400-450W PSU Roundup
by Christoph Katzer on November 6, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Antec PFC, Temperature, Fan Speed, and Acoustics
The heatsinks get far hotter than we have seen from similar models. The best comparison is the relation between the heatsink temperature and the exhaust temperature. The fan seems to be removing very little heat, since the temperature stays at an average level of 35°C at room temperature and 45°C in the heat chamber. The heatsink temperature is up to twice as hot at the exhausted temperature, clearly indicating the flaws with thermal management.
The installed 80mm fan wasn't the best idea, as we can clearly see from the temperature and fan speed results. A fan running at almost 3000 RPM should be enough to cool a moderate power supply like the 430W Earthwatts. The heatsinks simply are not getting enough cooling, and it all goes back to the overall design. The design of the heatsinks works best with a 120mm fan blowing directly at them. Antec chose to use an 80mm fan that moves air through the power supply in a very different fashion. The heatsinks do not get enough airflow, which means they can't dissipate heat, and they end up getting hot. It might be possible to design an effective cooling arrangement using an 80mm exhaust fan, but that would definitely require different heatsinks. Not surprisingly, the fan isn't particularly quiet either, especially in light of the low power output. We've seen much noisier PSUs, but those are often providing two or even three times as much power. At loads of around 430W, many PSUs are significantly quieter.
The heatsinks get far hotter than we have seen from similar models. The best comparison is the relation between the heatsink temperature and the exhaust temperature. The fan seems to be removing very little heat, since the temperature stays at an average level of 35°C at room temperature and 45°C in the heat chamber. The heatsink temperature is up to twice as hot at the exhausted temperature, clearly indicating the flaws with thermal management.
The installed 80mm fan wasn't the best idea, as we can clearly see from the temperature and fan speed results. A fan running at almost 3000 RPM should be enough to cool a moderate power supply like the 430W Earthwatts. The heatsinks simply are not getting enough cooling, and it all goes back to the overall design. The design of the heatsinks works best with a 120mm fan blowing directly at them. Antec chose to use an 80mm fan that moves air through the power supply in a very different fashion. The heatsinks do not get enough airflow, which means they can't dissipate heat, and they end up getting hot. It might be possible to design an effective cooling arrangement using an 80mm exhaust fan, but that would definitely require different heatsinks. Not surprisingly, the fan isn't particularly quiet either, especially in light of the low power output. We've seen much noisier PSUs, but those are often providing two or even three times as much power. At loads of around 430W, many PSUs are significantly quieter.
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Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Yup and before the use of very bulky heatsinks made the power supplies heavier. Today the components are better and the heatsinks are getting smaller again (Seasonic and FSP standard design for example).Pale Rider - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
It's easily the best of the "lower" power choices.JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
We already reviewed the Seasonic 330W and 500W, and given that Seasonic is the ODM of the Corsair and Antec units... except while Corsair is basically identical to the Seasonic model, Antec messed around with the fan to cut costs or something. 430W S12II and 450VX are pretty much the same PSU.Modular - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Page 2: "360W combined equates to 15A when both are "fully" loaded."-Should read 30A fully loaded.
Page 5: "The original design used two 17A 12V rails (as does the Earthwatts)"
-Per this review http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51&...">http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51&... the Earthwatts line isn't really 2 12v rails either. No biggie, but just wanted to clarify.
The Ultra is listed as a V-Series when it's actually the XVS, which is basically a step above the V-Series in that it has the flex cables and is modular.
Overall this was a pretty informative review. I'm glad that you included heat sink temps and fan noise, and it's really good to see the ripple included.
drebo - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
In the retail computer sales business, I don't consider a $60 430W power supply to be a "Budget" power supply. That's more of a midrange, and is generally overkill for most of the computers sold. Even the Ultra is too expensive to bother with for most of my customers.I'd like to see a true budget roundup. Powersupplies in the $20-30 range. Like those from Athenatech or Maxtop(Q-Max) or even the lower-end Thermaltakes. I realize that they're going to be pretty crappy results, but I think it's important to see, comparitively, how they do. If it were up to me, all of my customers would be using Antec EarthWatts power supplies, but they don't understand why the extra money is necessary. With information like this, it would be far easier to convince them to spend the extra $20.
magreen - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
I second that call for lower cost PSU roundups. I was under the impression that FSP makes decent enough PSUs. Can you include reviews of their 350W, 400W and 450W models? They won't have active PFC, but let's be honest, most users don't care at all about that.Iger - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
+1 actually. I'd really like to understand what kind of performance can one expect from a low-end psu. Then again, Ultra probably answers the question, at least vaguely. I just wish we'd have a bigger choise of psus in europe... And better prices <sigh>Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
No choice in Europe? Which country are you living in? Most shops are sending the stuff all around Europe already and you'll probably find even more in Ebay.The problem with a low end PSU roundup is that I am living in Europe as well and it will not be easy to convince a company to send me their stuff when the shipping is triple the cost of the actual product. But let us find a way and in the beginning of next year we will see what we can do...
xsilver - Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - link
Also, has it been investigated whether there are differences between varying PSU's coming off the assembly line?I would like to think that the high end manufacturers could produce identical products but Im not so sure the QC of the cheapo PSU's will give u the same PSU every time. eg. some cheap psu's seem to live on through torrid abuse and yet some just die only after 1 month of use.
Super Nade - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Hi,Why did you guys cut down on the internal component analysis? Hate to see a single picture and a few cursory words about the internal architecture. Load testing aside, I find everything else a bit boring. You had a nice thing going looking at the components, why cull it? If you decided to shorten the reviews, you could have trimmed the part about acoustics. ;)
Regards,
Super Nade
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