Antec Phantom 350

[Mr. Lennon]

I was looking at the Antec Phantom 350 and was pretty impressed with its features. Only thing Im worried about is if it will have enough juice to power a Radeon X850XT PE and a A64 3500 winchester overclocked. If not I will be going with the Neopower 480.

 

[dc5]

i'd sacrafice just a little noise for a much more reliable power supply.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Originally posted by: dc5
i'd sacrafice just a little noise for a much more reliable power supply.

In a silent pc review they said it is 83% efficient and comes with a 3 year warranty.

 

[dc5]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282

Originally posted by: dc5
i'd sacrafice just a little noise for a much more reliable power supply.

In a silent pc review they said it is 83% efficient and comes with a 3 year warranty.

true but you are packing quite a lot of power with a x850xt pe and a 3500+

 

[wylecoyote]

Antec is releasing the Phantom 500w soon... you can see it over at silent pc review's coverage of the CES show.

If you're buying today, I'd say the neopower would be necessary to run your system.

 

[NietzscheRCN]

I have to agree with wylecoyote. 350 watts even at 83% effeciency is not enough power for that system. The graphics and processor would creep ever closer to the limits of that psu. Then add in your motherboard, HD's, Optical drives, Case fans, floppy, USB devices, etc...

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Originally posted by: wylecoyote
Antec is releasing the Phantom 500w soon... you can see it over at silent pc review's coverage of the CES show.

If you're buying today, I'd say the neopower would be necessary to run your system.

Wow 500w phantom would be perfect. Well from all the responses Im going to go with the neopower 480. Thanks guys!

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: NietzscheRCN
I have to agree with wylecoyote. 350 watts even at 83% effeciency is not enough power for that system. The graphics and processor would creep ever closer to the limits of that psu. Then add in your motherboard, HD's, Optical drives, Case fans, floppy, USB devices, etc...

The Phantom will be fine as long as you take care of your case cooling, 350 watts is plenty of power.

NietzscheRCN, effeciancy has nothing to do with power output.

 

[cyberknight]

May want to consider a Seasonic PSU. They make viciously quiet, but still fanned PSU's, and also run at a very high efficiency.

I don't think Antec really intends to make the Phantom series to be powering such powerful and hot equipment. You're gonna want active cooling especially with a video card like that.

 

[NietzscheRCN]

Operandi I hate to disagree with you, but it does. The higher your effeciency is the more power your psu makes. When energy is converted into power (watts) there is a certain amount lost to heat. The less effecient your psu the more heat it makes. If you are making more heat then you are making less power. It is a direct correlation, no avoiding it. There for if you have a higher effeciency, then you make more power and less heat.

 

[Tiamat]

350 Watts is enough. But in your case, waiting for the 500 watt version may be beneficial since it may bring prices down - although it might not.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: NietzscheRCN
Operandi I hate to disagree with you, but it does. The higher your effeciency is the more power your psu makes. When energy is converted into power (watts) there is a certain amount lost to heat. The less effecient your psu the more heat it makes. If you are making more heat then you are making less power. It is a direct correlation, no avoiding it. There for if you have a higher effeciency, then you make more power and less heat.

Your half right?. The more efficient the PSU the more power and less heat but a 350 watt PSU will supply 350 watts of power regardless of efficiency. For example; a 350 PSU with 70% efficiency will deliver 350watts DC but draw more roughly 450 watts AC. A PSU with 80% will draw less power but output remains the same.

 

[Cawchy87]

You had better be putting an ATI silencer on that 850 or else you will hear it above whatever fans you have in your case.

 

[NietzscheRCN]

Operandi, are you saying that all psu's rated at 350 watts put out 350 watts. Because that is what your statement says. If this was the case then no one would buy a 200 dollars psu vs a 30 psu. By your own statement I am right, not half right. You reiterated my point "the more efficient the PSU the more power and less heat". Ratings are a highly subjective arena that many manufacturers take to liberally. Better companies have specs that fall closer to the truth, but still don't do what they're claiming. I can not think of one psu that ACTUALLY makes the power it specifies. Do you ever look at amp specifications? Many companies rate their cheap 100 dollars receivers as producing 100 watts a channel. This is simply not correct. If you look closer you will see that it makes 100 watts into one driven channel at 1 kHz. What it usually does not state is that it is at a unlistenable distortion level and blew itself up after two seconds. Sadly without standards in place manufacturers take the low road and lie in order to try and increase the bottom line.

 

[BW86]

Well since the SL350 that came with my 3700AMB powered my friend's rig(6800U, FX53) for a few days while I was away on vacation. (his died) I'm pretty sure that the Phantom can handle that system easily.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: NietzscheRCN
Operandi, are you saying that all psu's rated at 350 watts put out 350 watts. Because that is what your statement says. If this was the case then no one would buy a 200 dollars psu vs a 30 psu. By your own statement I am right, not half right. You reiterated my point "the more efficient the PSU the more power and less heat". Ratings are a highly subjective arena that many manufacturers take to liberally. Better companies have specs that fall closer to the truth, but still don't do what they're claiming. I can not think of one psu that ACTUALLY makes the power it specifies. Do you ever look at amp specifications? Many companies rate their cheap 100 dollars receivers as producing 100 watts a channel. This is simply not correct. If you look closer you will see that it makes 100 watts into one driven channel at 1 kHz. What it usually does not state is that it is at a unlistenable distortion level and blew itself up after two seconds. Sadly without standards in place manufacturers take the low road and lie in order to try and increase the bottom line.

All good 350watt PSU's will output 350 watts yes. A $30 PSU might reach 350 but it will be a mess, lots of ripple and voltage regulation, then it might start on fire. A $70 PSU should have no problems with its rated output in human conditions, the power should be pretty clean. A $200 PSU like a PCP&C will exceed it's rated power in all must extreme conditions, you get what you pay for......

Bottom line is a good 350 watt PSU will output 350watts, efficiency is not a factor in DC output. It only pertains to AC power consuming.

Audio power ratings are much worse?. Even the respected names excaudate their power claims (Sony, Pioneer, ect). Companies like Adcom and Parasound are probably pretty believable though.

 

[Ken90630]

Bottom line is a good 350 watt PSU will output 350watts, efficiency is not a factor in DC output. It only pertains to AC power consuming.

Hi, guys,

Operandi is absolutely correct here. The "efficiency" spec simply measures what percentage of a given amount of AC current is converted into actual DC voltage output. A PSU that performs at 70% efficiency is converting 70% of the incoming AC current into usable DC current and 'wasting,' as heat, 30% of that incoming AC current. Period.

The higher your effeciency is the more power your psu makes.

Sorry, Nietzsche, and no offense, but this is incorrect. It's "half right," I suppose, like Operandi said, in that the PSU will be able to "make more power" from a given amount of AC input, with less 'waste,' but the PSU will not make more power in terms of total output. Three hundred and fifty watts (or whatever) output capability is three hundred and fifty watts output capability, regardless of the PSU's efficiency. All that "efficiency" will tell you is how much incoming AC was wasted as heat in order for that PSU to generate those 350 watts.

 

[cyberknight]

Well the Phantom needs to be efficient cuz it is passively cooled. Antec TruePowers are inefficient, but they are designed to withstand high heat, thus allowing them to use low speed fans.

 

[GnomeCop]

I have a vantec 350 watt powering my system, I have a GF6800Ultra, 2 HDs, 2 optical drives, 1gb memory, and sound card. Of course prob this wouldnt be possible if my system wasnt dothan based.

 

[Gamingphreek]

The Phantom will be fine. People can run fully loaded systems with 6800Us on them with QUALITY 300Watt PSUs. The SFF PC's usually have 250Watt PSU's and people have reports and proof of running a 6800U on them, the X850XT uses a bit less power than that. This is the most efficient unit on the market it will be fine.

-Kevin