Antec or Fortron - Help me decide

SnowRider · Mar 8, 2005

I am trying to decide between the Antec NeoPower 480w and the Fortron BlueStorm 500w. I was originally planning on going with the NeoPower due to MaximumPC giving it a great review and a 10 Kick A** rating in the Jan. issue :drool:

. But then I saw lots of people here reccomending the BlueStorm which I'd never seen until now :shrug:

.

I don't care about looks, modular or sleeved cables, or which is noisier. I just want your opinions on which is better in PERFORMANCE. The other things are just bonuses to me. These are both in the same price range so that doesn't matter to me either. I want to leave room for future upgrades I might do such as SLI and watercooling so take that into account too.

BlueStorm __________________ NeoPower
12v @ 30a ---------------------- 12v @ 33a
500w ---------------------------- 480w
Passive PFC -------------------- Active PFC
MTBF 100,000 hrs -------------- MTBF 80,000 hrs

I'm upgrading to this and yes I plan on overclocking ......
AMD64 Winchester 3200
DFI nF4 Ultra-D
nVidia 6800 GT (either a evga or BFG)
2x512MB Corsair Ballistix

Thanks in advance for the help

moho · Mar 8, 2005

me =

fortron.
just my 2¢

crash013 · Mar 8, 2005

Fortron

SnowRider · Mar 8, 2005

No offense but reasons as to why you'd choose the Fortron would be appreciated

FarzBar · Mar 8, 2005

Haha, nice avatar, havn't seen that before. Did you make it?

Edit: sorry, wish i could help you with your question, but I better let someone with more experience in this area help you.

SnowRider · Mar 8, 2005

Unfortunately no..... I found it somewhere a long time ago.

Electron Chaser · Mar 9, 2005

I was once a big Antec PSU fan, but in the last year and a half or so. I have been very disappointed in their performance. Even with their TruPower series the 12V rail has a very bad tendency to drop under load. That being said I would buy a Fortron over an Antec anyday.

harlam357 · Mar 9, 2005

Electron Chaser said:
I was once a big Antec PSU fan, but in the last year and a half or so. I have been very disappointed in their performance. Even with their TruPower series the 12V rail has a very bad tendency to drop under load. That being said I would buy a Fortron over an Antec anyday.

I like both my Antec psu's... although I do have to agree with Electron. The one in my 1st rig does tend to drop to ~11.6v under load and averages ~11.85v- this is the TruePower 430W. I may replace it but it hasn't caused me any serious issues as of yet... maybe just limiting my oc. So I can confirm his report of a low 12V rail on the Antec psu. No experience with Fortron.

Although it's not one of your choices, I hear a lot of good things about the OCZ PowerStream 520W.

Electron Chaser · Mar 9, 2005

harlam357 said:
I like both my Antec psu's... although I do have to agree with Electron. The one in my 1st rig does tend to drop to ~11.6v under load and averages ~11.85v- this is the TruePower 430W. I may replace it but it hasn't caused me any serious issues as of yet... maybe just limiting my oc. So I can confirm his report of a low 12V rail on the Antec psu. No experience with Fortron.

Although it's not one of your choices, I hear a lot of good things about the OCZ PowerStream 520W.

I use that PSU myself (the OCZ PS 520). However snowrider is trying to keep the cost of the PSU in a certain price range so I didn't recommend it.

HousERaT · Mar 9, 2005

go with the fortron...... mine doesn't drop hardly at all under load (which is the reason I bought one in the first place). Very well built psu...... I've read in a few places that the Antec psus have dropped in quality over the years, but not in price..... can anyone confirm?

Oklahoma Wolf · Mar 9, 2005

HousERaT said:
go with the fortron...... mine doesn't drop hardly at all under load (which is the reason I bought one in the first place). Very well built psu...... I've read in a few places that the Antec psus have dropped in quality over the years, but not in price..... can anyone confirm?

I'm still looking into the Antec thing myself... unfortunately, CWT (the OEM) has either been using bad capacitors in some of their units, the design of the units is leading to capacitor failure in some cases of sustained high load, or the cooling is so throttled back that damage happens over time. Not all Antecs will have this problem - my old SL350 has no problems at all after 2 years.

I'm waiting for the newer Truepower 2.0 units to see if things improve. More and more lately, I have started to recommend Enermax and Seasonic in place of Antec.

Just a tip for those with the Fortron 530w - this unit's cooling can be dramatically improved by moving the intake fan to the outside of the PSU case. Did that on mine - the exhaust temp is much lower now most of the time.

My advice for the first post though is the AX500 - the 530w is outdated now.

ManOman · Mar 9, 2005

I'd say go with the Fortron as well.
I don't have any experience with Antec's, but after researching through power supplies last year, I came to the conclusion that Fortrons are easily the best PS you can get for the money.
Even under load, there's hardly any drop in voltage.
I've heard just the opposite about the Antec's.

SnowRider · Mar 10, 2005

Yeah, I was trying to stay in the ~$100 range so that's why I wasn't really looking at the OCZ (if money didn't matter I'd get a PCP&C Turbo Cool SLI in a heartbeat :drool:

). Besides that, the powerstream 520w got a 7 in the same MaximumPC article while the Antec got a 10.

Does anyone actually have experience with the NeoPower? Or is everyone just basing their opinions on past Antec products? I currently have a Antec TrueBlue 480w that has kept stable voltages (measured with a multimeter) and powered my system just fine. No, I'm not an Antec fanboy at all, I just tend to trust MaximumPC's reviews of most things (not saying I don't trust you guys either

).

I guess the main things I like about the NeoPower over the BlueStorm at this point are that it has 3 more amps on the 12v line, has active PFC, and got such a killer review. Am I being stupid about this and shouldn't worry about the extra 3amps and active PFC?

Thanks for all the suggestions/comments guys

Spyd3r · Mar 10, 2005

SnowRider said:
Yeah, I was trying to stay in the ~$100 range so that's why I wasn't really looking at the OCZ (if money didn't matter I'd get a PCP&C Turbo Cool SLI in a heartbeat ). Besides that, the powerstream 520w got a 7 in the same MaximumPC article while the Antec got a 10.

I wouldn't really draw much about the OCZ Powerstream from the MaxPC review. Me, personally, was looking for a PSU about a month ago, and I did go with the Powerstream 520W.

I, personally, on Fortron vs. Antec, would go with the Fortron just cause of all the good things I've heard about them. Antec is good and dependable but as I've heard and experienced, through my TruePower 380S that I replaced, that there are probably better brands out there to try.

larva · Mar 10, 2005

I've not heard one Prescott or A64 user that had anything good to say about a Neo480. The AX-500-A serves everyone extremely well, and its design and performance have been demonstrated in competent testing. No power supply is perfect, but the Neo480 appears to be a damn sight further from it than the AX-500-A.

schismspeak · Mar 10, 2005

Oklahoma Wolf said:
Not all Antecs will have this problem - my old SL350 has no problems at all after 2 years.

Well, my old(if you want to call it that) Antec SL350 has 4-5 bad caps in it, and is the same age as yours. Bad luck? Maybe, but with all the complaints of the truepowers I have seen in the past 6-8 months, I think fortron is better, but doesnt have a long warranty to back it just incase. Which is a negative, but the only negative I see.

You seem happy with your 480w antec, so just go with whatever you feel most comfortable with, so we can't be blamed if something goes wrong with either!

Enigma422 · Mar 11, 2005

I have no experience with the Antec PSU, but I love my Fortron Blue Storm PSU so my vote would be biased, but towards Fortron.

fldrice · Mar 11, 2005

I agree with the the majority, go with the fortron.

jchsatx09 · Mar 11, 2005

Fortron

SnowRider · Mar 11, 2005

Ok, you guys have convinced me lol. After doing more research and with your suggestions I've decided to go with the Fortron Blue Storm

. If I'm unhappy with it, it's your guys' fault...... jk lol

.

A few more questions though....
1. I haven't been able to find anywhere how long the warranty is on this bad boy. Anyone know?

2. On one review I read they said "Notice that the Blue Storm does not have a -5v rail. This means that you won't be able to use motherboard diagnostic LEDs or the OCZ DDR Booster". I just bought the DFI Ultra-D which has those 4 diagnostic LED's at the bottom left of the board. Is this statement true and those LED's won't work? It didn't seem to make sense to me but I don't know enough about the way volts and stuff work so I didn't know what to think.

3. Oh yeah, the Blue Storm is out of stock @ newegg and not expected to be back until the 25th

. Anyone know of another place selling it for a decent price?

Antec or Fortron - Help me decide

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