X-Connect 500W Modular PSU 126
VL writes "Sure, power supply reviews aren't all that interesting, but we take a look at one nice PSU that delivers power where it counts, and best of all, it is the best modular setup we've seen in this market segment."
Re:Just another reason... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just another reason... (Score:2)
Eventually I got sick of all this crap and when I upgraded to a new motherboard and an
Re:Just another reason... (Score:2)
I don't think this is antec's problem. Unless you had a low power cpu and vid card and the other components were all very low draw, your pulling a bit much for a 350w there. Of course it's possible you should have had enough power, without knowing the draw of the components it's hard to say.
Also you can create problems by drawing too
Re:Just another reason... (Score:2)
yet SPAM hits us again (Score:4, Insightful)
so, come on, what's the deal?
* Posted by CmdrTaco
* by VL, viperlair, the company selling these PSU's
NEWS for Nerds or STUFF for Nerds? If I need stuff for nerds I go to my local PC supplier or I go to thinkgeek but this is a lil bit over the top not ?
Re:yet SPAM hits us again (Score:2)
The article seems to be fully loaded on the background now and yet it contains a review
Re:yet SPAM hits us again (Score:1)
It's a very interesting PSU design. Big deal for me (including a lot of other people too), sorry.
Almost every single hardware review website I know is also an on-line hardware supplier.
/. should stop linking to hardware review websites or start ignoring their submissions?
So
Re:yet SPAM hits us again (Score:3, Insightful)
No...
or start ignoring their submissions?
Yes, if they link to themselves. That's called journalistic integrity.
"Journalistic integrity" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:yet SPAM hits us again (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it really?, the summary makes it very clear that the person submitting the story is from the site that's linked.
If they had tried to pretend otherwise, then there might me integrity issues.
And as mentioned elsewhere - slashdot is not a newspaper. It is a web site where they post links that people have sent them if they find them interesting. There is no journalism, there are no editors, it is not a news source, it is a bunch
Re:yet SPAM hits us again (Score:2, Informative)
noise (Score:4, Interesting)
I was kinda psyched a while back when I replaced my old power supplies on two boxes w/ 400 watters. (the biggest i had heard of at the time). Stupidly, I failed to realize how much louder the new power supplies were. I don't know how many dbs exactly, though they verge on annoying.
Re:noise (Score:1)
Re:noise (Score:3, Informative)
Weakest sound audible by ear: 0db
Normal conversation: 60db
Ringing Telephone: 80db
Belt Sander: 90db
Chain Saw: 110db
Jet taking off: 140db
Rocket Launch: 180db
Loudest possible tone the ear can process without drum imploding instantaneously: 194 db
Re:noise (Score:2, Funny)
Re:noise (Score:2)
Re:noise (Score:4, Interesting)
As to the noise, I've recently upgraded a couple of my systems and while I was prepping them I just left the PSU cables loose in the case. Once everything was done I tied them all up nice and neat and tucked away the unused PSU cables out of the airflow. The idling temperature of the AMD CPU dropped a full two degrees C with this simple change, but more importantly the case and CPU fan dropped by nearly 500 RPMs apiece. I know airflow matters, but not being a serious modder I had know idea it could be that much!
Re:Antec did theirs first (Score:2)
If a connector on this breaks, you can always replace it. If you break a cable or connector on a non-modular PSU, either you fix it with some solder and electric tape, or live without the connector. Spending a few bucks for a new connector pales in comparison of paying up to $100+ b
Re:noise (Score:2)
Modular cabling is nice, but it can also be another point of failure. The substandard molex-knockoffs on most power supplies leave much to be desired.
They say aesthetics is important, but that's like saying a car's engine must look nice when going down the road. Chroming a power supply case is pointless unless you want one of those we
Re:noise (Score:2)
No shit. You get twice the contact resistance, and that could be significant considering the humongous currents that are flowing in today's PCs.
Here's a personal story: around '97 or so, I had trouble with my PC. Unexplained crashes, lock-ups, etc. It was a pretty decked out system. Pentium 233 MMX, 128 megs of EDO RAM, 3 SCSI hard drives, a CD-ROM, a CD-R drive, a heavily overclocked Voodoo 1, SCSI controller, two sound cards, etc. Al
what I'd like to see (Score:3, Insightful)
(what I'd really like to see is a departure from the ATX connector on the Shuttles, moving to something smaller with less wires and higher amperage rated connections, but that's beside the point.)
Rolandpiquepaille-ism (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rolandpiquepaille-ism (Score:1)
No, not one of them did work, anyone have any better luck?
(By the way, when it comes to PSU's, Go Enermax!)
Yes, (Score:2, Funny)
Nerd: I need an outlet for my rock tumbler.
Bart & Lisa: Plug it in! Plug it in!
Nerd: What, the rock tumbler or the TV?
Bart & Lisa: The TV! The TV!
how reliable/quiet is it (Score:1, Insightful)
can it deliver 500W for years and years ?, how reliable/quiet are the fans ? easy to replace (why cant they make them with passive heatsinking and using a modern switching PSU ? eg like some prosound amps do (instead of having a bulky/hot copper wound transformers))
if these companies looked at technology further than flashing neons they would see they could make some real power supply development progress, until then they are still just ugly metal boxes with minor variations on a 70yr design but now desig
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:3, Funny)
Yes I'll second that, my 70 year old IBM still works like a champ...
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:1)
Oh, heck no. Look at the specs: 70% efficiency.
The guy above is right: spam hawking a 350w supply.
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:1)
The guy above is right: spam hawking a 350w supply.
70% efficiency means you lose 30% of the power between the wall outlet and your DC power. It's wasted in ramping down to the voltages your PC can use. It does not mean you only get 70% of the rating.
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:2)
There are decent silent PSUs, though, their fans typically aren't louder than ~18 to 22 db at their maximum speed. Coupled with perhabs a silent case fan and a silent CPU HSF a mid-range system doesn't ha
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:1)
Re:how reliable/quiet is it (Score:1)
(100,000/24)/365 = 11.4 years
That's at full load, so most likely you'll get quite a bit longer. Even so, you will have long given up on your PC by 2015.
Re:PSU Breaks. (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, most people I know buy way too powerful PSUs. 350W really gets you a long way - as I'm writing this, my 350W hec PSU powers a GF4 Ti4200, an XP 1800+, three hard drives and one optical drive. I'm fairly certain there's still room for more, I think a 300W PSU would be sufficient for this system. I'm curious whether it'd break if I installed a cutting edge graphics card which at some point were claimed to require a 450W PSU.
Buying a PSU that is too powerful for your system isn't a big deal, though. PSUs run most efficient when they're being used close to their maximum rating, but I don't think the efficiency difference is that great. So you can't go wrong if you buy a 400W PSU - you'll just spend more than you have to, for one thing.
Re:PSU Breaks. (Score:1)
I have one more thing to put on to this machine. 3Dfx Vo
Re:PSU Breaks. (Score:1)
I guess it's because of this experience that I have serious doubts about the benefits of these ridiculous 500 watt PSU's. I've yet to see anyone reliably demonstrate that they actually NEED more than 350 watts on a top-end enthusiast syste
Re:PSU Breaks. (Score:2)
It amazes me how many people will go to great lengths to spec out a system, and then thrown in any old power supply.
Clean power drives your system. Clean power increases stability, decreases failures. Most importantly, if a cheap power supply fails, it can destroy every other bit of computer equipment in that case.
I try to buy somewhat expensive, name-brand power supplies, and hook them up to a UPS.
About time. (Score:2)
Re:Disturbing trend (Score:2)
So, if your only problem then is with the aesthetics, sanding off the shiny finish can solve the problem.
I would buy this PSU, if only for the modular cabling
First Fark and now Slashdot (Score:2)
Don' (Score:3, Insightful)
The article says, "There isn't such a thing as too much power though..."
This article has no place on Slashdot. It is written by someone with no knowledge who quite likely was paid to say such things.
Re:Don' (Score:4, Insightful)
user: I have a problem with my hardware....
idiot: how big is your psu?
user: 300W
idiot: NOT ENOUGH. GET MORE. OF COURSE your system is unstable with only 300W...
A 3.6GHZ Prescott with a NV40 and 2 GB ram draws about 220W from your PSU. So NOBODY needs a 500W PSU for a single cpu system, even if he has 10 discs or so.
In fact some of the "bigger" psus have so little rating on their 12V lines that downgrading can help. My old 420W psu wouldnt boot with 8 drives, only with 6. My new 350W has no problems whatever...
Re:Don' (Score:2)
You do make an excellent point about inflated power ratings though. The last time I saw a true torture test (this wasn't one), there were a few PSU makers that flunked out with units that smoked out at 400-something on a 500-plus rated PSU.
Re:Don' (Score:2)
Well, when we stuck one in, the computer wouldn't power on, remove it, it powered on fine
Re:Don' (Score:2)
Most likely the PSU was just defective, not too small. Problem is that most 250 or 300W PSU available nowadays are the cheapest crap available, so everybody thinks the 400W ones are better because of the higher rating instead of them being quality products....
Re:Don' (Score:2)
Re:Don' (Score:1)
Re:Don' (Score:2)
And not everybody with a Prescott/Geforce 6800 setting has 8 HDs.
Re:Don' (Score:1)
Re:Don' (Score:1)
The delay you speak of can be adjusted to give old drives enough time to spin up and then initialize before the BIOS declares them dead. It does not define when the drive will start its motor.
Re:Don' (Score:2)
Nope, 'fraid not. See this Atlas IV Jumper definitions [wanadoo.fr] for example. SCSI disks default to spinning up on 12V, but every one I've seen has a jumper for either delaying, or waiting for a spinup 'START UNIT' scsi command.
Re:Don' (Score:1)
Despite all the bitching... (Score:4, Insightful)
The other day when I was blowing all the dust out of my case, I saw all those unused power cords strung about all over the place and wished I could get rid of them.
Since we're getting rid of bulky ribbon cables with S-ATA, it would be nice to get rid of all that other spaghetti too.
Re:Despite all the bitching... (Score:1)
Re:Despite all the bitching... (Score:2)
That's the whole point of buying a tower or mini-tower. If I wanted a static design, I'd buy one of those tiny boxes.
Re:Despite all the bitching... (Score:1)
Re:Despite all the bitching... (Score:2)
Just buy more hardware.
Re:Despite all the bitching... (Score:1)
For tears we took the spaghetti in stride and shrugged it off as "necessary". After anyone puts some nice, new round cables to use the first time on some IDE drives, their immediate reaction is, "Wow! That's so much better!"
Yet, mysteriously, the spaghetti in power cables remains. Ick.
This PSU does a nice job of finally getting rid of that crap.
Increased cost with less reliabilty (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm hoping more devices move to SATA style power, so far it seems to have far better contact.
Re:Increased cost with less reliabilty (Score:1)
PSU reviews ARE interesting (Score:2)
We need more information than this, though. I'd love to see some reviews that actually go a step further and actually measures the maximum output of the PSU to prove it's actually capable of the stats on the side of the damn box without melting dow
Re:PSU reviews ARE interesting (Score:1)
And then he makes a big deal about a hundredth of a volt difference in output voltage while not even bothering to measure the output current? And a big two hundredths of a volt on the 12V rail while running heavy CPU load? What exactly does he think the 12V rail powers?
Re:PSU reviews ARE interesting (Score:2)
They built a test rig to load test the psu (variable draws and such so as to draw power more evenly across the rails and such) and tested several brands. One brand caught fire well below the wattage on the box or on the included spec sheet. But a few brands did really well, one got significantly above it's rated power be
lame - why is this up? (Score:1, Troll)
Ars Technica or Hard OCP story. News please..
Some heavy duty testing there... (Score:3, Interesting)
The modular connections looked like something I might want though.
except no mention of things that really count (Score:5, Informative)
Each connector provides additional resistance in the circuit leading to voltage sags and heat build up in the connectors.
I'd be more interested if this PSU offered high efficiency and Active PFC. (Active PFC opens the way for more efficient PSU designs). Current PSUs offer an electrical efficiency of about 68% - on a high-end system, the PSU could be pumping out over 100 W of heat itself, making it even more of a space heater than the CPU - and requiring substantial fans too.
Modern industrial SMPSs can achieve electrical efficiencies which are much higher. I've seen telecoms grade 400W PSUs claim efficiency of over 95% - so the technology exists to mass produce these things today.
Also, this review made no mention of protection systems:
Incredibly, the safety features listed above, are not standard on all PC PSUs - only a very few offer crowbar protection.
Re:except no mention of things that really count (Score:1)
From the bottom of the first page:
Re:except no mention of things that really count (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:except no mention of things that really count (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been a big fan of Elan Vital's power supplies [evpower.com.tw] for a long time (also available under an american distributor for direct purchase -- see the AMS Mercury EVR-4607 [directron.com] if you want a gorgeous redundant power supply for ATX cases).
They have active PFC, high efficiencies, good clean power, lots of fans, not terribly loud, and very large connectors internally (low resistance, go
Unused cables? (Score:2)
I always have a shortage of cables, need to use splitter cables to connect everything.
IMHO, the extra connectors at the PSU side are a waste of space, series resistance, and reliability.
Reviewer needs to learn to cable! (Score:1)
Weak (Score:1)
Now, here's what we *really* need.... (Score:2)
A power supply with a built-in battery, or at least hookups to attack a battery.
Really. It would be so much better than a UPS. With a UPS, you convert 120V->12/24/48V (depending on model), then back to 120V, then your PS converts it back down to 12V yet again. You pay for all of the switching and conversion twice, lose efficiency in all of the conversions, have more parts to fail, and rely on the UPS to switch to battery quickly (which they don't always do).
With a battery in the power supp
Re:Now, here's what we *really* need.... (Score:2)
That would include 12v. The battery voltage is too uncertain to use as 12v supply for the computer.
So, while running on battery the efficiency would be better (only the second converter would be running), but when running on the mains it would be worse. It would be like an online UPS.
With an offline UPS (the one that switches over when the power fails), the efficiency would be better during powered mode.
The
Basically... (Score:2, Interesting)
Similar functionaliy in Antec's NEOPOWER line (Score:2, Informative)
I believe this company is offering the same sort of cable modularity as in the Antec NEOPOWER line (looks rather new):
http://www.antec.com/us/pro_details_powerSupply.ph p?ProdID=24480 [antec.com]
The Antec version appears to have some interesting features, not the least of which is the fully open-back grill on the back of the unit. The dark brushing alumnium/steel finish is rather cool too. However, the Antec product does not offer the same sort of sleeved cables as the one in the originaly article. They are,
Neopower is QUIET!! (Score:1)
Re:Neopower is QUIET!! (Score:1)
EMI from DC power cables??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:EMI from DC power cables??? (Score:2)
The short answer is it depends on the load.
A good regulated power supply will provide well regulated filtered (low ripple, low noise) power to the load. So far it sounds like not a sorce of noise. Now add a load that (extreme example) feeds a switching power supply (CPU regulator for example) that has some failed input filtering. The chopped (by the regulator in switch mode) current has no filtering until it reaches the filtering in the output of the power supply. So in
What is this crap? (Score:1)
Bzzzzzt!
Total bullsh**. No power supply would reduce voltages "if you do not need all the available power". What decreases is the total power output, but that is determined by the amount of current being drawn on each line (power is equal to the product of voltage and current) rather than the power supply itself. The voltage outputs are always regulated as closely
What about this is 'modular'? (Score:1)
Maybe I am missing something, but then again i did read the article and it didn't say anything about it. The issue of 'excess cables hanging in the case' has never been an issue for me as I always clean up my installs wit
I have one of these... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, it's not a brand new Lexus... (Score:2)
But it certainly is shiny [suck.com]! Time will tell if it is truly useful.
Too many cables? (Score:1)
Power Supply: This isn't the first of its kind (Score:1)
Re:A better review -- GOATSE.CX ALERT (Score:1)
Re:How much did it cost for this article then? (Score:2)
BTW, I think the reason the 3.3V line "sags" during their test (it's still in spec; 3.16V is within 5% of 3.3 [4.24% for those who care]) is because there's no load on it. What uses 3.3V these days?