[???] Antec TrueBlue 480W

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publik_en3my

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 17, 2004
Messages
98
I got this from newegg and had my relatives shipped to Vietnam. I ran it on my IC7, the 12V rail was always 11.8V (both read from Speedfan and Multi-meter). I thought my IC7 was undervolt. Now, I equipped that TrueBlue to my DFI LP SLi-D, my 12V rail were down to 11.65V (Read from SpeedFan), 3.3V rails @ 3.2V, 5.5V @ 5.3V :(.

I gotta say w-t-f, I wonder how Antec could make such a bad PSU like this. Do you guyz have any idea on this? My PSU sucks or my rig sucks. I am currently running: 3500+ Newscastle, DFI SLi-D, 2 x 256MB Corsair TwinX, 1 x Leadtek 6600GT TDH Xtreme Ed.
 
1. Basic Spec compliance of 5% is
+12V....11.4V to 12.6V
+5V......4.75V to 5.25V
+3.3V...3.135V to 3.465V

2. the capacity of a supply drops with the increase in temperature
your in the tropics so you need to derate the capacity to reflect that
a low rail is a sign of an overtaxed supply

3. you can adjust the rails (provided your not asking too much of the supply to begin with)
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=765175

4. your running an extremely power hungry +12V intensive PCI-E rig
with an old school ATX12V v1.3 supply that predates PCI-E
it only has 28A on the single +12V rail, it was designed to power the CPU off the +5V rail, but your powering it and the GPU off the +12V rail instead
derating the supply for temperature by a third brings that down to 18A or so under "normal" room temperatures (say 40C in the enclosure itself) less when its really hot
http://takaman.jp/D/?M=PbQBQbdHgSCSkT4kG5H5ZAZavXCMZ&english

5. thats a 20 pin supply and a 24 pin mobo, you runnin an adapter?

its likely you simply bought the wrong supply for your needs
and there is nothing wrong with that supply in a more reasonable config
 
Dear Ice Czar,

I really appreciate to your detailed answers very much. I do run my Antec TrueBlue without the adapter. My friend do the same way with me but his is the Antec TrueControl 550W. So if I use the adapter or another 24-pin PSU (Cooler Master 450W w/ APFC for instance), will it be better?
 
yes

the board is really designed to employ those extra pins
it needs at the least an adapter
a real 24 pin supply would be even better

also consider modding the case with a duct to feed the supply outside air
that wont be preheated by the CPU
and exhausting the mobo compartment independently
that will increase the capacity of the PSU
could have a major impact when it gets really hot in the room
and any PSU you use will benefit from that

Good Luck ;)
 
Fella,

I just did a lil' test on my system with my TrueBlue above. I used 2 different digital multi-meters borrowed from my friends to test the 12V, 5V and 3.3V rails again. My tested system includes the following components:

+ DFI nForce 4 LanPartyUT SLI-D
+ Athlon64 3500+ Newcastle
+ Leadtek PCI-e 6600GT Extreme Edition
+ 80Gb SATA Maxtor Diamond 8 HDD
+ Lite-On DVD 16x
+ Fan: 2x80mm Sunon fan (12V-0.22A), 2x90mm Compaq Silent Cool (12V-0.5A), 1x120mm Sanyo Denki (12V-0.5A)

The voltage I measured are:
+ 12V rails @ 11.97-11.98 (The 2nd multi-meter said it was 11.93)
+ 5V rails @ 5.02
+ 3.3V rails @ 3.3V

And the voltage is quite stable while my CPU 100% full load with Prime 95 (I measured these rails within 15mins, CPU loaded 100%). Only the 12V rail often swing aroun 11.98 and 11.97 while the 2nd multi-meter said it 11.93 constantly.

While I view these voltage using Speedfan and Everest: 12V @ 11.65 (the BIOS said 11.83) and [email protected] and 3.3V@ 3.2x :(. How sucks those software or the multi-meters?

Should I change to 24-pin Cooler Master RealPower 450W (w/ APFC)?

My friend use DFI nF4 Ultra-D mobo (25/01/2005 BIOS) w/ 20-pin True Control 550W (no adapter) and w/ 20-pin Cooler Master 350W (no adapter), the 12V rails in the BIOS is always stable @ 12.xxV. How can the Antec TrueBlue be like that?

I am gonna upload some pix within the next 4 hours to illustrate this better. ;)

And now I still dont get this :(
 
generally you trust the multimeter provided its reasonably accurate
software monitoring is notoriously inaccurate
those arent bad figures and I wouldnt say that supply is currently overloaded
whats the average room temperature?

youd certainly want to get those other 4 pins on the mobo powered anyway
an adapter has two disadvantages
1. adding an interface increases the resistance, not much bit it can impact the +3.3V rail
2. by drawing the power for 2 pins from a single wire (the original pin plus the new one)
likely isnt much of an issue, but the more current the higher the resitance\heat, ideally youd either want two wires or twice the guage wire

cheap ideal solution would be a new 24 pin connector, and soldering on four extra wires
like I linked before
http://takaman.jp/D/?M=PbQBQbdHgSCSkT4kG5H5ZAZavXCMZ&english
you have a theoretical maxumin of 21A +12V
but of you discount the drop in draw for devices once they have spin up
your worse case senerio is more like 18A
that would mean pegging the CPU and GPO and spinning ip a DVD
where youd have an issue is if the supply was too hot to meet that load
but most of the time youd be no where near that
PSUs are all about the worse case senerio afterall

bnasically youre likely OK right now as long as the Air Conditioner doesnt bust and you arent in the middle of a marathon gaming session :p

the Cooler Masters are nice supplies
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article205-page1.html

the main differences in a native 24 pin supply, which often means its an ATX12V v2.0
is that it has dual +12V rails, and a greater portion of its capacity in its wattage class is allocated to those +12V rails (at the expense of the +3.3\+5V rails)

there are ATX12V v1.3 supplies with that kund of amp distribution, and even 24 pin main connectors, and example would be most of the Powerstreams or say my PCP&C 510
but they have a single +12V rail

the reason dual rails where introduced was to totally isolate components from each other
thus the power supplying the CPU isnt effected by the optical drives spinning up and drawing their own power, possibly leading to a fluctuating voltage to the CPU if they where on the same rail

now in supplies with really tight regulation that isnt nearly as important
the Antec True Power, Neopower and Powerstreams have 3% load regulation
and the PCP&C 1%, so the advantage of dual rails isnt a very important point when comparing with those.

in short, your probably OK as soon as you power the whole 24 pins
under most curcunstances, but upgrades and unusual circumstances (room temperature)
youd benefit from an upgrade
 
Ice Czar said:
generally you trust the multimeter provided its reasonably accurate
software monitoring is notoriously inaccurate
those arent bad figures and I wouldnt say that supply is currently overloaded
whats the average room temperature?

youd certainly want to get those other 4 pins on the mobo powered anyway
an adapter has two disadvantages
1. adding an interface increases the resistance, not much bit it can impact the +3.3V rail
2. by drawing the power for 2 pins from a single wire (the original pin plus the new one)
likely isnt much of an issue, but the more current the higher the resitance\heat, ideally youd either want two wires or twice the guage wire

cheap ideal solution would be a new 24 pin connector, and soldering on four extra wires
like I linked before
http://takaman.jp/D/?M=PbQBQbdHgSCSkT4kG5H5ZAZavXCMZ&english
you have a theoretical maxumin of 21A +12V
but of you discount the drop in draw for devices once they have spin up
your worse case senerio is more like 18A
that would mean pegging the CPU and GPO and spinning ip a DVD
where youd have an issue is if the supply was too hot to meet that load
but most of the time youd be no where near that
PSUs are all about the worse case senerio afterall

bnasically youre likely OK right now as long as the Air Conditioner doesnt bust and you arent in the middle of a marathon gaming session :p

the Cooler Masters are nice supplies
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article205-page1.html

the main differences in a native 24 pin supply, which often means its an ATX12V v2.0
is that it has dual +12V rails, and a greater portion of its capacity in its wattage class is allocated to those +12V rails (at the expense of the +3.3\+5V rails)

there are ATX12V v1.3 supplies with that kund of amp distribution, and even 24 pin main connectors, and example would be most of the Powerstreams or say my PCP&C 510
but they have a single +12V rail

the reason dual rails where introduced was to totally isolate components from each other
thus the power supplying the CPU isnt effected by the optical drives spinning up and drawing their own power, possibly leading to a fluctuating voltage to the CPU if they where on the same rail

now in supplies with really tight regulation that isnt nearly as important
the Antec True Power, Neopower and Powerstreams have 3% load regulation
and the PCP&C 1%, so the advantage of dual rails isnt a very important point when comparing with those.

in short, your probably OK as soon as you power the whole 24 pins
under most curcunstances, but upgrades and unusual circumstances (room temperature)
youd benefit from an upgrade
Click to expand...

My average room temp is about 31-32 Celcius with no air-con. I intend to move my pc to my bed-room which has an air-con to help me cool my rigs :d. I am undecided yet coz I need to move my ADSL line too :(.

As, ya said my PSU is currently overloaded. The Watt is overloaded or sumthing else? I want to added, I also unplugged all the fans and measured the voltage last night, nothing changes. The Voltage was just the same as when the fans plugging.

Will the 450W Cooler Master be better than a 480W on this? I will run 2xLeadtek 6600GT as well. Does CoolMaster 450W w/APFC fit my rigs?

Thank you very much Ice Czar for answering me lately at night (It's night in US now, isnt it?). Ya rock and HardForum rocks well ;)
 
consider that the Cooler Master has 34A on the dual +12V rails
but the True Blue has 28A on the +12V rail

thus its not the watts, but on what rails thats important ;)
the true blue is an older supply that pre-dates PCI-E

based on your last multimeter readings
Id say the power supply isnt overloaded
but considering the room temperature its likely working pretty hard
and maybe loaded very near its capacity
the problem is that few manufacturers actually specify at what temperature a supply is rated at
and what derating curve for temperature applies
exceptions being PC Power and Cooling, OCZ and Seasonic

the Cooler Master certainly meets the specs for your config
but then quite a few other supplies would as well
Its pretty funny most of em are being built about 2000km away
but they are making a 20,000km round trip to make it to you :p

There isnt anything available locally or say shipped from Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Australia?

definately move that computer to a cooler room if possible ;)
 
Ice Czar said:
consider that the Cooler Master has 34A on the dual +12V rails
but the True Blue has 28A on the +12V rail
thus its not the watts, but on what rails thats important ;)
the true blue is an older supply that pre-dates PCI-E
Click to expand...
Oooh, I see the point here.

Its pretty funny most of em are being built about 2000km away
but they are making a 20,000km round trip to make it to you :p
Click to expand...
Yup absolutely, how funny it is, I like this sentense :D

There isnt anything available locally or say shipped from Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Australia?
Click to expand...
Of couse, there are a lot of good stuff in Singapore, Malaysia but I need the PSU now and my current budget temparorily doest allow to go further (both contries and PSUs :D). I'ma consider a PCP&C PSU (I begin to love this brand name) which is better CM450W soon.

Here I uploaded the images I took during testing this PSU last night.

My PSU:
antec_tb.jpg


This is my rigs for testing:
psu_test_rigs_web.jpg


Measuring the 12V rails:
measure_5.0V.jpg


Measuring the 5.0V rails:
measure_5.0V.jpg


Measuring the 3.3V rails:
measure_3.3V.jpg


Here the statistic read from Windows XP:
win_volt_web.jpg
 
CPU 51C on an open bench ouch

you have your work cut out for you
have you had the mobo mounted and the box closed?
that will definately impacxt the PSUs capacity
as it will be exhausting the Heatsinks exhaust


Ive a friend and former forummate that lives in Singapore
the heat there made him a little crazy
he over compensated just a little bit :p

you a member at lowyat?
could be useful for regional info and deals ;)
 
Thank Ice Czar again for your explanation so far. I just sold my Antec TB out last night. I'ma get the CoolerMaster RealPower 450 w/APFC next days. ;)
 
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