Antec TruePower 2.0 series

[Merovingian]

Wanna know what is strange? Okay so when my computer goes on standby (just the box not the monitor or other things out side the case) It draws 9W. Okay, no biggie right? BUT when I shut it down, it draws 7W. When I turn off the PSU in the back, it draws 0W. WTF? Strange.

So, the System posted in my sig gets...
(no cool and quiet turned on)
250GB IDE hard drive, Plextor 16x DVD-RW, Asus 16x DVD optical drives w/floppy in addition to the parts in my sig

140W when running basic apps like word or mozilla.
165W when Running prime95 max power test.
180W when running GTA and looking everywhere all crazy the whole time trying to get my watts up.
195W when running doing the same in GTA with the same Prime 95 test running in the background.

Vs.

140W for my lamp
140W for a sound system which costs over 5K
200W when the volume is up very loudly
45W for my 21" lcd

Yet to test...

Microwave, hair dryer, fridge. This thing is kinda fun actually. I want to test the system when both hard drives have spun down but I keep forgetting to look at the meter when this happens.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: TheMerovingian
Wanna know what is strange? Okay so when my computer goes on standby (just the box not the monitor or other things out side the case) It draws 9W. Okay, no biggie right? BUT when I shut it down, it draws 7W. When I turn off the PSU in the back, it draws 0W. WTF? Strange.

So, the System posted in my sig gets...
(no cool and quiet turned on)
250GB IDE hard drive, Plextor 16x DVD-RW, Asus 16x DVD optical drives w/floppy in addition to the parts in my sig

140W when running basic apps like word or mozilla.
165W when Running prime95 max power test.
180W when running GTA and looking everywhere all crazy the whole time trying to get my watts up.
195W when running doing the same in GTA with the same Prime 95 test running in the background.

Vs.

140W for my lamp
140W for a sound system which costs over 5K
200W when the volume is up very loudly
45W for my 21" lcd

Yet to test...

Microwave, hair dryer, fridge. This thing is kinda fun actually. I want to test the system when both hard drives have spun down but I keep forgetting to look at the meter when this happens.

That's the +5VSB rail. The "always on" rail so to speak, used to wake up a computer (e.g. from hibernation) via keyboard, mouse, modem, etc.

In your previous post, out of curiousity is the system you got up to near 250W load the same as the one in your sig (disregarding differing CPU freq.)?

Nevertheless, nice to know while putting in perspective the amount of power a PC can use up.

EDIT: NM I think... just noticed that the video card & drives are different.

 

[Merovingian]

Originally posted by: Algere
In your previous post, out of curiousity is the system you got up to near 250W load the same as the one in your sig (disregarding differing CPU freq.)?

Nevertheless, nice to know while putting in perspective the amount of power a PC can use up.

EDIT: NM I think... just noticed that the video card & drives are different.

Cool, thanks for the info but I meant when the computer is totally turned off does it show a 7watt draw not the extra 2 watts from the +5VSB rail you mentioned unless I'm missing something.

Uhh the first system was actually a system that I'm sending to my dad with money that my mom gave me to build him a computer which I will send to them once I'm happy with how it runs.

Specs do not include the watercooling pump.

Athlon Venice 3000+@2974 w/o fan due to waterblock
7800GTX@490 (stock xfx speeds so far) w/o fan due to waterblock
74GB Raptor
400GB seagate
Audigy 4
2xNEC 3520 DVD-RW
3 papst 120mm fans for radiator
550W TruePower 2.0
MSI-Neo4 Plat SLI

I think that covers it.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Merovingian

Originally posted by: Algere
In your previous post, out of curiousity is the system you got up to near 250W load the same as the one in your sig (disregarding differing CPU freq.)?

Nevertheless, nice to know while putting in perspective the amount of power a PC can use up.

EDIT: NM I think... just noticed that the video card & drives are different.

Cool, thanks for the info but I meant when the computer is totally turned off does it show a 7watt draw not the extra 2 watts from the +5VSB rail you mentioned unless I'm missing something.

Uhh the first system was actually a system that I'm sending to my dad with money that my mom gave me to build him a computer which I will send to them once I'm happy with how it runs.

Specs do not include the watercooling pump.

Athlon Venice 3000+@2974 w/o fan due to waterblock
7800GTX@490 (stock xfx speeds so far) w/o fan due to waterblock
74GB Raptor
400GB seagate
Audigy 4
2xNEC 3520 DVD-RW
3 papst 120mm fans for radiator
550W TruePower 2.0
MSI-Neo4 Plat SLI

I think that covers it.

If the computer is just shutdown (not switched off from the back) the +5VSB should still be on. I personally don't know the board orientation of the Neo4 but on my system, changing jumpers from the +5VSB setting to 5V for my keyboard likely lowers the load on the +5VSB line a bit. The +5VSB may also be responsible for powering your case's on/off power button.


Not sure if you're asking/wondering why there's a 7W draw instead of a 5W draw but if you are...

7W AC >==[PSU]==> 5W DC (~71% AC/DC efficiency if it's a 1A load)

 

[Merovingian]

OKay, interesting.

 

[rise]

you guys who have the tpII, do you have a mobo header you can hook the fan monitoring wire up to in order to see what your rpms are?

i know where mine are--

max ever 1100 (brutally hot day no ac)
load ~ 950
idle/boot ~ 800

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: rise4310
you guys who have the tpII, do you have a mobo header you can hook the fan monitoring wire up to in order to see what your rpms are?

Interesting question because my A8N-SLI Premium board does, indeed, have a fan header marked PSU. I do have my TPII rpm sensor connected there, but I do not get a readout of the PSU fan's velocity anywhere -- Probe, nVidia Monitor, Lavalys Everest, or MBM 5. That mystifies me because, clearly, that header is not for supplying power but only for monitoring, and yet it doesn't monitor. If it's not for providing the user with data about the PSU fan, I'd love to understand the rationale for marking it "PSU."

What board do you have that does give you readouts for the PSU fan?

Ron

 

[rise]

that is very strange. i have the dfi sli-dr and the fan header is actually a 3 pin.

i used to use it for my case fan but now i just use it to monitor the psu rpm. dfi likes as few fans powered off the board as possible :roll: not that it makes much difference, i had all 5 populated at one time, just CYA stuff i guess.

you'd think yours would read somewhere.... i wonder if it shows in bios anyway?

 

[milleron]

Not in the BIOS. I, also, have five fan headers. The only ones that show anywhere, though, are the CPU and one labeled CHA1. I think that all fan headers have three pins, but that doesn't mean that they're necessarily capable of rpm reporting.

Ron

 

[rise]

i forgot, i have 5 headers too but can only read 3- the chasis (which i use for psu), the cpu and the chipset. the other 2 only power them.

 

[milleron]

Right.
I'd still like to know why Asus would label a header "PSU" when it's not capable of monitoring -- i.e., why have it at all if it can't monitor. It certainly doesn't make sense to have it send power back to a fan that's powered inside the PSU, itself. It's so nonsensical that I'm wondering if there might be a way to use it for monitoring that I haven't discovered yet. I might try installing Speed Fan to see if that uncovers some functionality for this header that's not accessible by the other monitoring programs.

Could it be that this header actually feeds motherboard temps to the chip in the TPII that controls voltage to the "fans-only" molex connectors? Seems very highly unlikely, but I'm trying to make sense out of nonsense, here, and grasping at straws.

Ron

 

[rise]

naw, the fan only molexs are contolled by the temp sensor in the psu, not the mobo.

that does make absolutely no sense though. like you said, maybe speed fan or mbm5 or everest will show something.

 

[milleron]

already tried both MBM 5 and Everest. No joy. I posted the question on alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus. I'll leave the answer here if I get one there.

Ron

 

[rise]

yeah, post when you can get some info on it. i wonder if anyone in the mobo section could help you out with that, just for your sanity

 

[milleron]

It turns out that some of the connections from some of the fan headers had to be pirated to make the game-port connector work on the A8N-SLI Premium. No one can get an rpm reading from the header marked PWR_FAN, so, ironically, the PWR_FAN header is appropriate for any fan EXCEPT the PSU. All the PSU fan needs is monitoring. All the PWR_FAN header provides is current. How stupid!

 

[rise]

lmao, sorry, thats funny though. how do they manage to let that fly. jeesh, thats like the 3rd revision of that board, no?

well, thanks for looking into it anyway. i guess the only way you could get it to read is if you had an extension.

 

[lordsaytor]

Originally posted by: rise4310
i jusy got the tpII 550 and i'm liking it. quiet and the rails are dead on. the 12 never leaves 11.99/11.98 on a multi, oc'd mildy, idle or under load.

I have a question. Is it really worth getting the version of TP II that has the goldplated connectors? Well it's only 8 bucks more.

 

[rise]

i didn't know that was an option. the only difference i've seen on the tpII line are the 120mm single fan or the 2x80mm fans.

tpII 550
tpII 550 eps (2x80mm fans)

 

[lambchops3344]

eps is ment for server work or something like that... i talked to someone at antec and they said get the othero one or the truecontrol