Antec Signature 650W Power Supply
by Christoph Katzer on October 1, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Efficiency and PFC
Many people focus primarily on power supply efficiency when it comes to making a decision between the various offerings. High efficiency can save money in the long run, but you want to make sure that the highest efficiency matches the sort of load you will be running. Ideally, you also want the efficiency curve to stay near its maximum value for a large portion of the graphs; in particular, we like to see a steep slope at the start of the charts, indicating efficiency ramps up quickly even at lower loads.
Looking at the results for the Antec Signature 650W, a load of 100W only provides around 76-77% efficiency, which is really low for a modern power supply. If you are considering this particular power supply, your system should have a constant power draw of at least 150W and preferably 200W or more power to achieve maximum efficiency. The maximum efficiency of 87% with 230VAC is very good, as is the 85% efficiency with 120VAC. You'll probably want to avoid putting a load of over 500W on the power supply, however, as efficiency begins to drop at that point.
With lower input voltages, the power factor correction is very good. Even with the higher 230VAC input, PFC is still acceptable.
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swaaye - Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - link
With regards to 80mm vs 120mm, I think that the best PSUs often have 80mm fans seems to say something.In the PSUs I've opened that have 120s, they are obviously restricted on component height inside. PSUs with 80mm fans are also designed around the air flowing from front to back, with heatsink cooling appropriately in-lined with the flow. A bottom 120mm isn't going to make airflow remotely as orderly.
I have used a mix of 80mm and 120mm units. Some 80mm units are as quiet as the quietest 120mm units, and some 120mm units are much louder than the 80mm units. Neither has an innate advantage with noise.
ducnow - Friday, October 3, 2008 - link
I would sooner have a small fan with a direct airflow with no restrictions front to back than a bottom 120mm fan under a poorly designed "quite" PSU that has poor airflow.The only thing I wish they would have done is made a single rail edition with more modular cables.
Another thing that sucks is that we just had a PSU make over in the last 4 years with the Nvidia cards using 8 pin on the GPU and higher end boards using a 6pin. I wonder if these will still be the standard when the new core i7 boards & the new Nvidia cards come out?
DTL - Thursday, October 2, 2008 - link
Why the Ambient Temperature only 25°C ? If you are not A big white bear lives near the North Pole.Your case always 40+°C and even 50°C for my case !!! Will there any testing condition down to the earth ?strikeback03 - Friday, October 3, 2008 - link
Then I'd say the airflow in your case could use improvement. No reason for internal temps to be over 40*C. My Centurion 5 internals are around 32-35*C (P965, E6600, Tuniq, 4GB, 2 320GB HDD, 7600GT)TravisChen - Saturday, October 4, 2008 - link
We have to set the standard near the worst case, not the optimal case. Quiet a few users have their CPU fan pumping hot air directly into the PSU so even your GFX and HDD are cool your PSU is not.strikeback03 - Monday, October 6, 2008 - link
My measurements were with a thermocouple inserted through a hole in the case, not on-board sensors.HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 2, 2008 - link
Did you miss this?"we will keep the ambient temperature at 50°C in the stress test. "
HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 2, 2008 - link
you consider 14.5mV a bit high? When the spec is all the way up at 50mV for 3.3V and 5V. 12V rails is "a bit lower" again, are you kidding? below 9mV when the spec is all the way up to 120mV.Really, are you trying your best to seem impartial since the Antec Signature ad is the top banner ad on this site?
bob4432 - Thursday, October 2, 2008 - link
would you guys compare this to the ea-650 to see what the extra ~$150 gets us?7Enigma - Thursday, October 2, 2008 - link
That's what I'd like to see as well. There is a DRASTIC difference in price between these 2 models, and my guess is the price does not fit the increase in quality/performance. But I need to know for sure. :)