Enermax Galaxy 1000 W Power Supply

Introduction

Galaxy 1000 W is the most high-end power supply from Enermax and one of the most powerful power supplies for desktops and servers available on the market today. It was designed to fit quad-SLI systems and multi-CPU systems, and it is the first power supply compliant with the forthcoming EPS12V 3.0 standard (as this standard is not yet finalized, Enermax is calling it EPS12V 2007). Let’s take an in-depth look at this beast.

Figure 1: Enermax Galaxy 1000 W.

Figure 2: Enermax Galaxy 1000 W.

This model is internally called EGA1000EWL, and Enermax also provides an 850 W version of this very same power supply, Galaxy 850 W.

Being a high-end power supply, Galaxy 1000 W features high-efficiency and active PFC. According to Enermax this power supply has an efficiency between 80% and 85% (compare to 50% to 60% on regular power supplies), meaning less power loss – an 85% efficiency means that 85% of the power pulled from the power grid will be converted in power on the power supply outputs and only 15% will be wasted. This translates into less consumption from the power grid (as less power needs to be pulled in order to generate the same amount of power on its outputs), meaning lower electricity bills.

Active PFC (Power Factor Correction), on the other hand, provides a better usage of the power grid and allows this power supply to be comply with the European law, making Enermax able to sell it in that continent (you can read more about PFC on our Power Supply Tutorial). In Figure 1, you can see that this power supply doesn’t have an 110V/220V switch, feature available on power supplies with active PFC.

Also in Figure 1 you can see another very important feature of this power supply, the reset switch of its protection circuit. Its protection circuit also provides a buzzer, meaning that your power supply will make noise when something goes wrong.

Everything on this power supply is superlative, and we are not only talking about its power spec. To start, we were very impressed by its weight: 12 pounds (almost 6 Kg).

As you can see on the above pictures, this power supply is bigger than standard ATX12V power supplies. With a depth of 220 mm (against 140 mm on regular power supplies) you will be able to install it on any case that has a 220 mm clearance between the rear of the case and the first 5.25” bay. As you will probably install this power supply on a high-end PC using a high-end case, you probably won’t have any trouble installing this power supply unit.

On the cooling side, this power supply uses two fans: a huge 135 mm fan on the bottom of the power supply, pulling hot air from inside the PC case and an 80 mm fan on the back of the unit pulling this hot air to the outside.

In Figure 2 you can also see that this power supply uses a modular cabling system for the peripheral cables, but some peripheral cables are attached directly to the power supply internal circuit, not using this modular system.