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Antec NeoHE 430 Watt


Date
: 01/16/06 – 04:32:46 AM

Author
:

Category
: Power Supplies

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Antec

Price
: $85.75 (Newegg)

If you were to ask someone to name a few of their favourite power supply manufacturers,
Antec
is bound to come up. They have always made quality products that live up to the standards of enthusiasts. While some will argue that there were a few motherboard incompatibility issues, we've been assured that it is now a thing of the past.

When Antec first released the Neo HE line up, I was excited to see someone come up with a high efficiency model that would be quiet and modular. Today, we get the opportunity to review the
NeoHE 430
. This model is the highest power rating you can get that isn't designed for SLI systems. For those who intend on building an SLI machine, the NeoHE 500 and 550 Watt models have both been nVidia SLI certified. Let's get onto the package and see what Antec has shipped us today!

Page 2 : Package

The Antec Neo HE package is very simple; it's artwork designed to grab your attention. Unlike the flashy boxes we see out there today, this conservative look is appealing and a change from the ordinary.

Flipping the box over, Antec overwhelms you with features and specifications.

Here's a close up shot of the features and specifications:

The sides of the box are also put to good use. The top has the model and logo, one side has a few features and the last side gives some background information about the Neo HE line up.

Let's take a quick look at the specifications before opening up the box.

Page 3 : Specifications

Antec has always done an excellent job in making feature and specifications easily accessible on their webpage. With a few clicks, I had the entire specifications sheet right in front of me. To save you the work, I've made a copy below.

If you look carefully you will see that each 12V rail is capable of supplying a maximum of 16A, however this is only for a peak load. If the power supply always supplied 16A on each of the 12V rails, that would be 48A at 12V for a total of 576 Watts. That's 1.5 times the available power of 384 Watts. This means you can really only
consistently
draw 10.6A off each rail if you were to use all three at once.

Also for your viewing pleasure are the features Antec uses to sell the model:

This is what Antec has to say about there own unit:

The big selling points about this power supply are the high efficiency, low noise, and triple 12V output circuit. For those big rigs that need an ample amount of juice, this may be a way to make sure all your components get enough power!

Page 4 : Package Contents

In order to gain access to the components inside the box, you first need to remove the plastic wrapping. This little bit of wrapping ensures all your contents remain sealed up until you're ready to install them. With a modular power supply, you definitely don't want to be short a cable.

As you can see, the box is quite full. The first things we'll pull out are the manual, power cord and mounting screws.

The power cord is made with 18AWG cable, pretty standard for most manufacturers. I certainly would have preferred the 16AWG that I got with my TruePower 2.0, but for a lower wattage unit, 18AWG is acceptable.

The next thing out of the box are the modular cables. The cables are packaged inside a plastic bag, just another layer of protection for keeping people out and ensuring the cables stay together during transit.

Opening the bag, we pull out six bundles of cable.

In the photo above, we have two SATA cables powering a total of four SATA drives, two 4-pin molex cables power a total of six 4-pin devices, one PCI-E cable and one 4-pin molex to two 4-pin floppy drive connectors. I was a hoping to see a larger variety of cables, perhaps a single 4-Pin molex or SATA cable or a modular cable with two 4-Pin devices instead of three. This way you don't have to have extra wires running all over the place if you plan on just powering a single hard drive and a single optical drive.

Here's a picture of all the cables stretched out:

The ends of the modular pieces look exactly like the 6-pin PCI-E connector.

Last but not least, we pull out the power supply unit!

The gun metal steel makes it look very ordinary, and it is. In most cases, you won't see the power supply, so there's no point in making it look flashy.

The bottom of the unit is just a sheet of metal. There's no 120mm fan there that some of us have become accustomed too. With maximum performance operating up until 50°C, either the power supply will run hot or is very efficient and doesn't produce much heat. This being the Neo
H
igh
E
fficiency, I think the answer is obvious.

The back of the power supply houses the modular panel with some preinstalled and loomed wires. The preinstalled wires include your 24-pin main power connector and your 4-pin auxiliary connector.

Peering into the power supply, we can see it is full of components and two aluminum heatsinks are present.

The front of the power supply doesn't hold anything special – a power switch, AC power cord and 80mm fan grill.

Because this is a universal power input, this power supply should be good for both the 120V and 240V AC countries. You'll notice the lack of the toggle that selects the AC voltage source.

On the side of the power supply's enclosure we have a sticker indicating a few features.

As you can see, the warranty sticker has already been torn, so there's no reason why I shouldn't open it up!

Opening up the power supply confirms the two large heatsinks. Apart from that, the power supply is pretty packed with components and cables. I can see some of them are shielded.

There's plenty of protection around the side of the power supply to make sure the metallic side doesn't come in contact with any of the components.

Laid out on the other side of the power supply are the cables supplying various voltages to your PC.

On the circuit board the various rails are labeled. Some of those wires will go to the fixed 24-pin main power and 4-pin auxiliary power connectors while the rest will go up to the modular panel.

The modular panel is also labeled. The first 12V rail is on the 24-pin main power and 4-pin auxiliary power connectors. The other two 12V rails are on the modular panel we see in the above photo. The first two modular connections on the left are the third 12V rail and the last three are on the second 12V rail. It may actually be the first three and then the last two, but the point is if you have an SLI machine using the 500 and 550 Watt model, make sure you connect the PCI-E connectors opposite ends. This ensures that you're not overloading one rail but sharing the load between two.

The fan used inside the power supply is made by ADDA.

The model number is AD0812MB-A71GL, it is an ADDA brushless DC fan with an 80mm frame using 12VDC. It is the medium speed model that uses ball bearings. It's 25mm thick with seven blades and an IC motor protective circuit. The GL in the model number means that it's rated as a low noise model. This puppy can push 30.37CFM at 28.3 dBA.

We'll put everything back together and set up our test rig so we can do some power testing!

Page 5 : Installation and Testing

Installing a power supply is very simple. Unplug all the devices from your old one and pull it out of your case. Slide in the Antec NeoHE, secure it to the frame with the supplied screws and plug in the modular connections to power your devices.

There's really nothing special to installing the unit and I was up and running in about 15 minutes. Here's a run down of the PC I used for testing:

I would have preferred using my PowerColor X800GTO16, but that's out for RMA, so instead I had to use the X700 Bravo. Regardless, this is a fair bit of hardware and probably more than what most people will have plugged into the 430 Watt model.

The testing conditions were power-on state, nothing plugged in, idle and full load. Full load readings were taken four hours into a Prime 2004 stress test and the idle load conditions were taken four hours after Prime 2004 had shutdown.

I'll monitor the three different rails, but due to how my system was setup I could only get the 24-pin main power rail readings during the power-on state. The two other readings where taken directly at opposite ends of the modular panel. I used a 2 decimal Radio-Shack digital multimeter to take three readings and then averaged them.

24-Pin Main Power Connector

First Modular Panel connector with Second 12V Rail

Last Modular Panel connector with Third 12V Rail

The voltages are very steady with the largest deviation on the 5V rail. The lowest it is at is 4.88V, which is a 2.4% variation over the nominal 5V it should be at. All three 12V rails are marginally higher but it won't cause you any problems. The 3.3V is dead on where it should be. It looks like the power supply performs as it should, provide a steady supply of power at the required voltages. If the 24-pin main power connector has the same results as the two other rails, which it is safe to assume it will, this power supply is rock solid.

The power supply does not heat up and in order for me to hear the fan I had to have my ear right up against the grill. It's quiet, very quiet! It's also not hot to touch, which means it is a very efficient power supply and does not waste energy by turning it into heat.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Antec has once again lived up to its reputation by delivering an excellent product that performs as expected. The voltages are bang on and the noise is non-existent. While modular power supplies aren't the most popular scheme around if you intend on using all of your cables, it's great for those looking to get into the HTPC and small form factor cases where space is a premium. It is also an easy way to buy a power supply with all the cables sleeved for a nice and tidy appearance.

While I can't comment on how efficient my particular model is, the NeoHE line up is rated at 82% for the typical load on a 115V AC source and 85% for the 230V source. Most power supplies you see on the market are in the upper 70% region, so in today's day and age where energy is scarce, you can do the world a favour by keeping your wasted energy low with Antec's line of High Efficiency power supplies.

Advantages

Triple 12V rail
Very stable voltages
Silent

Disadvantages

Not enough variety to modular cable selection

Overclockers Online would like to thank Antec for making this review possible.