Power supplies: Antec vs Corsair

[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local
forums. I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

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[ShadowTek]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local
forums. I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

I have only owned an Antec 350 watt and an Antec 550 watt that were both
purchased from a local Office Max, and I noticed that the fan for the 350
watt ran at a much lower RPM, which resulted in at least a 20 degree F
difference in temperature, to the touch.

Between the two, I would definitely prefer the 550.

 

[Dave]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local forums.
I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

Antec is mediocre quality at the low and mid-range price levels. They DO
make some decent power supplies, but you have to upgrade to the "Signature"
line to get one. Corsair is generally better quality than Antec. Corsair
is what I'd call "acceptable" quality. -Dave

 

[clownfluffer]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local forums.
I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

You have to look up who the real manufacturer is to find out which is best.
You will find all the best ones are actually made by Seasonic and some
decent ones are made by Fortron too. Personally, I just buy from the real
deal and buy Seasonic branded or PC P&Cooling. I believe Corsair uses
Seasonic but some Antec do too, I think Antec uses Fortron mostly though.

 

[Paul]

You have to look up who the real manufacturer is to find out which is
best. You will find all the best ones are actually made by Seasonic and
some decent ones are made by Fortron too. Personally, I just buy from
the real deal and buy Seasonic branded or PC P&Cooling. I believe
Corsair uses Seasonic but some Antec do too, I think Antec uses Fortron
mostly though.

I have some Antec's that are ChannelWell, one Antec was a HEC (Herolchi? sp).
And a recent Antec was made by Delta. Trying to predict the entire
product line would be tough. I had a recent failure of a ChannelWell
Antec, due to bad caps inside it. The power supply did not have a lot
of usage, so the failure was not related to stress, rather to the
unstable chemistry inside the caps.

Jonnyguru is your best best for inspection and review of power supplies.

When companies use contract manufacturers, the manufacturer can change
at any time, without written notice, which invalidates the results
of a web review. Newegg customer reviews are as good a way as any,
to detect changes in quality control or supplier.

And if you see a power supply that used to sell for $250,
suddenly available for $100, common sense tells you what
is inside the box is not the same.

Paul

 

[TVeblen]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local forums.
I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

I had an Antec True Power 400W that came with my Antec Sonata II case. It
was dead in a week. Sent the Antec back RMA, got a 400W Seasonic from Newegg
in a couple of days - back up and running ever since. Sold the replacement
Antec on Ebay when it came in 3 weeks later.
That's all I know.

 

[JIMMIE]

I had an Antec True Power 400W that came with my Antec Sonata II case. It
was dead in a week. Sent the Antec back RMA, got a 400W Seasonic from Newegg
in a couple of days - back up and running ever since. Sold the replacement
Antec on Ebay when it came in 3 weeks later.
That's all I know.

Ive had trouble with a couple of ANTECS that came with cases but never
with replacements.

Jimmie

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I have seen some bashing about Corsair better than Antec in local
forums. I myself had bought 3 Antecs and none of them is having problem.

What're your opinions on them?

Anything made by Seasonic, as are Corsairs and some Antecs, is good.
The only bad thing about some Seasonic-made PSUs is that they contain
OST brand capacitors (my Antec Trio has them). Reviews at
JohnnyGuru.com, ExtremeOverclocking.com, HardwareSecrets.com, and
HardOCP.com give internal details, including capacitor brands, and
their forums are very informative (AntecRep, an Antec employee, could
answer questions about his company's products and even helped with
RMAs).

Antec has used several suppliers, including HEC/Heroichi (some ancient
PP-xxx models), Channel Well (SmartPower, TruePower, and Solution
Series, none produced any more), Seasonic (NeoPower, Trio, EarthWatts,
Quattro), Fortron-Source (BasiQ), and Delta (Signature Series). The
Channel Wells were good, especially the TruePowers (not to be confused
with Trio TruePower), and really had only one flaw -- their horrible
Fuhjyyu brand capacitors, which would usually start failing within two
years. OTOH the budget Antec BasiQ series is decent and made with
good capacitors, but their fans are noisy. I haven't tried an Antec
Signature, but other Delta-made PSUs I've tried were built very well
and contained only Japanese capacitors. However I've seen Chinese
Ltecs in Delta PSUs found in Dell computers, although none of them
were bulging or leaking, unlike half of the Ltecs on my Asus/Asrock
mobo.

I mention capacitors so much because they probably vary more in
quality than any other electronic components, and a new PSU made with
Chinese or junk Taiwanese caps has a better chance of failing than a
5-10-year-old PSU made with Japanese caps, provided the fans don't
break. See BadCaps.net for more information.

 

[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

Antec is mediocre quality at the low and mid-range price levels. They

DO make some decent power supplies, but you have to upgrade to the
"Signature" line to get one. Corsair is generally better quality than
Antec. Corsair is what I'd call "acceptable" quality. -Dave

The Signature line is way too expensive... How's the NeoPower line?

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[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

years. OTOH the budget Antec BasiQ series is decent and made with

good capacitors, but their fans are noisy. I haven't tried an Antec
Signature, but other Delta-made PSUs I've tried were built very well
and contained only Japanese capacitors. However I've seen Chinese
Ltecs in Delta PSUs found in Dell computers, although none of them
were bulging or leaking, unlike half of the Ltecs on my Asus/Asrock
mobo.

It's hard to avoid the China factor now.... but how could I know whether
an Antec is using quality capacitors (be it Japanese or not)? You could
not just judge it by the price, could you?

I mention capacitors so much because they probably vary more in
quality than any other electronic components, and a new PSU made with
Chinese or junk Taiwanese caps has a better chance of failing than a
5-10-year-old PSU made with Japanese caps, provided the fans don't
break. See BadCaps.net for more information.

Thanks. Any comment on the NeoPower Blue 650W?

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[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

You have to look up who the real manufacturer is to find out which is

best. You will find all the best ones are actually made by Seasonic and
some decent ones are made by Fortron too. Personally, I just buy from
the real deal and buy Seasonic branded or PC P&Cooling. I believe
Corsair uses Seasonic but some Antec do too, I think Antec uses Fortron
mostly though.

I believe PCP&C as well as Seasonic are US brands. I don't think I could
buy this brand in Hong Kong (in case you didn't know, yes, I am not
living in USA).

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[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

I had an Antec True Power 400W that came with my Antec Sonata II case. It

was dead in a week. Sent the Antec back RMA, got a 400W Seasonic from Newegg
in a couple of days - back up and running ever since. Sold the replacement
Antec on Ebay when it came in 3 weeks later.
That's all I know.

I have one SP400 (my nephew PC), a TPII 550 12V (workstation) and a
EA380 (server).

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[Dave]

It's hard to avoid the China factor now.... but how could I know whether
an Antec is using quality capacitors (be it Japanese or not)? You could
not just judge it by the price, could you?

Almost. If you buy Antec, you want the Signature line.

Thanks. Any comment on the NeoPower Blue 650W?

From what I've read, it's better than the non-blue version. You still
should be leaning toward a Signature series, if you want Antec
hough. -Dave

 

[Dave]

The Signature line is way too expensive... How's the NeoPower line?

Quite simply, you get what you pay for. -Dave

 

[Juarez]

I believe PCP&C as well as Seasonic are US brands. I don't think I could
buy this brand in Hong Kong (in case you didn't know, yes, I am not
living in USA).

PC P&C is an American company but Seasonic is a Taiwan company so you should
have no trouble getting those. PC P&C don't even manufacture their own
PSUs.. They have them made to their specs by 2 companies. Their Silent
series is made by Seasonic and I can't remember the name of the company that
makes their more powerful PSUs but they are Asian too. There are very few
products actually manufactured in the U.S. anymore because they all want
more profit so have their products made in countries with cheap labor.

http://www.seasonic.com/profile/history.jsp

 

[Juarez]

Thanks. Any comment on the NeoPower Blue 650W?

That's a good one and I believe is manufactured by Seasonic.

 

[Juarez]

From what I've read, it's better than the non-blue version. You still
should be leaning toward a Signature series, if you want Antec
hough. -Dave

I've read Neopower is good. He was asking about Corsair before and I would
not have an issue buying a PSU from them either. He doesn't think you can
buy Seasonic in HK but I think that is wrong because Seasonic is a Taiwan
company.

 

[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

That's a good one and I believe is manufactured by Seasonic.

Thanks.

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[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

I've read Neopower is good. He was asking about Corsair before and I

would not have an issue buying a PSU from them either. He doesn't think
you can buy Seasonic in HK but I think that is wrong because Seasonic is
a Taiwan company.

Thanks

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[Man-wai Chang ToDie (33.6k)]

Almost. If you buy Antec, you want the Signature line.

Signature 650W = NeoPower Blue 650W + a motherboard

Too expensive....

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