INTRODUCTION
Summer may be the most exciting season for the majority of people around the world (i prefer winter slightly more) since it represents vacation time and of course endless dives in the deep blue sea (for some people anyways) but due to the extreme heat waves it's also without doubt the worst season when it comes to pretty much everything electronic and mechanical from TVs, refrigerators and PC hardware up to heavy industrial, car and bike engines. The Summer period is also one of the main reasons as to why we always recommend high quality and performance CPU Coolers and power supply units to people and since June is almost upon us we decided to spend a little bit more time over some of the latest power supply units to hit the market such as the Triathlor FC 700W by Enermax.
Enermax Technology Corporation is a world-renowned PC Power Supply Unit manufacturer. Since our establishment in 1990, we provide power supply products and peripherals like chassis, cooler, fan and keyboard with excellent quality and have won recognitions of consumers around the world. ENERMAX products are recommended by worldwide reviewers, and certain were granated by iF, Red Dot, Good Design and Taiwan Excellence Awards. Those are proven evidence of our top-notch quality and design competency recognized by the professionals. To develop an intensive sales network and better service customers around the world, Enermax has set up branch offices in Germany, France, U.S.A., Japan and China. We also have service offices and distributors in countries across Europe, America, Asia and Oceania. Our farsighted R & D capability is our key strength. The elite teams of Enermax always strive to come up with the best and most satisfactory PSU, thermal solution and peripheral products with cutting-edge design that meets the needs of the market and customers. We will stick to our R & D spirits of “Technology Innovation” and “Quality First” to constantly create products which transcend international standard and requirements to keep up on our product and brand value as well as competitive edge.
The Triathlor FC 700W is semi-modular 80 Plus Bronze certified PSU which was launched as the successor to the quite successful and award winning Modu82+ line by Enermax so naturally we have high expectations from it. The FC in the product name stands for Flexible Cable Management and Enermax did a good job there since they used black flat modular cables that are much easier to route around your case and behind the mainboard tray compared to regular ones (however it's not the first time we've seen a PSU use such cables in the past). The Triathlor FC 700W is also ErP Lot 6 2013 ready, future ready via the 12P modular cables, silent thanks to a twister bearing fan and according to Enermax rock stable at all loads thanks to the DC to DC converter used. How do all of the above translate in terms of performance your guess is as good as ours.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
The Triathlor FC 700W gets shipped inside a medium sized white box with a large product image, 80 Plus Bronze certification, rated output power and the Enermax logo at the top.
All of the available modular connectors are listed at the front of the box.
Both the specifications and features tables are placed at the base of the box right alongside a noise chart and several images showcasing the twister bearing silence fan used.
Packing could be better but so far we've never received a PSU that didn't work so we can't complain.
The box contains the Triathlor FC 700W PSU, modular cables, modular cable storage pouch, AC power cable, 4 mounting screws, user’s guide, product catalog and two cable straps.
THE TRIATHLOR FC 7OOW EXTERIOR
The Triathlor FC 700W is almost entirely modular so only the 24pin and 8pin mainboard/CPU power connectors are attached to the main body.
Flat modular cables are easier to use and look better too.
Although compared to the more expensive models the Triathlor lacks the scratch resistant powder coating but it's not bad looking and is also smaller than most PSUs (we placed it right next to the In-Win Glacier 900W).
Enermax has used a 9 bladed 120mm Twister Bearing silence fan which according to the specs is almost inaudible even at max load.
The product name along with the company logo is placed on both sides of the chassis.
You can find the electrical specifications sticker on the belly of the chassis.
The modular connectors are not only color coded and different in design but are also tagged.
At the rear we see the usual honeycomb perforation (although less area is perforated than usual), the on/off power button and the AC power plug.
THE TRIATHLOR FC 7OOW INTERIOR
The 120mm Twister Bearing Silence fan has an MTBF of 100.000 hours, can reach speeds of up to 1500RPM and produce airflow of up to 71.25CFM.
The layout of the Triathlor FC 700W is very clean and is divided into 3 sections via 2 black heatsinks.
Primary capacitor is made by the Japanese Matsushita Corporation and is rated 470μF 400V @ 85c.
United Chemi-Con is responsible for the secondary capacitors which are rated at 105c.
TEST BED
TESTING METHODOLOGY
Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact closer to real world usage. So as always we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after in just a few minutes.
Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say in order to get 100% accurate readings you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be far less.
TEST RESULTS
RAIL STABILITY
Rail stability may not be excellent accross the board but it's actually rock solid.
POWER CONSUMPTION
Unfortunately we have no configuration that can go at around 700W so instead of going over 800W and hitting the ceiling we used the next best configuration which drew a total of 614W.
NOISE LEVELS (SPL)
The Twister Bearing silence fan is without doubt one of the most silent ever and really almost inaudible.
CONCLUSION
Enermax always places quality and performance above everything else(something also reflected by their prices) and proof of that is that I’ve been testing their power supply units for many years now and using them for even longer without thus far ever having a single issue with. Because of that i always know of what to expect when i receive their products and the Triathlor FC 700W is not an exception to that rule since it's a high quality 80 Plus Certified PSU with performance we usually see in more expensive units. Also the flat modular cables and the fact that it packs an 120mm Twister Bearing Silence fan that renders it inaudible during use is certainly a great bonus for people who don't belong in the gamers/enthusiasts/overclockers segments of the market.
Currently the Triathlor FC 700W is only available inside the EU for a price tag of 115Euros (Purchase Directly from Amazon.co.uk) that lands it right between several similar solutions from other leading manufacturers (Corsair, FSP, Seasonic) so one can easily say the competition is quite fierce around that price range. However in terms of performance the Triathlor FC 700W has nothing to fear from the competition while on the other hand its flat black modular cables coupled with its size and the really inaudible twister bearing silence fan are strong characteristics that not many others in the market can even claim to have. Bottom line you can't go wrong with the Triathlor FC 700W by Enermax and that's why it gets our Golden Award.
PROS
- Build Quality
- Size
- Rock Solid Rails
- Inaudible
- Flat Modular Cables
- Future Proof
- 80 Plus Bronze Certified
CONS
- Price (For Some)