Antec EarthWatts EA 380D Green 380W
by Martin Kaffei on October 2, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- Green
- Antec
- Earth Watts
- 380W
Package Contents
The EA-380D (and the rest of the EarthWatts Green line) ships without a power cord. The supposed reasoning is that most households already have extra power cords, as they accumulate from older PCs and upgrades, but if you're new to the computing game you may have to order one (or ask a friend). While that may benefit the environment, it's also worth noting that Antec saves a bit on costs; the customer will have to decide whether the included matierials are sufficient.
Antec neglected to mention the absense of polystyrene in their packaging; the PSU is protected by two pieces of recycled cardboard. Also included are mounting screws and a product overview sheet. Besides the “green philosophy”, the removal of the power cord (~1$) is a useful way of reducing BOM costs, whereas the manual and screws are rather inexpensive by comparison. We would say that screws could be left out as well, since they could be reused from older PCs, but they cost (and weigh) less, so the there was apparently less incentive to remove them.
Going with the green image, a dark green coating was selected for this series; it's an unusual alternative to the grey predecessors and other (mainly black) retail PSUs. It won't matter one way or the other for windowless cases, but some customers might enjoy the change in style. The varnish resists scratches very well and fingerprints are not visible. With an 80mm fan at the rear of the chassis, there are no bulging fan grilles on the top or bottom. The ventilation holes are square-shaped and give the PSU an angular and rustic appearance. Otherwise the styling is straightforward and unobtrusive. With a depth of just 14cm, it is the smallest possible ATX-size PSU.
The +12V rails are rated at 15A and 17A respectively and deliver a combined 336W. +5V and +3.3V are specified with 20A and 115W combined. The peak power on the stronger rails is 450W.
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JimmiG - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
Very refreshing to see a quality PSU in this segment. The wattage race is really getting out of hand. If someone posts about system crashes or poor performance, and has anything less than a 750W PSU, people instantly tell the person to upgrade the PSU. A week later, the original poster returns, saying the shiny new 1200W PSU did not solve the problems, and the original 550W PSU was more than enough for a 65W dual core CPU and a 100W GPU...Setsunayaki - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
True Story,I helped a company a year back switch their internal computers to 10w - sub10w systems for basic things...such as email, work and writing up documentations and analyzing to improving business growth. A 400w supply truly means that I am using 25 - 30w more power on basics...
As far as HD goes, there are laptops which run 720P (though 1080P is the desired resolution) which draw a lot lower amounts of power....
This is why I frown on things like this....like when someone tells me I should buy ATI to save power on graphics to be able to do basic things, I simply wonder..."Why don't enough people who run on basic things buy basic laptops or sub-10w systems?"
The sub-10w systems based on nano-ITX boards also allow a LOT of space to be saved...specially since you wont have tons of towers floating around. I received an email a few weeks ago when they were moving to a new building they managed to put in two boxes, 100 nano iTX systems for their employees to transfer to their new building. As for monitors, that was another story....
mck22 - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
I have owned one of these since March and it has functioned without incident.I bought it in a hurry after I found that the cables on the other, more powerful PS I had purchased for a new build for my wife's use were too short to reach the MB's in the Antec 300 case that she had approved of for its cosmetics.
None of the other PS's I had laying around would reach either, so I assumed that an Antec would work. I bought the cheapest available since I had already exceeded my original budget. I have no regrets, which is the best compliment I can make for a PS.
ehume - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
This is not a very quiet psu. Or, I should say its predecessor the EA 380 has a noisy fan, especially with a little dust on it. Maybe it unbalances the fan. But even with the dust gone it makes too much noise. In a room full of computers, it is the EA 380 we all hear, and it is not a pleasant sound..Larger fans move more air more quietly than this one does. This was absolutely the last psu I will get that has an 80mm fan.
Christoph Katzer - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
Hi,The noise would have had nothing to do with the size of the fan. You'll wonder when you stress a power supply to its limits the fan will always turn louder which is good and necessary for cooling. It always depends on the bearing type in fact. There might have been something wrong with the fan which can unfortunately happen, but a blank statement 80mm fans are bad is very wrong. They are able to cool the PSU internals much more efficient for example. The air goes straight through without being rerouted.
Christoph
strikeback03 - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
I have used several of the older EarthWatts 300-380W PSUs for builds in our lab, in all of them the fans have been essentially silent.METALMORPHASIS - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
Antec makes great power supplies. I have 4 of them, and all are going strong after 5 years.theagentsmith - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
A few years ago I read about how much PSU efficiency can be useful both to save on electricity and the environment, so I began looking for a 80plus certified units that didn't cost an arm and a leg.I found this very EA380W which had stellar reviews, the right size and a reasonable price of about 50 euros.
If they made a 250-300W 80plus model I would have chosen it, because most system doesn't exceed 150W in full load
recidivist - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
From p7: "Antec is using an ADDA-fan (AD0812H5-A70GL), which has a ball bearing and a power consumption of 0.25A"The pic of the fan label clearly shows AD0812HS-A70GL. H=High Speed. S=Sleeve Bearing. Fan RPM is thermistor controlled.
Morbid666 - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
I've already built about 8 systems for my clients with this PSU (mostly office workstations). for its cheap price you get antec quality, plenty of connectors, all sorts of protection & its whisper quiet. i would reccomend this product to anyone building a reliable cost efficient workstation.