Antec Neopower 480 runs hot?

Hi, I just did a system rebuild and replaced my old coolermaster 450W power supply with the Antec Neopower 480. I notice my office is a LOT warmer after making this change. I made some other changes (new graphics card etc...), but from the warmth coming from the PSU exhaust, it seems like the Antec is putting out a lot more heat than my old coolermaster. This is not at load, but during idle.

My old coolermaster is fine, but I wanted to move it to another system I was building, and put the best PSU (the Antec - so I thought) in my main rig.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,
Mike

Maybe you got a bad unit. Either that or the antec is struggling to keep the power. Try to rma it and get a Fortron/Sparkle psu. Now that will keep things cool.

MrCooper said:

Maybe you got a bad unit. Either that or the antec is struggling to keep the power. Try to rma it and get a Fortron/Sparkle psu. Now that will keep things cool.

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It works fine overclocked and under full load too, so I don't think the PSU is bad. It is supposed to have high efficiency which is why I am wondering why it runs so hot.

Thanks,
Mike

mikesm said:

It works fine overclocked and under full load too, so I don't think the PSU is bad. It is supposed to have high efficiency which is why I am wondering why it runs so hot.

Thanks,
Mike

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The only way a psu would run hot even on idle/load is that it's really getting stressed or the fan isnt providing enough cooling to the unit. But looking at the neopower 12cm fan cooling design it should be sufficient enough for it. I'd say grab a nice fortron/sparkle unit for a little less than $30-40 from newegg and sell this neopower. It's only a matter of time before it kills itself.

I am not sure there is any problem with the PSU at all. i think Atntecs latest units just run hotter in the interest of keeping the PSU quieter.

Switching from a TTGI 320 to an Enermax 420 the PSU temps stayed about the same...going to an Antec True550 my case temps and room temps went up a lot (CPU temp up 2C) because of he slower fans

Switched to a Powerstream 520 and all is well again (even though it is pretty quiet itself).

The Antec was the hottest of the 4, by a pretty large margin.

Shane

Category 5 said:

I am not sure there is any problem with the PSU at all. i think Atntecs latest units just run hotter in the interest of keeping the PSU quieter.

Switching from a TTGI 320 to an Enermax 420 the PSU temps stayed about the same...going to an Antec True550 my case temps and room temps went up a lot (CPU temp up 2C) because of he slower fans

Switched to a Powerstream 520 and all is well again (even though it is pretty quiet itself).

The Antec was the hottest of the 4, by a pretty large margin.

Shane

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This makes no sense to me. If you are dissipating 100W into a room as heat, it won't make a difference if this is done with a slow fan or a fast fan. Some heat will get "banked" in the PSU hardware, but this is a very small number, and if it wasn't the PSU would burn up very quickly.

The only way for a room to be hotter is for more heat to be dissipated into it. Are you saying you had the same problem, and moved to a different PSU and the room got cooler for the same system configuration (therefore the same heat dissipation)?

Thanks,
Mike

All Antec/CWT units I've seen since the beginning of time it seems have run the fans a little on the slow side. Consequently, they get rather warm. About the only way I can think of to remedy this is to wire the fan for full 12v (might want to find a quieter fan as a replacement though).

mikesm said:

This makes no sense to me. If you are dissipating 100W into a room as heat, it won't make a difference if this is done with a slow fan or a fast fan. Some heat will get "banked" in the PSU hardware, but this is a very small number, and if it wasn't the PSU would burn up very quickly.

The only way for a room to be hotter is for more heat to be dissipated into it. Are you saying you had the same problem, and moved to a different PSU and the room got cooler for the same system configuration (therefore the same heat dissipation)?

Thanks,
Mike

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If the psu is very efficient. It shouldnt be pumping hot air to your office/room. Does that make sense or what. The very so called "effecient" listed by antec to the box is just pure marketing. Go with tried n true next time you make a purchase.

i just checked my neo and it is as cool as can be and im stress testing an OC atm...could be a bad fan?

zangler said:

i just checked my neo and it is as cool as can be and im stress testing an OC atm...could be a bad fan?

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What's your ambient temp in the room? Are you saying if you hold your hand to the back of the neopower that it isn't warm air coming out? At idle, do you still feel warm air coming out the back?

Thanks,
Mike

PS The PSU temp is fine as far as I can tell, I am concerned about the amount of heat leaving the PSU and being dumped into the room.

the temp in the room is about 73f...and i ran it under full stress for about 10min to see how hot the air was...it is warm and does get warmer under full stress...but is not something i would describe as 'hot'. also i touched the casing of the psu while under stress and it is quite cool. i have not taken a thermometer to the air comming out the back...but i would be interested.

Antec is not the way to go

My antec neopower 480 I bought from Newegg 1.5yrs ago bit the dust last night. Move my pc, reconnect the cables and boom.... nothing. Just a quick electric noise then nothing. Power on the mobo led is off.... I check everything again nothing.

So in about 30 seconds I start to notice the smoke coming out of the vents. My pc is not overclocked, runs a athlon 3700 socket 754. 2gig ocz ddr ram and 2 hard drives, 2 cd roms and a 6800 agp gigabyte video card. Ran rock solid for 1.5 yrs, but if it cooked my mobo or components I'm going to be hotter than that power supply.

This is the 2nd antec power supply in my pc building experience that has screwed me. If you can get away from antec I would suggest it. I just ordered a pc power and cooling, I'm tired of this junk antec offers.