Exclusive: Antec Signature 850W
by Christoph Katzer on May 7, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Fan Speed and Acoustics
Even though we are writing 17dB(A) at loads of 10% and 20% the fan is simply not audible and the 17dB(A) is the limit of our test equipment. If you lean close to the fan, even putting your ear next to it, you will only hear a low ticking noise. To compare the fan speed vs. acoustic noise with other units, we can see the Nidec fan is doing an excellent job. At higher speeds of 1500RPM there is only a small amount acoustic noise - up to 21dB(A). We have heard other fans that are clearly audible at this point even with lower rotational speeds.
Owner of Antec's Signature power supplies will appreciate a very quiet environment up to a power draw of 600W. The fan starts spinning faster and quickly reaches ~3000RPM and a noise level of 30dB(A) onwards, which is of course clearly audible and as annoying as all other power supplies at this level. With an ambient temperature of 50°C the fan can spin at up to 4600RPM and produce 40dB(A), reminding us of the old PC Power & Cooling power supplies.
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PeteRoy - Monday, May 12, 2008 - link
Power supplies might be a very critical component in the system but they are also the most boring component.I thought power supplies reviews are only found in unpopular computer websites.
hansmuff - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
"Looking at performance, we saw voltage drops on the lower voltage rails as well as on the 12V rails. All of the rails perform well within specs but a drop of up to 5% is not small.""The Signature series definitely left its mark today with very good performance"
Huh? If I dish out that much money for a power supply, I will not even consider one that drops 5%. And how can that be called "very good performance"?
This PSU has some good characteristics, but my take-away from your review is "don't bother with this until (1) the voltage drop problem is verified to be fixed and (2) it drops not voltages, but $100 off it's price".
mindless1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
There is no reason to reject a power supply for 5% drop. Specs exist for a reason, that the powered components MUST also perform properly within the spec.What do you feel you gain with a PSU that has a hypothetically perfect 0% drop? Absolutely nothing. The drop is even less significant today with fewer and fewer parts directly powered by 12, 5, or 3.3V rails. Instead most now have buck conversion inbetween that can accept far more than 10%, letalone 5% deviation.
I do agree the price is a little excessive, although if someone is spending enough to actually need a PSU best at 400W+ output level, they have spent quite a lot on the rest of their system as well. Many overclocked non-SLI gaming systems stay far below 300W consumption.
deathwalker - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
This review certainly goes against the tide when it come to my experience with Antec over the last 10 yrs. My experience has led me to the feeling that when I bought a Antec product the results was generally that it was overpriced and it under performed.mongoosesRawesome - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
This seems completely overkill except for maybe triple SLI setups - which are also overkill.A good 500W PSU or even less should be plenty even for even mid/high end setups.
Efficiency is all well and good, but if people end up buying large PSU's which aren't efficient at the lower wattage's it's all just for show.
eetnoyer - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
power supply reviews for less than 5% of people who will ever need them (eg. care)? I would venture to guess that the number of users that are in the market to build a nice HTPC and are looking for a quiet low output power supply is greater than the number of ubersuperultramaxgodofgear power supply users.MrOblivious - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
Because no one cares. Seriously. It is the same reason why you see people looking at, reviewing, and talking about a Porsche when less than 5% of people will buy one. People don't read about random run of the mill power supplies so it makes no sense to produce reviews people won't read for the website or the brands themselves. Sorry.strikeback03 - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
People might read about the Porsche for fun, but they check Consumer Reports when they are trying to decide between an Accord and a Taurus. In this case I'd guess even fewer people care about the high-end power supply than the high-end car - a power supply isn't that exciting until it powers something else you have.The bigger reason is that the companies that send power supplies for review tend to send their biggest and "best".
MrOblivious - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
Those assumptions would be incorrect. I literally have companies begging me to take lower powered products in for review all the time and from the page counts people DO NOT read the lower powered offerings. It really is quite simple.strikeback03 - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
Well, I suppose Johan could be lying when he states that the companies only prefer to send him big units. And I suppose the companies could be sending people to the comments here to ask in every review of big power supplies for reviews of smaller units.