The Power Supply
The PSU
The power supply fan is the only cooling device for the case’s PSU area. The power supply is an Antec high-efficiency 430-watt unit with PFC (Power Factor Correction). As the table indicates, it should be enough to power your HTPC. This PSU accepts AC input between 100 and 240 volts (+/- 10%) at 50-60Hz and 7 amps.
| DC Voltage | +3.3 | +5 | +12V1 | +12V2 | -12 | +5VSB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Output (amps) | 25.0 | 25.0 | 16.0 | 16.0 | 0.8 | 2.0 |
| Maximum Output (Watts) | 82.5 | 125 | 192 | 192 | 9.6 | 10.0 |
Table 2 : Fusion Power Supply Specs
Note the maximum load on the 3.3 and 5 is 130 watts, and on the 12 Volt it is 372, for a total of 430 watts at any one time.
| Connector | Type (Number) | Maximum Length |
|---|---|---|
| Main Power | ATX 20+4 Pin (1) | 25" |
| Molex | (6) | 24" |
| Floppy | (1) | 24" |
| SATA | (2) | 24" |
| PCI-E | (1) | 18" |
Table 3 : Fusion Power Supply Cables
This power supply also offers features such as OPP (over power protection), OVP (over voltage protection), UVP (under voltage protection) and SCP (short circuit protection). The device and the case itself are 80PLUS rated products. As you can see, this is a capable power supply on paper and plenty of cable length is provided. However, with today’s CPUs, GPUs and dual-drive configurations, power could still be a concern. Luckily, Antec provides a PSU Wattage Calculator. Using Antec’s calculator, it was easy to imagine a system that would require over the supplied 430 watts. Just by selecting an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, an Nvidia 8800GT, two HDDs and a capacitor aging of 30% (hey, this is a HTPC running 24/7), you come up short. However, by design this case uses a standard ATX sized power supply so you can easily replace it with a more powerful unit if needed.
