are Antec PSUs actually reliable?

[imported_Nacelle]

My Trueblue 480 wasn't stable anymore. It still worked but, sometimes my computer would lock up at start-up. Waiting for RMA replacment.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Auric
Clearly a sufficient sampling. As purchasing manager for Dell, I am going to ignore the MTBF specs and immediately order 100,000 units from Antec. Sure, we could get the same thing direct from CWT for a lot lower cost but I'm a sucker for flashy advertising.

Does Channelwell offer a three-year warranty? Where do I send my faulty CWT PSU for replacement?

If CWT's own brand is still available in your market then I suppose they must have a service prescence also. Dunno what their warranty is but bare/OEM is usually one year. The question is, does the cost premium of the three-year warranty make sense when the buyer is responsible for shipping and handling and even more so if the probability of failure is higher than other manufacturers as per the company's own specifications? I posit no. In such cases I would always urge considering whether you would purchase the same part for less and then be eager to spend the difference on an additional extended warranty with the same terms. At least with notoriously unnecessary extended warranties offered by retailers, the part is easily repaired or exchanged at no additional shipping expense.

Many posters are acting as if it is normal for PSU's to fail or something.

 

[kd2777]

I know they are supposed to be good, but I hate my Antec TRU430. It has never been stable or up to power. The 12volt is usually around 11.4, the 5v is @4.8, and the 3.3 is @ 3.1. I have been told a time or two that it is my motherboard misreading the power, but I have used 10-12 different motherboards with this PSU. However I will say I more than likely got a bad one, because I have never heard anyone else say anything bad about Antec PSUs. I am hopfully going to rid my self of this thing and get a OCZ 520.

KD

 

[manly]

My True 380s died a couple months ago; it didn't take any components down with it. I've been too lazy to call up Antec for an RMA.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Auric

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Auric
Clearly a sufficient sampling. As purchasing manager for Dell, I am going to ignore the MTBF specs and immediately order 100,000 units from Antec. Sure, we could get the same thing direct from CWT for a lot lower cost but I'm a sucker for flashy advertising.

Does Channelwell offer a three-year warranty? Where do I send my faulty CWT PSU for replacement?

If CWT's own brand is still available in your market then I suppose they must have a service prescence also. Dunno what their warranty is but bare/OEM is usually one year. The question is, does the cost premium of the three-year warranty make sense when the buyer is responsible for shipping and handling and even more so if the probability of failure is higher than other manufacturers as per the company's own specifications? I posit no. In such cases I would always urge considering whether you would purchase the same part for less and then be eager to spend the difference on an additional extended warranty with the same terms. At least with notoriously unnecessary extended warranties offered by retailers, the part is easily repaired or exchanged at no additional shipping expense.

Many posters are acting as if it is normal for PSU's to fail or something.

I'm always interested to hear more suggestions on good + affordable power supplies. So are you saying CWT is a brand you've used a lot, and they are pretty good? I'm not the least bit interested in anyone's claimed MTBF, any more than I'm interested in their fanciful ideas about their products' wattage outputs but if there's actual real-world experience supporting a brand, with a pretty big sample to judge by, then I'm all ears. For now, I'm sticking with my experience at work and the experience of being a member of the Forums for nearly five years. Antec is a safe bet, and you can find it all over the place, even B&M.

I actually own a CWT clone of an Antec PP-403XP myself, although I'm not convinced it's truly the same thing (dual-ball-bearing fan, load regulation specs, etc). I use it with an old 1.4GHz Thunderbird-C at work. I wouldn't use it in my good rig, though. The same factory might make both Honda Civics and Lexuses, but that doesn't mean... yeah.

 

[NightCrawler]

I bet a lot of them are overloaded and overheat and that is why they die.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Auric
Specification for Mean Time Before Failure in hours:
50,000 Antec SL
80,000 Antec True & Neo
100,000 Seasonic, Fortron, etc.

Wheee for seasonic

 

[Jeff7]

Antec PSU's owned:
Two Truepower 430W
One Smartpower 350W

One of the 430W's blew out a component inside, and all of its fans stopped working, but it still was fine otherwise. Got an RMA from Antec, and got a replacement under warranty. It, as well as the other 430W that I have, are working fine.
The 350W was disassembled, and modified for a special project. It still worked fine even then. They use good components, large heatsinks, and a lot of power filtering. Generic 400W vs Antec 350W (480KB). The Antec uses larger capacitors, more chokes, bigger transformers, and better heatsinks than the generic thing does.

 

[kage69]

I love'em. Have purchased 12 Antec PSUs, and only had a problem with one of them, which was swiftly replaced via RMA. I use a True430W in my personal PC at home and love it. Tight voltages, and so quiet I can't tell it's running.

 

[Sideswipe001]

I had my TruePower 430 die on me just days ago, although it was slowly dying for weeks. That's after just under a year of use. At least it didn't take anything with it!

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

So are you saying CWT is a brand you've used a lot, and they are pretty good?

No.

Those that have had Antec failures under warranty, what was the shipping cost and did they cross-ship?Also, are you aware that the warranty period for the replacement is limited to that of the original? And given all this would you buy that brand again?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Auric

Originally posted by: mechBgon

So are you saying CWT is a brand you've used a lot, and they are pretty good?

No.

Those that have had Antec failures under warranty, what was the shipping cost and did they cross-ship?Also, are you aware that the warranty period for the replacement is limited to that of the original? And given all this would you buy that brand again?

I don't know, because I have something like 40 Antecs in my care and none have died yet And that, I think, is what the original poster wanted to know... whether they are reliable.

I did have an Antec DataChute PCI that failed, and when I RMA'ed it I got a brand-new one, shrink-wrapped in a retail box. Once I also griped to AntecCSR here that I would like a cable that connected the SX-series front circuitboard to a regular Firewire port like you'd find on an I/O panel, not a bunch of little wires. To my astonishment, they made one and sent it to me, and after about a year they began to sell them at their site under the spare-parts section. AntecCSR answers my questions every once in a while when I have a reason to ask something. Overall, I'd say I'm pretty darn pleased to keep supporting them. If you have a reason for disliking them, I guess you're entitled to your opinion too.

 

[Markfw]

Well, I have had maybe 50 PSU's in my system over the last 20 years. The only 2 to fail were cheap no-name brands. I have 10 Antec and 1 enlight at the moment. Most of them have been running at least 3 years.

My only gripe is that my Antec 550 EPS has only 5 4 pin molexes.....

 

[bomberz1qr20]

Originally posted by: ROcHE
I got a Smartpower 300 watts. It died after 2 months of use. Waiting for RMA. This does not mean that they all suck but that's my experience so far

What was it hooked to? I'm curious as to how much people will plug into a 300w supply.

Not that you killed it, just curious.

 

[ROcHE]

Originally posted by: bomberz1qr20

Originally posted by: ROcHE
I got a Smartpower 300 watts. It died after 2 months of use. Waiting for RMA. This does not mean that they all suck but that's my experience so far

What was it hooked to? I'm curious as to how much people will plug into a 300w supply.

Not that you killed it, just curious.

Athlon XP 1800, hard drive, cd-rw and a radeon 8500. GF's rig.

The weird thing is that is was my first "brand name" PSU. I've been using no name psu for 10 years before without any major problem. Guess I've been lucky with those and not with the Antec.

My main rig is powered by a Fortron tough.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

They don't cross ship. I sent mine in 3 or 4 weeks ago. I just got a brand new one, UPS today. This is the new version with sata connectors and a plug on the back for out-of-case acessories. The bad part is, I don't have any sata drives. And this one has less of the standard molex's plugs, than the original that I sent in. Nothing a little electrical tape and some old PSU wires didn't fix.

 

[Jeff7]

Those that have had Antec failures under warranty, what was the shipping cost and did they cross-ship?Also, are you aware that the warranty period for the replacement is limited to that of the original? And given all this would you buy that brand again?

No, they didn't cross ship for me either. I sent the PSU by Priority Mail; they shipped the replacement by UPS ground, so I was without my power supply for two weeks, which did rather suck. But the replacement power supply is still working great.