This Just In: Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W PSU
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 25, 2010 8:44 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
I'm trying my hands at a new feature here on AnandTech called This Just In.The idea is simple: when something that's not under NDA shows up at my doorstep, I'll snap some pics and post it for you all to see. Something to gawk at while whatever it is I'm working on gets reviewed. It'll give you a glimpse into what I'm working on and at the same time, it'll make sure I take photos of the product early in the review process rather than waiting until 2AM the morning the review goes live.
I'll start off with something that we're not necessarily reviewing, but something that will be used in a couple of upcoming reviews. As you may have heard, NVIDIA is launching a brand new pair of graphics cards tomorrow: the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470. In preparation for tomorrow's review we needed to update our GPU testbed power supply, in case a pair of these cards ended up pushing the limits of our existing 850W PSU. So we asked around for something a bit beefier. That's not to say that we needed it, but we wanted to be safe just in case.
Antec was kind enough to set us up with one of its best - the TruePower Quattro 1200:
An 80 Plus Silver rated 1200W power supply, this thing should be more than enough to handle a pair of any single GPU graphics cards on the market. And thus far in our testing, it has been.
The 80 Plus Silver rating means that at 20% and 100% load the PSU is guaranteed to be 85% efficient, and at 50% load it'll be 88% efficient. Higher efficiencies keep heat and power costs down, which is always a good thing. Below 20% the efficiency drops off and thus this won't be a great PSU for lower end systems. Most of our testbeds idle at 50 - 150W which is less than 13% of the PSU's load capacity. This thing is built for the very large, very power hungry desktops and workstations.
The PSU ships with both permanent and modular cables. A pair of PCIe cables (each with 6-pin and 6+2-pin) are attached, and you get another modular pair as well. The ATX and ATX/EPS 12V connectors are obviously permanently connected, as are single strands of molex and SATA connectors. The rest are bundled modular cables.
Swapping graphics cards can be a bit cumbersome thanks to the large capacitors at the end of the PCIe power cables, and idle power of our GPU testbed is higher with the 1200W unit thanks to the low idle of most modern day GPUs/CPUs, but so far it has been performing well in our tests.
You'll see exactly what it's been powering in about 24 hours.
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DeathRayLoveMachine - Saturday, March 27, 2010 - link
WHY NO LOVE FOR EARTH?!semo - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
I'm using Antec TPN for both work and home PC and were/are the best PSUs (price/performance/features wise) in their category. I think the internals are from seasonic M12. It's a DC-DC PSU with 5 year warranty and half the cabling is modular.I would say just buy whatever everyone else is getting at time of purchase or whatever is known to be most compatible with your motherbaord (for home use that is).
7Enigma - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
Funny, my last system was an Antec Neopower480w that lasted through 2 builds and is currently at my dad's as a last-gen gaming rig. All systems were pretty heavily OC'd and it hasn't ever given me a problem.I built my last system with a Tuniq and it's a piece of crap (bought it while "initial" reviews showed it to be good). :(
Franson - Sunday, March 28, 2010 - link
That post from rarson sounded more like a competitor trying to spread some bad reputation. Unfortunately too often these days.7Enigma - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
I'm refreshing the main page waiting for the review Anand! :)damianrobertjones - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
"As you may have heard, NVIDIA is launching a brand new pair of graphics cards tomorrow: the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470. In preparation for tomorrow's review we needed to update our GPU testbed power supply, in case a pair of these cards ended up pushing the limits of our existing 850W PSU."WHat you meant to say is, "They called up and said, 'hey, the new cards out tomorrow so push our product and we'll provide the Green $$$'"
:)
DeathRayLoveMachine - Saturday, March 27, 2010 - link
Anand posted a perfectly reasonable justification for this article in the first two sentences of his posting:[quote]I'm trying my hands at a new feature here on AnandTech called This Just In. The idea is simple: when something that's not under NDA shows up at my doorstep, I'll snap some pics and post it for you all to see.[/quote]
Is this really SO IMPLAUSIBLE that you felt you needed to be a snide asshole about it?
neogodless - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
I'm curious about noise. I know that the primary purpose of a 1200W supply is not to be silent. However, it's curious that it uses an 80mm fan. My Corsair HX620 uses a 120mm... and is beautifully silent. (And enough for many demanding video cards, if not pairs.)Calin - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
High efficiency means lower heat output, so this 1200W PSU at 90% efficiency and 900W output (1000W input) will generate just as much heat as a hypothetical 500W PSU running at 400W output (and 500W input) at 80% efficiency.As for noise, it wouldnt be so much if the fan is specified for "hot running" (hot internal temperature makes better heat transfer to the cooling air, so it will need less air and make less noise).
By the way, I love my 350W, 120mm fan PSU (Seasonic I think) - it runs completely silent. I wouldn't want noisy fans again
strikeback03 - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
Out of curiosity, what Seasonic PSU do you have? I have a SS-350ET in my HTPC, and my ASUS motherboard complains about surges on startup. I RMAed it and the replacement came back doing the same thing (along with having a cut-off screw in one of the PSU mounting holes) so I am not sure if it is a problem with the PSU design in general or a motherboard problem.