Antec Signature 650W Power Supply
by Christoph Katzer on October 1, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Packaging and Appearance
The package is the same as the 850W model. The box lists only the name of the series and some basic specifications on the back. The package is strongly built and will keep the PSU from damage during transport. Since the Signature series has cable management, the detachable cables are in the box as well and are not attached to the power supply. You also get a printed user's manual and we found additional information on a CD in form of a reviewer guide.
The Signature 650W comes with a 80mm fan at the back of the PSU, just like the 850W model. The only openings for air intake are at the front of the unit. Antec perforated around 65% of the back and the rest is occupied by the cable management jacks as well as the fixed cables. The 650W unit only has two additional peripheral jacks and one red jack for PCI Express graphics cards. Antec includes four additional peripheral cable harnesses and one harness with an 8-pin PEG connector that can function as a 6-pin connector if needed. Two of the four peripheral harnesses provide three Molex connectors, and the other two have three SATA connectors. This gives users a nice choice of expansion options, depending on the desired number and type of connectors.
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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. :)