Early Verdict
A decent performing PSU which however with some slight modifications could be much better. In the future versions the Enigma 850W should be equipped with two EPS connectors, an MOV in its transient filter, a rifle-bearing fan and higher quality electrolytic caps. Those changes would make it a far better product.
Pros
- +
Full power at 46.5°C
- +
Efficient
- +
Ripple suppression (minor rails)
- +
Load regulation (+12V)
- +
Inrush current (115V)
- +
Accurate Power Ok signal
- +
Fairly silent
- +
4x PCIe connectors
- +
5VSB efficiency
- +
Complete protection features set
- +
Warranty
Cons
- -
Quality of electrolytic caps
- -
Hold-up time
- -
Single EPS connector
- -
No MOV in the transient filter
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Sleeve bearing fan
- -
Transient response of the 3.3V rail
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Enigma 850W Power Supply Review
Riotoro was founded by former Corsair and Nvidia employees, so you know that the people behind this company have lots of experience and know how the market works. So far, Riotoro has introduced a fairly wide array of new products for such a young organization, including cases, PSUs, cooling products, and gaming peripherals. As far as PSUs go, there are two sparsely populated families. The high-end line, Enigma, only hosts one 850W member for the time being. The budget-oriented Onyx line consists of two units.
Today we're looking at the 850W Enigma. It's made by Great Wall and shares a platform with the GW-ATX850BL. Corsair utilizes the same platform for its CS models, and considering that some ex-Corsair employees now work for Riotoro, it's hardly a coincidence that the company used a lesser-known OEM like Great Wall for its first PSUs. GW's designs generally offer satisfactory performance and work well for mid-range PSUs. We've also seen respectable high-end models from the company, such as OCZ's ZX Series 1250W.
The Enigma 850 features a single +12V rail and semi-modular cabling, with only the necessary ATX and EPS cables being fixed in place. Serving up to 850W of power, this PSU easily supports potent gaming PCs, particularly since high-end GPUs are more efficient today than ever before.
According to Riotoro, the Enigma family hits a sweet spot between price and performance, so we expect to see the Enigma 850 achieving a high performance per dollar ratio. This shouldn't be difficult, given an MSRP of $120, since we already know this GW platform offers good performance.
Unfortunately, Riotoro doesn't give us any information about its cooling fan's bearing type or the origin of its filtering capacitors. If there's a high-quality FDB fan in there, along with Japanese caps, we're guessing Riotoro's marketing department would draw our attention to them. Don't worry, though. Our tear-downs reveal all.
Specifications
The PSU is 80 PLUS Gold-certified, and its maximum operating temperature for full power delivery is limited to 40°C, even though the ATX spec recommends 50°C. The suite of protection features looks complete, aside from OCP at +12V (which isn't needed in a high-capacity single-rail design). Compact dimensions and an ample warranty are both great to see.
Power Specifications
Rail | 3.3V | 5V | 12V | 5VSB | -12V | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Max. Power | Amps | 25 | 25 | 70.8 | 3 | 0.8 |
Watts | 130 | 849.6 | 15 | 9.6 | ||
Total Max. Power (W) | 850 |
The Enigma 850's power specifications are identical to Corsair's CS850M. The minor rails offer up to 130W of maximum combined power output, while the +12V rail can deliver up to 71A. It'll easily support a couple of top-end graphics cards. Lastly, the 5VSB rail has 3A max current output, which should suffice in most cases.
Cables And Connectors
Native Cables | |||
---|---|---|---|
Description | Cable Count | Connector Count (Total) | Gauge |
ATX connector 20+4 pin (560mm) | 1 | 1 | 18AWG |
4+4 pin EPS12V (600mm) | 1 | 1 | 18AWG |
Modular Cables | |||
Description | Cable Count | Connector Count (Total) | Gauge |
6+2 pin PCIe (550mm+120mm) | 2 | 4 | 18AWG |
SATA (440mm+100mm+100mm) | 3 | 9 | 18AWG |
Four-pin Molex (450mm+120mm+120mm) | 2 | 6 | 18AWG |
FDD (+100mm) | 1 | 1 | 22AWG |
Only the two most important cables are fixed; the rest are modular.
Our first objection here is the single EPS connector. We think that an 850W PSU should be equipped with a couple of them in order to support high-end motherboards. With this design choice, Riotoro restricts this unit's compatibility to mid-range boards rocking one EPS socket. Since the modular board is fairly small, it definitely could have been made larger to accommodate a second EPS connector.
All of the cables are long enough. However, the distance between SATA and four-pin Molex connectors should be greater.
Power Distribution
Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to say about its power distribution.
MORE: Best Power Supplies
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MORE: All Power Supply Content
Current page: Enigma 850W Power Supply Review
Next Page Packaging, Contents, Exterior, And CablingAris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.
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Pompompaihn Enigma is a HORRIBLE name for the one part in your computer you want to always work exactly as specified and never outside of those specs....Reply -
zthomas 850 will power a normal system.. but thinking VR or a second video card.. 850 ain't enough.. I just upgraded from a 700 to a 1200.. why go small, go larger.. you run a 900 series.. you want a punch.. not a lag..Reply -
maxwellmelon A mov can be a blessing and a curse. When the MOV eventually fails it offers no protection (and there is no indicator on it to indicate failure) then after awhile it will form into a short at which point the psu will fail to work due to a short on the incoming mains. so your MOV will can extend the life by protecting the psu. but in the end it will be the end of the psu. In a lot of ways it is still better to get a good surge protector with MOV protection inside of it because they actually have an indicator to let you know the MOV has failed and you can actually replace the surge protector..If the MOV has failed in the psu you will never know and even if you did know the whole PSU has to be replaced. a good surge protector is still cheaper to replace then the psu.Reply -
anbello262 19366477 said:850 will power a normal system.. but thinking VR or a second video card.. 850 ain't enough.. I just upgraded from a 700 to a 1200.. why go small, go larger.. you run a 900 series.. you want a punch.. not a lag..
I actually don't agree with you at all. 850w is enough for almost any system with even 1080 SLI, and VR doesn't actually require more power by itself (only requires power by high utilization of your system).
So for almost anyone, 650w is more than enough even for high end systems, and if you want to SLI high end cards, then 850W is advisable.
More than that is overkill in almost all cases, in my (somewhat informed) opinion.
Having a good quality PSU is a lot more important than having more than 850W. And quality PSUs with more power tend to be a lot more expensive than a very good 850w one, from my experience.
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Aris_Mp you are right about the MOV, however personally I prefer a PSU featuring a MOV along with a UPS and a surge arrester combination. Moreover, for users that don't use surge arresters etc a MOV can save their systems besides the PSU and this is why it must be used always.Reply -
jonnyguru 19365339 said:All I want to know is...Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 or Tier 4?
If that's not a joke, then you sir do not need to be here... let alone building PCs.
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anbello262 19369895 said:19365339 said:All I want to know is...Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 or Tier 4?
If that's not a joke, then you sir do not need to be here... let alone building PCs.
Actually, having the PSUs ordered in quality tiers is a very handy way to recommend PSUs, and therefore, for the people who are not so technically proficient with the electronics inside a PSU and specific meanings of the tests, knowing if this is a "Great, good or garbage" PSU is the only important part.
Yes, there is more information to be had by reading the whole review, but only for those who understand it (which is by no means necessary, in order to be a very good system builder). Having a qualified person tell you "this is a safe and recommended unit for system builders / this is good enough for the price / don't buy this!" is extremely useful for the whole community. -
Robert Cook If nothing else it is more competition, and a pretty promising start at that.Reply
A solid review.
<Rant>
Now on other news, PLEASE stop those damn auto play videos embedded in articles! My main system might be fine with them, but my laptop is from 2009, and it was not high spec even then. These videos are a major drain, and now there are ads before hand which means I cannot even hit the X option until the ad has played. (So I am loading free ad revenue for you at the cost of my precious little RAM.)
Annoying clickbait is one thing, I can scroll past it, but these auto play ads/videos follow me down the page... :(
I have been a member here for over two years and I am by no means going to stop, but I would like to be able to read articles (especially well done articles on this site) with out having great difficulty even scrolling down a page.
</Rant> -
Robert Cook Also I do not even use adblock so you are already getting ad revenue. (I respect your right to advertise, but force playing a video and then adding ads seems a bit over blown.)Reply