Enermax Triathlor 450W Non-Modular Power Supply Review

Conclusion

In the UK Enermax’s Triathlor 450W power supply costs around £60 while in the USA it should be around $75-85 but availability is a bit sparse and difficult to come by. In my opinion Enermax’s pricing is a little on the uncompetitive side. If you consider you can grab a Seasonic 430W 80 Plus Bronze power supply for around £50, and the same from Corsair for about £45, it makes the Enermax Triathlor too expensive. In my opinion a slightly price reduction of about 5-10% would boost competitiveness a lot. That said, Enermax are making their own power supply from scratch and from high quality components and they don’t have the massive economies of scale cost savings that large companies like Seasonic and CWT have so its hardly surprising that the price is the way it is. To the average consumer this doesn’t matter, and indeed there is no reason why it should, but if you wonder why the price is higher than the competition that’s why.

With pricing out the way, why would you want to buy Enermax’s Triathlor 450W over similar units of the same price? Well the Triathlor 450W carries the Enermax heritage of being a high performance unit despite its price. We saw excellent voltage regulation that was impressive given the unit’s budget orientation. Noise and ripple suppression were also very impressive for a budget unit while the efficiency was literally a hair off being 80 Plus Silver. On the noise front I was actually impressed by the Triathlor 450W and the custom Enermax fan is clearly doing a great job. Sure it isn’t totally quiet, but compared to competing solutions it definitely has a dramatic edge in terms of acoustics.

Pros

• Voltage Regulation
• Efficiency is higher than its rated certification
• Sensible selection of connectors
• 3 year warranty
• Noise/Ripple suppression
• High quality components and construction
• Nice clean aesthetics

Cons

• Pricey compared to the competition
• Non modular, cables aren’t that attractive

eTeknix says: “Enermax’s Triathlor 450W is a great little power supply. It will do great in any system on the market that is running a single GPU configuration. It ticks all the right boxes in terms of what a high quality power supply should and can do. Despite being a budget offering the Enermax Triathlor 450W does a great job of living up to Enermax’s high standards and high-end heritage. Yet despite all that the Enermax Triathlor 450W is just a little on the pricey side for an 80 Plus Bronze 450W power supply. If you don’t mind paying extra for the Enermax name and higher quality components then we have no reason to steer you away from this power supply but you should consider that there are cheaper options out there.”

Thank you to Enermax for providing this review sample.