Compatibility issue with Tyan boards & Antec PSU's
by Tuan Nguyen on November 15, 2005 9:49 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
For those who are currently in the market for dual Opteron boards and are preferring products manufactured by Tyan, be sure to carefully pick power supplies with some research before purchase. We have been advised that certain Antec power supplies are having issues with the following motherboards from Tyan:
Thunder K8S Pro (S2882)
Thunder K8SD Pro (S2882-D)
Thunder K8W (S2885)
Thunder K8WE (S2895)
All the above boards are based on AMD's 8000 series chipsets except the Thunder K8WE (S2895) which uses NVIDIA's nForce Professional 2200 and 2050 south bridges.
The issues that are affecting the above motherboards have to do with a power fluctuation on the 12V rail that seems to be occurring only with Antec True Power 2 EPS power supplies. The units do not appear to be delivering consistent power -- often dropping to as low as 11.3V on the 12V rail. While some power supply units pass quality control tests initially, they end up failing after extended use. Using non-Antec power supplies solves the issue and for now we can only recommend that you use this work around until an official statement from Antec can be given. Tyan motherboards however, have always enjoyed a strong reputation for rock-solid stability -- although you may be required to be picky about which components you attach to the board.
Most power supplies have become all but commodity items on the market in the recent years but there are still companies out there that produce top-quality grade products. With all the newest high drain components coming out, the time is approaching again for us to do a power supply roundup.
Thunder K8S Pro (S2882)
Thunder K8SD Pro (S2882-D)
Thunder K8W (S2885)
Thunder K8WE (S2895)
All the above boards are based on AMD's 8000 series chipsets except the Thunder K8WE (S2895) which uses NVIDIA's nForce Professional 2200 and 2050 south bridges.
The issues that are affecting the above motherboards have to do with a power fluctuation on the 12V rail that seems to be occurring only with Antec True Power 2 EPS power supplies. The units do not appear to be delivering consistent power -- often dropping to as low as 11.3V on the 12V rail. While some power supply units pass quality control tests initially, they end up failing after extended use. Using non-Antec power supplies solves the issue and for now we can only recommend that you use this work around until an official statement from Antec can be given. Tyan motherboards however, have always enjoyed a strong reputation for rock-solid stability -- although you may be required to be picky about which components you attach to the board.
Most power supplies have become all but commodity items on the market in the recent years but there are still companies out there that produce top-quality grade products. With all the newest high drain components coming out, the time is approaching again for us to do a power supply roundup.
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Sh0ckwave - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
I would like to see an updated power supply roundup from Anandtech.IwillBenelux - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Hi,This is no surprise to me at all.
First off all: Antec does not make powersupplies, they charge a premium and pay a lot less to an OEM that makes it for them (which has to do costsavings because they enforce a low cost and do not wish to put money where it counts). Let me tell you: just because a PSU appears outwardly expensive it doesn't mean that it is and that the money / budget was spent correctly (read: where it should be - the INTERNAL components , R&D and design of the PSU)
In my experience as a dealer & distributor of computerhardware I can state the following:
- Antec return rate is currently the highest of ANY powersupply we sell (even much higher than the 350W budget ATX psu's in cases we sell at 37 EUR VAT incl. or similar), and this since over a year now. I have yet to see any other brands with a returnpercentage that is on some models well over 25% (!!!) Therefor I currently do not recommend Antec supplies to any of my customers, a real shame - because they sell some nice cases (which they do not make themselves either).
- after some time several truepower models (especially the 380/430W models) start showing undervolt on the +12v and +5v rails - causing all kinds of weird system reliability issues.
- Tom's hardware recent PSU live test shows clearly that two supplies from Antec did not pass first sample test (ripple was out of ATX spec for example). Now if you know that many far cheaper PSUs can easily stay within the ripple spec, you have to wonder... Only after some tweaking by two engineers that were sent by Antec the supplies passed the THG test.
- Note that what is important is that much of a PSUs quality depends on failsafes built in the PSU. It does not always mean that when a PSU posts with a cheapass board that it is a better PSU. It may merely show that the PSU that kicks into failsafe is reacting to a badly design powercircuit or short, while some other supplies do not or for example damage the system & cause permanent faillure of the PSU(booting for example even when there is a short, creating a possible firehazard!). Quality PSUs like the below brands usually have 6 to 8 failsafe techniques built in. Cheap / low quality PSUs do not most of the time.
- Quality control: Some mfr. will perform a full load duration test at high ambient temp in a clima room. Others will use much lower temps and will test only 100% load for a very short period, with only continuous load test at e.g. 85% or similar. I think it is quite clear that a 100% load test for several hours at e.g. 55 degrees celcius will be a much better test than e.g. 15 minutes 100% load and 85% load for 30 minutes at e.g. 35 degrees... (details some mfr. fail to specify). In general you will find that the industrial PSUs are better tested to operate under these kind of conditions. You should also note, that some cheaper models - while they are labeled with some quality labels like TUV or EC, FCC - are in effect not fulfilling the requirements to earn these labels. Not all mfr. are correct and printing a label is very easy - the official instancies' checks are only random.
Some brands I can recommend in general:
Fortron Source (good quality for your buck)
(http://www.fsp-group.com.tw)">http://www.fsp-group.com.tw)
Zippy Emacs (generally rather expensive but very solid, industrial PSUs)
(http://www.zippy.com.tw)">http://www.zippy.com.tw)
Seasonic (a bit more expensive than Fortron in general, but also good productquality)
(http://www.seasonic.com.tw)">http://www.seasonic.com.tw)
PC Power & Cooling (they are based on Zippy or Seasonic designs, depending on the model)
Very expensive, and generally loud (depending on the model) with focus on high quality and reliability
(http://www.pcpowercooling.com)">http://www.pcpowercooling.com)
The return percentage of the latter are much much MUCH lower than Antec, Enermax,... or whatever (usually non-manufacturer, like these latter two) you want to throw in. On Fortron/Zippy I can honestly state that to my knowledge return percentage is well under 1%.
You will notice that you'll see Fortron's FSP productcodes (fortron/sparkle) and Zippy or some OEM products based on some of their designs quite often in Tyan and other serverboard mfr. recommended PSU lists.
Regards,
David / Iwill Benelux
Goose77 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
love how some people can skew opinion by omitting other facts. They state one number and all the sudden they are right!Nice to know the return percentage on a product, but are you not forgetting which product is also purchased the most!
i work at a retail chain, and by far antec is the psu that is bought the most. So, common sense would tell u that it would be the one returned the most too!
another bit of information you so kindly left out is that half the time the people that buy psu are trouble shooting their system and have no intention of keeping the product!!
when you factor both those issues in, the actual defect rate is much lower!!
Oh, may i add user error too! How do u know that the duffous didnt kill the psu him self?
Democrate!!! i tell ya, cant live with them, cant get rid of them!!
Goose77 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
oops, ment Liberals... democrate are actually good when they aint liberal!Reflex - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Uh, he is talking percentage of sold units. How many are sold peroid is irrelevant when he is talking a percentage. If he had said how many total returns he was getting you would be correct.I have heard from others who run shops that Antec has a high return rate as well, this story is not unusual.
What this has to do with Democrats and Liberals I haven't a clue.
Goose77 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Your right, but my points was he was not painting a complete and concise picture. Using a percentage is fine when all things are equal here, but they are not. Antec has to produce much more product than its competition, causing a higher percentage of defect rate. Secondly, as stated periviously, people are more inclinded to buy a BETTER product to do testing to locate there problem. These people would be a part of the percentage that he stated, which have nothing to do with deffects. all he managed to do, is create a false statement by implimenting an a simple fact that is difficult to dispute.Now, what does his statement have to do with liblerals, is the fact that they do similar things in politics. Painting there own picture of how the war was started in Iraq. So, with his statement that he has made, deems him a liberal in my eye!
nothing against, just making a harmless joke (not a good one at that i see).
will stop posting now!
Justin Case - Sunday, November 20, 2005 - link
Do you even understand what a percentage is? A higher return percentage means that, compared to the number of units sold, more units are returned. It's irrelevant how many units are sold in total. Did you even make it past 4th grade maths?Antec is basically in the business of rebranding cases and PSUs and then selling them for ridiculous prices to suckers like you. Lately they've been getting greedy and buying cheaper, crappier PSUs. But as long as people like you keep buying them, I don't think they have anything to worry about.
Griswold - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
Ok then, what would be a conservative/republican? Lying sack of shit who would do anything to meet his agenda and please his butt-buddies in the oil business?
Just a joke... of course.
Webgod - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
Don't believe every conspiracy theory you hear. Perhaps you need to be Hannitized.Chadder007 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Wow....thanks for the info. I always though that Antec made good PSU's....oh well.