Antec NeoHE 550W

[soydios]

So, looking at PSUs for a higher-end build. The Antec NeoHE 550 caught my eye. I particularly like the Antec name, supposedly higher efficiency, and the modular cables.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103941
Here's the system it would be running:
- motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
- CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 overclocked (future upgrade: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked)
- RAM: OCZ 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2-800 (future upgrade: 2 more GB of DDR2-800 RAM with Windows Vista)
- GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon X1900XT overclocked (future possible upgrade: X1900 CrossFire)
- 1x DVD-burner, 2x Western Digital 250GB hard drives, 2x 120mm case fans

So, can the Antec NeoHE 550 handle the above system. And, for all you Seasonic fans out there, what makes the Seasonic S12-600 worth the extra ~$50?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: soydios
So, looking at PSUs for a higher-end build. The Antec NeoHE 550 caught my eye. I particularly like the Antec name, supposedly higher efficiency, and the modular cables.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103941
Here's the system it would be running:
- motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
- CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 overclocked (future upgrade: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked)
- RAM: OCZ 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2-800 (future upgrade: 2 more GB of DDR2-800 RAM with Windows Vista)
- GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon X1900XT overclocked (future possible upgrade: X1900 CrossFire)
- 1x DVD-burner, 2x Western Digital 250GB hard drives, 2x 120mm case fans

So, can the Antec NeoHE 550 handle the above system. And, for all you Seasonic fans out there, what makes the Seasonic S12-600 worth the extra ~$50?

Anytime you buy an Antec PSU you are buying a mixed bag.
There quality control is very shoddy.
Almost every forum I have ever been in had loads and loads of threads compaining about the Antec PSU`s.
They have a tendency to use low quality CAP`s.
They are not as quiet as the Seasonic.
Finally I would rather buy a PSU that 6 months or a year down the road is not going to go out on me!!

Now the Seasonic question....whats maes the Seasonic worth the extra $50?
A short answer would be the Seasonic is everything the Antec is not.

Seasonic has an excellent track record.
Excellent quality and workmanship.
6 months or a year down the line your Seasonic will still be purring like a kitten.
Also it truly is silent.

Now remember you asked the question...I answered.
Please don`t post a rebuttal to what I posted.
I am not going to argue the points I made with you.
Check this thread out.....there are alot more like it...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...&STARTPAGE=6&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

WARNING: Before you buy an Antec PSU, read these links!

 

[soydios]

I can't post counterpoints, I don't own one yet.
However, I am still curious about the question "can the Antec NeoHE 550 run the system I will be building."

The Antec has modular and sleeved cables, which I like.
The Seasonic has a higher power output, and looks like it can deliver on more of it than the Antec (the Antec cannot run all rails at maximum at once; would this be an issue with the above system?).
The Seasonic did very well in a THG PSU comparison.
I have seen many reviews of the Antec NeoHE line, and they all show the NeoHE holding up its voltages better than even the Seasonic, which I've read is very good itself.
I have heard about Antec using less-than-Seasonic quality capacitors in their PSUs. I just figured that since this one was supposedly "high efficiency" I might avoid that issue.
I built a computer for a friend using the Antec Sonata II and the included 450W PSU. It powered his Asus A8N-E motherboard, 2GB(2x1GB) DDR400 RAM, AMD Athlon 64 3500+, and MSI ATi X800XL graphics card for 4 months or so, before it died. He replaced it with a TruePower2.0 about 5 months ago and it's been running fine ever since. However, that "ever since" period has not passed a year yet. Admittedly, he's barely been stressing that PSU (he plans to use it and the case in a new build sometime in the next year).
The Seasonic, as far as I've seen on this forum, has a very satisfied customer base.

AnandTech, please do a PSU roundup (once you're done with all the SocketAM2 and Conroe motherboard reviews)!

 

[Nexworks]

Id love to see a Seasonic with modular cables. Till then my next PSU will probably be an Antec HE 500

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Antec PSUs are junk :thumbsdown:

The Seasonic M-12 series should be out soon. It's semi modular, the main harness is hardwired.
It will come in 500, 600 & 700 watt flavors.

You want modular now?? Enermax Liberty or Enhance ENS-0560G.



...Galvanized

 

[Dribble]

Antec NeoHE 500W looks like the psu for my next case. resonable price, quiet, very stable volts. As for my personal antec experience - I have a sonata with a 380W truepower in and it's fine. tbh without statistical evidence you've got no way of knowing which psu is the most reliable - a few people posting conflicting views on a forum doesn't mean anything. All we have is the psu reviews to go by and in those the antec neohe's do very well.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Dribble
Antec NeoHE 500W looks like the psu for my next case. resonable price, quiet, very stable volts. As for my personal antec experience - I have a sonata with a 380W truepower in and it's fine. tbh without statistical evidence you've got no way of knowing which psu is the most reliable - a few people posting conflicting views on a forum doesn't mean anything. All we have is the psu reviews to go by and in those the antec neohe's do very well.

actually Ummm...no......
thats why you go to various forums. To look around if nothing else...
almost all the major forums that deal with computer products have threads that say nothing good about Antec....

As I have always stated there are people who are happy with Antec as a brand. But there are more people who have issues with Antec than any other brand of pSU...hmmm

Of course the reviews seem to be glowing and all. But I remiond you thats a totally new PSU...I have yet to see any reviews that review a PSU for 6 months or a year.
So of course the Antec`s look real nice.
As I stated earlier...
Anytime you buy an Antec PSU you are buying a mixed bag.
There quality control is very shoddy.
Almost every forum I have ever been in had loads and loads of threads compaining about the Antec PSU`s.
They have a tendency to use low quality CAP`s.
They are not as quiet as the Seasonic.
Finally I would rather buy a PSU that 6 months or a year down the road is not going to go out on me!!


http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...&STARTPAGE=6&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Antec PSUs are junk :thumbsdown:

The Seasonic M-12 series should be out soon. It's semi modular, the main harness is hardwired.
It will come in 500, 600 & 700 watt flavors.

You want modular now?? Enermax Liberty or Enhance ENS-0560G.



...Galvanized

How is it junk? Seasonic makes the NeoHE series. unless I'm wrong? I'm almost sure... And the NeoHE is a great buy. The compatability issues were really only with the Asus motherboards and were fixed. They have massive 12V power so go for it.

 

[stardrek]

I was mistaken, I have an Antec Phantom 500, not the NeoHE...sorry.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: Praxis1452

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Antec PSUs are junk :thumbsdown:

The Seasonic M-12 series should be out soon. It's semi modular, the main harness is hardwired.
It will come in 500, 600 & 700 watt flavors.

You want modular now?? Enermax Liberty or Enhance ENS-0560G.



...Galvanized

How is it junk? Seasonic makes the NeoHE series. unless I'm wrong? I'm almost sure... And the NeoHE is a great buy. The compatability issues were really only with the Asus motherboards and were fixed. They have massive 12V power so go for it.

It's junk you silly air-head You're just a trouble maker that offers little or nothing to
most threads you enter
You are really not worth responding too but I will throw you a bone.

It's built to Antec's price point using lesser componets to populate the PCB.
Then it has a crap modular interface added onto a unit not designed for it.


...Galvanized

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Dribble
Antec NeoHE 500W looks like the psu for my next case. resonable price, quiet, very stable volts. As for my personal antec experience - I have a sonata with a 380W truepower in and it's fine. tbh without statistical evidence you've got no way of knowing which psu is the most reliable

You assume PSUs are black boxes whose internals will forever remain secret...

 

[soydios]

I did some further research into the Antec NeoHE 550. Silent PC Review did a good article on it.

They said that the PSU had worse efficiency (~80%) than the Seasonic S12 (~85%), but was still amazingly quiet, especially with it's 80mm fan.
There was also a very long thread in their forums of compatability issues with Asus motherboards. Supposedly they produced a revision that has replaced the problem unit in all US retail channels.

I'm just going to splurge the extra $40 on the Seasonic S12-600. It's rated at a higher combined 12-volt amperage than the Antec, uses a 120mm fan, and seems to have a good amount of street cred. I'll just tuck the extra cables away in the spare 5.25" bays of the case.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

As long as your not going SLI/CrossFire, a 500W S12 would do nicely.

...Galvanized

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee


It's junk you silly air-head You're just a trouble maker that offers little or nothing to
most threads you enter
You are really not worth responding too but I will throw you a bone.

It's built to Antec's price point using lesser componets to populate the PCB.
Then it has a crap modular interface added onto a unit not designed for it.


...Galvanized

this mix of sarcasm is killing me

 

[Dribble]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
almost all the major forums that deal with computer products have threads that say nothing good about Antec....


http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...&STARTPAGE=6&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

second post down in the link provided:
I love my 380W Truepower, 24A on the 12v>j00

fourth post down:

Neither do the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of non-failed Antec units. I'm sure you can do a search for any PSU manufacturer and find horror stories about units that fried (and doing a search and finding some stories is by no means sufficient grounds to conclude that all of a manufacturer's product lines are no good). It doesn't mean that all of the PSU manufacturer's make shoddy products, so much as it means that some people are just unlucky.

fifth post down:

And I had an enermax powering alomst the exact same system but due to rail fluxuations I replaced it with a friggen Thermaltake PSU and it's rails are MUCH tighter. does that mean Tt makes better PSU's than Enermax, heck no!!!! Just that in this case, the Tt did a better job, there is probably something wrong with my Enermax, big whoop. It still powers my third rig to this day without any problems.

I now use my Antec Smartpower 500w and LOVE it. I don't plan on ever getting anything else.

....
....

This is a thread specifically asking for people who have had problems with antec's to complain which will give a highly negative response as people love to complain but generally don't bother saying anything if it's working fine. You've even picked the page we get to look at, yet there are as many positive messages as negative ones?

What does it tell me? Nothing reliably at all...now show me a link to with a large and statistically accurate sample, such as the reliablity survey at www.storagereview.com provides for hard disks, and I'll listen to you.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Antec PSUs are third tier junk. There are 5~10 brand names I'd chose over Antec for power.

Search the web for Antec leaking caps....PLEASE.


...Galvanized

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Antec PSUs are third tier junk. There are 5~10 brand names I'd chose over Antec for power.

Search the web for Antec leaking caps....PLEASE.


...Galvanized

Antec sells far more PSU's retail then anyone else, both Circuit City & Best Buy sell Antec. I am willing to bet their RMA % isn't bad at all, they will have more RMA's, but that's simply from selling more units. Even Fortron had cap issues. I am sure whatever problems Antec had with caps they've fixed. I wouldn't jump on a NeoHE because I think the modular cables look like something an amature would do. If this person needs modular, the new Kingwin is nice (don't like the cables tho...) the Liberty a few people mentioned? Cables are horrible, but Enermax is absolute quality without costing an arm and a leg.

I would take any "Antec is teh badd0r!" propaganda with a grain of salt. Hundreds of thousands of people are happy with their Antec's. But, I wouldn't run out and buy one thinking they are the best thing going (they're not)

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: QueBert

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Antec PSUs are third tier junk. There are 5~10 brand names I'd chose over Antec for power.

Search the web for Antec leaking caps....PLEASE.


...Galvanized

Antec sells far more PSU's retail then anyone else, both Circuit City & Best Buy sell Antec. I am willing to bet their RMA % isn't bad at all, they will have more RMA's, but that's simply from selling more units. Even Fortron had cap issues. I am sure whatever problems Antec had with caps they've fixed. I wouldn't jump on a NeoHE because I think the modular cables look like something an amature would do. If this person needs modular, the new Kingwin is nice (don't like the cables tho...) the Liberty a few people mentioned? Cables are horrible, but Enermax is absolute quality without costing an arm and a leg.

I would take any "Antec is teh badd0r!" propaganda with a grain of salt. Hundreds of thousands of people are happy with their Antec's. But, I wouldn't run out and buy one thinking they are the best thing going (they're not)

Another super smart guy..Huh!

Google Fuhjyyu caps and read long & well. Tell your friends what you've read. PM AntecCSR into this thread for a little fun...OK. I'm not pulling this stuff outta my butt QueBert


...Galvanized

 

[skooma]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Antec PSUs are third tier junk. There are 5~10 brand names I'd chose over Antec for power.

Search the web for Antec leaking caps....PLEASE.


...Galvanized

google "toyota engine died"

:evil:

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

You know better skooma Are you bored at work??

EDIT: How dare you compare an Anrec pos PSU to a TOYODA power plant.

Google Rubycon caps, United ChemiCon caps, Nippon Chemicon caps, Teapo caps.

Then Google Fuhjyyu caps, OST, GSC...etc.

The point is...Antec still uses Fudge-You Craps (fuhjyyu).

Come-on!! PM AntecCSR into this thread. She/he threatened to cry to the Mods last time we spoke. Search this forum for the posts of AntecCSR...PLEASE.
I won't link it.

...Galvanized

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: Dribble
Antec NeoHE 500W looks like the psu for my next case. resonable price, quiet, very stable volts. As for my personal antec experience - I have a sonata with a 380W truepower in and it's fine. tbh without statistical evidence you've got no way of knowing which psu is the most reliable - a few people posting conflicting views on a forum doesn't mean anything. All we have is the psu reviews to go by and in those the antec neohe's do very well.

Actually have the reviews on the net tell a tell of incompatablility and overall inconsistancy of these psu's.
True, the specs look great, but the real world problems persist. There are better values to be found elsewhere (enhance 5150gh) Listen to galvanized. He will make you look like a fool when he proves you wrong... hehe

...no really...

 

[AntecCSR]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee


Come-on!! PM AntecCSR into this thread. She/he threatened to cry to the Mods last time we spoke. Search this forum for the posts of AntecCSR...PLEASE.
I won't link it.

...Galvanized

I've never cried to the mods about any threads or posts you've made. Actually I don't recall the last time I've felt the need the to for anyone on any forum.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

AntecCSR, Excuse me. You did remain civil in that thread. I took your words out of context because I failed to remember correctly. The last words you posted in this thread referring to the AnandTech staff.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=37&threadid=1866059&enterthread=y

I will continue to put the bad mouth on Antec PSUs until none are built using Fuhjyyu capacitors...Period. On this board or any other board I post on.


...Galvanized

 

[AntecTechLevel4]

We at Antec applaude you for speaking out.
We want customer feedback. You have used our product before?
We pride ourselves on the many satisfied customers that we have.

All the NeoHE Power Supplies use iether the Rubycon caps and Nippon Chemicon caps exclusively.

We do not use Fuhjyyu Caps in our NeoHe as of July 1,2006!

We are dedicated to putting out a superior product.

We trust that in the future you will join the many satisfied Antec customers world wide.

 

[Praxis1452]

lol galvanized I guess they have changed