Enermax offers up 'world's smallest' ATX 3.1 PSU, giving you more space for compact and rear-connector PC builds

With the ever-present popularity of compact PC builds, larger graphics cards, and the emerging trend of rear-connector / MG-RC motherboards and builds, it's a good time for power supplies to get smaller. And Taiwan's Enermax seems to agree, launching a Revolution D.F. 12 PSU line that it's touting as "the World’s Smallest ATX 3.1 Power Supply." It achieves these claims thanks to its 122mm depth and inclusion of the revised 600W 12V-2x6 cable for modern, high-power Nvidia graphics cards.

These compact PSUs are currently available directly from Enermax in 750W ($129) and 850W ($139) in basic black, while the white 850W variant is $10 more ($149).

In case you need a refresher on the general dimensions of PC power supply sizes and types, here's a comparison:

Of course, PSU depth often varies, particularly at higher wattages. But from the numbers above, you can see that Enermax's new PSUs are 18mm, or 0.71 inches shorter than the average ATX power supply. And anyone who's ever built a PC in even a moderately cramped case knows that having even that small amount of extra space can make all the difference.

The Revolution D.F. power supplies also feature a 115 mm dual-bearing fan with Enermax's Dust-free (D.F.) feature, which reverses the fan's rotation to eject accumulated dust from the housing. And for those who enjoy silence, the company says the fan will remain off until the PSU is hit with a load greater than 50%. And Enermax also says its fan curve tops out at 24 dBA.

Enermax is marketing these PSUs for gaming and AI computing (every press release has to mention AI these days), while also stating its Revolution D.F. 12 supplies fit "seamlessly into micro ATX cases." Now obviously, they aren't going to fit in cases that only have mounting brackets for SFX power supplies (which are smaller in every dimension than these PSUs). But if you're building a system in a compact case that supports ATX power supplies and you don't have much extra space around the power supply area, one of these PSUs could be extremely helpful.

In particular, Enermax's compact SFX power supplies could be helpful if you're planning to build a system with one of the new rear-connector motherboards, like MSI's Project Zero line. In my experience building in three rear-connector cases so far, none had as much room at the back.

These builds accumulate a massive amount of cable slack because you're plugging pretty much everything in on the back of the board, using cable lengths designed to route everything around to the front. Even Corsair's 2500D didn't have as much space for cables as I'd like, and it's a dual-chamber case that's very large for its Micro ATX limitations.

I hope to try one of Enermax's Revolution D.F. 12 power supplies in a future rear-connector build. It should make cable management at least a little easier. But if these builds become popular (as seems to be happening, though it's early days yet), what we really need is for companies like Enermax who make modular PSUs to sell kits with power supply cables that are significantly shorter. The best way to eliminate case cable clutter is to have just the length of cable you need, not several extra inches for each type of power cable your system needs.