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Pros, Cons And Final Verdict
Riotoro seems to be on the right path. In our opinion, it made a wise decision by offering two PSU lines that address mid-range and mainstream systems. While high-end products garner more prestige, most builders care about affordability.
The Enigma 850W is based on a decent platform, manufactured by Great Wall, which serves up commendable performance and comes equipped with the almost all necessary protection features, since surge protection is missing. Efficiency-wise, this unit is in line with its Gold-rated competition at similar capacity points. Ripple suppression is good on the minor rails, and it's reasonable enough at +12V. Lastly, the five-year warranty is one of the Enigma's biggest advantages.
Despite a long list of strengths, the Enigma 850 surely isn't flawless. Actually, there are a number of issues that bother us, the first of which is the single EPS connector that limits this 850W PSU's flexibility. Normally a power supply with this much available capacity would have two EPS connectors to support high-end motherboards. Inside the PSU, we aren't fans of the Elite EJ capacitors. When you combine that with the sleeve-bearing fan, a five warranty sounds mighty optimistic. Nonetheless, we have to believe that Great Wall made a study of this PSU's reliability before advising Riotoro to offer such a long warranty.
We certainly weren't expecting to see 85°C-rated bulk caps. It would have been better if GW used 105°C Teapo caps instead of the lower temperature rating Rubycon ones. You see, when it comes to electrolytic capacitors, a 20°C difference in temperature rating translates to a 4x-lower lifetime. This is why most manufacturers prefer to use 105°C caps in the APFC converter.
A significant problem we spotted in this PSU's platform is the lack of an MOV in the transient filter. This small, inexpensive component can save the PSU (and the system it feeds) from damage in case of a surge or spike originating from the mains network. Given the high importance of an MOV, we simply cannot understand why some manufacturers, choose to omit this component in their platforms. We spotted the same problem in Corsair's CS850M, and we expected GW to fix it in future versions of the same design. Apparently the company didn't bother. If you decide to spend your money on an Enigma 850W, budget a little extra for a surge protector, just in case.
Finally, it would be nice to see at least a rifle-bearing fan instead of the sleeve-bearing one we found inside. Sleeve-bearing fans should only be used in cheap PSUs selling for under $100 and offered with three-year warranties.
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