Enermax ECO80+ 350w ATX PSU
Packaging & Appearance
As you would expect from a PSU with the word ECO in it’s name, the packaging on the ECO80+ uses a green and white theme adorn with foliage to convey its eco friendliness to potential buyers. I was hoping to catch Enermax out by revealing that the single walled cardboard box wasn’t made from recycled card, but alas it is, so 1-0 to Enermax.
At the front of the box Enermax have kept information to a minimum by only listing three of the units most prominent features along with an image of the unit sporting its red (which looks orange) Magma fan. Strangely an AMD Crossfire certified logo has also been added to the box, which probably isn’t the case for the 350w model as it only has one PCI-E connector.
Around the back of the box things get a little bit more interesting with both fan speed and efficiency graphs showing that the unit peaks at around 50% load which is fairly common for most standard PSU’s. Enermax have also gone to the trouble of comparing the ECO80+ to a generic 77% efficiency PSU for the purpose of showing potential buyers how much money they could be saving (€32.70) a year by switching to a more efficient unit.
Moving on to the sides of the box we can see that Enermax have printed two charts. The first on the green background gives information on how many connectors you can expect to find on each of the ECO80+ models, while the second on the white background details their various rail outputs.
Inside the box you can expect to find all of the normal accessories required to get you up and running (Mains Lead, Manuals & Screws) along with some fancy Enermax branded velco cable ties. The PSU its self is kept separate from the accessories by a cardboard divider and a bubblewrap bag protects the unit from minor knocks and scratches during shipping.
Removing the EVO80+ from the packaging, first impressions are that this certainly isn’t a budget unit at all. Most low-wattage PSU’s from other manufacturers are stripped of all niceties and presented as plain black boxes with ugly silver fan grills and shoddily sleeved cables (at best). However, Enermax have treated the EVO80+ 350w unit to exactly the same trimmings as the higher wattage models, fitting it with the Enermax trademark Gold grill, an appealing slate grey powdercoat finish and the same sleeving as found on all other Enermax models.
Normally at this point I’d pass comment that the specification sticker would be best placed out of the way at the top of the unit to avoid spoiling the aesthetics. But given that that the ECO80+ is a low wattage unit it’s probably best that the rail layout chart is fully on show to remind users of its capabilities should they upgrade any part of their PC’s in the future.
The rear of the unit is also quite standard with a large honeycomb grill taking up most of the space and a ‘kettle’ style AC inlet and power switch tucked away in the corner. Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s go in for a closer look at the ECO80+ over on the next page…
