Antec NeoHE compatibility...

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:29 pm

Im sorry to rehash this topic. I know it has been discussed but I didnt see any definitive answers.

What exactly was (were?) the compatibility issues with the NeoHE? Have they been fixed? I saw someone say that the require a min. 1A load on the 12V rails to work. Is this accurate? It seesm Asus in particular were having many problems.If so then unless your system is newer and more power hungry it wont work? Whats the final verdict on the source of the problems?

Im deciding between the Antec NeoHE 500w and the Seasonic S12 500. I want a PSU with a year or two of life at least (hopefully more). I would like to be able to go PCIe and anything else in the future. They are both quiet (current SP2 is not that quiet, RMA'ing) and have good features. The Antec is a little cheaper and also has modular/sleeved cables.

I'm just wondering if the NeoHE will even work with my current system.

specs:
Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives (sata soon)
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS (in about 1 wk, I currently have gf4 ti4600 in here)

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:11 pm

You don't see any definitive answers because... there are no definitive answers.

Work has been done to correct the problem, and it does seem to have helped ... a bit. As far as I can tell, there are still compatibility issues being found.

Likewise, tinkering with load distribution does seem to help some people... and not others.

All I can really tell you is that I haven't seen any reports of problems with older Intel chipsets... yet.

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:19 pm

Eww, worse than I thought. It makes the NeoHE much less appealing when you feel like it may not even work with your curent and/or future systems. How on earth did antec manage such a thing? This is a joke.

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:55 pm

This is the best solution I have seen so far...

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/55019/
Re: New Antec NeoHE 430W is not working with Abit AS8 motherboard. Why? 5V? ATX spec?
With the help of Antec technical support I have discovered the problem - my system doesn't load the PSU enough!

The specs for the Antec NeoHE430W PSU show that 1A minimum current is required on all three 12V rails:
http://www.antec.com/specs/NeoHE430_spe.html

The review at http://www.silentpcreview.com/article273-page2.html describes how the three rails feed to the output connectors as follows:
12V1 powers the two sockets furthest from the fixed cabling.
12V2 powers the fixed cabling (Main ATX connector and the Auxiliary 12V connector)
12V3 powers the three sockets closest to the fixed cabling.
(This information ought to be included in the product manual!)

An analysis of my system shows this:

All the following system components are powered via the ATX power connectors via rail 12V2, so it is safe to assume it will always be drawing more than the 1A minimum load:
ABIT AS8 motherboard with Intel 865 chipset (25 W)
Intel P4 '530' 3.0GHz LGA775 (90 W)( + CPU fan 3 W)
ATI Radeon XpertVision 9200SE (DVI & VGA) (35 W)
Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 DDR SDRAM 400MHz (20 W)
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Value (7 W)
Microsoft keyboard and optical mouse (3 W)

There are very few components left: and the remaining load evidently falls well short of the minimum current requirement for the other two 12V rails!:

12V1 rail:
Hard Drive Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200Gb SATA [12V: Startup Max: 960 mA, Idle: 334 mA, Standby: 37 mA]
Hard Drive Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 80GB IDE [12V: Startup Max: 1750 mA, Idle Average: 375 mA, sleep average: 20 mA]
floppy drive (5 W)

12V3 rail:
DVD-RW Sony 8x DRU700 [Current: 1.5A @ 5/12V (presumably max)]
CD-RW LG GCE-8520B 52x (20 W) [12V: 1.7A (presumably max)]

In this state, the PSU cannot cope with the low current draw on one or both of these rails, and things always go wrong, so the computer cannot boot. To increase my load, I added the additional disused hardware:

Floppy drive (5W)
Sony CD-ROM CDU4811 [12V: 1200 mA max]
Diamond Data CD-ROM 632A 023 [12V: 1900mA max]
Antec 120mm smart cool fan [12V: 130 mA]

And with the additional load, the computer now boots reliably!

This means:
1) The PSU is in perfect working order.
2) The rest of my system is also in perfect working order.
3) The absence of a -5V rail makes no difference
4) There is no issue with ATX spec changes and backward compatibility conflicts.
5) There is no problem with the 5V line measuring at 4.90 V (this is within spec)

BUT, I can't benefit from this High Efficiency PSU without adding dead weight to load the PSU down more (which totally defeats the purpose) because THIS PSU IS NOT DESIGNED TO COPE WITH SUCH A LOW LOAD CONDITION. Please forgive me shouting. I never realised that this would be an issue when I bought it, and this has taken me 5 days to figure out!

So, if you're planning to buy a PSU for your system, my advice:
1) Use a power calculator to find out what PSU power is required, AND
2) Don't forget to check the number of 12V rails, and the minimum current requirement per rail also.

I hope my experience is helpful.

Now I need to choose another PSU...

Stephen

--------------------------

If this is indeed the case then my system will surely not be pulling enough

Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives (sata soon)
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS (in about 1 wk, I currently have gf4 ti4600 in here)

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:09 am

My rails currently have as follows:

12V1: laptop hard drive
12V2: System with mobo, cpu and vga (draws power through pcie slot)
12V3: Antec 120mm fan on low, Plextor DVD burner (rarely in use)

and it is (from a PSU standpoint) dead stable. (I also have some BSOD memory issues, but I doubt they are connected to the PSU)

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:46 am

g00n wrote:
If this is indeed the case then my system will surely not be pulling enough

Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives (sata soon)
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS (in about 1 wk, I currently have gf4 ti4600 in here)

Based on the results of my system (see "System 2" in sig) that's running a 430 NeoHE, you should be in fine shape. My system is pulling somewhat less power than yours, and has been running 100% rock-steady since back in September.

Hellspawn · Post by **Hellspawn** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:21 am

antec support told ya that huh? They tried telling me several things too, anything to get me off the phone easily, especially at first.

'not loading the PSU enough' My hind foot.

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:20 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
g00n wrote:
If this is indeed the case then my system will surely not be pulling enough

Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives (sata soon)
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS (in about 1 wk, I currently have gf4 ti4600 in here)
Based on the results of my system (see "System 2" in sig) that's running a 430 NeoHE, you should be in fine shape. My system is pulling somewhat less power than yours, and has been running 100% rock-steady since back in September.

I appreciate your reply. Seeing someone with the same mobo and almost exact same power needs (but less) get it working makes the NeoHE look more promising. I suppose now the only question is have they corrected whatever issues there may have been and will any future upgrades have problems.

Wouldnt you guys think that if I ordered a NeoHE 500 today from Newegg I would get one of the newer revised ones?

Hellspawn wrote:antec support told ya that huh? They tried telling me several things too, anything to get me off the phone easily, especially at first.

'not loading the PSU enough' My hind foot.

I copied this from the original poster. This was not my personal experience but this guy knew what he was talking about at least. He had been working on the problem and seemed to fix it based on their input.

notareal · Post by **notareal** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:00 pm

Adding more load to NeoHE 430 seems to help. My HeoHE (s/n start 0512) seems to power on if I add some old junk dvd and floppy drive. That's not a solution, but load on all 12V rail seems to do the trick. Wake up Antec engineers and marketing people, Antec P150 case and NeoHE PSUs should not be sold as Super Quiet, if it's PSU cannot handle low power components!

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:26 pm

Well, I just ordered a NeoHE 500w from newegg. $94 shipped, not bad.

Im more confident that it will work now but I am still a little nervous. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

system it will be powering:
Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS

yes, i know its overkill but im thinking future upgrades...

I hope the 1A 12v rail thing is not true. Otherwise I will be way under. Others seem to have no problems with the same mobo and power requirments.

rm19 · Post by **rm19** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:30 pm

I went against the grain here and upgraded my P150's NeoHE 430 to a NeoHE 550 (Fry's, $89.99). Works perfectly and is ultra quiet just like the 430. I was swayed by the positive SPCR NeoHE review; as quiet as the Seasonic, but cheaper and available in retail locations. Hope it works for you.

notareal · Post by **notareal** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 2:58 am

NeoHE does definetly have "minimum load of 1A on all +12V rails" -issue. Need help!

g00n · Post by **g00n** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:18 pm

Update: I just received my Antec NeoHE 500w from Newegg. It arrived in perfect condition, no stickers broken as some have said.

It powered up flawlessly and has been running ULTRA silent and steady for a while now. I had no problems at all. My current system is WAY low on power needs (upgrading eventually) and this was not an issue. I hope future upgrades dont pose any problems. I dont see how/why....

This is ALL i have pulling from the PSU:
Intel D875PBZlk "bonanza" mobo
P4 (northwood) 2.8 @ 2.9 (default BIOS burn-in OC, why not)
1gig ram (2x512 Kingston DDR400)
2x IDE HDD drives
1x optical all in one dvdr
sb Audigy 2
1x rear 120 exhaust fan 4pin molex (Antec p160w case)
7800GS

I think this might mean that 1A min deal isnt so accurate. Hell, all I have plugged in is 2x 3pin molex. Perhaps its just some of the Asus mobos. This is running great and it IS silent unlike the Smart Power. This is the most silent PSU I've ever owned.

Too bad, now the gfx card fan is really annoying me :{