The original Noisetaker series power supplies from Enermax built a very good reputation for themselves back in the day.  But like every good company trying to stay with the times on new technologies and changes in the market, Enermax has decided to revive the Noisetaker power supplies.  Not only did they teach this old dog some new tricks, they put it in the weight room and what emerged was the more powerful and feature rich Noisetaker II (also known as the "AX" series).

	Enermax Feature	Comment
	Full compliance with the highest standard to desktop power requirements.  Split 12V rails provide most stable current to CPU, GPU, MB and drives.	Pretty much the industry standard now.
	Full support of Dual Core systems (incl. Pentium D EE and Athlon 64 X2) & Dual CPU systems.	Basically just includes necessary 12V CPU power connections.
	After PC shuts down, cooling fans keep running for at least 30 seconds to effectively cool down parts and hardware inside PSU and PC case.	A very nice feature for sure.
	High efficience of about 80% under wide load range (30%-100%) minimizes your electricity bill.	Obviously the more efficient the better.  80% is a fairly high level of efficiency for such a power supply unit.
	PF value up to 0.99 to provide stable and clean power under 100-240VAC by auto switching. (AX models only)	It's always nice to see Active Power Factor Correction implemented, as it helps remove the "ripples" in the power being delivered.
	Protected by OCP, OVP, UVP, OLP, OTP for maximum safety.  Full rated power under 0-40�C/32-104�F ambient temperature.	These are features like overvolt protection (OCP), undervolt protection (UVP), over load protection (OLP), etc.
	The best cooling method for PC system and is strongly suggested by AMD.	Two fans will indeed usually cool better than just one, but can produce more noise.
	Manual fan speed control to keep the balance between cooling effect and acoustic noise.  Automatic fan speed adjustments to prevent system overheat.	Another very nice feature you (unfortunately) don't see on very many power supply units.

The list of features available on the Noisetaker II 600W is fairly impressive and includes most of what one would look for in a high-end power supply.  Two things in particular I want to draw attention to are the manual fan speed control and Smart Fan feature that keeps the fans spinning for a little bit after the system is powered down.  These are nice, innovative features you don't see many (if any) other power supply manufacturers implementing in their products.  In addition to the features listed above, the NoisetakerII 600W has also passed nVidia's requirements for full "SLI-Ready" certification.

Retail Package:

The Enermax NoisetakerII 600W comes in a medium sized cardboard box with colorful designs on the front and has the different features of the NoisetakerII PSU all over the rest of the box.

Accessories:

Not only does Enermax include the typical power cable, screws, and printed user's manual with the NoisetakerII 600W, they also throw in a nifty Enermax lanyard and two little stickers!  While these last two extra little accessories are by no means vital to the operation of the power supply, it is still nice to see a company take the extra step to try and keep their customers happy.

Specifications:

Having full ATX12V 2.2 standard means that the NoisetakerII 600W features two 12v rails (because most of the power draw in a typical high-end computer system is from the 12V line).  Although each of the two 12v rails sport a very respectable 22A, this is nothing too outragious from what I would expect to see on such a quality 600 watt PSU.

COOLING

Like it's predecessors, the NoisetakerII 600W features a dual fan cooling solution with a 92mm intake fan on the bottom of the unit and an 80mm exhaust fan on the back side.  Although two fans should cool better than one single fan, there is the possibility for increased noise levels.  But with a name like "Noisetaker", it is hard to believe that this unit will be very loud. 

At the rear of the PSU we find the 80mm exhaust fan, manual fan speed control, power switch, and the power plug.

Taking a closer look at the manual fan speed control on the rear panel of the NoisetakerII 600W, we can see that it is very abstractly labeled with only an "H" for high (or full speed).  Obviously, turning the knob all the way to the right will turn the fans up as high as they go and turning it all the way to the left is low speed.  I tested noise level and air flow changes when the fan speed was adjusted using this knob and I found that it had little effect on the actual air flow of the fans and even less of an effect on sound levels.  It is my guess that these fans are already operating at such low speeds that they can't realistically be adjusted much lower or else they will fail to turn.  I have a feeling though that if the power supply unit started to overheat for whatever reason, that the fans would speed up and thus make the manual fan speed adjustments a little more noticeable.

Both fans are rated for 12v operation and feature a ball bearing motor hub.  Ball bearings are usually the most durable and long lasting types of fans, but the downside is that they can often make slightly more noise than some of the other designs.  During testing, I found these fans to be very quiet at full speed with only a slight bearing noise noticeable when I put my ear right next to it.  Inside a case with the side panels on, I feel confident in saying that this power supply is virtually silent.  And with two fans, you can rest assured that it will cool well too.

Another nifty cooling feature Enermax implemented with the NoisetakerII 600W is the "after cooling" smart fan system that keeps the fans spinning for 30 seconds after the machine has powered down.  This is something that, if you think about it, can be a very useful thing, especially if your case is under a desk or something where there isn't a lot of airflow.  Props to Enermax for taking initiative and coming up with new innovations above and beyond the typical call of duty.

CABLES AND CONNECTIONS

Cables and Connections:

All of the cables that come out of the NoisetakerII 600W pass through a piece labeled as Enermax "Best EMI Shielding".  In the picture above you can also see what the cable sleeving looks like on the first portion of the cable bundles.  Cable sleeving is something that can help "Tame the "Spaghetti Beast" inside your computer and I'm glad to see Enermax making the effort to sleeve at least some of the cables, though it's disappointing that the majority are not, especially since this is almost a standard feature on high end units.

Above we can see the assortment of cables and connections available on the Enermax NoisetakerII 600W power supply unit.  The cable with only the three SATA power connectors on it is about 32 inches long .

* = The two 4-pin 12V ATX power connections are combined to use as the single 8-pin 12v EPS power connection

Although the NoisetakerII 600W doesn't appear to natively support the new 8-pin  12v "EPS" power connector that many motherboards are now requiring, you can actually combine the two 4-pin 12V ATX power connectors to be used as the 8-pin connection.

It's as easy as lining up the two arrows on each connector and hold them together when you plug it in to the motherboard.

The 20+4 pin ATX power connector is the same deal; just hold the two connections together at the arrows when you plug it all in and you are good to go!

INTERNALS

Internals:

The inside of the NoisetakerII 600W is packed full of goodies.  There are two moderately sized aluminum heatsinks in the middle for cooling of the hottest parts.

And since it is not a modular power supply, the NoisetakerII 600W has to soldier every single wire to the PCB inside the PSU.  In the picture above you can also see the two fan connectors, one being two pins and the other a 3-pin connector.

One peculiar thing with all of the new active PFC power supplies from Enermax (NoisetakerII, Liberty, and FMAII) is that they make a short "snap" or "crack" when the unit is first powered up.  The Enermax engineers say that it is a normal sound that cannot be avoided the way they have configured the Active Power Factor Correction:

"The sound arises only, when you do a cold start and is no malfunction at all.  This is unavoidable, because the PFC circuit (power factor correction) is started.  Berfore we and other PSU manufacturers had always in stand-by mode +5Vsb and PFC active.  We have changed this for all our active PFC ATX12V 2.2 to +5Vsb only.  Removing the active PFC from standby increases the standby efficiency from less than 20% (zero load, just +5Vsb line active) to more than 50%.  Therefore you have not heard this "zap" from our older lines.  This start in any way creates such noise and can not be "silenced".  But it is about half a second long, we hope you can accept it as a feature and not a malfunction."