Another bad Antec!

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Crap. Pure crap. I just had to replace the NEW Antec power supply in a computer (for one of my stepkids) before the system was even finished because it couldn't take the strain. It was nothing more than a single Duron 950 and an old VooDoo Banshee video card. It acted funny from the get go, but after hooking up a second hard drive where the CD rom had been (to transfer the old files from the previous system), it wouldn't load. I hooked up my favorite OEM power supply and it worked fine.

So now the kid has my favorite power supply. OH, the wattage? 250W. Before you go off thinking that 250W is too weak, remember the system, 1 low power CPU, 1 low power video card, 1 128MB DIMM, and 2 hard drives. In case you didn't know, that's nothing a 200W power supply can't handle in a Hewlett Packard.

The reason I said Another bad antec, this is the same problem I meantioned over a year ago when I tried a couple different Antec 250 watt power supplies in my old PIII system, and they didn't have enough power, even though I had half a dozen other brands of power supplies of various unknown makes that could.

I've never owned a True Power supply, so I can't speak on them, but your basic Antec is just as weak as the weakest of generic power supplies.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>
 

RobD

Champion
That sucks. You'd have though that Antec would ensure that their quality would be consistent across the board, after all, it's their name that's being dragged down.

BUT! Maybe it's a ploy. Everyone knows that the Truepower range is vgood, and it could be that they WANT people to stay loyal to the brand and move over to the Truepower, with Antec knowing that the product has a good rep. After all, stranger things have happenned!
 
Sounds a little like the 1 year / 3 year warranty thing with the hard drives.

Maybe you were just unlucky.

The true power ones <b>are</b> good! Auto speed control, with conns for 2/3 case fans with speed control, and dedicated lines for 5V, 12V etc.

<b><font color=blue>~ <A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=324&s=58e94ba84a16bedfebbf0f416d5bac48" target="_new">My System Specs</A> ~<font color=blue></b> :wink:
 

RobD

Champion
Well, I took delivery of a Truepower 550 just over a week ago, and it's a beauty. Works like a dream. Cost a bit mind, had to sell a kidney just to afford it!

I'm seeing it at work too. Loads of bog standard branded PSU's in new machines causing problems. And these are like 1.2GHz Celly's, with 1 HD and 1 CDROM, 256 ram. No load really. Older machines are still running fine, with a shed load more componentry.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Actually they ARE consistant. Their 250W power supplies have been overrated by about 50W as compared to other brands for many years! You buy a 250W, you get 200W, you buy a 300W, you get a 235W, very consistant!

Not only that, but many OEM power supplies are UNDER rated, that is, rated at nominal capacity. I just found out that Dell's 200W power supply has a peak output of 292W for a long enough period of time that Antec would probably call it 280W or something similar.



<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Funny, the only differences between this and my older Antecs are, thinner housing and a "smart fan". Power output is almost identicle, dropping off voltage around 160 watts and becoming unstable at around 180 watts of continuous load. I'm wondering how long that 250W peak is good for, 1 millisecond? Are their any devices in a system that can spike hard enough to increase power demand from 160W to 250W for only 1ms?

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>
 
I suppose if you start a heavy app, the entire system is called to run it really. Might need the HDD, CD in drive, CPU, chipset etc etc.

Perhaps the seperation of the voltage lines is the key. Spiking in one doesn't affect the other. It theoretically would make trouble shooting easier too, if you can identify the voltage drain, you can narrow down what might be causing it.

<b><font color=blue>~ <A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=324&s=58e94ba84a16bedfebbf0f416d5bac48" target="_new">My System Specs</A> ~<font color=blue></b> :wink:
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
I hear the true power is supposed to separate the voltage lines.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>
 
Yup. That's what I mean.

<A HREF="http://www.mikhailtech.com/modules.php?name=Articles&rop=showcontent&id=21" target="_new">"TruePower has dedicated output circuitry for each voltage line, which means that there is no combined output limit other than, of course, that of the entire power supply. Each voltage line can perform up to the specification on the label, without regard to or interaction with the loads on the other lines, until the full capacity of the power supply itself is reached."</A>

It's a good read BTW.



<b><font color=blue>~ <A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=324&s=58e94ba84a16bedfebbf0f416d5bac48" target="_new">My System Specs</A> ~<font color=blue></b> :wink: