Antec or Enermax?

[guptasa1]

A few replies:

Read the Anandtech comparo (first one), and Anand seems to like the Antec best (but also gives high marks to the Enermax). The second review set doesn't have quite as comparable a model.

As to the TrueBlue 430 not being sufficient power-wise, that worried me, but looking at your system, it looks like you have a VERY powerful CPU, quite powerful graphics card, 3 optical drives, 3 hard drives, and a sound card in there. That's a LOT of stuff (much more than I have...I've got 2 optical drives and 2 hard drives and not as powerful a processor), so I'm not all that surprised. Though I would have thought 430 would have been able to handle it. (Again, I'm going 480 with less peripherals).

As to the other brands, I guess I just know less about them, but thanks for the tip. Since it's already ordered, I think I'll give the Antec a try. Should I have problems, I'll reconsider another brand (probably Enermax, but I'll look at the others).

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
I have 2 Antecs and swear by them, although I've heard good things about Enermax too. As for the connector thing, it should have all the connectors you need(Molex, 20pin ATX, floppy, ATX 12v), although you might want to check if it has SATA power connectors, if you need those.

DITTO on the Antec!

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Muadib
I have the Antec True Blue 430 and I had to unplug my 2 IDE harddrives, after I got my 6800gt. My system would reboot like crazy unleenermax ss I pulled the power to the IDE drives. I'm thinking of going with an Enermax this time, because of what Lonyo stated in his post.

Interesting, I'm running an A64 2800+, 1GB RAM, 4 hard drives, 2 optical drives, an X800 pro, and assorted goodies, and it's all running fine on a TruePower 380. I'm a bit surprised you're having issues like that on a system with 50 more watts of power.

 

[bjc112]

The wattage for 6800 series has been totally overblown. The 480W mentioned is for generics. Seriously, if NVidia said they meant a quality 480W minimum, we are in trouble.

Believe that.. Antec, Enermax and Sparkle are by far my most trusted IMHO.

480 is OVERKILL. In quite a few different situations and setups..

This and SEVERAL Sparkle PSU i have used, have been nothing short of amazing.

Sparkle 350 runnning quite a bit here,

1700+@2.4ghz
1 GB Hyper X 3200
2 x 80GB HDD
40 GB External USB enclosure
6800GT @ Ultra Speeds
Santa Cruz
ATA Controller
2 x Optical Drive
2 cold cathodes
3 LED case fans



Can't beat them..

And I think many members will agree.


🙂

 

[GnomeCop]

I have a Antec NeoPower 480watt, and while the amperage ratings arent the greatest, it has performed beatifully and a worthy upgrade from my zalman 400 wat. it handles the GF6800U nicely. The zalman could not.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
I have a Antec NeoPower 480watt, and while the amperage ratings arent the greatest, it has performed beatifully and a worthy upgrade from my zalman 400 wat. it handles the GF6800U nicely. The zalman could not.

But your talking Zalman, in the world of PSU's there not even on the list.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Personaly I think it's going to depend alot on what you are putting in your system, I'm a big fan of both and I recently went from an Enermax 350 watt whisper PSU (an older one w/ only 17A on the 12V rail and 185 watts combined on the 3.3V and 5V rails) to a 400 watt antec that came w/ my 1040B2 case. you can see what I'm running in my rig profile, but in general if you going to have alot of stuff on the 12V rail Enermax is the way to go, no one else really compares w/ their 12V amp ratings of their newer supplies, so if you have lots of fans (like I do 4 80mm case fans, 1 92mm CPU fan, 2 PSU fans, a VGA silencer and a 40mm fan in my removable HDD rack) it would pay to get an Enermax w/ their beefier 12V rail, thats most Antec PSU's failing IMHO, not enough 12V rail, but in truth as long as you get a 460 watt+ PSU from either company you should be set baring an extreme system.

 

[Zebo]

enermax is superior in every way. I don't know why people enjoy thier antecs so much..I guess cause it's quieter....maybe cause that's what they have..definity not for overclockers. I burned a true 480 first week.


Wish I knew this before I burned it..but today, both the CPU and graphics cards get all thier power from the 12V rail, Antec's is a measley 22 compared to Enermax's 4xx and OCZ's 4xx 32+ AMPS.

 

[GnomeCop]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
I have a Antec NeoPower 480watt, and while the amperage ratings arent the greatest, it has performed beatifully and a worthy upgrade from my zalman 400 wat. it handles the GF6800U nicely. The zalman could not.

But your talking Zalman, in the world of PSU's there not even on the list.

what list? The list you wrote? No idea what you're saying right now.
Their power supplies are practically fortron/sparkle units with different cable configurations and quieter fans.

 

[Zepper]

I agree with others that what you have already is overkill. I just measured the power draw for my whole system including monitor and it was under 200 true Watts. And that is on the AC side. The computer box alone is about 130 Watts - figuring for best case PSU efficiency (70%), we're talking 91 Watts or so on the DC side of the PSU. I have 3 SCSI HDs, an LS-120 drive, a floppy drive, a SCSI burner, an IDE Combo drive (burner/DVD ROM), etc.
. Do you really think you need more than 4 times as much??? Plus it seems that the Asus A8V Deluxe (if AMD 64 bit might be in your future) has problems with PSUs that have flaky 5VSB rails - seems to mostly be happening with Antec but could be with others.
. Think again before spending your money needlessly... Then again, shipping costs may double (or more) within the next few months, so it may be wise to make any projected purchases now (funds permitting).
.bh.

Where's the :sun: ?

 

[Tostada]

Enermax makes better power supplies than Antec. That's a fact. The specs are better, and if you look around (even search on this forum) you'll see people who have tested them show Enermax has more stable rails.

That said, Antec makes good power supplies. The power supply is obviously an important part of your computer, but recently people have blown it all out of proportion. If you're buying a new case, the best deal you'll get is usually an Antec case with an Antec PSU.

If you're going to go out and buy a PSU separately, though, definitely go for the Enermax Noisetaker. The $70 420W Noisetaker is more power than you'll ever need unless you're doing something crazy. My current system has a 5-year-old 360W Enermax running 4X 10K SCSI drives, 3X optical drives and a ton of other stuff.

 

[sao123]

I'm running an ANTEC TRUE BLUE 480W and powering a lot of sh!t.

AMD FX53 w/ Asus A8V Delux
1GB RAM
Geforce 6800 ultra
SB audigy 2
4x WD Raptors in Raid 0+1
plex dvd-rw px 712 +
sony dvd-rom drive
5 Vantec Tornado Fans
Internal Blue Cool Cathode Light


AND BEST OF ALL, THE POWER SUPPLY GLOWS BLUE

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Zepper
I agree with others that what you have already is overkill. I just measured the power draw for my whole system including monitor and it was under 200 true Watts. And that is on the AC side. The computer box alone is about 130 Watts - figuring for best case PSU efficiency (70%), we're talking 91 Watts or so on the DC side of the PSU. I have 3 SCSI HDs, an LS-120 drive, a floppy drive, a SCSI burner, an IDE Combo drive (burner/DVD ROM), etc.
. Do you really think you need more than 4 times as much??? Plus it seems that the Asus A8V Deluxe (if AMD 64 bit might be in your future) has problems with PSUs that have flaky 5VSB rails - seems to mostly be happening with Antec but could be with others.
. Think again before spending your money needlessly... Then again, shipping costs may double (or more) within the next few months, so it may be wise to make any projected purchases now (funds permitting).
.bh.

Where's the :sun: ?

Zepper,

Another point where Emermax is superior, 80% effecientcy, the best ever tested by SPCR... Anyway posting your hard drives is'nt saying much, they use nominal power except on spin up... somewhere between 11-15W a piece, easily handed by even a SFF PSU. Floppy, revomable media drive use almost nothing 1-2W unless they are actually reading or writing....What we are talking about here is a OC processor using 110W(12V), a OC video card 80W(12V), OC 1 GB ram using 50W(5V), when running games and benchmarking. Try that. Run 3dmark2003 and measure consumption. (assuming you have the hardware). It's a well know fact people can pass prime but crash when running the 3dmarktests...typical cause is PSU or lack of it anyway..

I'm as cheap as they come, many can verify this, but PSU is no place to skimp in more extreme high power setups. Antec/fortron/sparkle/seasonic is just fine for 95% of people here and I recommend them all the time... but when you need the best-- high, accurate and clean power, Enermax/OCZ are really the only options because of thier superior 12V rails.

 

[Zepper]

Others here on AT have also measured their power usage and even those with Amp sucking video cards, etc. were unable to break 200 on the DC side. I don't believe that any high end system could really tax a good brand 400W PSU.
.bh.

 

[guptasa1]

Just to update you all, got that Antec TrueBlue 480W. First time installing a power supply, but it went well and I'm happy. =o)

Just for comparison purposes to my Enermax, while quieter, it also sounds "different" - for lack of a better description, it is a bit...whinier...wihile the Enermax sounded a bit more like exhaust (but probably twice as loud).

My system seems to get warmer in general due to Antec's fan-monitoring technology, but it hasn't been a problem thus far and keeps things quieter. To be fair, at the same time I installed the PSU, I installed a slightly faster processor and a 6800 Ultra, so some of the heat could be coming from that. At any rate, all the monitors indicate everything's well within threshold, so I'm assuming it's all working as it's supposed to.

The blue glow is pretty damn neat. ;o) I see it the most when the case is open generally, but even closed, it casts a blue glow behind my machine.

The voltages aren't quite as tight as they were with the Enermax, but still within spec:

BIOS VOLTAGES:
ENERMAX ANTEC
VCORE 1.49 1.49
+3.3V 3.29 3.24
+5V 4.99 4.89
+12V 11.85 11.79

And so far, everything's running very well. =o)

 

[guptasa1]

Yikes - forgot formatting doesn't work with plain text. =oP

Well, first number for each was the old Enermax, and 2nd is the new Antec. Sorry if that's not neat.