I can only agree with ryogajyc: my reason for buying the phantom was the review on this site, and since I too am a newbie in the field of silent computing I haven't really had any good reasons to post before this. But since you [MikeC] posted about this problem in the original review thread and then started this thread I thought you and Antec would be happy to have my input in the matter.

Going by the reply from AntecRep though, I'm glad I'm dealing with a retailer that is glad to reimburse me. I am giving the Phantom another try though, and I seriously hope this one won't die on me.

Hopefully at least some of you have tried contacting our customer support. The more we know the better.

customersupport@antec.com
europe.techsupport@antec.com
1-800-222-6832 (North America)
+31 (0) 10 462 2060 (Europe)

If something is seriously wrong we need the bad units back so we can find the problem, get it fixed or find out why it's happening etc.

So far from the numbers that have been made available we've sold over 4,000 Phantoms between North America and Europe. We're not seeing a huge number/percentage of returns on them either.

AntecRep

I initially tried to deal with Antec support directly. I emailed them quite a lengthy letter describing in full detail the problem. They sent back just a one-line email that said since I purchased my item less than 60 days prior, I should RMA it back to the vendor. I felt like I wasted my time tying to be as detailed as possible in my e-mail.

Seems to me that's not much of an effort to get the bad Phantoms back to Antec.

I'm just glad Newegg refunded my money without taking 15% restocking fee... It was bad enough I had to pay to ship it back.

xraymind

Hi folks,

Here's an update. For those of you with bad Phantoms, send an email to Walt Willis, at wwillis@antec.com describing your issues. Including the system you had the Phantom and any environmental info you had (ie externally mounted, 15 fans blowing on it etc). He'll arrange to get bad Phantoms back to Antec and getting your replacements.


Edit: contact info

AntecRep

Direct contact to VP of saleS? Wow, that's OT service, eh?

Mine Phantom has been working cool and with no problems since December. My PC is 24x7 "eMuling", and I'm used to playing HL2, GP4, NFSU 2, and Civ3 and never had a single problem even after 4 hours of intense gaming.
Now I would buy it again, if I had to buy a new one. I can hardly hear my system running that was my goal when I started to build my actual PC (well I can clearly hear the sharp "bites" of my twin Raptors, but I can live with it).

Ups I forgot to post some things:
Purchase date 31th December 2004
Serial Number: D04125431482

I've been running mine for about 3 1/2 months now w/ no problems at all.

V1000 case w/ a mobile Athlon clocked to 2.4ghz on an Asus A7V8X.

Antec is certainly very eager to respond to the issues raised in this thread. My experience with writing to the address provided by the AntecRep is so bizarrely good that I have to report it. I sent an e-mail to srichards@antec.com at 7:34 pm describing my experience (describe above in this thread) and at 7:16 am the next morning (Antec's US facility is in the same time zone as me-Pacific) he sent a response promising that a new, tested unit would be overnighted to me that day and at 7:18 am his assistant sent me the information to send my broken unit back.

Whatever the reliability of these PSUs (and the stories from the people who have had more than one fail are what worry me most), you can't complain about their response to this forum.

Thanks for starting this thread Mike.

Edit: To be clear, Antec is paying to ship me the new one today, paying for the return of my old one and shipping the replacement before I ship the broken one back. I don't know how they could do any better without coming to my door and installing the replacement in my PC for me.

Edits 2&3 (2/19): I got my replacement on 2/17, as promised, and a couple of Antec NoiseKiller 120 fan isolators got thrown in for free. Maybe that was because I mentioned that I was cooling my case with two 120mm fans? In any case, it was a nice gesture and I'm using them. Installed it right away with no problems. I thought I had a spontaneous reboot within half an hour of turning it on on 2/18, but I was fussing around the back of the computer at the time I bumped a loose cord. In edit 2 I said my cords aren't loose. Edit 3 came after I rechecked the cord going into the back of the power supply. How embarrrassing.

Edit 4 (4/13): I used the replacement power suppy (accidentally ) for a little welding on the inside of a defective hard drive and it (the power supply, not the hard drive) is still working fine.

First time poster, very long time reader of this excellent website.

I purchased my Phantom early Dec and haven't had any problems, even in the Australian summer heat. It obviously needs decent case airflow, but then again any modern PC does.

My 2 cents

Waiting for my Phantom to return from Antec, its has already costed me $10 in long distances in faxing the stupid RMA form to their listed number which doesn't connect and was given another number after several calls and anotheer $20 in shipping it back. $30 wasted on something that not even remotely the customers fault. They should adopt a replacement policy especially for this high end power supply to have one shipped prior to the return of the defective one or charge it to the client credit card like 3Com does if it doesn't get returned in 30 days or so.

My Phantom went boom just now. And it was definitely not an OTP thing because I did manage to get it turned on after it was ice cold and it stayed up for about 5 minutes before giving up the ghost for good.

I cried about the experience here: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19451

My serial # is:
D04125431760

Bought maybe a month ago, or slightly less at Infonec in Canada.
Can't find the receipt right this second, as I have to hunt for it.

Checked messages here though, I turned it on the evening of Jan 28th. So it's been about 3 weeks almost exactly.

Reviewing a lot of messages here in this thread, there seems to be a light pattern of 'about' 3 weeks to a month.

Got a reply back from Scott Richards and he is taking action in getting an replacement back to me ASAP with a $50 gift certificate.

My Phantom has been powering my machine for over 2 weeks now 24/7 without any sign of problem. I bought it from Directron. I have run a couple load-testing programs for over an hour each time and havent had any errors at all. It doesnt get too hot to the touch either. Here is the system I am very happy with!

--Silverstone TJ04
--Antec Phantom
--MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
--A64 3200+ Win. 90nm
--2 x 512MB Crucial Ballistix (running at 2.7V 2-2-2-6) AWESOME memory!
--Seagate 7200.7 120GB SATA HDD
--Plextor PX-716SA SATA DVDRW (works awesome once I figured out it had to be on the SI SATA controller as the nVidia SATA doesnt support optical drives (for burning ))...MSI sent me an email saying the board didnt support optical SATA drives period....I had to reply...ummm yes it does
--Asus X300 128MB 128-bit PCI-e VGA card...passively cooled
--Thermalright XP-90
--Zalman NB47J (burns my fingers)
--2 x Nexus 120mm fans (one intake/one exhaust...both with Zalman voltage reduction cables)
--Nexus 92mm fan on CPU running at 1350 rpm (manually adjusted with BIOS


noise is amazingly low especially when I can turn off my USB drive which has a fan in it....temps have idled at 32C CPU, 38C SYSTEM, and 28C HDD.....very acceptable...I have only gotten the CPU or the SYS temps up to around 41 doing load tests and burn-in progs...for over an hour, the highest I saw was 41C CPU and 41C SYS. Im happy

Antec got back to me, I have to applaud Mr. Richards and his/Antec's superb customer service. Antec is sending me a replacement and I will be sending them back my old one for analysis to see what went wrong. They are doing this right away, and they are doing it fast.

It doesn't get much better than that, because of Antec standing behind this product, I have to give them two thumbs up.

It would be wonderful if all companies were like that.

Thanks Mr. Richards!

Mr. Richards got back to me as well. In a very polite e-mail he appologizes for the bad unit and wishes to reimburse me for my troubles. Grade A service that you can only applaud. Antec is really showing their colors in this matter.

Ok I installed the replacement Phantom. Watch out Canadians though, it came UPS, so you will have to pay the robber in the brown truck for the 'brokerage' or taxes, or whatever. It got shipped on the manifest as a purchase rather than a replacement. I'll see if I can clear this up but probably this won't be possible now that UPS has been paid because I wasn't home.

Ok now to the Phantom!

I had a scary moment turning on the computer when nothing happened. Then I figured out I had plugged in a power cable that wasn't plugged into an outlet, lol.

Ok, the serial # on my unit is the newest one we know of so far I think. My new unit is D05015525445 which is a big jump from the old #. The stamps are different too. The old one had the testing stamps in blue and saying B01 etc. The new unit uses purple ink for the stamps, and is stamped I01, etc.

Bios hardware monitor says the voltages are:
cpu core- 1.718 v to 1.734 v
3.3v- 3.291 to 3.307 v
5v- stable at 4.918 v
12v- stable at 11.870 v

MBM 5 says:
cpu core- 1.75 v to 1.77 v
3.3v- 3.28 v
5v- 4.9v
12v- 12v

These voltages are pretty much what the previous unit had I believe.

I also highly recommend that when you are installing the unit, have a business card handy so you can see if the unit is making 'full' contact with the feet that hold it up. If you can slide the business card underneath the feet, it's not attached properly. This matters because it'll help conduct heat to the steel frame.

I'm going to break this unit in I guess, and with the case off, the unit is cold to the touch as I type it. Let's see how it goes.

BTW, for frame of reference, with the case closed up, and a old crappy PSU with a single fan in it, the CPU idle was about 50-51 C with a mb temp of 32-33 C.. with the previous phantom the CPU would be 55 C and the motherboard temp was the SAME. This shows that the difference is negligible and if one is really worried in the summer, fling in an exhaust fan if necessary. But not needed at all in the fall-spring-winter.

FWIW, my case is a full tower case and there is space above the phantom to mount exhaust fans so heat can continue to rise and bleed out through the holes, despite no current fans atm which is probably why I have a bit of wiggle room here that I wouldn't in a smaller case where everything is crammed together. The Phantom is pretty much in a different part of the case.

Ok, the serial # on my unit is the newest one we know of so far I think. My new unit is D05015525445 which is a big jump from the old #. The stamps are different too. The old one had the testing stamps in blue and saying B01 etc. The new unit uses purple ink for the stamps, and is stamped I01, etc.

I just got my replacement back today too, but haven't had a chance put it back onto my system yet. I do notice the new purple color QA stamp markings and the paint job is much cleaner than the returned unit with no scuff marks etc...

I'am hesistate of putting back the Phantom for fear it failing again and was thinking of getting a Seasonic and selling the Phantom on eBay. I will wait if your replacement is doing good after the break in or not. I guess I'am paranoid of the PSU failing since this was the first a PSU had failed on me in my 15 years of PC building.

I bought two Phantoms in late november here in Sweden. One died after two weeks. Got it replaced with a new one and have had no other problems yet.


It is absolutely not a overheating or overload issue.


The two Phantoms are in identical boxes. These two pcs are placed next to each other doing about the same tasks (simple servers)

Each box consumes a maximum peak load of 200 watts from the 220V power outlets, the normal steady level is 150 watts (monitored continuosly). This means an easy life of a 120 - 170 watt load.

I also closely monitor temperatures in each pc using mCubeds T-Balancers. Each have four digital temperature sensors mounted strategically in different places in the chassies. The temperature on the PSUs never ever go over 45 degrees celsius. This is measured on the PSU surface on the top side (a location in a pc chassie that has just about no airflow). The boxes where these:

- Antec SLK3700AMB with fully opened up front grills for free air flow.
- 120 mm front intake fan
- 120 mm rear exhaust fan

- Asus A7N8X dlx
- Barton 3200+
- 2 x 512Mb
- 2 x 10krpm Raptor disks

The question on everyones lips is "has the problem been isolated?" and "has the problem been 100% resolved?"

I am not a phantom owner...

ADMIN EDIT FOR INABILITY TO FOLLOW THE RULES POSTED FOR THIS THREAD.

Ordered my phantom on 11/16/04 from YesMicro and then had random reboots about three weeks later with normal use. It completely died 12/27/04 and then I RMA'ed it with Antec. I got the replacement in about a week. I have been running the replacement for about two months now and yesterday, 3/1/05, I got one random reboot. I hope I am not going to have to RMA this one too.

Purchased 2/22/05 from NCIX.COM
Received & Installed on 3/2/05
Serial: D05015525199

Basis System:
Asus P4R800-V Deluxe mobo, P4 3.06GHz Northwood, Zalman CNPS7000-A-AlCu
2x512MB Kingston HyperX
ATI 9800 Pro, w/Zalman fanless Heatpipe Cooler
2x200GB Seagate Barracuda (Raid1) & 1x120GB WD Caviar & 1x80GB WD Caviar
DVD+RW, Hauppauge TV Tuner Card
2x120mm Nexus Fans (Exhaust & HD Cooling)
Antec Sonata case, only mod is the removal of the rear grill.

Updates to follow....
... And an hour later... Houston, we have liftoff. The only problem I had with installation was that I almost tried to plug the PCI-E plug into the P4 connector... never saw one of those before, had me confused. Seems to be running as it should so far.

If I don't report back, assume all is well.

Edit: Quick temperature checks (CPU at 100% running 2 instances of FAH, as well as PVR recording)
With old Enermax Noisetaker 365W
CPU - 51C
System - 31C

With new Antec Phantom 350W
CPU - 45C to 47C
System - 33C
Phantom feels barely warm to the touch. I believe the drop in CPU temp (if not marginal due to reinstallation of CPU HS & AS5) is that the exhaust fan is no longer fighting with the PSU to exhaust the hot air, although the increase in system temp speaks to the slightly lower overall airflow due to the removal of the PSU fan (and airflow is now coming in through the phantom). No real change in HD temps taken through dTemp... Raid is at 36C, storage drive at 31C.

Edit: and after a week all is still very well. Phantom running cool, though I did find out that if I remove the side panel of the sonata (and airflow though the Phantom is lost) that beautiful block of black aluminum heats up pretty quick.

Heed the warnings about having proper airflow in through your case. There's no way I'd run a fanless case with a Phantom unless it was remarkably underpowered/undervolted/declocked/what-have-you.

UPDATE: I seem to have made it past the magical 3-week point and STILL RUNNING WELL Except for 3 or 4 (user requested) reboots, system has been running (and folding) 24x7

[b]May 18th and still going strong. Now considering putting a higher-flow 120mm exhaust fan in place of the Nexus to deal with increased summer temps... I think I can stand a slight increase in noise.

Mid November and all still good... 8+ months

September 2006 and no issues (19+ months) . Running PVR 24/7 with same config as posted originally.

I bought two Phantoms in late november and one broke after two weeks. I got that replaced and I put it in another PC. Today this Phantom broke down. I'm VERY unhappy now.

Mine has been working for several monthes:
Bought from microcenter in columbus, oh.
Don't know where the serial number is, I think that requirement makes it more of a mental barrier for people with working phantoms.

Both ones that broke for me are from the very early production batch.

Well, I tried AntecRep's suggestion of first e-mailing an engineer who was interested in contacting me. I won't post his e-mail since it was PM'ed to me so I don't want to go around spreading his e-mail. That was over a month ago and I got no reply. I really don't get the impression that he was interested in contacting me. Three days ago, I tried e-mailing srichards@antec.com. After 72 hours, I got a non-delivery report.

Could not deliver message (ID=82887) to remote account ''srichards@antec.com''.
Message expired after 72 hour(s).

I seem to be missing out on this great Antec support that I've been hearing about. Maybe Antec has it out for me. I'm not sure what to do now. Maybe AntecRep can help me out here. I heard of Antec's great support and I do want to believe in it. Especially since from the build quality of my Antec case, they seem to make quality products. I'm hoping my Phantom issues have been a fluke that they do want to try to correct. I don't want to be irrational about giving up on a company that may be honestly trying to do right by their customers, but honestly, I'm really feeling pretty put off by Antec, right now.

Okay, there was a typo in the original e-mail address I got for the engineer (actually Product Development Manager (PDM)) from AntecRep. It was odd that I didn't get a non-delivery message from an invalid e-mail address when I e-mailed him a month ago. This past time I did, however. Just as odd is that I am getting a non-delivery message for Scott Richards.

Anyhow, the PDM e-mailed and called me explaining how my setup (Antec Plus 860 case with stock case fans running at 5V) may have inadequate airflow to keep the Phantom cooled. However, since my failures do not appear to be OTP, but actual bad failures, I asked him about why the Phantoms failed the way they did instead of being protected by OTP and working normally after they cooled. He suggested both Phantoms I got were early production models with issues which have since been fixed. He's going to send me a just off the production line Phantom which hopefully does not have these problems. Also I will be getting paid shipping back for my busted Phantom.

I may have to look into quieter fans with decent airflow or running the stock at a higher voltage than 5V since that may cause too little airflow. But that's reasonable and if that's what it takes for a quiet case, I'm more than happy to do so. I'll post again when I get my new Phantom, hopefully with good news. =)

I'm not yet completely happy yet, but with Antec's fast and good service these past couple days, I think I have a decent shot at being a happy Antec customer again in a few days. =)

Have had my replacement unit for quite some time now, and it works great, no complaints about it at all.

I've had mine for about three months. I haven't had any power supply related issues so far. I replaced my stock Sonata supply. I'm debating taping over the Sonata holes so that I don't get "An" spelled on the side of the Phantom in dust, but I'm concerned that it won't have adequate ventilation if I do.

Hi everyone.

I purchased an Antec Phantom today from the stores
used parts shelf for $112 US.

It didnt take more than 1 hour after i gotten home to figure out
why this unit was on the used shelf.

It turnes it self off, the computer was idling.
I turned off the powerswitch on the PSU and on again and it was up and running again.
20 minutes after that it shuts down again.
It's about luke warm, and i did have a fan pointed at it.

The computer itself was a AMD 1600+, 1 harddrive and a Matrox G400.

Im going back to the store for a refund.

Store: PC City Sweden
Purchase date 2 April 2005 (Preowned)
Serial: D04125445370