EnerMax Or Antec?

VegetaQ · Jan 12, 2002

Hello everyone.
I come from yonder in the Cooling forums. But I got gutsy one day and thought I would venture to other portions of the website. Oh and I had a question.

No im not sure if this has ever come up before, But I need a new power supply. My 5vRail is not cutting it and its stopping me from getting the OC my 1.2 desires. So I figured I would invest in a new power supply. Now I had always thought Enermax was the way to go( they looked so nice with gold contacts. and that intake fan looks like it serves a good purpose as well) But since Ive been reading the forums Ive found some people have problems with these and prefer Antec. Another good manufactuer. So im kinda Torn.

I was looking at this Enermax
ENERMAX EG465P-VE (FM). 431W Power supply for AMD K7 & Pentium4. At newegg its only 81 Bucks

Also I have found this Antec
http://www.antec-inc.com/product/powers/pp403x.htm
Antec suggests around 100 dollars for it. But no bottom Fan.

I am open to suggestions. I just want to make sure if im spending 75-100 dollars I get the one that will give me optimal performance. Thanks!

Jon · Jan 12, 2002

Get the Sparkle 400W then. My opinion, it's better than both of them.

ButcherUK · Jan 12, 2002

Don't buy enermax, they wouldn't know how to regulate 5V sensibly if you smacked them about with a regulator.

VegetaQ · Jan 12, 2002

Wow, I just looked at the 400W sparkle on Newegg. They have every wire for every application invented! lol. Ive never heard of it though. Have you had good expearences with it?

klosters64a · Jan 12, 2002

Personally, I lean away from Enermax PS's. I only have hand's-on with PC Power&Cooling and Sparkle PS's. I wanted a 350W Turbo-Cool, or better yet a Silencer 400 from PC P&C, but want and wallet ain't always the same.

The Sparkle 350W I've had for ~1 month is working well. It's power regulation is good. It's not from the Rolls-Royce of PS maker's, but if wishes were horses...

VegetaQ · Jan 12, 2002

They sound ok too ill look into them. All im intrested in is the Best 400-450 watt power supply I can get for around 75-100 bucks. I don't want to spend like 400 bucks on one. But like i said If the diffrence is 25 bucks more for stability ill gladly spend it.

VegetaQ · Jan 12, 2002

Just a little Bump. Tiny one? I just want to be sure I don't spend a lot thats going to keep limiting my OC. Im leaning towards a sparkle right now since cost as much as Antec and Jon says its better.

DodgeViper · Jan 13, 2002

I just purchase a new SX1040 Antec case. It came with their 400w P/S. The 5v rail is solid at 5.03. If your going to spend that much money go with the SX1040, get a new case and P/S for about $27.00 more than your going to spend on a Sparkle.

Sonny · Jan 13, 2002

I'm pretty happy with my Enermax 431W. With any of the "High Quality" brands I do urge you to bring your rig to test it out if you cant do that have the store set up a similar system, mobo & CPU, for you to test it out. Use a voltmeter to monitor the voltages. Take a look at my voltages;

earthdick · Jan 13, 2002

IMHO, I used to have an Enermax pws but I always had problems with the +5v rail. I was unable to overclock my 1.2 Athlon at all. I changed it to an Antec pp412x and haven't had a problem since. The pp412x does have the adjustable pot, if you are so inclined to crank the +5v line higher than spec. Right now I am running my 1.2 at 1.33 and my +5v line is at 4.91v without adjusting the pot. It doesn't move much between 4.90 and 4.95. I had heard that Enermax fixed the +5v line problem in the newer pws, but I don't have any experience with them.

Sonny · Jan 13, 2002

earthdick said:
I had heard that Enermax fixed the +5v line problem in the newer pws, but I don't have any experience with them.

This is not the case. I have mentioned this quite often;

Enermax did not fix the "Problem". The production tolerances are ±.25V so if it tests at 4.75V it will be inside the specification.

earthdick · Jan 13, 2002

sonny said:
This is not the case. I have mentioned this quite often;

Enermax did not fix the "Problem". The production tolerances are ±.25V so if it tests at 4.75V it will be inside the specification.

I searched in the forum posts for my specs when I had the enermax psu. The results were at full load the +5v rail was between 4.41v to 4.52v. So in my case it was a problem and it was out of spec as you pointed out.

Sonny · Jan 13, 2002

earthdick said:
I searched in the forum posts for my specs when I had the enermax psu. The results were at full load the +5v rail was between 4.41v to 4.52v. So in my case it was a problem and it was out of spec as you pointed out.

True enough, that is totally out of spec :beer:

Did you persue your warranty?

earthdick · Jan 13, 2002

sonny said:
True enough, that is totally out of spec Did you persue your warranty?

I tried the email/phone route for an RMA. Enermax said it was the responsibility of the vendor, the vendor said it was the responsibility of the manufacturer. Ugh! I gave up, I just didn't have the time to argue anymore.

William · Jan 13, 2002

Sparkles and Antecs for me. Enermax is overhyped.

wild_andy_c · Jan 13, 2002

My opinion follows which others may not agree with :

Enermax, Macron, Advance, Enhance, Enlight, Codegen, Antec - all crap.

Sparkle, CWT, DEER, DEEP, Delta - they are the daddies !

Sonny · Jan 13, 2002

earthdick said:
I tried the email/phone route for an RMA. Enermax said it was the responsibility of the vendor, the vendor said it was the responsibility of the manufacturer. Ugh! I gave up, I just didn't have the time to argue anymore.

Damn! I showed a copy of the email from Enermax to the store I bought mine from & they called their supplier if they would fix it & the reply I got was that they would replace it within a year of purchase so I got it. Just to make sure I did have the store manager make a note of it on my reciept. If you want a volt mod for it I have one if it's not too late

wild_andy_c · Jan 13, 2002

earthdick said:
I tried the email/phone route for an RMA. Enermax said it was the responsibility of the vendor, the vendor said it was the responsibility of the manufacturer. Ugh! I gave up, I just didn't have the time to argue anymore.

In any case like this your warranty is with the store, the store's with the distie and the distie's with the manufacturer.

The store has a responsibility towards you.

XprincoX · Jan 13, 2002

sonny said:
This is not the case. I have mentioned this quite often;

Enermax did not fix the "Problem". The production tolerances are ±.25V so if it tests at 4.75V it will be inside the specification.

you sure they didn't fix the conflict? I had the original 330w that had this conflict with my epox. But when i changed to the new whisper 431w the problems was totally resolved. And my 5v are always 5v+ now

Sonny · Jan 13, 2002

Xprincox said:
you sure they didn't fix the conflict? I had the original 330w that had this conflict with my epox. But when i changed to the new whisper 431w the problems was totally resolved. And my 5v are always 5v+ now

No they didnt according to Enermax. This is the reason why I always tell people to test it before they buy it. I guess now you got a healthy one

EnerMax Or Antec?

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