Antec PSU related questin: how and why

D

DeepFreeze

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2001
Messages
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How are any newer Antec PSU on the -Good Buy- list when they are now known for capacitor failure?

why are they not removed at this point...?
 
DeepFreeze said:
How are any newer Antec PSU on the -Good Buy- list when they are now known for capacitor failure?

why are they not removed at this point...?
Click to expand...
Antec newest PSU's use different (better) caps &
if you provide good case cooling, then there are no "cap issues" with any current Antec PSU's. ;)
 
davidhammock200 said:
Antec newest PSU's use different (better) caps &
if you provide good case cooling, then there are no "cap issues" with any current Antec PSU's. ;)
Click to expand...


define newest?

I just returned a damn 500 watt SmartPower of which I paid $76 for retail.
 
One additional question on the table, I am now looking at the Enermax EG565P, 535 watt version ...

it does not show the 20 and 24 pin connections in the manufacturer website.

but in the [H] listing, you list it as 20 and 24 pin compatible.
 
_Korruption_ said:
Why?
Click to expand...


because my operating room is on average 77degrees F.

add that two machines on 24/6 ... 6 days a week i mean.

and then, add to that the reports of high ambient temps causing capacitor explosions. why would i consciously buy a faulty unit?
 
DeepFreeze said:
One additional question on the table, I am now looking at the Enermax EG565P, 535 watt version ...

it does not show the 20 and 24 pin connections in the manufacturer website.

but in the [H] listing, you list it as 20 and 24 pin compatible.
Click to expand...
As Enermax makes so many different PSU's with only a minor change in lettering,
make sure you get the proper model. ;)
 
DeepFreeze said:
because my operating room is on average 77degrees F.

add that two machines on 24/6 ... 6 days a week i mean.

and then, add to that the reports of high ambient temps causing capacitor explosions. why would i consciously buy a faulty unit?
Click to expand...
77F is not a problem. Case cooling is the key, a blow-hole is always a good idea. ;)

JonnyGURU's TP II Review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/TP2-550W/
 
davidhammock200 said:
The TP III's (Trio) have upgraded caps. The HE's "might" have them also.
Click to expand...

I've got a couple of Neo HE 550's and they have been working great. Apparently I got the newer model that has the problem with certain motherboards fixed. So I should be all set.

*EDIT: Nevermind I opened my big mouth and the problems cometh. See below.
 
Even that review above of the TruePower 550 said it had secondary Fuhjyyu caps. which are known to NOT tolerate heat as well as other caps.

Here is my point- I currently have a Generation 1.5 TruePower430 watts ATX.

it has never skipped a beat, and to add, its single 12v rail never dips below 12.1 volts with a DMM.

that kind of quality is missing these days under $100.

so far, ive decided on a few things, OC GameXstream 600 watt, PFC?

id taken a look at the Seasonic, but their 600 watt is rediculous.

The only reason I am looking so hard is because i will do SLI in a year or two.
 
At this time, I'm only recommending the OEM Seasonic models from Antec (Neo HE and Truepower Trio). They do have slightly better caps than the older CWT made stuff, though they did cheap out on these somewhat too (Teapo and OST compared to Teapo, Capxon, and primarily Fuhjyyu for CWT). I believe the Neo HE also uses Teapo... will have to look again. Teapo is ok, OST and Fuhjyyu are not.

However, I may be dropping the Trio from my recommendations too pending the results of jonnyGURU's testing of the 550W model (which died in the hot box).

Edit - Neo HE uses Teapo on the secondary side... couldn't find any pics showing a clear view, so it is unknown whether there are OST caps in there too.
 
I'm in the middle of a bad experience with the SmartPower 500 right now. I picked it up on Newegg in February, lured in by the 500W rating and the modular cables. It did alright up until about 2 weeks ago, when it started making a high pitched whine. I put my ear close to the PSU and noticed the whine was accompanied by a sizzling sound. Yikes.

I RMA'd it and installed the new one when it arrived 3 days ago. Everything worked until last night when I hit the power switch and my fans spun up but I didn't get a post. If I hit the reset button while it is in this state it will boot normally, but I don't trust a faulty power supply to power my $1500 dollar investment. Consequently, my desktop is parked until I get a non-Antec replacement PSU. :(
 
Though I had originally posted about having dual Antec Neo HE 550's that were working good, and have been for several months, I lost one of mine last night.

I was treated to my ATi card chastising me for not having the 6 pin power plug connected. I looked inside the machine, and it did in fact have the power connected. After jiggling it around it would sometimes work, and sometimes not. So I switched to a different plug position since the PSU is modular. That worked. So I thought, "oh well I have a bad plug there." Then my hard drives didn't shows up. (Not my boot drives, but my storage drives.)

Then that PSU pretty much quit working at all at that point. I know 550Watts from a single Neo HE isn't going to cut it with dual X1950XTX's and 8 HDD's on an overclocked system. So today I sprung for the PC Power and Cooling Silent 750EPS12v/ATX12 (SLi compatible) PSU. I will be trying that sucker out tonight. My system needs to have all the cabling redone anyway. Should be fun.

As a computer tech, I have watched Antec backslide pretty badly over the last couple of years. It used to be the best off the shelf PSU brand out there. Their only real competition was Enermax. Now most models are outright junk and the ones that are good have to be hand picked because some batches of them aren't worth a crap.

I've stopped recommending Antec as of a year ago, with mild concessions here and there for specific models. Right now there isn't a single Antec PSU I'd recommend to someone in the market for one today.

I always thought that PC Power & Cooling PSU's were too damned much money, but with the 4 out of 5 dead Antec's over the last year and a half that I have owned, I would have been better off buying a $200 dollar plus PC Power & Cooling unit.

DEAD Antecs=True Power 430, Neo Power 480x2, Neo HE 550x1. (All died in the last 18 months at most.)

I'd also like to share a NeoPower 480 experience. I lost one, and a buddy of mine lost one. In addition to that, I went to build a system for a customer at my part time job that I had about 6 months ago or so. The customer asked for a Neo Power 480. I was running one at the time and thought nothing more of it. I grabbed one off the shelf and it didn't work. Brand new, never opened, still in the shrink wrap. Well QA fails occasionally for every company. No big deal. So I grabbed another. This next one was SMASHED in the box. The funny part is the box wasn't damaged at all. It was perfectly intact. The PSU itself had a bowed out casing, and parts rattling around inside it. So I grabbed a third. This third one had a part rolling around in it too. I couldn't believe it. No damage on the box, or any apparent damage to the units casing. So I grabbed the FOURTH and FINAL Neo Power 480. I grabbed the 4th one because I wanted to see just how many defective ones I could grab at this point. It worked like a champ. To my knowledge it still functions today. Since that day I have NEVER recommended another Neo Power 480 to anyone.

I do have one working Neo HE 550 and I did use a True Blue 2.0 480 Watt for my [H] reviews for a long time before finally getting a larger one for more modern systems. It still works today too. The problem I have with Antec now is they are too hit or miss. Some are great, some are just ok, and some are outright CRAP.

On a side note, the Silverstone 600Watt PSU I use for my [H] reviews has been solid and is pretty quiet. I'd definitely recommend it, though I went ahead and splurged for my system this time.
 
Dan_D said:
So today I sprung for the PC Power and Cooling Silent 750EPS12v/ATX12 (SLi compatible) PSU.
Click to expand...

One Seasonic made PSU for another ;)
 
Spectre said:
One Seasonic made PSU for another ;)
Click to expand...

I thought PC Power & Cooling made their own? Additionally, I never even heard of Seasonic until 8 months ago or something like that.
 
Dan_D said:
I thought PC Power & Cooling made their own? Additionally, I never even heard of Seasonic until 8 months ago or something like that.
Click to expand...

No ...........PC Power and Cooling doesn't make their own.....but they customize bare units and market the hell out of them. Win-Tact makes the Turbo-cools and the current Silencers are Seasonic(at one point previous they were made by Sparkle).

As for Seasonic...they have been making PC power supplies since about 1980.
 
Spectre said:
No ...........PC Power and Cooling doesn't make their own.....but they customize bare units and market the hell out of them. Win-Tact makes the Turbo-cools and the current Silencers are Seasonic(at one point previous they were made by Sparkle).

As for Seasonic...they have been making PC power supplies since about 1980.
Click to expand...

I read that on the Seasonic site.

I was curious if it was more like the company I contract at. I work for a company that designs power equipment for telecom units, routers switches and so on. They only design, and do no manufacturing.

Manufacturing and final assembly takes place in the USA and in China. However the company sends people over to the manufacturers (who manufacturer products besides the stuff for us) and the engineers from here teach them how to assemble everything and what to do, then leave.

I wondered if PC Power & Cooling designed their own, and contracted out the manufacturing part of it. I know Antec is simply a reseller that slaps a brand on the product and then sends it out the door.

It also seems to me that a lot of companies I had never heard of started popping up recently, Seasonic, Win-Tact and so on. I know that Saphire has long since built most of the ATi cards, but only in the last couple of years has this become comon knowledge. I was wondering it that is simply the case here. The internet allows this information to spread more rapidly.

Additionally, if Seasonic makes both Antec junk PSU's and PC Power and Coolings good PSU's, then why on earth is there this huge difference in the quality and DOA rate? My first thought Seasonic being manufacturer, and not a designer makes sense in such an instance.

I did notice on the Seasonic site that they have PSU's that are identical to the NeoPower 480 and Neo HE series. That is why I called them "junk PSU's". I've had quite a few negative experiences with these newer Antec PSU's. Though much of the True Power 2.0 series I have not used yet.
 
D'oh! You edited while I was typing. Most of the belwo still applies though.

Dan_D said:
I read that on the Seasonic site.

I was curious if it was more like the company I contract at. I work for a company that designs power equipment for telecom units, routers switches and so on. They only design, and do no manufacturing.

Manufacturing and final assembly takes place in the USA and in China. However the company sends people over to the manufacturers (who manufacturer products besides the stuff for us) and the engineers from here teach them how to assemble everything and what to do, then leave.

I wondered if PC Power & Cooling designed their own, and contracted out the manufacturing part of it. I know Antec is simply a reseller that slaps a brand on the product and then sends it out the door.
Click to expand...

PC Power and Cooling's level of involvement in the production of their units by Win-Tact is up for some debate. They do seem to be more hands on and go to the trouble of get the UL cert themselves rather than Win-Tact.....they do install the wiring harness and they most likely have some input on the circuit design.....but it is all based on a Win-tact reference design which from their general history is of excellent quality to begin with. But they ultimately do not manufacture the units though they do run them on a Chroma when they get them from Win-Tact and slap a shiny label on them.

Win-Tact has been around for probably 10 years or so but has been a manufacturer for a couple less than that. They do manufacturer a number of power supplies for outside the PC market.....I believe the medical field is one area they specialize in but I would have to check on that again.

Antec for or better or worse has of late been doing more than slapping a label on products. Their NEoHE was a contract job by Seasonic that something got screwed up on in the design phase which Antec had a hand in this time rather than just placing an order.

It also seems to me that a lot of companies I had never heard of started popping up recently, Seasonic, Win-Tact and so on.
Click to expand...

Well not so much popping up I would say as people are paying attention to actual makes the product more not neccesarily who sells it.
 
Good information thanks.

Well hopefully all goes well with my new PSU.
 
Dan_D said:
Good information thanks.

Well hopefully all goes well with my new PSU.
Click to expand...

No problem. If not let me know......a Zippy may be your new best friend if something happens :D
 
This is why Ive been a part of [H]ardOCP since 2000.

I love this place.

We save each other money, and promote good products.

I returned the Antec completely.

Now I have another thread where Im looking at three other products.

linky-->http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1103849

---------
The last year Antec made die hard PSU was 2002 to me. Anything after that is garbage. and unreliable at best. I wouldn't give my mother Antec nowadays.
 
Spectre said:
No problem. If not let me know......a Zippy may be your new best friend if something happens :D
Click to expand...

Maybe, but all is well so far. Though I've only been running it for about two hours now. Also, I need to get to overclocking and see how things go.
 
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