Final Thoughts
Enermax has a good quality power supply in their Triathlor FC 550W unit. Under the hood they are using all Japanese capacitors. It has a nice compact size that will fit in pretty much any case that supports ATX power supplies. There are only two cables connected to the unit (motherboard and CPU power) and the rest of the cables are modular so you only use the cables that you need. The modular cables are also flat so that makes them easy to route and hide. The cooling fan does it’s job, but is noticeably louder than other units we have tested lately. This is most likely because Enermax has to use a smaller 120mm fan rather than a 140mm fan we see on most power supplies.
As far as performance goes both the 12v and 5v rails were pretty solid, but the 3.3v rail did fluctuate quite a bit. Of course the most important rail is the 12v rail and it barely moved in our tests. The unit is also 80PLUS Bronze certified, which means it will be 85% efficient at 50% load and 82% efficient at 100% load.
No you have to think about why Enermax came out with this power supply. They wanted to create a power supply that still was of good quality, but did not have such a high pricetag. Well this unit is selling for $89.99 at my favorite online retailer so it definitely fits the bill in that category. Considering the performance and quality components used in this unit that price seem just right. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Enermax Triathlor FC 550W Power Supply an 8 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Small compact size
– Price
– Quality components used
– Strong 12v rail
– Modular cables
Cons:
– A lof of fluctuation in the 3.3v rail
– Fan can get noisy
