Antec EA-550 Platinum much good?

[mjw21a]

Well, it would appear that my current SuperFlower PSU may have failed, which is disappointing considering it's only a few monhts out of warranty....

Anyway, I'm looking at the Antec EA-550 Platinum to replace it. It's Platinum efficiency rated and at the same price point as other Bronze rated PSU's out there. I'm fairly certain 500W should be enough to power my current setup.

Has anyone had any first hand experience with these power supplies? Nothing can touch it on price. If making other suggestions, please limit yourself to supplies available here: http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=2&id2=140

There seems to be a shortage of reviews on these units as they've not been out for very long.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Bobnova]

Seems like they'd be hard pressed to cough up a bad unit with platinum. The platform looks to have somewhat dubious regulation, but within spec.

There aren't any real reviews that I can find, maybe I can get Antec to send one to OCF for me to test. I'll look into that

 

[mjw21a]

Seems like they'd be hard pressed to cough up a bad unit with platinum. The platform looks to have somewhat dubious regulation, but within spec.

There aren't any real reviews that I can find, maybe I can get Antec to send one to OCF for me to test. I'll look into that

Lol, well. I think I'll end up picking one up Monday afternoon after work..... I'll be without a games machine until then

From what I've seen regulation look kind of ordinary on the unit but within spec, however the Platinum efficiency rating and the price has me hooked. It should mean is a nice quiet and efficient unit. I'm wondering what the PSU is actually capable of supplying. Being Platinum rated I believe it should be able to handle more than 550W continuous power. What do you think Bob?

The SuperFlower PSU is the first supply I've had fail since my old 330W Antec TruePower many years ago.... Quite disappointed with it at this point considering its a Gold rated supply. Mind you, I suspect the fault is of my own making. I had the cables crushed behind the mainboard tray on my last two cases and I think its damaged the cabling. Even parts of the braid is snapped in some places.

If you do test I'd still be keen to read the review as it'll give me some peace of mind. I believe this series will be a very popular series as its actually cheaper than half of the Bronze and Silver rated units out there at the moment.

 

[Bobnova]

Efficiency rating doesn't necessarily mean overbuilt, you can have a unit with excellent efficiency that still goes pop not that far over its rated wattage. I would be surprised, but overloading a PSU is never a good idea.

 

[mjw21a]

Well, with my current rig do you think it would be ok?

I intend to upgrade the CPU when Piledriver comes out and overclock it some. The video card will remain the same as will all other specs in my signature.

I suspect my current setup really doesn't use all that much as is.

 

[Bobnova]

That setup, OC'd, on a really bad day, when hungry, might eat 400w.

 

[mjw21a]

Ok, do you think I should go with the EA-650 up to allow for capacitor aging? I'd like to get 3-5 years out of the PSU if possible. It's only $10 difference and I'll go with that if its worthwhile.

Perhaps, I could look at one of the Silverstone Strider Plus Silver rated units instead. I generally only use the computer for gaming a few hours a day or leave it on overnight downloading various things.... I suspect the Silverstone unit is probably a higher quality unit, it's modular which is a plus and I know that they're extremely quiet as I've a Strider Essential in my media centre.

This system lives at the foot of my bed so noise is important to me when its left downloading.

 

[Bobnova]

Eh, I would say a 550 is more than enough even for the long term.

 

[mjw21a]

Ok, I'll go with the 550W Antec EA-550 Platinum. It's cheap and cheerful for what it is. Thanks for your assistance Bob, always good to get a second opinion when purchasing.

I'll pick one up Monday. Let you know how it goes.

 

[mjw21a]

Well, I've installed the PSU in my system. Doesn't seem to be as quiet as my old SuperFlower though interestingly I've noticed all the noise that I was getting on my Asus Xonar DX sound card is no longer occuring. This had happened since I first got my old SuperFlower PSU so I suspect it was faulty from day 1. What a disappointment.

Strange thing, I was able to make my case look significantly tidier with this power supply. Turns out fully modular PSU's = messier case. I think I'll stick with non modular in the future.

Here's a shot taken sideways through the side window on my case after installing the Antec PSU with fixed cables:

And here's one with my old modular SuperFlower PSU:

It's WAY tidier with fixed cables. Likewise, the shorter PSU allowed me to route the cables through a hole that was previously hidden by the longer SuperFlower PSU. A bit of a win where cable management is concerned. I'm not sure if the extra noise is simply that my Asus mainboard spins the fans faster than my old Gigabyte board anyway. I may be a bit of both.