Signature 650 PSU: Antec's Challenge

lucas82 · Post by **lucas82** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:43 am

Cistron wrote:
Ch0z3n wrote:I knew that AC wasn't very common in the more northern parts of Europe, well Germany, France, and England are all I can really vouch for since I haven't been anywhere else since I was 5. I figured that farther south AC would be a little more common due to the length and heat of the summers.
I can only speak for Austria, but we insulate our houses quite well, which mean they also stay cool in Summer. We easily get heat-strikes of several weeks beyond 35Â°C in the Pannonian Basin (that's the big plains which reaches from the alps through Hungary to Bulgaria). Yet - also thanks to cooler basements - the houses stay at pleasant temperatures.

The Italians have a completely different attitude to life. They just evade the heat by shifting everything to the later hours of the day/night.

Sorry for this little off-topic journey to European culture and building standards.

Nice review. I'd like to see more low-wattage devices though (I know, not your fault MikeC).

I like your off-topic explanation.
Here in Brazil, there is a lot of different "standards" about heat and AC,, because the country is so big. For instance, I live south of the Tropic of Capricorn, but some states are north of the Equador.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:44 am

I think the moral of the story is that everyone's situation is different. For me, testing with fresh intake air at about 25c is more accurate. For someone who experiences ambient temperatures into the mid to high 30s, heated intake air is more correct. It is impossible little old MikeC to test every possible situation, so we must be thankful for every bit of insight he decides to give us.

cpemma · Post by **cpemma** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:28 am

With a PWM fan, the usual procedure of measuring the voltage to the fan is useless, it will always read 12V

May be worth looking at fan current measurement instead. Providing the fans are LED-free.

The 'modular' aspect seems a bit poor with a 4-pin molex string hard-wired. In a modern all-SATA system that's one unnecessary cable, and the whole point of paying extra for modular is no unnecessary cables.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:37 am

For the most part I agree, but my mobo only has 3 fan headers and they are positioned pretty poorly so I use the molex string with scythe's 3 to 4 pin adapter. (those and fan mate are possibly the two most useful 'extras' I have gotten)

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 4:50 am

Great power supply. I'm perfectly happy with my current one, which is completely inaudible at all load levels my computer can produce, but if I were planning a complete new build with top level components, the Signature would be at the top of my list.