Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 Power Supply Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing & Methodology6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we take a look at the new Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 power supply which is 80 Plus Gold Certified, fully modular and built with high grade Japanese capacitors inside. This particular unit is created by OEM partner Seasonic and ships with a recently enhanced 10 year warranty.

You probably haven't heard of Riotoro however they are a relatively new start up founded by former employees of Nvidia and Corsair. They told us they believe that PC enthusiasts have been overcharged in order to have the best hardware so they set out to design and provide enthusiast grade products at more competitive price points. They have already been making an impact with the American audience, however their next stage is the European market.

Riotoro (website) are releasing three units in this range – in 650W, 750W and 850W capacities. We are analysing the flagship 850W model in our review today. These units are all based on the Seasonic FOCUS PLUS Gold (FX) designs.

Regular readers will remember that Seasonic FOCUS power supplies were split into two separate ranges. The FOCUS (without a ‘Plus’) is a semi modular design rated only at 80 PLUS GOLD. The FOCUS PLUS is fully modular and is available in both 80 PLUS Gold and Platinum ranges. Riotoro don't appear to offer Platinum versions, but after checking their website it would appear that the ‘G2' part of the name signifies that the model is modular.

When we first spoke with Riotoro they were only offering a 7 year warranty for these units, but a few days before publication they told us that the warranty was extended to 10 years – equalling Seasonic warranty terms.

Enigma 850W G2 Product Features:

• 80 Plus Gold Certified 90% efficiency – Reduces heat, noise and operating cost.
• Fully modular with flat cables – Minimises clutter, eases installation and improves airflow
• 100% Japanese Capacitors – for longer life and greater reliability.
• Hybrid Silent Fan Control – Three cooling modes to balance cooling and noise reduction: Fanless, Silent and Cooling.
• 120mm Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan – virtually inaudible under average loads.
• Compact ATX 140mm Length – Fits nearly all ATX compliant cases.
• 10 year warranty (extended from 7).

Review photography handled in house at KitGuru with a Leica S series medium format camera and S series prime lens. Please do not use any of the images within this review without express permission.

Riotoro box artwork is certainly eye catching, in bright red and yellow with an image of the fan grill taking centerstage. We questioned the 7 year warranty terms detailed on the front of the box and we were told that it had been increased to 10 years. Future artwork on these boxes will be revised.

On the rear of the box, Riotoro present some details on the unit, 80 Plus Efficiency levels and Fan Noise levels.

Inside the box we get literature on the product, cable ties, a voucher, regional specific power cable and of course the power supply itself.

In the same fashion as the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850W unit we reviewed in August – the cabling is mixed. The main cables and PCIe cables are sleeved, while the peripheral cables are thin ribbon style for ease of routing.

If you are building a gaming system then this power supply comes well equipped. There are six 6+2 pin PCIE cables for multiple GPU builds.

Packaging is always very important and I was pleased to see that Riotoro didn't cut any corners in protecting their Enigma 850W G2 unit. The unit itself is protected inside a felt bag with thick Styrofoam holders on the top and bottom. Top marks.

The Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 is a good looking power supply, although I have to be honest- I am not a big fan of the yellow coloured sticker on the side panel. It seems like a small point to make, but we can imagine that many enthusiast users building a colour coordinated system may be put off with the bright yellow markings. Still the paint work is good, and it resists scratches well.

The modular connector panel is almost identical to the one found on the Seasonic Focus Plus 850W supply. The only difference is the colouring of the text above the connectors – its red and not gold.

On the other side of the unit, there is a power connector, power switch, company sticker and a Hybrid mode switch which offers semi fanless mode when enabled. The rest of the panel is honeycomb vented to help with air flow.

A large fan is hidden behind a grill with the Riotoro ‘bull' style logo in the middle. We will take a closer look at the fan when we open the unit shortly.

The power supply has a 12V output up to 70A, which is around 98.8% of the units total capacity. Each of the minor rails (3.3V and 5V) have a capacity of 20A with a combined rail output of 100 Watts. This is a fairly standardised set of figures from Seasonic based on all of the 850 Watt units I have reviewed from them in recent years.

The Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 power supply uses a Hong Hua Fan (Model: HA1225H12F-Z). This unit is built around a Fluid Dynamic Bearing for quiet operation and long life. It is rated 0.58A, at 12 VDC. Maximum speed is rated at 2,200rpm, producing 73.9CFM at 32.4dBa. You will notice the unusually cut plastic cover along the left side of the fan – this is to direct the air flow at specific parts of the power supply underneath. Yes, its the same fan that we saw inside the Seasonic FOCUS PLUS Gold (FX) 850W power supply.

Below - a High Resolution Gallery of the internal layout of the Power supply.

Please be aware if the gallery doesn’t load you will need to disable your ad blocker as it interferes with the code.

Soldering quality throughout is excellent as we would expect from Seasonic. Very clean job indeed. This was a new platform for Seasonic back in August 2017 so it is still very fresh.

Inside are a fair few smallish heatsinks to aid with cooling key components. The power supply is using a full bridge LLC topology with synchronous rectification with DC-DC VRM’s for +3.3V and +5V rails on secondary.

Input filtering starts on a small PCB with Y and X capacitors in place – moving to the main PCB for completion.

Seasonic are using high grade Japanese capacitors throughout the build with a single 105c rated Nichicon capacitor positioned in the primary stage. This is rated 400v 650uF. Interestingly Seasonic have adopted two primary capacitors in their earlier higher cost PRIME units. The Prime 850W Platinum for instance uses two Nippon Chemi Con capacitors at 400v 330uF each, for a total of 660uF output. The Seasonic Titanium 850W unit is ridiculously over specified – fitted with two Nippon Chemi Con 650uF and 450uF capacitors to output 1100uF!

In the secondary stage are a mixture of solid and standard electrolytics from Nippon Chemi Con.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. We run at 35c in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• Extech digital sound level meter
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

We test in a single +12V configuration.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
85W	0.90	3.32	0.86	5.00	6.05	12.05	0.50	5.01	0.20	-12.03
170W	1.60	3.32	1.65	5.00	12.40	12.03	1.00	5.00	0.20	-12.05
425W	3.20	3.31	3.15	4.99	32.40	12.02	1.50	5.00	0.20	-12.04
640W	4.00	3.31	4.02	4.98	48.90	11.97	2.00	5.00	0.30	-12.04
850W	5.00	3.31	5.20	5.00	65.72	11.95	2.50	5.00	0.30	-12.05

Load regulation is stellar with all rails exhibiting very minor fluctuation under load.

Riotoro Enigma 850W G2	Maximum Load
	912W

We managed to get the power supply to deliver 912W before it would shut down, delivering around 60W more than rated specifications.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

Cross Load Testing	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		-12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
760W	1.0	3.32	1.0	5.00	60.0	11.96	0.2	-12.03	0.50	5.01
165W	15.0	3.29	18.0	4.95	2.0	12.05	0.2	-12.04	0.50	5.01

The power supply dealt with the demanding cross load test very well exhibiting only minor fluctuation. It was tasked with 60A on the +12V rail and it held at 11.96V. The other rails delivered good results also.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum.

ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
Output	Ripple (mV p-p)
+3.3V	50
+5V	50
+12V1	120
+12V2	120
-12V	120
+5VSB	50

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
100W	5	5	10	5
225W	5	5	15	5
450W	5	5	20	5
675W	5	5	25	5
850W	10	5	25	5

Noise suppression results are extremely impressive, hitting 10mV and 5mV on +3.3V and +5V rails respectively. The +12V rail peaks at 25mV under full load conditions. Great results really overall.

Efficiency (%)
100W	88.9
225W	90.5
450W	92.4
675W	91.5
850W	90.3

Efficiency is very good, peaking at 92.4 percent at 50 percent load. This drops to around 90.3 percent at full load.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the power supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise (dBA)
100W	<28.0
225W	<28.0
450W	29.8
675W	31.8
850W	35.8

The large fan spins relatively slowly under low to modest load levels. Above 60% the fan spins up to counter rising heat. At full load the fan is clearly audible but never too intrusive.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
100W	37	40
225W	38	43
450W	40	50
675W	45	55
850W	47	60

The large fan works well to expel heat out the rear of the chassis. The overall results are very good indeed.

Maximum load	Efficiency
912 watts	90.0

At 912 watts, the efficiency level measures 90.0%. Not a practical situation to be running 24/7, but worth noting.

The Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 power supply excelled in all our tests. Not a surprise considering it is basically a rebadged Seasonic Focus Plus Gold (FX) supply which we reviewed back in August this year. There is no question that it delivers high grade power for a demanding enthusiast system.

The build quality is top notch and we didn't see any evident traces of cost cutting exercises by Riotoro. Technically its just as capable as the official Seasonic FOCUS PLUS which earned our highest award. There are some capacitor changes, but the differences between Nichicon and Nippon Chemi Con are minimal – they are both high grade Japanese capacitor manufacturers. All are using 105C rated caps.

Seasonic released their Focus Plus Gold rated units earlier in the year to replace the S12G and G supplies which had been around for a long time. Licensing their designs to partner companies such as Riotoro is a good thing in my book – it ensures we have a wider proliferation of quality units for sale in the market place.

While I have been dishing out plenty of praise to Seasonic for their supplies – we have to credit Riotoro for having the good sense to realise that releasing quality power supplies as their first step into the European market can only be seen as positive.

While there are no units for sale right now in the UK – we have been told by Riotoro that the following prices will apply.

Riotoro Enigma G2 850W – £109.99
Riotoro Enigma G2 750W – £89.99
Riotoro Enigma G2 650W – £79.99

We can see that the official Seasonic Focus Plus 850W unit is available for £124.99 inc vat HERE. If these retail prices are completely accurate then this seems a good way of getting a quality 850W Seasonic crafted unit for £15 less.

My only concern when I spoke to Riotoro initially was that their warranty terms of 7 years were much shorter than those offered by Seasonic. I fed this back to RIotoro and within a week, they emailed me to say their warranty was subsequently increased to 10 years.

We have other Riotoro units in our labs right now for analysis – using different OEM partners. Partner up with a tried and tested brand that have won more awards in the KitGuru labs than any other company and offer them at a slightly lower price. Riotoro is run by ex Nvidia and Corsair execs, so perhaps they know what they are doing, but only time will tell.

Pros:

• Superb Seasonic Design.
• pure modular.
• competitively priced (lower than Seasonic's official model)
• 10 year warranty.
• quite quiet under load.
• Achieved 80 Plus Gold certification.
• good packaging.

Cons:

• the yellow sticker might offend some system builders.

KitGuru says: The Riotoro Enigma 850W G2 power supply is fantastic and very competitively priced in the UK.

Become a Patron!