Antec NeoPower 480W, Antec Phantom 350W
Antec NeoPower 480W:
We've seen that braided cables is one way to keep them tidy, but a better idea would be to only have cables connected to your PSU that you actually need in your current configuration. A PSU that is "modular", the latest buzzword in the PSU market, gives you that flexibility. You plug in the ones you need, and leave off the ones you don't. With this Antec unit, you can even crimp some extra included molex or SATA power connectors to the provided cables.
 
The NeoPower looks fairly conventional, in gunmetal grey and with a (non-glowing) 120mm fan, but there are 5 sockets along one side, and the only permanently attached cables are the ATX Power and fan monitoring ones. It comes with a bag of cables that you can plug into the PSU depending on what you need. One of the sockets is only 2 pins, and this is for a "Fan Only" cable. Any fans (up to 3 is recommended) connected to this cable will be speed controlled by the PSU according to temperature.
As this is an ATX 2.0 compatible PSU, it has two +12v rails, rated together with the +5 and +3.3 for 460W. The whole PSU is of course rated to 480W. Counting the number of available connectors is tricky, because there are more included cables than you can use at once, for maximum configurability. There is a 6-pin PCI-E connector of course, as well as a two-SATA cable, three cables with three molex connectors each (one 47cm long, two 77cm long), a molex to two floppy splitter cable and a 24-pin to 20-pin ATX power converter cable. There are two more molex and two more SATA power connectors you can crimp onto any of the cables. I have to say I'm very impressed by this whole setup.
Antec Phantom 350W:
Antec's take on the "silent PSU" concept goes one step further than Zalman, by removing all the fans completely. This hefty, fin-encrusted unit looks more like some obscure Hi-Fi component than a traditional PSU. It relies on radiation and passive convection from the heatsink fins that surround it, to dissipate heat. Being secured to the frame of your PC will no doubt carry some heat away from it also. It did run quite warm in our testing, bordering on hot at times, so you'd want to make sure at least some airflow goes its way inside your case. It is of course completely silent during use, having no moving parts at all.
 
The normal 80mm exhaust fan on the back of most PC's would probably be enough to keep air moving past the bottom of it. Antec note in the manual that PC's expect some airflow from the PSU, so you need to make sure your other components don't get too hot when using the fanless Phantom. They also recommend, due to the extra weight of this unit due to the heatsinks on the casing, that you remove it from your PC before transport.
 
The package is fairly minimal, with only a manual, power cord and mounting screws. As a final touch, Antec have included a glowing blue strip on the back of the unit, which isn't visible from inside the case. It includes 7 molex, 2 floppy and 2 SATA power connectors, as well as both a 4-pin and 24-pin ATX power. This is an ATX 2.0 compatible PSU, but includes an adapter down to the more common 20-pin ATX plug. It also has the 6-pin PCI-Express additional power connector. Antec rate the +3.3v and +5v for a combined total of 190W, with 16A available on +12v1 and 18A on +12v2. This PSU was slightly longer than most of the others, so when coupled with the suggested airflow, we couldn't recommend it where space is a premium.
|
