Antec PP-412X vs Antec TruePower 430

[mobogasm]

How much difference is there between these two power supplies (Antec PP-412X vs Antec TruePower 430)? I have a dual athlon mp 1800 rig on a tyan mpx board that i haven't yet put together. I'm getting an Antec Case and was wondering if the TruePower was that much better than the PP-412X? I'm not really knowledgeable w/ pwr supplies so I don't really understand the differences in rail ratings and whatnot if someone could help me out. It would save me about $30 to go with the pp-412 in the antec case instead of the truepower. Anyone know somewhere cheap to pick up a genuine antec case? Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

The PP412X has a good reputation. IIRC it has 240W of combined power on 3.3V + 5V. The TP430 has 272W combined 3.3 + 5 due to the isolation of those two lines from eachother (they don't draw off a common source anymore) and its other claims to fame are two ball-bearing fans and the thermally-regulated 4-pin "Fan-Only" leads.

For a dual-AMD system, I think either would work but more = better IMHO The PerformancePlus case that has the TP430 also has front USB ports, which could be really useful for, say, a Zip drive or a CompactFlash reader, webcam, digicam, etc. Hope that helps.

 

[mobogasm]

Thanks for the info man. Very informative. As for the TP430 one having front usb/firewire I was under the impression that the PP-412X one did too. It is the model number Antec SX1040BII, I believe the 1040B does not but the SX1040BII does. Am I misinformed?

 

[mechBgon]

I see what you mean, and you're right, the Performance II's do have that feature I think the PerformanceII's 400W is an SL400 now and not the PP412X, which came in the SX1040 that doesn't have front USB.

 

[Vinny N]

I think the other cool thing about the TP430 is that as part of the TP series it has self-regulating rails. I found this on out on the ocworkbench forums for ECS boards, people who just bought a TP found that the 5v rail was low* like in the 4.8x dipping down to 4.7x possibly, but after 8 hours or so it was up exactly where it should be, solid at 5.0v or 5.1v.



*the ECS K7S5A motherboard is pretty demanding if you put one of the higher speed XP processor in it.

 

[mobogasm]

Yeah, so how does that SL400 compare to the TP430 and the PP-412X? What the heck is a K7S5A?

 

[mobogasm]

bump

 

[mechBgon]

K7S5A is a low-priced AMD board using the SiS735 chipset. The SL400 power supply is one of the newest on the market and I haven't heard much commentary about these new-series SmartPower ones yet. The TruePower ones seem to have been well-liked so far, and I don't remember hearing bad remarks about the PP412X either.