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Etasis ET750 750w Quad-SLI PSU Page: 1
Introduction

When it comes to high-end power supplies, a few names that spring to mind are Tagan, Silverstone, Antec and OCZ. However, most people don't realise that several of these manufacturers use internal components designed by other companies who are more equipped to produce power supplies in large quantities.

Today I'm going to be taking a look at a Quad-SLI certified power supply from a company called Etasis. Most of us won't have seen or heard of Etasis, however they have been producing high-end server power supplies since 1996 and are also responsible for manufacturing power supplies for companies such as Silverstone.

About Etasis
"ETASIS is one of the leading suppliers of standard switching power supplies. Founded in October 1996, ETASIS grew steadily, quickly acquiring a strong reputation for it's high standards of quality and reliable products. Our research & development, engineering and marketing teams ensure that we stay in the lead by making sure that our products consistently meet and exceed the ever-changing needs of our customers.

In recent years, ETASIS has aggressively expanded into Mainland China to meet the needs of our global customers, and provides customers with products that meet their needs and exceeds their expectations."

Packaging

Making your debut into the home-user market can be tricky after so many years of producing units for the server / enterprise market. However, Etasis have done their research, and created packaging that will certainly turn heads.

The front and top of the box have been designed mostly to draw your attention to the unit, using 'alien-like' green graphics printed on a grey and black background. Very little information on the specification of the power supply is displayed at this point.

Turn the box around to the side and we can see Etasis have printed some basic information regarding the rail layout of the ET750. From the above we can see that the unit has a total of 4 +12v rails, each rated at 18amps.

Just about everything you could ever possibly want to know about the ET750 is printed on the back of the box. At the top right we can see graphs displaying the units efficiency and noise levels as the load placed on the unit increases.

Other information such as the units 80%+ efficiency, 3 year warranty and 4x +12v rails is available in a total of 6 different languages!

The unit itself is sandwiched in-between two cardboard layers, each padded out with Styrofoam shapes to protect all corners of the PSU. Also included is a small cardboard box containing the following items:

• 1x Etasis manual
• 1x Power cord
• 4x Cable ties
• 4x ATX case screws

The large bundle of cables is contained within a bubble-wrap sleeve and tied together with a large cable-tie.

Etasis ET750 750w Quad-SLI PSU Page: 2
Specifications

The following information has been taken directly from Etasis' Website:

• Output Power (Wattage): 750 W
• Connector Type: ATX12V
• Dimensions: 150(W)x86(H)x180(D) mm
• AC Input Spec.: 100-240 VAC
• Power Factor: >0.96min at full load
• Power Good: 100 to 500 ms, TTL compatible signal
• PSON (Remote ON/OFF): TTL compatible signal
• Operating Temperature: 0 degree C - 50 degree C (32 degree F - 122 degree F

• Specification complies with latest ATX12V & EPS12V Ver. 2.91 standards and is downwards compatible
• Rear fan with IFMTM ( Intelligent Fan Management) for lowest possible noise level
• Four independent 6-pin PCI Express connectors support high-end graphics cards
• Extremely high efficiency (over 80%) and sufficient power for gaming systems
• Four independent +12V outputs (+12V1 ~ +12V4) support dual core CPUs and comply with 240VA safety class level
• Equipped Serial ATA power connectors for at least 8 devices
• 36 months warranty, Universal AC power input (100~240 VAC, stepless)

With 18amps on each of the +12v rails this power supply should have no problems what so ever running any kind of SLI/Crossfire setup, and should be well equipped for a 7950GTX Quad-SLI setup too.

Etasis ET750 750w Quad-SLI PSU Page: 3
Appearance

The ET750 measures in at 150 mm (W) x 86 mm (H) x 180 mm (D), which is slightly larger than your average Power Supply. This may make the unit unsuitable for HTPC cases, but for most of us this shouldn't be an issue.

Etasis have opted to keep the styling of the ET750 plain and simple, spraying the unit in a matt silver paint. The side of the unit you are most likely to see from inside your case is covered with a green & black specification sticker, which contains the usual warnings and information about the power supply along with its rated output for all of the rails.

Around the other side of the unit we can see that Etasis have gone to the trouble of embossing their logo. It's a great shame that most of us won't get to see this from inside our cases.

The back of the power supply utilises a mesh grill that allows for the air pushed over components by the 80mm fan to exit the back of your PC case. Also included is an LED that shows you the current status of the unit. When switching the Power Supply on the LED turns from Red to Green. Only when the LED is Green is DC power supplied to the rails.

As with all other modern PSU's, the ET750 is able to auto-detect the input voltage, and therefore has no switch to manually change the voltage between 110/230v.

Etasis ET750 750w Quad-SLI PSU Page: 4
Connectors

With 700w on tap, you certainly don't want to be short changed when it comes to the number of devices that you can hook up. We already know that the ET750 has 4xPCI-E connectors, but what else will it have to offer?

The ET750 comes complete with a big bundle of cables, all wrapped together inside a bubble wrap bag and secured with a cable tie. The above pictures show the molex and SATA connectors, all of which feature twisted wires. This not only keeps things looking tidier, but also helps to reduce EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference).

Etasis have chosen to sleeve both the motherboard and PCI-E connectors on the ET750 with the latter being sleeved in blue mesh instead of the usual black. The overall quality of the sleeving job is excellent, using both cable ties and heat shrink to hold the sleeving in place.

The observant among us will notice that Etasis have even gone to the trouble of printing numbers on the PCI-E connectors. This enables you to evenly distribute the load utilised by your graphics cards over the rails that provide the PCI-E connectors with power.

The ET750 comes with a 24-Pin ATX connector and no way of reducing the connector down to 20-Pin. This is most likely due to the unit being native EPS12v. People wanting to use this unit on an older style 20-pin ATX motherboard will need to purchase a 24-Pin to 20-Pin connector separately.

Quite a few of the most recently released motherboards still utilise the 4-Pin (P412v) connector, and for this reason Etasis have included both P412v (4-pin) and EPS12v (8-pin) cables on the ET750 to ensure full compatibility.

With 4xPCI-E connectors, 8xSATA connectors and 8x Molex connectors, the ET750 is more than suitable for those of us with multiple drives and other internal devices.

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Looking Inside

As with all power supplies that pass through Overclock3D, I'll be taking a look inside the Silencer. By doing this I should be able to get a good idea of the overall build quality of the unit and how it is likely to perform in our tests.

Unlike traditional PSU's, the Etasis makes full use of the PSU casing, screwing full sized circuit boards on to both the top and bottom. This of course means they needed to fully protect the circuit boards from touching the casing, which has been done this by screwing large plastic sheets over the circuits.

Above we can see what appears to be an adjustable potentiometer (pot). This will most likely be responsible for adjusting the voltages on the rails of the unit and can be helpful when voltage levels fall outside of ATX specifications. Unfortunately I was unable to test whether this pot made any difference to the voltages, as the ET750 is far too awkward to disassemble and reassemble.

Cooling the Etasis is an 80mm fan manufactured by Sanyo Denki. The San Cooler 80 is able to push a total of 42cfm when running at 12v, with a noise output level of 34dBA.

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Load Testing

In order for the results from all current and future PSU reviews to remain fair and comparable, Overclock3D uses a custom built Power Supply load stress tester.

The tester will be placing the following loads on each of the ET750's rails:

+3.3v - 20a Load
+5.0v - 20a Load
+12v1 - 10a Load
+12v2 - 10a Load
+12v3 - 10a Load
+12v4 - 10a Load

The results are collected from a Mastech MAS-345 Multimeter which logs its readings via RS232 to a PC.

The ET750 showed excellent results on both the +3.3v and 5v rails. Strangely the +3.3v rail actually increased under load, which just goes to show there is certainly no need to worry about the voltages on the Etasis falling outside of ATX specifications.

Continuing the trend on the +12v rails, the ET750 breezes through our stress testing with a maximum of 0.03v fluctuation on the rails. Yet again, these results place the Etasis up against some of the best power supplies we've ever tester here at Overclock3D.

Efficiency Testing

Efficiency tests are performed by measuring the wattage consumed by the power supply at the mains against the power (in watts) consumed by the OC3D power supply stress tester.

The results may not be as accurate as those produced by professional testing equipment, but will certainly come in handy when comparing several power supplies against each other.

The Etasis was placed under a load of 646 watts. This counts for a total of 86% of the power supplies rated output. At this load, the power supply required 790 watts from the mains to produce the 646 watts required by our custom made power supply tester. Therefore the efficiency of this power supply can be found by a simple equation: (646 / 790) * 100 that works out to be an efficiency rating of 81.7%.

Noise Testing

Possibly the hardest part of any PSU review is summarising the level of noise given out by the unit. The threshold for what is considered 'noisy' varies from person to person and therefore what I may consider a quiet unit, another person may consider extremely loud. A common way to resolve this issue is to use a dBA meter to measure the units noise level, however this doesn't take into account the pitch (type) of noise emitted and whether it is likely to irritate end users.

For this reason OC3D records all power supplies at idle and load in wav format for you to make your own informed decisions. All recordings are taken at 30cm away from the PSU and outside of a PC case. You will need to remember that noise levels will be reduced by varying amounts once the PSU has been installed inside your PC enclosure.

Idle Recording - Download
Load Recording - Download

Under idle conditions the fan speed was significantly throttled. This meant that all that could be heard was the whisper of air moving around the unit.
When placed under load, the ET750 gradually increased the fan speed to counteract the heat. As you can hear from the recording above, the ET750 was fairly noisy. With the Etasis installed inside a PC case this should be much more reasonable.

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Conclusion

The ET750 is a great PSU from a great manufacturer that's just making its debut into the home-user market here in the UK. Built on over 10 years of PSU manufacturing know-how the Etasis ET750 is a rock solid unit, with ultra-stable voltages to match.

It's clear to see that Etasis have also put a lot of consideration into the aesthetic appeal of the unit, adopting for a silver paint job along with twisted Molex/SATA cables and professionally meshed motherboard and PCI-E cables.

For a unit with an 80mm fan, the ET750 manages to keep noise levels at reasonable levels. Maybe not the ideal companion for a silent PC build, but not enough to annoy during an intense game of F.E.A.R.

The ET750 currently has limited availability here in the UK, but can be purchased from the following retailers:

Specialtech.co.uk	£111.60
Scan.co.uk	£139.59

Don't forget that if you are an OC3D forum member, you can get free shipping at Specialtech.

Pro's
• Excellent stability on all rails.
• High efficiency of 81.7%.
• Fully Quad-SLI capable.
• Twisted cables for EMI shielding.
• Professional sleeving on motherboard/PCI-E cables.
• TONS of Molex & SATA connectors.

Con's
• No compatibility with 20-Pin ATX motherboards.
• 80mm fan makes unit slightly noisy under full load.

Editors Choice

Thanks to Etasis for providing this unit for review.

Discuss this review in our forums.