2003 Power Supply Roundup Part II: Better Faster Cheaper
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 31, 2003 1:58 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Vantec also gave us the opportunity to take a first look at their Ion PSU. The Ion is essentially the same as the Stealth but with a steel construction to cut costs down. Vantec Ions are fairly new to the PC market, so you may have trouble finding them in retail channels still.
While visiting the Vantec headquarters last month, one of the more interesting things Vantec had to mention to us was their discontent with variable fan controls. Other power supply companies have also shown their dislike for the feature, since it significantly raises costs, lowers performance and is generally used improperly (if at all). Further revisions of the Stealth and Ion supplies may drop the fan controller in favor of automatic controls.
Both the Ion and the Stealth power supplies made a name for themselves but cramming an uncanny amount of connectors onboard. The Ion comes with 9 standard sized molexes, plus one serial ATA adaptor. Interestingly enough, the Ion does not come with a universal ATX connector, and just ships with a standard ATX adaptor.
Wattages
|
|
3.3V |
5V |
12V |
-12 |
-5 |
+5vsb |
combined theoretical |
actual combined |
advertised total |
|
Vantec Ion 400W |
85.80 |
200.00 |
192.00 |
12.00 |
4.00 |
12.50 |
285.80 |
220.00 |
400.00 |
The Ion has a very low +3.3V rail, like Vantec’s 520W Stealth. Unfortunately, the Stealth could make up by having a large +12V rail for Intel systems as well. The Ion will work fine for your basic AMD or Intel system, but those who really push the limit (particularly with a hungry video card) are going to eventually have problems with the low output on this unit.
For $60, the Ion is priced about half that of the Stealth. The steel construction obviously reduces costs, as well as the elimination of the Universal ATX connector, which we can only guess cuts down on the number of rare components needed for construction. If anything, the Ion targets the low end system builder market better than its aluminum predecessor.
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Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
1. No amp measurements were listed, a serious deficiency because without them there is no way to know how well each PS met its amp specs, and many brands are known to fall short.2. No overload testing results for shorts, excessive power draw, excessive temperature.
3. Ripple is not just slow voltage variation also short term variation, such as for each AC cycle (60 Hz for the incoming AC, about 60,000 Hz for the output DC). I would have liked to see how the latter correlated with the memory noise test results.
4. I hope you were careful when you tested the PS heatsink temperatures because some heatsinks are live with high voltage.
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Well for the observent people who can differentiate between orange and blue, its not an issue. Also waiting a full second before clicking it reveals the location on both the bottom left and the mouse cursor. but i can see how it does get annoying.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
yeah those in page advertisements are REALLY annoying...those have got to go. i never know when i'm going to link to another anandtech article or to an ad...i guess that's the point but it's still unacceptableAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I would like to see the review include a Heroichi Electronic power supply, I hear they are very good but I haven't used one.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Some of your "In Page Advertising" links seem to be missing closing links tags or something so that it results in having a <link> in the middle or end of a sentence. Ex. "We had a lot of troubles with Vantec’s last power supply, the Stealth. We found an error in the production label<link>, which quickly led to a change in all the labeling on all Stealth power supplies."KristopherKubicki - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
#3 and #4, thank you for spotting these errors. I have updated and fixed them.Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I hope the ripple for the PC Power & Cooling 3V wasn't 2.295.. Possibly 3.296??? 1 volt drop is unacceptable.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
The REAL price of the pc power&coolinghttp://www.directron.com/pcpower.htmlAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
a little more content per page in some cases would be nice too......but good to see content on the site at all...and seemingly more regularly too...
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
woah guys, the tables need some work...