• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Antec 250W PSU (not TruePower)

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Lord_MiL

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2003
Hey all!

Well, I've finally had it with the POS power supply in my 1700+ rig so I'm looking to get a good one. Now, this box is not used for anything extreme. The heaviest load it typically sees is encoding Divx for 4-5 hours at a time, so I'm not looking for an uber Power Supply. one that caught my eye on newegg was the Antec 12V ATX 350W for $47. I know that the Antec TruePower line is exceptional, but how is this model? I'm not going super cheap this time, however I still don't want to shell out a fortune and I want something that's actually going to work (and preferrably won't just kick off when I resume from standby or encode more than one Divx movie at a time!)

So, anyone who has experience with these, please let me know what you think of them. Is this line of PSU's made with as much quality as the True Power series?

Thanks!
 
might wanna go for the Sparkle 350 watt for about the same price..... Well, I would definently ge tit if that Antec is not a True Power
 
I've got an Antec Smart Power 350W (I think newegg sells these same models). It works perfectly. Temp controlled fans, STABLE voltage... cant say enough about this model.

Heres how to tell: Look at the pics on neweggs site. If you see any plum/purple color on the antec sticker, it means it is one of the newer antec smart powers, and plum/purple happens to be the 350W model (model: ANTEC SL350).

Im not sure if there is a difference between truepower and smartpower, but this 350 smartpower has been the best PSU I've ever used.
 
My case came with a SmartPower 300W. Purple matches some of the interior components, BTW.

It offers 220W of 3.3v+5v. Compared to the sticky thread about PSU requirements, it's outstanding.
 
Why not get Directron's Fortron 350W for $37 + shipping? It has a noticeably bigger transformer than any other PSU in this power range, even bigger than Deltas (but Deltas run at a higher frequency), and this probably means that it's overbuilt more than an Antec. At http://terasan.okiraku-pc.net/dengen/ they have pictures of the interiors of SmartPower and TruePower Antecs of almost the same power rating, and they look very similar, except for the heatsinks, but I think that some diodes or transistors in the TruePower are heavier and its filter capacitors bigger.

I was given a 300W SmartPower that wasn't working because a bent-over wire lead on the circuit board was slightly too long, causing it to short against an adjacent trace. It's worked fine ever since I straightened that lead, but I haven't tested it with anything more than a 1.3 GHz Duron and 1.7 GHz Celeron. At least it seems to be built better than my 300W Powmax -- input transistors 13A total vs. 10A, +5V output rated for 30A and has 60A of diodes vs. 30A, fan controller isn't just a thermistor stuck into the output filter choke.
 
You can also check the case/hardware section of the classifieds. Someone there is selling an Antec 350 SmartPower for I think $35 brand new.

Whoops just noticed no stars. Just dont buy an antec from Best buy. I spent like $70 for my 350W (emergancy, I needed one asap).
 
Back