Opinion about Antec 430W Truepower

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar

Post Reply
Doomer
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 11:44 pm
Location: Finland

Opinion about Antec 430W Truepower

Post by Doomer » Sat Feb 01, 2003 7:37 am

What a disappointment! After getting a new system and a Antec 1080 case I expected the sound level will be at least around the same than before or more silent. I tested my system without any other fans awhile. The sound level was even then very annoying. Before I had a 350W LR-PT Heroichi(HEC) PSU that wasn't even marketed as a silent power supply. It was more silent than this.

It would be nice if Mike could test Hec power supplies in the future.

PassiveMan
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2003 4:48 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by PassiveMan » Sat Feb 01, 2003 8:00 am

Sorry hear that, I won't buy anything now except from the highly recomended stuff by this website. The Nexus is the way to go for quietness..

SilentButDeadly
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2003 10:45 am
Location: N TX

Post by SilentButDeadly » Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:43 pm

Antec Truepower 430,
I have one, and it is very, very quiet. I have my three 92mm case fans running on the fan only leads and life is really good. 8) Then I went after the video card with a NMB 18dB fan and a SK7 with Vantec Stealth fan for the CPU. I am not silent, but my kids are not silent, the fridge is not silent, my wife is not silent and my dog adds to the noise. :cry:
My box is under my desk so that cuts a lot of the sound. The sound of the slight woosh of air does not bother me at all, the whine of the hard drive is starting to annoy me though!
Replace the stock fans with Panaflos if you want it quieter, a M series for the 80mm and an L series for the 92mm. That will cut down any noise problems you have with the power supply. :wink:

jinu117
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2003 1:46 am
Contact:

Post by jinu117 » Sat Feb 01, 2003 9:38 pm

Antec Truepower is decently quiet. However,
It is very susceptible to temperature compared to say, seasonic or zalman.
Having 2 fans do make it a little louder (not noticebly so in 3 ft if ambient temp of case is less than 27c).
First thing I would do to check with any PS that is loud & temp controlled is to check how hot it does get around PS inside case. I found that even with my 4 extra fans running in case (well, all at "optimized voltage") taking off side panel will reduce my seasonic 350Ws fan speed by 50-60 RPM. (My ambient temp vs top of the case temp is only about 1-5c off usually)
Check your temps. Even if you put the nexus or seasonic (I don't recommend Zalman right now as they have some problem with EFI filter on select units which they are replacing at the moment) if your temp inside case is hot enough, it will be LOUD.

Doomer
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 11:44 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Doomer » Sun Feb 02, 2003 12:04 pm

It's loud even right after booting up. Ambient temp in my room is about 23C. I tested it also with just with a motherboard and P4 2,4Ghz plugged in to minimize the power draw. It was as noisy as with everything plugged in(Audigy 2, Sapphire 9700 Radeon, 3Com NIC, Seagate Barracuda IV 80Gb). The noise increase when things heat up around 32-33C is barely noticiable. I thought first that the Radeon fan would be more noisier than everything else in my system but I was wrong, it's the Truepower.

I have four Papst NGL fans, one is blowing air out and the other sucking it in @ 12 volts while the other two are on Fan Only connectors. Papst NGML is on the P4.

AntecRep
-- Vendor --
Posts: 184
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:15 am
Contact:

Post by AntecRep » Thu Feb 06, 2003 12:38 pm

If you have the fan speed monitor plugged in what's the rpm on the fan? If it's over 1500 (or there abouts) it's likely you have a faulty sensor, which means return it/RMA it.

AntecRep

jinu117
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2003 1:46 am
Contact:

Post by jinu117 » Fri Feb 07, 2003 10:02 am

Doomer wrote:It's loud even right after booting up. Ambient temp in my room is about 23C. I tested it also with just with a motherboard and P4 2,4Ghz plugged in to minimize the power draw. It was as noisy as with everything plugged in(Audigy 2, Sapphire 9700 Radeon, 3Com NIC, Seagate Barracuda IV 80Gb). The noise increase when things heat up around 32-33C is barely noticiable. I thought first that the Radeon fan would be more noisier than everything else in my system but I was wrong, it's the Truepower.

I have four Papst NGL fans, one is blowing air out and the other sucking it in @ 12 volts while the other two are on Fan Only connectors. Papst NGML is on the P4.
1) Ambient temp inside your case will matter A LOT. I just put the thing in my K8 box which generates hughe heat (35c inside case) and thing is as loud as any power supply is. It is housed in el chipo case ($50?) which doesn't give me much room for air flow. Getting my dremel readied up for coming weekend. In my P4 box where inside case temp is about 27c, it's sound is minimal (other than the coil buzzer)
2) Right when you boot up, it spools up to full speed to make sure the fan is running.
The ultimate in silence (well not using water that is) seems to be finding the critical temperature where all components are happy. Where optimal air flow can generate huge improvment.
3) If you have unsued open vents in case (no fan on it), check if it is sucking air in or out... I found out that by making it so there is no negative or positive airflow, it generates much more constant flow of air that helps keeping the temperature down on CPU & PSU as much as 3-5c.

Good luck.

Doomer
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 11:44 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Doomer » Fri Feb 07, 2003 4:16 pm

AntecRep wrote:If you have the fan speed monitor plugged in what's the rpm on the fan? If it's over 1500 (or there abouts) it's likely you have a faulty sensor, which means return it/RMA it.

AntecRep
The RPM was around 1500 at boot up. I didn't leave it plugged in to see how much it increases because Papst N/GL fans occupy the fan connectors.

Post Reply