take care of just about anyone. The obligatory 20+4 pin Main connector is present along with a cable that provides an EPS12V connector and an ATX 4+4. The six PCI-E connectors will power a trio of video cards. Peripheral connectors come in the form of 12 SATA, eight Molex and one FDD spread over five cables.

Rail distribution is spread out about as perfectly as it could be. 12V1 provides power for the Main connector and both AUX power connectors. 12V2 handles one of the PCI-E connectors and three of the peripheral connectors while 12V3 does the other two peripheral connectors and another PCI-E connector. 12V4 finishes things off with another PCI-E connector and the natively wired PCI-E cable. The rails are distributed so well by design that you don't have to worry about load balancing the power supply as it happens automatically.

A Look Inside

Taking a look inside, we find three rows of heatsinks that provide passible cooling.

While the Enermax unit we looked at featured Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors on the primary side, our Lepa G1000 has a pair of Panasonic caps.

We found many of Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors over on the secondary side.

The Lepa G1000 receives active cooling in the form of the 140mm ADDA ADN512LB-A90 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 limits are equal to that of the Lepa G1000-MA 1000W power supply, we can test it to the maximum.

The above tests represent typical loads that we have measured from various systems and are meant to give a rough idea of where your computer might fall in line with our tests. Please keep in mind that each system is different and actual loads can vary greatly even with similar hardware.

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% across all rails. 12V1 faired the best with a total drop of .14V and 12V3 faired the worst with a total drop of .19V. The 5V rail managed to stay within 1% of specification with a total drop of .05V from start to finish. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was again within 1% of specification with a total voltage drop of .05V.

DC Output quality for the Lepa G1000 was excellent and well within specification. During Test 1, we saw 12mV of noise on our scope. When we increased the loads in Test 3, the ripple climbed to 19mV at a little over half load. During Test 6 under a load of 1000W, the oscilloscope showed a maximum of 29mv on noise on the 12Vrail.

The Lepa G1000-MA 1000W is rated for 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 87%/89%/87% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the Lepa G1000 passed on our bench wasn't close to failing at any point.

Final Thoughts

The Lepa G1000-MA is the third Lepa branded unit that we've had come across our test bench to date. We have yet to be disappointed and we hope that as long as Lepa continues to use rebranded Enermax units that we aren't either. We aren't entirely sure where parent company ECOMASTER is going with the Lepa brand, but you can be sure that as long as they continue to utilize top notch power supplies from Enermax, they will soon be a name that rivals Antec, Thermaltake and more.

Considering that the Lepa G1000 is a house brand power supply, you simply couldn't ask for better performance out of a unit. Voltage regulation is within 2% on all of the 12V rails and within 1% on both minor rails. Many top tier manufacturers struggle with this level of regulation and here we have it from a house brand. DC output quality is just the same, showing a maximum of 29mV under full load. Topping things off on the performance, we see near Platinum levels of efficiency.

The top notch build quality of the unit contributes to the performance we see, including 100% Japanese capacitors throughout the unit. In fact, the only thing that we can't find top notch with the Lepa G1000 power supply is the warranty.

They know that the quality is there so it doesn't make much sense to lower the warranty period for the PSU. We are quite sure that this will dissuade a few potential customers who are unaware of the relationship between Lepa and Enermax, even if the unit is one of the cheapest compared to the competition.