Apevia 500W VS Antec 500W

abc617

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Jan 2, 2010
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I'm looking to upgrade my current PSU and I've narrowed it down to these two:

APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027
Cost: $39.99 ($19.99 after MIR) + $1.99 shipping = $41.98 ($21.98 after MIR)

Antec Earthwatts EA-500 D 500W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035
Cost (from eBay): $28 + $15 Shipping = $43.00

I know Antec has a pretty good reputation, and the 80 Bronze energy rating is good, versus the Apevia with over 1,000 reviews on the Apevia and the lower price, it kinda makes it hard for me to decide.

Current Setup:
-Phenom X4 9550 2.2GHZ
-Asus M4A785M Motherboard
-6GB DDR2 RAM

Right now I'm thinking about getting a Radeon HD 4850 for some occasional gaming (provided I can find one for a decent price). Not sure if my CPU will bottleneck it though. My alternative to that one was a Radeon 5670 since I'm not looking into that much newer games right now.
 
Solution
Antec, by all means.

newegg reviews can be very useful. You just need to know how to read them.

First, total the one and two egg reviews. If there are more than 20% or at most 30% bad reviews, skip the product.

Then read the bad reviews. They will fall into three categories: those written by newbs and "don't have a clue" people, those who found shortcomings that may or may not apply to you, and those that indicate a truly bad product. Pay close attention to the second and third categories.

Here's a good example (personally relevant to me) of review inflation: the 81% 5 egg rating for the Antec 900 case. I would give it no more than 4 eggs because of the truly awful cable management. And I own three of them - all modded ... for...
The APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 is actually made by the infamous Deer Computer. Don't believe the Newegg Customer Reviews they're written by the technically incompetent. Those reviews should only be used to gauge the DOA and failure trend.

Deer Computer gained a reputation in the past for making power supplies that would explode in a shower of sparks if you attempted to draw anywhere near its labeled power output. Any components attached to the power supply would usually be taken out along with the power supply.

To date Deer's product quality has never improved enough to be considered safe for any system build.

Of your two choices the Antec Earthwatts EA-500D Green is the one to select as long as you realize it doesn't include an AC power cord and you have a spare one available for use. It will have no problem powering a system with a single Radeon HD 4850 graphics card.
 
Antec, by all means.

newegg reviews can be very useful. You just need to know how to read them.

First, total the one and two egg reviews. If there are more than 20% or at most 30% bad reviews, skip the product.

Then read the bad reviews. They will fall into three categories: those written by newbs and "don't have a clue" people, those who found shortcomings that may or may not apply to you, and those that indicate a truly bad product. Pay close attention to the second and third categories.

Here's a good example (personally relevant to me) of review inflation: the 81% 5 egg rating for the Antec 900 case. I would give it no more than 4 eggs because of the truly awful cable management. And I own three of them - all modded ... for better cable management.
 
Solution