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Crow is hard to chew, and I have a PS Question.

Texun

Texun

Platinum Member
Okay, I give in. I "thought" my 500W PSU was okay for my XP1700, 768DDR, GF4-4200 card, etc. It is a boxed CompUSA PS that has great specs, but after adding the GF4 card I started getting 3.3v alarms. I swapped the 350W out of my P4 system and although the 3.3 is a little low (3.15v) it is at least flat and I have come to the conclusion that the CompUSA unit is the problem.

The question is: Would the ANTEC 430 Truepower be safe?




 
Thanks!

I am surprised at how quiet the 430 is. Very happy with it so far but I am cautious about the MB. This is the third PS in 10 months. Started with an Enlight 340, then the Comp boxed 500 and now the Antec 430 - and all had a 3.3 problem on this board after a few months.

 
You could even get buy running that system on a Quality 300W (30A on +5V) so the Antec 430W will be plenty. Funny that your 500W was not enough though!...whats the outputs on that, +5V in particular.

Corm.

p.s: What the hell is up with a 300W giving only 20A!....cheeky or what!
 
TheCorm

Here's the scoop...

Enlight 340W
+5v @ 30A
+12 @ 15A
+3.3 @ 28A

Swapped due to a low 3.3 reading after 3 months

CompUSA 500W PS and why I went with it over the Antec the first time. Remember that I was seeing a problem with the 3.3v while all others were fine. I figured the Enlight was weak or screwed up from the factory and the Comp PS with even more on the +3.3v side would be plenty.... as long as the current draw was not shared. However, that was never mentioned.

+5 @ 40A
+12 @ 16A
+3.3 @ 30A

Antec Truepower 430 - Current PS
+5 @ 36A
+12 @ 20A
+3.3 @ 28A

According to what I read about the Antec, the achillies heel may have been the 12v all along if their claim is correct that most PS's have one output (shared) that is stepped down to the target voltage rails of +3.3, +5, +12, etc. As I understand now, if the demand on the +12v rail becomes too great the lowest rail would starve, misleading me to belive the 3.3v rail from the PS had failed again.

Antec claims to have dedicated outputs for each lead. Makes perfect sense to me but I was surprised to learn that this is somewhat rare for power supplies.

I could be wrong but at $200 in PS's so far, I hope I have a better understanding of this lesson I've learned. Numbers are almost worthless; more marketing hype than anything. I still have the Comp PS and I can RMA it and wait weeks for the swap, but why? If the design is as Antec states then why on earth would I want another one? Not a chance.

I learn something new every day with these D$&@ things.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.
R
 
Could it be a problem with the motherboard's power regulators?
Are you using Motherboard Monitor to get your numbers? I'm just noticing now that Motherboard Monitor is saying that my 3.3v line is 1.52v...kind of think that something's wrong with it.😕
 
Jeff7
Could it be a problem with the motherboard's power regulators?
Click to expand...
This was and still is my thought on the deal. I am using PC Alert which came with the MSI board. I can't speak for the total accuracy of the software but I did have MBM loaded once and the values were a perfect match. Also... the readings with PC Alert were the same for a few months before they took a dive which resulted in a PS swap.

The BIOS shows similar readings but not exactly the same. I attribute this to the lack of load on the video card while in the BIOS screen. I could be grasping at straws but overall I am very cautious about the current draw from this board.

I wish I could find a thread about this same problem... with the solution. What I see most of the time are replies saying the user should get a better PS, and I can accept that in some cases, but after THREE of them??? The Enlight was no slouch. Not as good as many others but still not bottom of the pile either.

The kicker here is that each PS worked perfectly for a number of months, leaving me to think something is stressing the PS to an early grave.

 
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