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Antec Neo 480 reliability - small statistical sample

B

Bones

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2000
Messages
1,220
Preface: I'm posting this because I think that it's interesting, not to start a flame war or stir up controversy.

I purchased five Antec NeoPower 480 modular power supplies in February-March 2005. All were installed in well ventilated rackmount cases. The systems were:

- Three were modest workstation desktop-ish systems based on DFI LanParty NF4 motherboards, two hard drives for the most part and various numbers optical drives. Low-end nvidia 6200 graphics cards.
- One was a highly overclocked gaming machine, DFI NF4 board with a 7800gtx graphics card and two hard drives
- One was a 24/7 file server based on an Asus A7N8E with an old Palomino core Athlon. Six hard drives and a couple network cards.

At the end of 1 3/4 years, only two of the supplies still work: the one in the file server, and one of the workstation supplies. The mode of failure seems identical. The systems with the failed supplies started having booting problems with increasing frequency, until they ultimately wouldn't turn on at all.

Perhaps I got part of a bad batch? Maybe, but I've seen so many dead power supplies over the years that I don't think any real reliability conclusions can be drawn from just these five supplies. Perhaps the DFI boards are just really hard on power supplies? At any rate, I have no aversion to Antec supplies at all. I'm sure I'll use them again in the future. That said, everything but the one workstation now runs on Seasonic S12 supplies ;) The one other working NeoPower now has test bench duty. I chose Seasonic because they are quiet, and I approve of most of their internal component selections.

Anyway, I thought it would be refreshing to make a power supply post that had hard facts, instead of the usual "My one power supply is rock stable and awesome because it hasn't fried my hardware yet" kind of post.
 
Hm, so you bought them all within one period of time? The fact they were in "well-ventilated" rackmount cases bothers me, the low airflow is usually what hurts these CWT-built Antecs.
 
_Korruption_ said:
Hm, so you bought them all within one period of time? The fact they were in "well-ventilated" rackmount cases bothers me, the low airflow is usually what hurts these CWT-built Antecs.
Click to expand...

The cases are all of the three-fans-in-the-middle design. Three 120mm fans drawing air from the front of the case, blowing it all across the mainboard and PSU, and exhausting through perforated slot covers and backplate. I used Panaflo ultra speed fans in the gaming box, the others had Panaflo mediums and the server used some slow speed Vantecs.
 
perhaps if you shine a bright light in the PSU you'll see a nice collection of ruptured capacitors courtesy of Fujhyyu.
 
I've contacted Antec about two Neo's that I've recently purchased that both died in the first 1 minute. They basically said that the neo's have very tight tolerances and that you need an HE (high efficiency) compliant chipset.

They also recommended checking amps before purchasing.
 
my 1st and 2nd neo 480 has had this issue too today
it sucks, and antec rma sucks more
 
I have an Antec Neo 480 that I got around June 2005 and I'm not sure what's wrong with it. It won't always boot anymore. I press the power button and nothing happens, and then I jiggle some connections around and nothing happens. Then after a while, it suddenly turns on as if nothing is wrong. Is my Neo 480 failing?
 
scrawnypaleguy said:
I have an Antec Neo 480 that I got around June 2005 and I'm not sure what's wrong with it. It won't always boot anymore. I press the power button and nothing happens, and then I jiggle some connections around and nothing happens. Then after a while, it suddenly turns on as if nothing is wrong. Is my Neo 480 failing?
Click to expand...
yes, thats exactly what happened to mine

you don't have an asus a8n series mobo do you?
 
I had an Antec Neo480, which I recently sold on the FS/FT forums. I had the exact same syptoms above - trouble booting until it finally wouldn't turn on at all. I fiddled and whatnot and finally ended up testing it in another system - boots up no problems and ran like a champ. Normal voltages and all.

I found out later that it was incompatibility with my Asus A8N mobo. For some reason, it rand great for 6+ months until it just decided it didn't want to play nice anymore. I upgraded and have no problems since. As I stated, I recently sold it after ensuring that it still works in other systems.
 
drdeutsch said:
I had an Antec Neo480, which I recently sold on the FS/FT forums. I had the exact same syptoms above - trouble booting until it finally wouldn't turn on at all. I fiddled and whatnot and finally ended up testing it in another system - boots up no problems and ran like a champ. Normal voltages and all.

I found out later that it was incompatibility with my Asus A8N mobo. For some reason, it rand great for 6+ months until it just decided it didn't want to play nice anymore. I upgraded and have no problems since. As I stated, I recently sold it after ensuring that it still works in other systems.
Click to expand...
yup, this seems to be the problem
so lame tho
 
killa62 said:
yes, thats exactly what happened to mine

you don't have an asus a8n series mobo do you?
Click to expand...

Actually, yeah. A8N-E. I'm upgrading to a A8N32-SLI deluxe soon though. I guess I know what I'm putting on my christmas list. :rolleyes:
 
hardc0re said:
perhaps if you shine a bright light in the PSU you'll see a nice collection of ruptured capacitors courtesy of Fujhyyu.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that, except mine was a Sunbeamtech NUUO 550w. :mad:
 
yeah, i looked in mine, and couldnt see any bursted caps
 
For those of you having an issue with these supply's my work around is simple. Turn off the main power switch next to AC Power cord connector. Turn the switch back on quickly press the case power switch. With my rig it usually powers up on the second push of the case power switch in quick succesion. Yes it's a pain in the A** but at least it lets you use it until you can save up the money for a new supply...I will add my previous rig was an Asus 875P based mobo and I never had a hint of trouble with this supply for 2 years...
Hope this helps some of you.

My Rig
Asus p5n32-e sli
BFG Nvidia 8800 GTS
Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
40G Raptor
220G RAID0 WD array
200G Seagate 7200.7
NEC 3520 DVDRW
 
Mine died too.Had it on the shelf for six months with another 10 months in my machine. Worked ok through one graphics upgrade (7800 gt to 1900xt) but when I went from a 3500+ (@2530) to an fx-55 at stock speed, it wouldn't power up. Slight burned smell from the back, but ironically, two PSU testers say it was bad? :confused:
 
My Neo 480 died last week. I came home to the smell of smoke and my computer had shut off. A look at the innards revealed a number of blown caps and a charred, (yet to be identified) component encased in yellow plastic.

My system is decent but not too high end, nor is it overclocked, but I was always a little concerned about how hot the exhaust was on that PSU, even with decent airflow.

FWIW, my new Seasonic M12 500 is cool to the touch even with my system under load, and the exhaust doesn't even feel slightly warm. The Seasonic was pricey (in part becuase of the modular cables), but after what could have been an outright fire with the Antec, I didn't want to chance it.
 
No that's not it. I still haven't pulled it apart, but it looks like it's an inductive coil of some sort wrapped in a few layers of thin yellow plastic. It's one of the bigger single components in the PSU.
 
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