With the latest NVIDIA PCI Express graphics cards consuming an incredible amount of power, and when two of these GeForce 6 or 7 cards are paired together for SLI (Scalable Link Interface), the strain put upon the power source is harrowing. In an effort to separate the mediocre SLI-compatible power supplies from those that can confidently handle the needs, NVIDIA has their SLI-Ready certification program. Although there is a wealth of graphics cards certified by NVIDIA for SLI compatibility, the PSU certification process is a bit more strenuous with its burn-in phase, diagnostics, and testing. In fact, at the time of publication for this article, there are only 13 power supplies that meet the official criteria for NVIDIA SLI certification. Antec, Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, SilverStone, and Sunbeamtech manufacture these certified PSUs. Although many fail to meet the stringent NVIDIA requirements they continue to market their units with two 6-pin PCI Express connectors for SLI use, however, the power supply we have up for review today is officially supported by the SLI folks over at NVIDIA. This power supply is the Enermax Whisper II (EG565P-VE FMA). We not only will be stressing this 535W with the latest in NVIDIA graphics, but also a power hungry Pentium D dual-core processor.
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Review:
Phoronix
Sep 11, 2005, 05:00 PM
