Antec and nForce

[yocky]

Has anyone heard about incompatibilty between Antec and nForce
chipsets. I know plenty of you will have this combo and obviously most
won't have a problem or we'd hear about it more here.

I've got an Epox 9npa+ Ultra and a 450W Antec smartpower PSU (part of
Sonata II case) and an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, all new.

The PSU won't supply power to the CPU on the new mobo but will fire up
an older Sockt A motherboard. The new motherboard works fine with my
old PSU.

I've tested the voltages on the new setup and they are fine apart from
the grat PWROK connection which is showing less that 1V.

Antec have replied to me and said they are going to investigate
possible incompatibility.

This is what Epox said:

"It does seem as though Antec PSU's which were previously held in
esteem do seem to have issue with NForce 3 and 4 chipsets and newer
socket 939 processors on all manufacturers mainboards.

Testing here with anything other than Antec PSU proves good (e.g. a
Seventeam 420W PSU is fine), so cheaper and more expensive PSU are
working fine with this CPU and chipset combination."

 

[Matt]

Has anyone heard about incompatibilty between Antec and nForce
chipsets. I know plenty of you will have this combo and obviously most
won't have a problem or we'd hear about it more here

I've built 2 systems in the last couple of weeks with Antec TruePower 2.0's
and Asus A8N SLI mobos and haven't had any problems with them at all.

 

[fj]

Has anyone heard about incompatibilty between Antec and nForce
chipsets. I know plenty of you will have this combo and obviously most
won't have a problem or we'd hear about it more here.

I've got an Epox 9npa+ Ultra and a 450W Antec smartpower PSU (part of
Sonata II case) and an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, all new.

The PSU won't supply power to the CPU on the new mobo but will fire up
an older Sockt A motherboard. The new motherboard works fine with my
old PSU.

I've tested the voltages on the new setup and they are fine apart from
the grat PWROK connection which is showing less that 1V.

Antec have replied to me and said they are going to investigate
possible incompatibility.

This is what Epox said:

"It does seem as though Antec PSU's which were previously held in
esteem do seem to have issue with NForce 3 and 4 chipsets and newer
socket 939 processors on all manufacturers mainboards.

Testing here with anything other than Antec PSU proves good (e.g. a
Seventeam 420W PSU is fine), so cheaper and more expensive PSU are
working fine with this CPU and chipset combination."

This is jaw dropping. A PSU supplies amps at specified voltage. Nothing
to be 'compatible with'. Not that Antec might not produce bad supplies from
time to time, but 'compatibility' problems??

I'm sure Antec would be interested in the comment from Epox. Quite frankly,
that sounds like a tech with a non tech background.

 

[JAD]

there was a spec that showed the 12v rail amperage had to be of a
certain amount to work with some MBs. I suppose that anything that was below
that requirement could be construed as a 'incompatibility. The PSU has been
an overlooked item for many years. Most power requirements were more '
lenient ' on the oldschool boards, but after the last year or so, the PSU is
now in the top 2 on the checklist (IMO) when putting a system together.

 

[John Jordan]

there was a spec that showed the 12v rail amperage had to be of a
certain amount to work with some MBs. I suppose that anything that was below
that requirement could be construed as a 'incompatibility. The PSU has been
an overlooked item for many years. Most power requirements were more '
lenient ' on the oldschool boards, but after the last year or so, the PSU is
now in the top 2 on the checklist (IMO) when putting a system together.

I guess you're referring to the change where CPUs were powered by the
12V rail instead of the 5V. All A64 and Pentium 4 boards now take CPU
power from the 12V rail, while most socket-A boards still use the 5V.

However, S939 A64 3000+ chips have a 12V requirement of under 3A. You
don't get much more lenient than that. If the PSU doesn't power it, it's
defective.

 

[Graham W]

I guess you're referring to the change where CPUs were powered by the
12V rail instead of the 5V. All A64 and Pentium 4 boards now take CPU
power from the 12V rail, while most socket-A boards still use the 5V.

However, S939 A64 3000+ chips have a 12V requirement of under 3A. You
don't get much more lenient than that. If the PSU doesn't power it,
it's defective.

On the other hand...

Look in the BIOS settings and make sure that the voltage limits on the
power rails are not set too tightly in the 'Alarms' section.

These can be very difficult to diagnose when the machine won't run
fully loaded. Of course, this assumes you can get into the BIOS on
a stripped down version.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

Has anyone heard about incompatibilty between Antec and nForce
chipsets. I know plenty of you will have this combo and obviously most
won't have a problem or we'd hear about it more here.

I had an Antec SmartPower 450W powering an Asus A7N8X nForce2 board. It
worked, but the PSU ran very hot and expired with a loud bang after 10
months. (Ebuyer gave me a full refund.) Now replaced with a ZooStorm
500W which is fine and runs much cooler.

This is what Epox said:

"It does seem as though Antec PSU's which were previously held in
esteem

A web search shows that Antec PSUs are not all they're cut up to be.
They seem to have a reputation for blowing up.

 

[yocky]

On the other hand...

Look in the BIOS settings and make sure that the voltage limits on the
power rails are not set too tightly in the 'Alarms' section.

These can be very difficult to diagnose when the machine won't run
fully loaded. Of course, this assumes you can get into the BIOS on
a stripped down version.

No, I can't get into the BIOS even on a bare bones setup.

 

[QZ]

A web search shows that Antec PSUs are not all they're cut up to be.
They seem to have a reputation for blowing up.

They vast majority of them are Asus A7N8X related, not giving enough 5v
power, not that that makes it ok.

Some will say Enermax, another generally highly regarded brand, is also not
as good as people think, not as well built as Antec. In fact, I read of a
few more failures with them. BTW, I own PSUs from both brands.

I hear Seasonic and FSP are good; I just don't think FSP's power
distribution is correct for today's PCs.

So what PSUs do you think are good?

 

[QZ]

I hear Seasonic and FSP are good; I just don't think FSP's power
distribution is correct for today's PCs.

Also, Silverstone is good, I hear.

 

[A Person]

They vast majority of them are Asus A7N8X related, not giving enough 5v
power, not that that makes it ok.

Some will say Enermax, another generally highly regarded brand, is also not
as good as people think, not as well built as Antec. In fact, I read of a
few more failures with them. BTW, I own PSUs from both brands.

I hear Seasonic and FSP are good; I just don't think FSP's power
distribution is correct for today's PCs.

So what PSUs do you think are good?

The Epox seems to be an nForce4 Ultra based mainboard like my DFI.
OCZ Modstream and Powerstream PSUs are well-liked by DFI users.
Whether that translates to Epox users is anybody's guess. Google
it maybe.

 

[Mickey4Paws]

A web search shows that Antec PSUs are not all they're cut up to be.
They seem to have a reputation for blowing up.

Just my experience, but I've had 2 Antecs die on me.

 

[Trevor Best]

Just my experience, but I've had 2 Antecs die on me.

Ah, but did they die on their own or take the mobo out with them?

 

[dannysdailys]

yockywrote
Has anyone heard about incompatibilty between Antec and nForc

chipsets. I know plenty of you will have this combo and obviousl mos
won't have a problem or we'd hear about it more here

I've got an Epox 9npa+ Ultra and a 450W Antec smartpower PSU (par o
Sonata II case) and an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, all new

The PSU won't supply power to the CPU on the new mobo but will fir u
an older Sockt A motherboard. The new motherboard works fine wit m
old PSU

I've tested the voltages on the new setup and they are fine apar fro
the grat PWROK connection which is showing less that 1V

Antec have replied to me and said they are going to investigat
possible incompatibility

This is what Epox said

"It does seem as though Antec PSU's which were previously held i
esteem do seem to have issue with NForce 3 and 4 chipsets and newe
socket 939 processors on all manufacturers mainboards

Testing here with anything other than Antec PSU proves good (e.g.
Seventeam 420W PSU is fine), so cheaper and more expensive PSU ar
working fine with this CPU and chipset combination.

At first blush, it sounds like a bad Antec. This is not unusual i
seems. I had one blow up last week, and another went bad a couple o
months ago. I no longer buy them. I've never had one take anythin
out with it however

Believe it or not, I have a Viper case and it came with a 500w powe
supply. Usually I just toss them and buy a new Antec. Not thi
time, while the 12 volt amps may be a little light, it's voltages ar
closer to perfect then the Antec ever thought of being. The Cheapo i
working fine

 

[yocky]

As a follow up, Antec have asked for the serial number as they reckon
they may have discovered a "bad batch".

How do I go about testing the amperages?

 

[QZ]

As a follow up, Antec have asked for the serial number as they reckon
they may have discovered a "bad batch".

How do I go about testing the amperages?

I don't think you want to test the Amps, rather the Voltages and to how
close they are to spec. You could use PC Probe.

BTW, which model PSU is likely to have a bad batch?

 

[yocky]

I've tested the voltages already. I'm ready for the next step in my
quest to fry myself.

It's a 450W Smartpower 2.0. It came with the Sonata II case. I've got
it running a Socket A mobo now so whatever's wrong with it is beyond my
present powers of analysis.

 

[yocky]

I've tested the voltages already. I'm ready for the next step in my
quest to fry myself.

It's a 450W Smartpower 2.0. It came with the Sonata II case. I've got
it running a Socket A mobo now so whatever's wrong with it is beyond my
present powers of analysis.

 

[Ann]

I've tested the voltages already. I'm ready for the next step in my
quest to fry myself.

It's a 450W Smartpower 2.0. It came with the Sonata II case. I've got
it running a Socket A mobo now so whatever's wrong with it is beyond my
present powers of analysis.

Can you leave some of the previous conversation in the message because
nobody has any idea what you're actually talking about and can't help
you any further.

Ann

 

[yocky]

Can you leave some of the previous conversation in the message because
nobody has any idea what you're actually talking about and can't help
you any further.

Ann

My apologies, I'm using Google Groups it's all nicely laid out in a
tree.

My reply was to this question: