Hot? - Antec Neo HE 430 for $60

[Rockhound1]

Fry's has the Antec Neo HE 430 Watt PSU on sale for $60 (no rebates required). I have been struggling with possibly replacing my Antec SP 400 watt PSU with something quieter and more efficient. I have been watching the Seasonic S-12 500 Watt PSU (since it has a PCI-E graphics connector for future upgrades), but have not pulled the trigger yet because I hate to spend $125+ on a PSU when the one I have is working fine. But it would be nice to not hear the roar of the PSU while working and playing on the computer. My specs are listed below:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (939 Venice)
Asus A8N-E
1 gig RAM
2 hard drives
2 optical drives
PCI-E 6600GT video
2 80-mm case fans

I know that the Neo HE has not played well with Asus motherboards in the past, but Antec's Web site says they have addressed those issues. Also, the spec on the PSU call for a minimum of one amp per 12 volt rail. Does my rig draw anough amps to make this PSU work?

I like the modular design, fully sleeved cables, and quiet operation, but I am not sure if it will work properly with my system. Tell me if this is a hot deal and if I should jump on it.

Thanks.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

I bought one two days ago at Fry's. It is pretty quiet. It has one PCI-E connector, and evidently you can buy additional ones. Seems to be working fine with my Asus A8R32-MVP, A64 3700+, X800XL AIW, 2GB, 3 HDD's, 2 optical drives, 2 80mm case fans... I played HL2 for 6 hours last night and didn't encounter any problems, although I wasn't exactly monitoring the voltages or anything. Haven't tried overclocking with it yet.

It has 3 12V rails, one of which is only used for the motherboard CPU connectors, and the other two are split among the modular connectors. I just split up the hard drive connector and my optical drive connector on the far ends of the connection block, where they will be on different 12V rails.

I think this is a "pretty good" deal for someone looking for a solid PSU without spending in the $100 range. Maybe not quite "hot" (like the 430W TruePower drives that were cleared out at Office Depot a couple of weeks ago for $25) but about as good as you could hope for.

 

[Rockhound1]

Thanks for the reply Slashinslashbash.

Any other opinions out there?

 

[Rockhound1]

Well, it looks like a lot of folks have loked at this post, but have not been able to tell me if this power supply will would work for me. I like the idea of a quiet and efficient power supply at half the cost of the Seasonic S-12 500 Watt (or Enermax Liberty for that matter). It looks like I may be taking a trip to the local Fry's to pick one of these up and give it a try. I probably will not go until later today or tomorrow. If they are sold out, then I will likely continue to wait. Maybe when the new Seasonics come out, the S-12 models will come down in price.

 

[IEC]

Antecs are solid and fairly quiet. Go for it.

Writing this on my rig powered by a 430W TruePower that's been going 4 years strong now.

 

[jhansman]

My only experience was with this PSU and my Asus A8N-VM CSM mobo. It would not consistently boot my system, and then crapped out all together. Returned it and replaced with a SmartPower 400 and all is well. Antec may have worked the bugs out of this line, but the early ones were not compatible with some motherboards. You might want to give them a call and see what they recommend.

 

[KDKPSJ]

As jhansman mentioned, it has common issue with NF4 motherboard from ASUS. It is kinda weird that it doesn't cause issue on other brands NF4 or other mobo from ASUS. I was told Antec got rid of the problem, however, it is still controversial since some users are still having a problem (Some of them even got an RMA directly from Antec, and it still makes problem.. So, I guess it's the problem of not only Antec, but also ASUS as well)

But since only the problem is ASUS/NF4, if you are not using A8N series motherboard, you are making a right decision about buying NeoHE series. High-efficiency, modular, quite, stable, lots of juice, and so on..

 

[Rockhound1]

Actually picked up the last NeoHE at my local Fry's late this afternoon. I hope Antec has worked all the bugs out of this power supply since my motherboard IS a NF4 Asus. I will post my results once I have installed the new power supply. Right now, I am planning on putting my two hard disk drives on one 12V rail and my fans and two optical drives on the other 12V rail. Obviously, the third 12V rail will be powering the motherboard, video, memory, etc.

I will make the switch tomorrow evening after work. I will let you folks know how things work out.

 

[jmunjr]

I have on e of these that came with the P150 case, the best case I have ever used. Anyway, this PSU did indeed have stability issues with my DFI NF4 Ultra-D. Upon an RMA with Antec, the replacement arrives dented up and bent, but Antex told me I coul dbend it back and if it did not work they would send me another.

An unbent replacement with a new Revision on the UPC indeed solved my stability issues no doubt.

 

[probzy]

Not so hot.

 

[Googer]

It would say this deal is warm. $30-40 and this would be a very hot deal.

 

[Rockhound1]

Well, I did some more thinking about this PSU. I studied the outer packaging to see if there were any hints about the revision number of the PSU inside the box. Nothing. I then called Antec's tech support. They told me that there was no way to determine if this was one of the newer revisions that would work with my setup without opening the package and reading back the serial number of the PSU. I didn't really want to open the package and then hassel with returning an "open" package or RMA'ing the PSU back to Antec. I began to suspect that Fry's had marked these down in order to clear out is "old" stock. I don't understand why Antec didn't change there outer packaging to indicate the latest revision or at least add a sticker to the box. If I had been certain that this unit was compatible with my rig, I would have gladly kept it. Oh well.

In the end, I returned the NeoHE 430 (unopened package) to Fry's for a refund. I guess you could say I got cold feet. I ordered a Seasonic S-12 430 Watt PSU this evening from Case-Mod. It is the latest revision of this model and all of the cabels are fully sleeved. It cost me an extra $30 over what I had payed for the Antec. The older revisions of the S-12 model reportedly had issues with some DFI motherboards. But this is the newest revision and it should work fine with rig.

 

[Idex]

I bought one at Fry's... Version 3.1

 

[Rockhound1]

Thanks.... I think.

Is version 3.1 the latest?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Just FYI, Fry's is always super good about accepting returns, even if it's open. I returned a motherboard/CPU combo that I had installed in my computer and had some troubles with. About a week later, I bought a different motherboard for $240 at Fry's, used it for a week and bought the same board off NewEgg for $180, swapped out the boards in my machine and returned the original one to Fry's (they do check the serial numbers, so you can't just return something that you bought elsewhere). No questions asked, no restocking fee, nothing. Hell, it seems like I had returns at Fry's every week for a month when I was in the thick of my computer upgrade! I'm sure that some of the customer service guys recognize me. In the past 3 months, I've probably returned $500 worth of product at Fry's, and I've never encountered a hassle or a restocking fee.