Anyone have an Antec True 550 EPS12v PS?

[cloasters]

Little did I know that the LGA 775 P4's are power suckers from hell. PS's formerly designed for SMP Server motherboards may not be able to feed these spawn of Satan CPU's.

If you want the righteous, no-foolin' top of the line PSU for your new non-Server i915, i925 or even i865 chipset that sports an LGA 775 form factor processor... Weyell, PC Power&Cooling's High Performance 510 ATX line will do. My humble Asus P5P800 needs a $229 model. I'm PO'd at PC Power & Cooling because I have their Silencer 400 model--its voltages are nowhere near the tight spec they should be. Yes, I'm lazy--they'd ship me a new one if I sent the Silencer back.

So, if you know someone that uses the Antec True 550 EPS12v model, please post if they like it or not. It's about $100 cheaper!

[GrahamGarside]

I'm not keen on antecs, they have very low efficiency, like 68-70%
If you're after a new psu go for an enermax noisetaker, anything from a 420W upward will do a prescott and high end vid card.

[surlyjoe]

while I pretty much use enermax in my own machines (but have a customers 2 month old 480w coolergiant blower model with a dead 5v rail on my bench ) I have spec'd antec in dozens of servers with no regret and would run antec or sparkle in any of my rigs with pride.

[cloasters]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

I'm not keen on antecs, they have very low efficiency, like 68-70%
If you're after a new psu go for an enermax noisetaker, anything from a 420W upward will do a prescott and high end vid card.

Unfortunately my Enermax 420W, a designed for P4's model, threw up its hands and fainted after about 10 days running an i865 m'board with a 3 Ghz LGA 775.

A Sparkle let me down a couple of years ago. The PC Power&Cooling Silencer 400 I'm running in the B Box is 5% off on its 12v rail @11.4v. The other values are quite close to perfect.

Hmm. I tell ya, $229 plus shipping for the Rolls Royce of PS's for Prescott CPU's is one hell of a lot of money. Then again, they're capable of 650W max and have a 5 year warranty.

$120 for Antec's 550W(read 510W)EPS12v model seems more reasonable.

I think the lesson here is that Intel has pulled another fast one. LGA 775 aka Prescott processors suck a good deal MORE POWER than you may think.

[whatever]

i always had great experience with the Antec power supplies, both SmartPower and TruePower.

that ol smartpower 350 was able to handle the load on my xp1700@ 1.95v@ 2,800mhz and feeding the 80w tec cooled(plus waterchilled) on my vid card at the same time. Ran it like that for several months, no hiccups. Now that's some *sick ownage*. That psu is about 5 years old now. It's still here and running my DFI Lanparty w/ Barton@ 2.4+ghz air cooled at my work place.

Got the Antec TruePower 430w for my P4E 3.2@ 4.3 at full stability.


I would like to own a prestigious power supply so-called PC Power & Cooling. Hopefully I will get one soon.

[GrahamGarside]

Antecs are reliable and stable units, my only reservation is their low efficiency, it has a large impact on power used and heat.
For instance a high powered prescott system probably uses about 200W
on an enermax that means about 250W power draw and 50W heat. on an antec thats more like 295W and 95W heat!

[cadaveca]

for a silent power supply, i recommend this one:


antec phantom 350:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=24350

Ultra-high-efficiency circuitry (at least 85% efficiency at full load) saves energy and reduces heat

Output(Max. Load / Min. Load / Load Reg. / Rippe
V(p-p):
+5V: 30A / 0.3A / ±5% / 50
+12V1: 16A / 0.4A / ±5% / 120
+12V2: 18A / 0.4A / ±5% / 120
+3.3V: 28A / 0.3A / ±5% / 50
-12V: 1.0A / 0A / ±5% / 120
+5Vsb: 2.0A / 0A / ±5% / 50

[GrahamGarside]

Antec do do pretty much the best passive psu, thanks to them cooling all hot components not just the mosfets, thisis the mitake most other manufacturers make, they just attach the mosfets to better cooling but leave all the other components which would normally have air flow uncooled.

The thing with the Phantom is you need good case air flow for it to work, and sticking in a case with an air cooled prescott is asking for trouble.

[cadaveca]

I'll post pics later...it's quite the heavy bastard. I just like that it provides enough power for alot of devices, as well as dual 12v rails.

[dsio]

My money is still on enermax. I run a fairly power hungry machine (because of my 6800GT not because of the CPU) and it runs consistantly with very very tight voltage swing and strong rails. I have a different kind of approach to PSUs, in that i couldnt care less what the specs are of it. i care that its a reputable brand, that its been on the market for a long period of time, i care how well cooled it is, what fans are used, how big, where they are placed, and that it hasnt had any bad press. ive had generic PSUs that have been given complete BS ratings by their manufacturers. a 550W skymax with a massive 12V rail croaked after 2 weeks of my Geforce 6. on the otherhand my Enermax 431W (not extremely powerful but very stable) is flawless and runs cool consistantly.

I remember many moons ago people complaining about how power hungry the epox 8rdas were, saying their 350 and 400W PSUs were failing under it. Then ET showed a high quality 200W PSU running an 8rda with a 2600+ and a 9800XT. that example has always stuck with me. Quality > Quantity.

[GrahamGarside]

Very true, most people don't realise it but there systems probably only use about 150W during intense load, maybe closer to 200 with a prescott
The reason such high rated psu's are needed is because so much of that load is on the 12V line. I get by on a 380W psu even with my fairly high power requirements

[cloasters]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

Antecs are reliable and stable units, my only reservation is their low efficiency, it has a large impact on power used and heat.
For instance a high powered prescott system probably uses about 200W
on an enermax that means about 250W power draw and 50W heat. on an antec thats more like 295W and 95W heat!

This Antec low efficiency = a hell of a lot of heat issue gives me pause. Thanks, Mr Garside!

[cloasters]

Dang it, PC's can be a very expensive habit. What's $229 plus shipping for the top of the line PS that will do the job with no worries? WTH do I need a PS that'll run an older SMP Server board-- for a lowly single processor i865 mainboard with a 3 Ghz Prescott? i865's aren't power hogs, to the best of my knowledge. This leaves the LGA 775 as the prime suspect.

Or should I go '"cheap"' with an Antec? It sports a gold plated connector or connectors. Woo hoo.

Hmm come to think of it, one of the pins in one of the "Molex" connectors of the Enermax 420W came out without much 'prodding.'

So, black marks against Sparkle and Enermax. Gray mark against PC Power & Cooling for a 12v rail that's 5% lower than the 1% tolerance advertised. It must be said that they'd ship me a new Silencer 400 if I got off my lazy posterior and returned the one I complain about.

I really liked the 275W, 300W and 350W PS's that I had from PC Power & Cooling. Is this a trend? The catch is that their 510W Turbo-Cool Express will probably cost half as much a year from now. I'll just run only the B Box for a year. Naw, I'm too greedy for performance.

Argh.

[cadaveca]

um, i'm happy with the thermaltake PSU i have...not enough gusto for my a64 set-up, but more than enough for the AXP.

[cloasters]

Looks like I'll spring for the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Express. Can I afford it? I'll take the Fifth!

[GrahamGarside]

Go for an enermax, a 485W noisetaker will easily handle an LGA775 system, they have over 30A on the 12V line and are rock solid stable.

[dsio]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

Go for an enermax, a 485W noisetaker will easily handle an LGA775 system, they have over 30A on the 12V line and are rock solid stable.

What he said ^

If you had an enermax fall apart it must have fallen of the back of the truck one too many times en route to the retailer. Bad enermax PSUs are a genuine rarity.

[cloasters]

Am I a power supply snob or what? Talked to PC Power & Cooling this morning, they are temporarily out of the Turbo-Cool 510 Express. They're sending me the Turbo-Cool 510 SLI model instead. Unless I get crazier, I'll never run an SLI setup. So I saved ten bucks and will have the option of spending $800(?) or more for dual Vidcards.

I was told that the LGA 775's suck more power than Xeons do. What the flock, over? I didn't think that a CPU that's the size of one and a half postage stamps could be so greedy for amperage. I was wrong.

[GrahamGarside]

Strained silicon+1mb L2+no SOI=hot³

[GrahamGarside]

Honestly though a precott system, even coupled with a 6800/X800 will only draw about 200W, something most psu's of around 400W upward should be able to provide, it's the 12V line thats key, 18A is a sensable minimum