900W to 1100W PSU Group Test

Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W Results

The Enermax performs pretty well across its five 12V rails, and two do drop within one percent of ATX specification. On average though the 12V rails fall slightly below their rated values, but none of them fall outside of the specification and it's not something that should cause problems. The 3.3V, 5V and -12V on the other hand perform almost consistently in excess of their rated values, but again it's still within tolerable limits.

The efficiency is solidly and consistently above 80 percent, with the PFC also in excess of 96 percent, both of which are superb results.

Warranty

Enermax offers a three year warranty which is in our opinion a necessary minimum considering the cost of the device and that users may use the same PSU for quite some time, especially if it's a powerful one. For example, Enermax offered the first 550W model back in 2001/2002.

This is clearly still capable of running many systems today, however it'll be missing necessary connectors like the 24-pin ATX, 8-pin (or possibly even 4-pin) 12V, SATA and PCI-Express. New connectors are what drives the need for new PSUs rather than upgrading the wattage, so it's hard to judge how often the associated PC will be upgraded.

Value

Enermax knows it has the most expensive 1000W unit at around £226, but it is marketing this PSU as the ultimate product with its heavy duty appeal. It's part modular, part cabled so you get the best of both worlds and can apply what you need from it. Only the Cooler Master RealPower modular 1000W is around the same price and the PC Power and Cooling 1000W is a lot more expensive at nearly £300.

Personally, I don't see why you'd pay for the PC P&C PSU when the Enermax costs so much less and offers everything you'd need from a 1kW power supply, and is also 80Plus certified too. Who needs to support that many peripherals though? Do you need to spend that much money when alternatives all fall within £20 of the £170 mark. For ~£200 it would absolutely be worth the extra investment and even up to £210ish it would still be justifiable considering what you get in the box, but at £50 over and above the competition makes it far harder to swallow. But is it even in the same league as the competition considering how many connectors it offers?

Conclusion

The Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W is without doubt an awesome power supply specifically designed for people with serious hardware requirements. It could fit multiple applications with all the available features and connectors and fits the niche gap between your normal enthusiast and outright mission critical server.

It cuts the bull and doesn't even suggest those without the most expensive multiple GPU, CPU and hard drive requirements only need apply, which is certainly the case if you actually need a 1kW of power. The efficiency and PFC are not quite up to that of the competition in our tests though, although it is already 80Plus certified which counts for a lot in itself. A couple of rails do fall a touch short but it still doesn't fail and it's respectively louder than most of the other PSUs at full load.

Yes, it's huge, it's heavy but it's designed for an equally large case. It may be loud, but then so are a dozen plus hard drives and at least it's built to last with all the latest connectors, including several 8-pin PCI-Express. In all, it represents more than just a number, it's a PSU with a clear thought and consideration that's evident in all aspects of it.

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• 10/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

What do these scores mean?