Trade PC Power & Cooling for Antec?

E

EnderW

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 25, 2003
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OK, before you say I'm crazy, let me get the whole story out.

I have a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 425 Deluxe. I am thinking about selling it and getting an Antec Neo Power for a couple of reasons:

1) I've heard the NeoPower is pretty quiet with its dual 120mm fans. And my Turbo Cool is significantly louder then the True Power 480 it replaced.

2) The modular connections.

3) The NeoPower already has full ATX12V v2.0 compliance, and native support for PCI graphics cards.

4) The NeoPower has 2 seperate 12V rails.


However, there are a few reasons I hesitate:

1) Everyone knows PC Power & Cooling is the best, hands down for desktop PSUs. So anything else is really a step down. (although the NeoPower does have 3% voltage regulation)

2) The warranty on the NeoPower is 3 years compared to 5 for the Turbo Cool.

3) The NeoPower isn't sleeved like my Turbo Cool, but most of the wiring would be hidden anyway.


What would you do, and why?
 
I'd stick with what you have, and not worry about upgrading the PSU until you actually need to.


I <3'd my PC Power & Cooling, and regret having given it up. If you're really worried about the fan noise, you could swap out the fan w/ something quieter; I did that, but kept the stock fan in case it needed to be RMA'd (or sold).
 
Here's a current look at my system in the same case but with the Neo Power.



I kind of wish I'd gotten this instead: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-934&depa=1

The modular cables aren't really all that great anyway. They would be a lot better if they were sleeved properly.

In addition, (and this might not be specific to my power supply) my power supply heated up a whole bunch when the temperature in my room increased just a few degrees. The fan started blowing full speed, with lots of really hot air coming out. Now that I've got the room a little cooler again, it's still very warm, but not as bad, and the fan is much slower. In comparison, the other two exhaust fans are blowing relatively cool air, including the one right next to the CPU.
 
interesting.

I have an antec neo 480 for just a little over a month now. Bought it from newegg, first was was DOA and I waited another 1.5 weeks for a new on so its less then a month old I guess. I was thinking about selling it to get a PC Power & Cooling :rolleyes:

I've sleeved mine already and it looks great! But I dunno, i want a silent pc, how loud is urs ?
 
xxaaqq said:
Here's a current look at my system in the same case but with the Neo Power.

http://www.jcbeck.com/images/bulletin/LianLi_thumb.jpg

The modular cables aren't really all that great anyway. They would be a lot better if they were sleeved properly.

In addition, (and this might not be specific to my power supply) my power supply heated up a whole bunch when the temperature in my room increased just a few degrees. The fan started blowing full speed, with lots of really hot air coming out. Now that I've got the room a little cooler again, it's still very warm, but not as bad, and the fan is much slower. In comparison, the other two exhaust fans are blowing relatively cool air, including the one right next to the CPU.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw your pic over in the Case Modding forum. I have the same case as you and you could clean up a lot of that cable clutter pretty easily, especially the HDD cables, I'll see if I can find that thread again and go into more detail there.



MaMMa said:
interesting.

I have an antec neo 480 for just a little over a month now. Bought it from newegg, first was was DOA and I waited another 1.5 weeks for a new on so its less then a month old I guess. I was thinking about selling it to get a PC Power & Cooling :rolleyes:

I've sleeved mine already and it looks great! But I dunno, i want a silent pc, how loud is urs ?
Click to expand...

Well I don't have anything to measure the sound level. It's not too bad, because it isn't a whiny sound, just a somewhat loud hum.

What color sleeving did you do? Got any pics?
 
its black, all black. black is elegant and sexy.

anyway, i can take some pictures as soon as my freakin friend will return my digicam :mad:

does their website say whats the dba on it?
 
Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

-2 ok rails or 1 really good one for voltage supply?
-1% tolerance on the PC P&C
-That 425W supply is just as big if not bigger than the neopower.

I had a PC P&C 425 in my case until I accidently killed it. If the fan bothers you just shop around one for similar airflow charasteristics and a lower noise level. You shouldn't have to much of a problem finding one. Just replace it and you have a lot less noise. I'm using one of the PC P&C Silencer supplies right now and it's been great despite the fact that it's running all out almost all the time. My rig is pretty power hungry as well.
 
EnderW, yeah that would be great... I read some "how to sleeve" and "cable management" stuff but I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet (obviously). I think the sleeving would help a bit, but don't want to do the "remove molex connector" type of sleeving... need more time and space for this hobby.
 
you should smack yourself for even considering that swap.

but if you insist, I'll be happy to trade you one of my antecs for your pcpc.
 
Anarchist4000's points plus the superior AC Ripple of the Turbo Cool
(main rails at 10mV)
as gee pointed out to me, dual rails are far more important in a supply that is just barely meeting spec (generic doorstops)
with a Turbo Cool at 1% regulation, it really doesnt mean alot

Id too say mod it ;)
and it wouldnt be all that hard to either add an adapter for the PCI-E 6 pin
or actually incorporate it directly into the harness
 
trust_no1 said:
Dual 120 mm?? what? There's only one fan on the Neo.
Click to expand...

My bad.


Anarchist4000 and Ice Czar, thanks for the advice. I'm going to keep the Turbo Cool and look for a quieter fan. I e-mailed PC Power & Cooling about it, but they said they didn't have a quieter fan for that model. Have any recomendations on a good replacement fan? and I guess I could keep the old one incase I ever need warranty work, right?

Also, I want to remove one of the molex connectors. All of the cords have at least two. But I have one line just for my video card, and that extra one looks tacky hanging there. I figured I would take the middle molex connector off, take out the wires going to the end molex, then just replace the molex. Anyone have any tips on this?
 
OK, did a little research on the fan.

This review of the Turbo-Cool 510-PFC says that it uses a 80mm Nidec that is rated at 44 cfm at 35.8 dBA.

But according to this guide, the Turbo Cool 425 Nidec fan pushes 37 cfm at 45 dBA. The guide shows how to install 2 fans, but I don't think I want to go that far.

He uses dual Panaflo L1A fans, which are rated at 24 cfm, 21 dBA. But he suggests the Panaflo H1A, rated at 39.6 cfm, 32 dBA if you plan to operate in ambient temperatures of over 86 F - and it should never get to 86 F in my room, so I'm thinking of just replacing the stock fan with 1 Panaflo H1A seen here.
 
did you happen to catch the PICs of the Abit AA8 Fatal1ty?
http://www.hardocp.com/images/news/1099344213eL7htqHhcp_1_3_l.jpg


note the CPU Heatsink exhaust collector
that would have a dramatic effect on the PSU since its not exhausting a substantial portion of the HS exhaust
and the fan would subsequently not need to be forcing the same volume since it would be cooler air

(I also bet those heatsinks under the collector are the mobo's Voltage Regulation Moduals)

just mentioned that since various cases dont have the PSU exhausting the HS
or ducting mods are a possibility
In my 4U Rackmount I only have a few Optical upstream of the PSU
actually I could probably do away with the fan in my PCP&C 510 all together
since its already being force fed AC air stuffed into a duct isolating it from the mobo by one of the three hotswap 120mm midcase fans:p
 
That should work. I believe I used the same model in my supply. It was significantly cooler...while it lasted. Just make sure you wrap the power coord around the internal PSU parts and not directly over the heatsink. Accidently did that until the heatsink either melted through the coating on the wire or shorted through it. The fan was cooling great for all of about half of second. At which point the magical smoke escaped it and it no longer worked. Does make a huge difference on noise level however.

The original fan I had was a Nidec something around 34cfg and 45dbl according to the pcp&c spces listed on the site. Basically it's a standard 80mm fan. It uses 2 wires so there is no 3rd wire for monitoring the speed. 32dba over 45dba is quite a difference.

The hardest part would be connecting the wires. Getting the annoying adapter off is kind of a pain. More than likely you'll either be splicing the wires or soldering the connections on which could be somewhat ackward. Buying some sort of basic connector to add in might not be a bad idea either.
 
Yes, I saw the Fatal1ty board and it looks sweet, but I would get the NF4 version if anything. However, I don't like the red LEDs behind it and I've heard conflicting things about whether it will support SLI.

Also, I heard that the OTES cooling system on the IC7 MAX 3 wasn't very effective, and this one looks similiar, so I'm not sure what to think about that.

Either way, I am gonna try to stick with what I have well into next year.


Anarchist4000 said:
That should work. I believe I used the same model in my supply. It was significantly cooler...while it lasted. Just make sure you wrap the power coord around the internal PSU parts and not directly over the heatsink. Accidently did that until the heatsink either melted through the coating on the wire or shorted through it. The fan was cooling great for all of about half of second. At which point the magical smoke escaped it and it no longer worked. Does make a huge difference on noise level however.

The original fan I had was a Nidec something around 34cfg and 45dbl according to the pcp&c spces listed on the site. Basically it's a standard 80mm fan. It uses 2 wires so there is no 3rd wire for monitoring the speed. 32dba over 45dba is quite a difference.

The hardest part would be connecting the wires. Getting the annoying adapter off is kind of a pain. More than likely you'll either be splicing the wires or soldering the connections on which could be somewhat ackward. Buying some sort of basic connector to add in might not be a bad idea either.
Click to expand...

While it lasted? How long was that? Maybe I should look at a different fan, because I need something that isn't going to crap out on me.

Are you talking about the 2 pin connector? I was thinking about just using the 3 pin that comes with the fan...the 3rd pin would just be off to the side, right?
 
The heatsink in the supply has live AC. Running full AC power across the fan has a tendancy to burn it out rather quickly. More of a mistake on my part than anything else. The fan itself should work fine. This was just something that happened while I was playing around with it.

As for the connection it was just the 2 wires coming off the fan soldered to a 12V and ground terminal on the board. There was no 2 or 3 pin connector to plug into in my supply. In the middle of the wire there was a connector but it didn't prove to easy to get the new wires into.
 
Anarchist4000 said:
The heatsink in the supply has live AC. Running full AC power across the fan has a tendancy to burn it out rather quickly. More of a mistake on my part than anything else. The fan itself should work fine. This was just something that happened while I was playing around with it.

As for the connection it was just the 2 wires coming off the fan soldered to a 12V and ground terminal on the board. There was no 2 or 3 pin connector to plug into in my supply. In the middle of the wire there was a connector but it didn't prove to easy to get the new wires into.
Click to expand...

How did you discharge the PSU before adding the fan? or did you?
 
Unplug it and turn on the computer. That's typically the easiest thing to do. For my system I can almost get the initial post screen up before it loses power. It won't necessarily completely drain the caps but should get them to a more than safe level. They shouldn't cause any problems as long as you don't stick a screwdriver down inside the thing which shouldn't be necessary anyways.
 
DSC04255.JPG


Inside the case

DSC04256.JPG


How I sleeved it
 
Nice... I'm considering doing some of that "split" sleeving myself... and need to get some rounded cables... have no less than four IDE cables in my case to contend with, and about ten things requiring molex connectors...
 
What goods sleeving when a roll of duct tape will do the same thing? Granted it's a little sloppy looking but it'd probably work fairly well. Find some colored tape and you're set lol.
 
ugh

I hate tape gum residue :eek:
Ive used either your basic braided sleeving, flex conduit Ive milled to a split loom, or black plastic spiral wrap

what I will never use is duct tape
(especially bad when the gum drys out)
though foil tape for sheilding would be another matter
 
There will be no sticky duct tape within 10 feet of my thumbprint friendly (as in you'll always find them together) Lian Li case! Duck tape on the other hand...

Split loom is easy, and I'm only a beginner when it comes to making the inside of a case pretty... guess I should've started practicing before I had all these drives...

Oh, I also wanted to say that in my automobile idiocy, right after I bought my one used car, the oil cap was missing because the people that sold my car changed the oil for me, but forgot to replace it... and I had duct tape in my car, so I covered the oil hole with that. Well, the duct tape all but disappeared... maybe into that engine! But, hey, it was a Honda, and it kept running anyway.
 
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