Rival to Antec 550W?

[NovaShine]

Here in HK, there's a very popular brand called MaxPower that makes power supply, under the brand 2theMax. It's onsidered one of the authorities here in HK on PSUs. Im actually using one of them now. The HE-370, rated at 440W, here are the ratings:

+5V - 37A
+3.3V - 26A
+12V - 16A
-5V - 0.8A
-12V - 1.0A
5VSB - 2.5A

It's powering the system in my sig right now. With rock solid voltage rails. The weakest rail is the 12v rail, which comes in at 11.85v at the lowest and u can see how many 12v devices it powers anyway.

Anyway, what's interesting is that MaxPower also makes a model that seems to completely crush the Antec 550W PSU, the HE-520 Pro III. It dosnt come cheap either, it's listed as HK$850 (US$107.69) with the Antec at US$104 on newegg.

http://www1.2themax.com/images/products/maxpower/thumb/he-proiii_small.jpg

It's rated in at 520W and here are the rail specs:

+5V - 52A
+3.3V - 26A
+12V - 28A
-5V - 0.8A
-12V - 1.0A
5VSB - 2.5A

+5v rail and +3.3v rail add up to 345.8W

http://www.antec-inc.com/images/400/package/TrueControl_550.jpg

As opposed to the antec one for 550W:

+5V - 40A
+3.3V - 32A
+12V - 24A
-5V - 0.5A
-12V - 1.0A
5VSB - 2A

+5v rail and +3.3v rail add up to 305.6W

The 12v rail on the MaxPower PSU gives 4A more than the Antec, but what the MaxPower loses out on is the 3.3v rail, which comes in 6A lower than the Antec, but it completely whoops the Antec on the 5v rail, besting it by 12A.

The MaxPower has Voltage protection, 3 fans (80mms), 2 S-ATA connections, 8 molex connectors, 2 floppy connectors and a temp sensor. And that's about all i got on the site. here if anyone wants to check (http://www1.2themax.com/products/maxpower/index.asp). It's in Chinese though.

See if you guys can e-mail them for a review.

Edit: Found more on it, clicked the link in :D

http://www1.2themax.com/products/maxpower/HE520PROIII.asp

Here's a bit from it. 70% efficiency minimum (Antec 68%) at full load operates at 0 to 50 celcius (Antec 10 to 50 celcius) and a hold up time of 16.6ms (> or equal to 17ms for Antec) at nominal line under full load conditions. Didnt get much else other than that. But lookin good to me ;)

[Steven4563]

"+5V - 37A
+3.3V - 26A
+12V - 16A
-5V - 0.8A
-12V - 1.0A
5VSB - 2.5A"

they are nearly the same ratings as my FSP 350watt id go for the antec

[L337 M33P]

Stick a couple of fat resistors on each of the voltage lines for both PSUs, to put the current draw up to the rated maximum. I bet that 520W will have saggy voltages, while the Antec will be rock solid :)

Ratings mean nothing, unless they are from a very reliable brand who can produce test results showing that their PSUs do not explode when stressed. They are values put on by the manufacturers. What actually matters is the beefiness of the components inside, how accurate the control circuitry is etc. I'd take the antec any day, unless you got pics of the interior :)

[NovaShine]

Originally posted by Steven4563
"+5V - 37A
+3.3V - 26A
+12V - 16A
-5V - 0.8A
-12V - 1.0A
5VSB - 2.5A"

they are nearly the same ratings as my FSP 350watt id go for the antec

That's the rating for my 440W that i use...

This brand isnt exactly international, it does South East asia. It's a leading brand, it's either this, or GTR. Both are pretty respectable over here.

The problems is, most of the materials i have on it is in Chinese, so i cant exactly show it here and my translation skills arent exactly 1337.

Just have a look at that thing powering my system. It stands up to some good G Card OCing as well as CPU OCing as well as running everything else. I doubt a 350W can pull that off...

Second Raptor is comming in tomorrow, so after that, it would be Raptors in Raid 0. Another big power guzzler. The voltage rails are all spot on and hardly go beyond 5% either way so i would say it's a pretty reliable brand.

[flapperhead]

i wonder if its a heroichi?

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Last I heard, Maxpower was Key Mouse made - my general impressions are they're so-so units at best, and not Antec or Fortron level.