Is that supposed to be a sales pitch? I don't think 'viral marketing' is tolerated here. If you're not a paid endorser, I apologize. You just seem very enthusiastic. You can't be too careful these days with all the viral marketing going on. A number of posters on the NVidia message board were recently ferreted out by

To be sure, the NeoHE would be a decent power supply, but Antec thoroughly shot themselves in the foot by first unleashing such a bug-ridden product on the market, and then again by the way they are treating their customers who are having problems with the buggy product.

Well, I must admit I'm rather torn here.

I have a Socket A-based computer, with an AOpen AK77-8XN motherboard. I am fairly sure it does not pull more than 70 W overall, since I have an underclocked and undervolted mobile CPU (approx 25 W), two sticks of DDR, no PCI cards, a low-powered Matrox G450, and a Samsung laptop drive. However, it seems that this would also draw next to nothing on the 12 V rail (only an optical drive that I use very rarely), and I'm certainly not happy with the idea of adding extra fans (I was actually hoping to ditch the one that comes with the P150 as well).

On the other hand, the P150 is a very good looking case, and the NeoHE is a good PSU when it actually works. However, I am not very keen on having a situation wherein the NeoHE works with my board, but then I upgrade and it doesn't work with my new one.

I'm not very interested in reselling the NeoHE either, as that will implicitly cause me a loss of money (and god knows the combo is pricy as it is), not to mention I can get part of the bad rep if it doesn't work for the buyer. There's also warranty issues since I'd like to keep the warranty on both the case and the PSU.

Antec's handling of this problem has not impressed me, but I'd be willing to overlook it if I knew I would receive a perfectly working (in all regards, with all motherboards) NeoHE. But I know I can't know that.

Why, oh why doesn't Antec just sell the P150 separately. Guess it's more of shoe-shelf open-air computing for me.

Anyone have some thoughts on this?

I thought the ones that ship after November 2005 are the fixed ones

Tough situation. If the P/S has the 12v load issue, I don't think you'll have much chance of getting it to work. It's pretty much overkill for your system anyway, but the detachable cables would be nice.

If you're thinking about selling it, keep in mind the NeoHE 430W sells for $85 new at Newegg, well over half the price of the case. Even if you sell it at a loss, you'll still be getting a great case at a decent price (much cheaper than a P180, at least).

I'm happy with my NeoHE (S0511), despite (kind've) having the 12v load problem. Just had to add the 2 Nexus 92mm fans that I'd forgotten to plug in. I even switched the TriCool from 12v to 5v after that and had no problems.

I'm actually not sure how my system compares to yours regarding 12v load on startup. Depends on where the hard drives, hungrier video card, and PCI sound card draw their power from when they start. According to this article, 2.5" drives don't use the 12v line. That doesn't bode well for you

No, it doesn't

Two 3.5" hard drives (that pull most power from 12V) and a 6600GT, and fans, compared to just one optical drive and a G450 for me doesn't bode well indeed.

Ah well, I'll see if someone wants the HE...

Antec, we want a case-only P150! plzplz prettyplz!

The P150 as-is including the PSU is a good offering, if that PSU will meet your needs. I suspect this PSU is just fine for most people.

What I would suggest that Antec do is to offer it both with and without the PSU at different price points.

There's also a (small) chance they fixed that issue. One of the posts around here quoted Antec as saying the 0511 NeoHEs aren't all fixed, but the 0512s are.

Well, my understanding is that they fixed the faults, while the minimum 1A on 12V rails is a design feature.

http://www.antec.com/specs/NeoHE430_spe.html lists 1A "Min. Load" on each of the three 12V rails. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=28430 says "ATX12V v2.2 compliant; backward compatible with all ATX12V v2.01 systems"... and mine's ATX1.3 most likely.

Not to mention I have no need to upgrade to a faster computer (ie, ATX2) in the next year. And resale brings up warranty issues. Hrm.

"It's not a bug, it's a feature."

If antec has fixed all of the bugs (it's really a seasonic made psu, so I doubt that antec is fixing anything), they will soon authorize the posting of spcr's impending neohe 550 review. It's overdue, but then there are so many problems.

Doh! Well that does explain why it took so little for it to work for me. 2 Nexus 92mm fans = 0.5A.

But.. apparently I have everything on the 3rd 12v rail:
(borrowed from http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=29072)

I find it odd that 2 3.5" hard drives, an optical drive, a TriCool on medium, and the extra connectors for my video and sound card didn't pull at least 1A on startup on that 12v line. I didn't change anything on the 2nd rail (I thought the rails were split 2/3 the other way, so I used the 3rd and 4th 6-pin connectors from the main connector cables).

I must be missing something here...

Well that sticky by MikeC does say that the divisions into rails is mostly made-up... So that would make it 3 A total on the 12 V rail, and it's pretty safe to assume that any computer which powers the CPU from the 12 V is going to pull 36 W total. Although someone with a undervolted mobile can be cutting it close.

Well, I do have an undervolted mobile.

But I guess what it comes down to is how much power components use right when you hit the power button (When I'd hit the power button, the power led would flicker for an instant and the fans would just barely show movement). Drives probably have a slight delay before starting to spin up.

Note the word "guess" though.. now where are all those SPCR engineers?

I'd rather ask "where are those Antec engineers who should have designed it better to start with."

Antec does not design power supplies. At most, they provide specs to an oem manufacturer - in this case seasonic. The majority of antec power supplies are manufactured by channel well. The neo he is similar to the pc power and cooling silencer line with more rails, detachable cables, and a different fan.

I posted a ticket in the Antec tech support system, asking:

My understanding is that at some point in the last few months, Antec started shipping a revised version of the NeoHE 430 which fixes the compatibility problems that many people have had with these PSUs. Which serial number range corresponds to the original (incompatible) version, and which serial number range corresponds to the revised (compatible) version?

And they responded:

The retail outlets will not have the revision. Since the compatibility is with Asus boards only we have the revision. You will need an RMA in order to get the revision. Please review our RMA Policy & Procedures (http://www.antec.com/us/support_rma.html) and AQ3 Warranty (http://www.antec.com/us/warranty.php?va ... mit=Submit) before filling out our RMA Request Form.
...

Not very helpful, huh?

This is typical of the customer service and helpfulness I've seen at Antec when asking questions regarding my latest machine build. Therefore, my new machine has 0% Antec content (a first for me).

Unfortunately, that's really all a consumer can do. I'm more than happy with my fortron psu and chenbro case although I have a 3000b and smartpower 2.0. If spcr would actively seek the best components, instead of depending on manufacturer/vendor donated products, the interests of the quiet computing community would be much better served.

That's wonderful to hear -- not.

I just purchased a *second* NeoHE 550 (as my S0509 is presently being RMA'd -- I didn't want to take any chances) from Amazon, serial starts with S0511, to provide myself with a newer revision PSU in the meantime. I assumed the S0511 would have this problem fixed, but your post here proves to me Antec has no interest in fixing retail products.

So I've been using the S0511 in my PC (Asus P4C800 Deluxe -- an older P4 board, as many know, backed by a Radeon X800) for a few days now. I hadn't played any games with it until about 20 minutes ago. While playing Dungeon Siege 2 for about 20 minutes, my system completely shut off and my UPS kicked in stating that there was some kind-of short. My UPS is in good condition, no battery problems or otherwise.

I tried turning the PC back on via the standard ATX power button, but got nothing. I power-cycled the PSU, and the green motherboard LED didn't come on. I waited about 15 seconds, then did the same again -- LED came on, and the PC started up.

The funny part is that my S0509 would run for hours upon hours w/out any problems, playing games in full-screen mode (1920x1200).

This NeoHE 550 rev S0511 is going back to Amazon for a full refund, and in addition, I'm not going to be recommending Antec PSUs to folks any time soon. Very sad, since the NeoHE is quite possibly the best PSU on the market right now.

Antec needs to start deploying this hardware-level fix in PSUs that're sold retail, AND they need to denote what serial numbers the fix is included in (so that consumers don't have to play the ever-famous swap-a-roo game to get a fixed model). Or better yet, follow your own previous PR statements and actually put a visual indicator mark on the PSUs (a sticker that says "Asus fix applied" would be great).

I guess I'm off to look at that recent Nexus PSU...

And if the aforesaid quiet computing community would reach into their wallets and fund this, then that would be entirely feasible. As things stand SPCR is a free-of-charge site (and long may it stay that way) and, seeing as money doesn't grow on trees, we will have to continue to depend on the PC component manufacturers for review samples.



I sense a masochistic streak in you, Grasshopper...



Best at what? Turning off spontaneously as soon as any intensive application is loaded?

Well, it has to be said:

No question Antec ( & Seasonic who made the products on their behalf) really dropped the ball on compatibility w/ the NeoHEs. They should have done their due diligence before releasing it. Once it was released & the misbehavior reports started rolling in, they should have scrambled to verify, done a total recall, fix everything and start fresh. But because they waited too long, the number, I think, got too big, they simply could not afford to do it. Hopefully they've learned a very important lession: Do your Beta testing fully before pushing the product onto the shelves!

BUT when you have one that's working well in your system (as I have in a few, including a couple built for others), for silencers, the NeoHE has no match among any other 80mm fan PSU available right now. It's really the only quiet 80mm PSU choice, as all the other major brands have focused exclusively on 120mm fan designs -- which, some of you may remember, I've always felt is a step backwards when thermal management is carefully considered.

And frankgehry, I'll be happy to look at whatever PSUs you think are quiet and good that you send over for us to test -- two samples of each model please..

Fortron needs to start offering a single-80mm version of their Green PS. I'd buy that. I haven't heard of ANY Fortron PSU being problematic.

Ask and you shall receive: FSP460-60GLC. Also availlable in 250W, 300W, 350W and 400W versions. Will probably need at least a fan swap before it is quiet. And finding a retailer who carries them.

This is probably because a lot of people (the majority?) are still using PSU's in the classic ATX "exhausting case heat" way, rather than the compartmentalised "exhausting it's own heat and nothing else" way which is the norm (?) on SPCR. 120mm PSU's, with the fan intake right above the CPU heatsink in a classic ATX layout, work great for acting as a whole-system exhaust; not so great (or at least not as straightforward from an airflow point of view) as straight-through 80mm's when they have their own thermally isolated compartment (as in the P180 and numerous ducted systems here on SPCR).

jaganath --

Even from a pure cooling efficiency point of view, the 120mm fan design poses challenges. There is a very good reason why Seasonic, FSP & others have small additional exhaust vents on the side opposite to the main exhaust vent in the 120mm fan designs -- w/o these, the cooling within the PSU would not be as effective, there would be dead "hot spots" that cannot be avoided. (never mind the heat that's then pushed backed into the case -- a whole nuther issue) In a well designed 80mm fan PSU, it's pretty much straight-through, there are no sharp turns the airflow has to negotiate. Thermally speaking, the 80mm fan design is simpler and more efficient.

Of course when you add the issue of the system/cpu heat being sucked up through the 120mm fan psu, the problem gets worse because there's even more heat to deal with.

I'm not interested in paying for a review, however, there are a lot of 80mm power supplies out there in a variety of configurations - dual inline fans, single intake fan, single exhaust fan, with both single and dual rails. It's unfortunate that spcr testing policies do not support the roundup format or investigations into the effectiveness of different fan layouts within the 80mm format. Efficiency is becoming less of an issue, and spcr psu reviews these days seem more and more like fan and fan controller reviews.

That response from Antec tech is BS and they know it. ABIT, INTEL, A BIOSTAR and 2 ASUS MODELS, P4 & AMD. I offered to let them try them at one point, but they declined.

HA HA.

If the Fortron had more venting area (see drawing -- linked) it would be a much nicer option. A fan swap would not be that hard to do, though. At the least, it would be a good circuit design, if we could get a Nexus version with a quiet fan and more chassis venting (like there is on the back panel of most 120mm fan versions). Those modular cables the NeoHE has would be mighty nice as well. A wire fan grille would be an improvement, but the stamped one that Fortron one has is still nicely unrestrictive. To complete the silencing and aesthetic package, it would be good to have a black or dark grey paint job and a Yate Loon D80SL-12 with the white blades. That would be a showstopper.

I wonder, if we were to petition Nexus, perhaps they would build this thing. And it wouldn't have incompatibility or sporadic failures like the NeoHE. It's time for us to look elsewhere, I think.

As for now, I'm going to pay Antec a phone call.

Probably with a commitment of only 1000 PSUs, you can get one custom designed and built, and then sell it to all of us!

It's not the review you'd be paying for, it'd be the samples. The reviews take a whole lot more time & effort & resources -- hence a lot more money -- than the price of the samples. So you want me to pay for the samples that YOU want tested -- and buy & build & maintain the gear to test them, then test them, take & prepare the pics, write & edit articles about them, post them on a dedicated web server and maintain the site? Then read your complaints about how it's not good enough, the samples are not right, etc. etc?


Show me one that has a good chance of being quiet -- our definition of quiet w/o umpteen mods. We're not interested in turning over every leaf, we'd be here till doomsday cooking PSUs on the test bench.


Efficiency is always an issue and SPCR PSU reviews have always been fan & fan controller reviews, in part -- with thermal & power factors kicked in. The combination of power / thermal / airflow / noise testing makes them not at all trivial to pull off without proper test gear, setup & procedure.

Precisely why we'd need to get Fortron or Nexus on board to have this thing. I'd invest to get a power supply and try some different swapped-in fans but I don't have the investment backing to produce an entire line of power supplies.