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Antec Quattro Power Supply Problem – Final Update

quattroSome of you may remember my beef with my Antec Quattro 800W power supply in which nVidia Sentinel kept warning me that my 8800GT was not getting enough power. This is technically impossible given how we loaded up the power supply with 680W worth of peltiers and it survived all the abuse in the review.

I finally got an answer from Antec and nVidia, it is not a problem with the power supply but with the nVidia drivers. If you download the newest GeForce drivers, it resolves the problem! Thank you nVidia and sorry to Antec for my false accusations. Go out and get yourself an Antec Quattro!

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. 04 Apr 08 | Reviews, Technology | Comments (0)

Antec NeoPower Blue 650W

AntecFor those keeping track, I wasn’t very happy with the way my Antec Quattro 850W PSU was working with my BFG 8800GT OC2. However, the Antec NeoPower is a line that I have trusted for many years. It has powered my most powerful machines to my average working rig without any problems whatsoever. What sets this power supply apart from the rest are the blue LEDs that will illuminate your case. A part from that, the Antec NeoPower Blue is no different than your other high efficient Antec power supplies. You get great performance and a great price.

The Antec NeoPower comes with 5 years warranty (80,000 hours MTBF) which is more than enough for your average PC user. That works out to 9 years of continuous operation. Much like the Quattro, the NeoPower is modular. It has the connectors necessary to power your 3870X2 to 8800Ultra.

operation

When loaded to 93% maximum capacity, the NeoPower maintained voltages within a 1% of the ideal. Gone are the days where a 5% variation was acceptable. The unit also maintained the same level of performance when subjected to a hot environment with an exhaust air temperature of 45C.

Nothing with this power supply comes out at me with yellow flags. It’s a simple looking power supply that does it’s job. The lack-luster finish may be something you like. Personally, I’m fine with gunmetal. It looks sharp in my eyes. You’ll also be thankful for the fully sleeved cables. This is a far better investment than running the power supply chassis through some electroplating/polishing to a get a mirror finish. All those blinging power supplies just get tucked inside my case where it can’t be seen. With the blue LEDs, it will illuminate the inside of your machine. If you have a window, then the more power to you.

There was a time not to long ago that we scoffed at the idea of spending $100 dollars on a high power supply, when we ridiculed the prospect of cheap performance power supplies. However today, power supplies positioned at lower price points manage to offer superb performance while sacrificing neither aesthetics nor features, and this of course, is a trend we are quite happy to see.

Click here for the full review.

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. 07 Feb 08 | Reviews | Comments (0)

Overclockers Online Upcoming Events

Today marks a new month, a fresh beginning so to say. It was a good month for Overclockers Online. We published a total of 7 reviews:Patriot Memory 2GB DDR3 1333 (PDC32G1333LLK) Thermalright Ultima-90 Corsair Dominator PC3-14400 Noctua NF-P12 120mm Fan Super Talent Project X 2x1GB PC3-14400 CoolIT USB Chiller and Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W.

You can expect the same number of reviews for February, I already have all of the month planned out. Products you’ll see include: AutumnWave onair GT, Ultra Products Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler, BlueLounge POP, Cooler Master 690, Audio FX Pro 5+1, Antec NeoPower 650W Blue, Noctua NH-U12, and Zalman CNPS7500-CU.

Reviews that I expect to see completed include the Samsung CLP-610ND, Samsung 2693HM, Tagan BZ 900W PSU, Silverstone KL02, Mitron Hard Drive selector, HIS HD3870X2, Cooling Jag Programmable Mini LED Flash Fan and Patriot Memory Viper Series DDR3 1866.

If all goes well, the following samples are expected to arrive in February: OCZ 2x2GB DDR2 PC2-8000 Platinum Edition Dual Channel , Samsung T22, Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution and Biostar TF-7150UF. I will of course make every attempt possible to bring in more samples and get some contests rolling again.

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. 01 Feb 08 | Reviews, Technology | Comments (0)

Antec Quattro Power Supply Problem Update

quattroIn an earlier post I mentioned my Antec Quattro 850W could not supply enough power for my BFG 8800GT OC2. After exchanging a few emails with their technical support, which has an amazing response time, I have an update which should give us an idea as to when we can expect a fix to the solution.

Here’s their reply:
Simon,
Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we will have a solution for this issue.
Thanks,
XXXX XXXX
Antec Customer Support

I will be getting in touch with them in 2 weeks time and we’ll take it from there.

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. 31 Jan 08 | Reviews, Technology | Comments (2)

Antec Quattro 850W Power Supply Problem

quattroSome of you may remember the Antec Quattro 850W review Anthony wrote at the end of October. it was a great power supply for given it’s price and features. As a matter of fact, it was so well like that Overclockers Online gave it the Editor’s Choice Award.

Did we speak too early?

I met up with Anthony at the end of 2007 to pick up the power supply from him as I was building a new machine. The system consists of an Asus P5E3 motherboard, Intel Q6600 G0 Stepping processor, Patriot Memory 2GB DDR3-1333 memory modules, my new BFG 8800GT OC2 video card, an Antec 900 case, a Thermalright HR-01 CPU Cooler, a few hard drives, a Lite-ON 20X DVD+/-RW drive, and my Logitech diNovo Media Desktop. This isn’t exactly a power hungry machine and I would have surely thought the 850W power supply by Antec would be more than sufficient, however, I was wrong. After installing Windows XP SP2 and the nVidia drivers, I was immediately greeted with a Sentinel warning from nTunes saying my card was not getting sufficient power. How could this be? A quick search on google and I found out I wasn’t the only one with the problem. It’s common among Antec users, and some other manufacturers.

I contact Antec via online support and was quickly an update on the situation. Here’s what they have to say:

Simon,
We originally noticed this problem with the 8800GTX video cards. Nvidia tested our power supply with the cards to certify them for SLI testing and they passed with flying colors. We sent out a fix when we saw there was a problem, the fix worked and now we are noticing that the GTS and GT cards are not working with this new revision. We currently do not have a working version of the power supply that will work with the Nvidia 8800GT and GTS cards. We have recently found that this problem is also with other brand PSU’s and Nvidia video cards. Our engineers are working with Nvidia on a fix for this issue.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
XXXX XXXX
Antec Customer Support

Antec definitely hasn’t lost me as a customer but I’ll be waiting for when this issue gets resolve so I can get an RMA! Until then, my Cooler Master 500W iGreen from July of 2006 is running my system.

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. 29 Jan 08 | Reviews, Technology | Comment (1)