Antec True Control 550W vs OCZ PowerStream 520W

[IvanAndreevich]

I know that the latter is supposedly better. I have both and will probably be keeping the OCZ. However, there really is no difference. Both have stable rails, both have adjustable volts in case rails drop. Darn, I can't even prove one is better than the other :p:

Would it be a useful thing to upgrade to the OCZ for somebody with a True Control? I know for me it is, because I got the OCZ real cheap.

Thoughts, ideas?

[dnottis]

I had the 550 True Control - after using the OCZ it was clearly not even close. The rails were much lower and my OCs were better with the OCZ PSU.

Dont think twice about the TC 550, it was good a few years ago - just not enough power nowadays.

http://www.3dxtreme.net/index.php?id=ocz520powerstreampsu3

[IvanAndreevich]

What do you mean by the rails being lower? The True Control can take my 12V rail to 12.5V or so. Even doing so doesn't do anything to the overclock. What did the PowerStream do for you in terms of your overclock (Mhz)?

Ah, so you're the reviewer. The OCZ was set to 12.8V by the factory? :stick: At those volts, HDD's usually start dying..

[kiwi]

Well, I would take OCZ as well. The price difference is only ~$25 and it has 5 years warranty. I trust OCZ, good brand that produces quality products :D

[STEvil]

technically the potentiometers arent for when rails drop.. when that happens you have amperage or quality issues.

[cantankerous]

I just ridded of my TC to get a ps 600w. The powerstream is better for these reasons.

1.) Native SATA connectors which the TC doesn't have.
2.) Native PCIE connector which TC doesn't have.
3.) rails on PS can be adjusted MUCH higher
4.) PS has shielded cables which TC doesn't
5.) PS is 24 pin ATX for newer boards plus upgradeable to BTX etc in the futre, TC doesn't and isn't.
6.) PS is a lot quieter on load then the TC. You ever raised the fan speed up to help cool the TC with the front panel? If that isn't loud I don't know what is.
7.) PS has a much better warranty plus SWAP FOR NEW PSU, NOT A REFURB SENT BACK INCASE OF DEAD UNIT. When I sent in my brand new 3 week old TC that died on me they gave me some dodgy refurb unit in return. When my PS died I got a brand new one in the box.
8.) PS lines are braided/sleeved which TC aren't.

I don't think I need to say anymore.

[Zyklon5]

Did any of guys had experiences with this PSU Enermax EG465 460W:

+3.3V 0.3A/35A
+5V 0.3A/35A
+12V 1.5A/35A:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_page.php?Tid=1&gon=249&Gid=18&Gid2=22

Specs wise looks pretty good but there's nothing like torturing it for yourself. The adjustable pots aren't much of a concern to me.

[HaLDoL]

I just ridded of my TC to get a ps 600w. The powerstream is better for these reasons.

1.) Native SATA connectors which the TC doesn't have.
2.) Native PCIE connector which TC doesn't have.
3.) rails on PS can be adjusted MUCH higher
4.) PS has shielded cables which TC doesn't
5.) PS is 24 pin ATX for newer boards plus upgradeable to BTX etc in the futre, TC doesn't and isn't.
6.) PS is a lot quieter on load then the TC. You ever raised the fan speed up to help cool the TC with the front panel? If that isn't loud I don't know what is.
7.) PS has a much better warranty plus SWAP FOR NEW PSU, NOT A REFURB SENT BACK INCASE OF DEAD UNIT. When I sent in my brand new 3 week old TC that died on me they gave me some dodgy refurb unit in return. When my PS died I got a brand new one in the box.
8.) PS lines are braided/sleeved which TC aren't.

I don't think I need to say anymore.
OK, that's nice, but does it give you a better overclock? That's the point of this thread. How much more Mhz does an OCZ powerstream give compared to a TC.

[IvanAndreevich]

cantankerous
Let's not talk about connectivity or perspective use here, or warranty. I am interested purely in performance.

BTW, nobody needs to convince me - I am keeping the OCZ anyway.

STEvil
The rails on the TC were 100% stable for me under load. I know I don't have much stuff in my system, but the GT alone eats some juice.

[cantankerous]

ok ok my bad. I didn't realize your objective was overclockability. I thought you want a general conviction. To be quite honest it is hard to say if this psu helped me overclock better or not. At the same time I recieved VX memory and well both together have helpmed get a measily 30mhz more out of my cpu. Besides that no clue. The only time I will really be putting this psu to the test is on my upcoming NF4 setup which even then I think will cut through it all like a warm knife through butter.

[IvanAndreevich]

30 Mhz more? Not much use, is it? ;)

[Flib]

I must add something:

the antec psu's are having sata connectors!
the ones you have won't have sata connectors, because they are old ones, but nearly since a year they are having them.
I'm having a TrueBlue480.

I don't want to say that Antec's are better than OCZ's because I havent had yet an OCZ PSU. But my Antec runs great :)

[gundamit]

The Antec 550 TC was my first choice for my Lanparty UT. I was more than a little disappointed when I tried cranking the adjustable 3.3v line to feed my BH-5. It was barely making 3.4v according to the mobo and a single stick was hitting the wall at 242. Then one morning I smelled smoke. Both fans in the Antec had apparently stopped and some wires inside had started to melt. Even before I had the RMA off to Antec I ordered the OCZ 520.

The OCZ was by far the better power supply. I can crank it up to 3.7v for the dimms. My x800 also liked the OCZ better and gave me a higher stable overclock.

Antec did get the RMA turned around quickly, but the PSU has just been sitting in a box after a quick test. I have no qualms about selling it as part of another system, or using it in my workhorse PC. But it won't going into any of my OC'ed gaming rigs.

[Jesus]

Did any of guys had experiences with this PSU Enermax EG465 460W:

+3.3V 0.3A/35A
+5V 0.3A/35A
+12V 1.5A/35A:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_page.php?Tid=1&gon=249&Gid=18&Gid2=22

Specs wise looks pretty good but there's nothing like torturing it for yourself. The adjustable pots aren't much of a concern to me.
Giagantic 12V rail
but the others are nothin special
5V rail very unstable.
Not my experience but one of my Friends had it.If youre looking for a 460W thenI would take tehe Englight 460W or as I did 520W enhance dual 12V rail,

[gocchin]

I was so happy with my 520w OCZ that I picked up a 600w for my vapo setup. Both steady as rocks and they are the components that I've come to least worry about....

[halcyon]

You might want to read this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/powerful-psu.html

OCZ 520W isn't quite as high quality as OCZ 470W.

[Gokou]

but remember, their test spec will most likely never be met by the average user..... super heavy load on the 3.3v + 5v and not much on the 12v....

[snowwie]

jeez, it seems 3 or 4 years ago the power supply was the most underrated component in a pc, nowadays it is the most overrated

[snowwie]

Did any of guys had experiences with this PSU Enermax EG465 460W:

+3.3V 0.3A/35A
+5V 0.3A/35A
+12V 1.5A/35A:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_page.php?Tid=1&gon=249&Gid=18&Gid2=22

Specs wise looks pretty good but there's nothing like torturing it for yourself. The adjustable pots aren't much of a concern to me.

i had an enermax 465, but it seems they have changed it, as mine was rated to 431w, not 460w, not to mention the rails specs were different

but enermax has always had reletively strong 12v rail, mine was always great, never gave me any problems

[SPL15]

How are you guys measuring these voltages?

The voltage on the motherboard that MBM reports or the BIOS reports is not fully accurate and it takes into account other parasitic resistances that the power supply has nothig to do with.

My 12 volt rail is a solid 12.09 to 12.1 volts and never fluctuates when read with lab quality and calibrated measuring equipment measured from the power supply itself. Mother Board Monitor says the voltage is 12.9 to 13.5 volts which it isnt. All the rails on MBM5 say the voltage is fluctuating constantly but my expensive lab equipment shows the power from the power supply is ridiculously rock solid.

Dont put too much weight on software monitoring programs. They are measuring voltage from a long ways away from the power supply on a line that passes a lot of current which isnt giving you an honest picture of what the power supply is really doing.

To get an accurate picture you gotta reduce the variables. Software monitoring programs dont give you a direct look at the power supply, and sometimes (as in my case) they are WAY off from the truth.

[dnottis]

Did any of guys had experiences with this PSU Enermax EG465 460W:

+3.3V 0.3A/35A
+5V 0.3A/35A
+12V 1.5A/35A:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_page.php?Tid=1&gon=249&Gid=18&Gid2=22

Specs wise looks pretty good but there's nothing like torturing it for yourself. The adjustable pots aren't much of a concern to me.


Yes! Awesome PSU levels were as good as the OCZ 520 under load! I think the 12v on the OCZ 520 was 40a, but the 465EG has a higher 5v rail. (IIRC)

[texuspete00]

30 Mhz more? Not much use, is it? ;)

You don't really sound like you want to have a discussion on this quite honestly. Keep your soon to be obsoleted 20 pin supply then already. You say you know it's better, so what else do you want than small stuff (though a long list at that). There both PS's. Neither makes you breakfast but the OCZ is better. The rails barely adjust on a TC anyways making it more of a novelty than an actual extreme power supply. :rolleyes:

[dnottis]

What do you mean by the rails being lower? The True Control can take my 12V rail to 12.5V or so. Even doing so doesn't do anything to the overclock. What did the PowerStream do for you in terms of your overclock (Mhz)?

Ah, so you're the reviewer. The OCZ was set to 12.8V by the factory? :stick: At those volts, HDD's usually start dying..


Well if you look at the amperage. First of the all the TC without the panel maxed is 5% (95% of the 550w) less than it should be - you dont get extra power with the front panel installed and maxed you get 100%. Its a marketing ploy with that unit. Also look at a side by side of the amperage on the rails and you'll see what I mean about the rails - the OCZ amperage specs are much higher than the 550TC.

[IvanAndreevich]

My x800 also liked the OCZ better and gave me a higher stable overclock
Exactly how much higher?

Yeah, the Antec TC can't raise the 3.3 & 5 rails, but sure can raise the 12V rail.

Flib
I don't think they ever updated TC for Sata power. However, I have about 10 adaptors lying around so I wouldn't care.

halcyon
I've read that :) It's sort of synthetic, like they mention it. Here on the forums we don't see many saying that the 470W is so much better than the 520W OCZ, right ;)

texuspete00
You can very well expect a better overclock from a better PSU if your old one sucked. If that's not the case then who says the new one is better? Unless it's a lot quiter, etc.

dnottis
This is all very nice, but I don't see how the amperage on the side is any good if it doesn't do jack :banana::banana::banana::banana: for the overclock.

[Staphy]

The Antec 550 TC was my first choice for my Lanparty UT. I was more than a little disappointed when I tried cranking the adjustable 3.3v line to feed my BH-5. It was barely making 3.4v according to the mobo and a single stick was hitting the wall at 242. Then one morning I smelled smoke. Both fans in the Antec had apparently stopped and some wires inside had started to melt. Even before I had the RMA off to Antec I ordered the OCZ 520.

The OCZ was by far the better power supply. I can crank it up to 3.7v for the dimms. My x800 also liked the OCZ better and gave me a higher stable overclock.
Doesn't cranking the 3.3v-rail well above 3.3v and into the red (LED) simply force the board's v-regulation circuits to work harder to bring it down to 3.3v ?

[SPL15]

Has anyone done and REAL research on these power supplies?!?

Sounds like everyone is going by marketing specs and not accurately measured, hard figures done correctly.

Again voltages measured by the motherboard are effected by things outside of the power supplys' control.

I can tell you that both of those power supplies are not the best thing since papered porn. There are much better supplies out there,just not as pretty lookin.

[Zyklon5]

SPL15 point taken .... link us to those you recommend. That is exactly what i was wondering if those good lokin' specs were true.

[SPL15]

I personally run PC Power & Cooling 510, some say XXX power supply is as good and some say yyy power supply has magical capabilities that let it put out more current than the design would allow... I wont go there....

I've reversed engineered this power supply somewhat to modifiy it, and it's built AND designed solid as a rock. This is the ONLY computer power supply I've worked on that is designed and built like cost and manufacturing complexity were not the focus of its design. The only thing I dont like about this supply is that it uses a half-bridge instead of using the whole wave form (Full Bridge). You'll start seeing power supplies using this and will be noticeable due to higher efficiency (80-90%!!!)

I've seen the insides of both OCZ and Antec's power supplies and they are both pretty decent power supplies, but they are nothing special and are clearly designed for cost effectiveness if you know what to look for. I'm an engineer and have to deal with cost/performance ratios everyday so this type of stuff is as obvious as a fat Grandma with her top off on south beach

In my unhumble opinion, the OCZ and Antec are in the same league, both have little nuances that make it "Better" than the other, but when it comes down to circuit board design and manufacturing complexity and cost, they are in the same league and will give the same performance.

I'm not trying to say that the only power supply to get is the PCPC 510, I'm saying dont get hooked on design specs released by a marketing department, and take with a grain of salt what others say about another's product and what others say period.

The reason companies limit the adjustable voltage range isnt because of bad design, its for protecting consumers from their own stupidity. It's easily changed by 1 resistor value on each rail.

With specifications, Look at the car audio industry. I see amplifers rated to put out 1200 watts RMS, but they dont even have a fuse large enough to pass 600 watts or the heatsinking to dissipate 600 watts. My amplifier in my car is rated at 1500 watts, yet it puts out 2983 watts measured with an Audio Precision analyzer.... Specifications are just about always complete lies, exagerations, misleading, etc because of the lack of a watch dog agency, consumer ignorance/misinformation, and the technical nature of the product.

Theres no free lunch in electronics, you get what you pay for no matter what a marketing department says. Products in the same price range will have similar performance. Companies that are growing often go into other related products to the field hoping that their fanboys will follow. Nothing irritates me more than someone saying something must be better based on some other product the company sells because they "know" its the best, OR tests that are carried out poorly by a well meaning enthusiast.

From reading the previous posts, it's obvious to me that both supplies are of decent quality since there are two groups saying XXX is better than YYY and vice versa. I dont think anyone here has done the research needed to be able to say that XXX is for sure 100% better than so and so.

[STEvil]

Well said SPL15!

[dnottis]

Has anyone checked this supply out - better amperage than the $140 OCZ 520.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-182-010&depa=0

+3.3V@30A, +5V@50A, +12V@35A, -5V@0.5A, -12V@1A, +5VSB@2.5A

[IvanAndreevich]

Looks too cheap to be any good.

[dnottis]

Looks too cheap to be any good.


LOL what looks cheap the casing? I mean looking at the specs it surely doesnt.

[goreblast]

I have had two Antec TC PSUs - one in a workhorse pentium system - very heavily loaded - 6 HDs, 2 Optical drives, Audigy2, Hauppauge PVR350, 9800XT, fans and lights - and it performs admirably except - you MUST use the control panel attached. At first I didnt as I had nowhere available at the front of the case and was getting very low, under spec voltages leading to random restarts etc. Plugged in front panel in and hid it away inside case and voltages jumped to correct levels. Dont think it tells you this in the manual.

The other was in my DFI lanparty NF2 rig - barton 2500+ running all the time at 250x9.5 - will run a hellava lot higher, but whats the point in stressing it too much. It was running 2 raptors, an optical drive, and a softmodded AIW9800se ---> 9800XT speeds. During an benchmarking run it went pop. Blue smoke - its connected to a UPS. Thank god it didnt take out anything buts itself! Got a Tagan to replace it (after the first was a dud and RMAed to the one I am using) and it is running fine. In fact I ahve since installed another 4 hard drives in this rig to act as a file server!

Decided at this point not to get another Antec PSU and the debacle with the Tagan put me off them also, so when it came to putting together an A64 rig I decided to go with the OCZ PS520 PSU. It is head and shoulders above the Antec in stability of rails and I havent looked back.

Halycon - yes xbitlabs have some nice in depth reviews, but dont take what they say as gosple, IIRC they said the DFI lanparty nf2 ultra was a crap motherboard?!?!?

[IvanAndreevich]

Specs are good, but it's too cheap for those specs. I think the specs are lying. We'll never know IMO until somebody tests it out.

[SPL15]

In mainstream Consumer retail industries, there are three main features of a product that you can ONLY have two of. There may be a few exceptions in very rare cases but this holds true 99.9% of the time. These are:

Price ~ Money cost of unit (Lower price = Better)

Performance ~ How well it does what it should do and features it does and how well. Usabilty, everything dealing with what it's doing

Appearance ~ What it looks like, how cool, expensive, unique it looks, size, asthetics not pertaining to performance.

If a product looks expensive and looks well finished, BUT costs little, usually the performance suffers greatly because the manufacturing costs went to looks not performance.

If a product costs moderate and the looks are nothing special to put on display, the majority of the manufacturing money went towards performance... Hopefully :D

If a Product Looks expensive and well finished, AND Costs a ton, well you can probably bet your getting a very good product because this category is reserved for the top of the line.

There are some exceptions to the rule, but think about the mainstream consumer things you buy and I can guarentee that this rule will hold true for the vast majority of things you purchase. Like I said there are no free lunches here in the modern world, You get what you pay for.

Edit: oh ya in the case of consumer electronics, Tacky/Flashy is considered expensive because it takes a lot of money to make things looks tacky/Flashy... Sad but true.

[Mastakilla]

intresting thread...

can anyone say something about the noise of an OCZ vs an Antec at heavy load?
which one is the most silent? and how silent? and does it run too hot then? or still cold enough?

[IvanAndreevich]

You can adjust the fan speed on the Antec. I've always ran my Antec on minimum, never noticed any instability. Then again, my system doesn't consume THAT much power.

Haven't tested the OCZ out yet, but from what I heard it's really quiet.

[STEvil]

600w Powerstream running XP-M 2500+ @ 2.6ghz 2.0v is silent.

[halcyon]

Silent?

Hardly. It's not even amongst the most quiet.

It doesn't even compare to the best of the quiet PSUs (read SPCR or Dirkvader for accurate decibel measurements), and silent (as in 'no noise') it surely isn't.

Not even most fanless PSUs achieve silence, because you can still hear their coils whine.

It's one thing if your system's other noises are masking the PSU noise and thus you can't hear it, but 600W Powestream is not silent or even amongst the least quiet of the PSUs.

regards,
halcyon

[STEvil]

ok, i'll put it this way:

When I unplug the cpu fan, the fan over the ram, the fan over the ram, and the fan on the video card I can barely hear the PSU running.

It is silent for all intensive purposes.

As to SPCR and Dirkvader, are their dB ratings done at 1 meter from the PSU? Which microphone do they use? Rated from front or back? Is the PSU in a case? How is airflow? Positive or negative air pressure in the case? What is the air pressure of their altitude? Moisture content of the air? Harmonics of the room? Was the rooms standing (ie: normal without the PSU operating) dB level normalized vs. all results with each test?

As you can see there are a very large number of factors.. and i'm sure thats not all of them.

Given my limited experience (Enermax 350w "whisper", Enermax 430w, a couple dozen PSU's between 125w and 400w by Powmax, Powerman, Deer, HIPRO, Sparkle, and the latest ones i've tested: Fortron 530w, Antec 400w Smartpower, Allied 450w with 5v enhanced, OCZ Powerstream 600w) I would put the OCZ Powerstream 600w as one of the most (if not the most) silent I have ever used. To be truthfull I was surprised at how silent it is.

My testing methods were neither strict nor standard throughout any of the use of any of the power supplies, but it is noticeably more silent than any of the other PSU's I have used to date in the rather crude testing environments I have used.


Now, that said, please dont change the definition of silence when talking of devices using fans. Given a fan in motion the anecdotal standard seems to be approximately 21-26dB from what I have seen on the web so far. I say 21-26 because I have seen numbers ranging from 15dB to 30dB with the average being approximately 21-26dB.

If you have a specific number you would like to put forth please do so.

EDIT

1 meter, not 12".. my bad.

EDIT

Been reading some of SPCR's work, although somewhat inconsisent (1 meter testing distance for 470w powerstream then 3" testing distance for 520w modstream) and possibly leaving out a few items (PSU tester fans affecting PSU noise ouput (?, does it matter?), air density and kPA not taken into consideration (questionable effects), etc) it seems they do a good job.

[gundamit]

Stevil, I'll take your word that the OCZ PowerStream600 is failry quiet. I'm wondering if I should upgrade to the PowerStream600 from my PowerStream520 because at some point I plan on running SLI. The price for the OCZ 600 is $205 at the Egg. Expensive but thats about $34 less than the PC Power Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI (Dual Express Video) PSU. :confused:

[IvanAndreevich]

I think the 520W should be able to pull the SLI load.. OPB used it to overclock 2 Ultras and FX-55 like crazy.

[SPL15]

The thing that strikes me as funny is how people are worried abuot quite power supplies when they have a vantec tornado on their CPU and two billion case fans.... My PC power & cooling has a different higher output fan that is slightly louder than the "Loud" stock one, but my Mach I with a high output 120 VAC fan drowns out everything else, but much quieter than the stock fan that comes with the mach units.

If your system really does need 500 watts or more of power, then your cooing solution for your CPU is more than likely to drown out the relatively quiet Power supply fan.

If you look at the derating charts of power supplies, you see how much more power you can get with a cooler power supply. There's a trade off with a slower quieter fan which is a hotter supply, which could potentially put out more power if the fan was a tad bit louder.

If you somehow have defied physics and have a quiet system that actually needs 500 watts or more of power and the power supply has a loud fan, it will cost you 10 bucks max to get a quiet fan and stick it in the power supply, but I dont know of too many power supplies that will put out a real world 500 watts that dont need a slightly louder fan for cooling.

Everyone worries about temps of their computer, but could care less about the power supply's temp. It's very well known that power supplies (especially switchmode PS) perform a lot worse with more heat. It makes sense to have better cooling over 5 dB of less noise if your running a highly demanding system.

Again, cosmetic/asthetic details (Like noise) are cheap for the consumer to improve, performance of design is much much harder.

[halcyon]

Stevil,

I meant no offence, just a point of clarification.

As for sound measurements both SPCR/Dirkvader methodology and equipment is very good for something that lacks an access to a proper anechoic room. You'll notice it as you study it and know acoustic measurements. The reason for measurement methodology change in SPCR test setup has been detailed on SPCR site ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/article148-page2.html ). If you think you can easily improve on this, I'm sure MikeC will welcome mail from you.

Back to silence.

For me as a student of psychoacoustics, silence is measured as inaudible to the human ear. As we know, this varies as a function of the frequencies of main sound components and masking sound stimuli (i.e. background noise).

To me, drawing a drawn-from-the-hat average of 21-26 dB (A weighted, I assume you meant) is misleading, because many of us are in rooms with much lower background noise while some are in much noisier environments.

To some 26 dBA PSUs are silent (i.e. inaudible), as to some people 21dB can be annoyingly perceptible (depending frequency components and periodity of the noise).

This is why I think it is more accurate to rate PSUs based on their absolute noise power and not subjectively in an unknown background noise environment.

As such, silent must approach 0 dB (non weighted) at c. 3,8 kHz (as per revised 2003 ISO equal loudness contours). This would approach the absolute level of hearing in an optimal setting for an average listener with good hearing (actually it'd have to go below 0 dB, but that's too academic to discuss).

Of course a more practical limit of c. 10 dBA is perhaps more accurate as it takes into account the fact that almost nobody has a room that silent, but many people who work during night have rooms with c. 12-14dBA backround noise.

Or, if we disagree, we can discard relative verbal comparisons altogether and talk about dBA measurements done right with proper gear/methodology, even if there is a +/-1.5dBA margin of error.

But you're right that in this forum people probably consider anything below c. 30dBA quiet or even silent as many use horrendously loud multi-fan cooling in their system :)

Sorry for the off-topic content.

friendly regards,
halcyon

[STEvil]

Well said halcyon, glad you didnt take offense to what I said as I had second thoughts on my wording later on.. ;)

SPL15 - Agreed, although if you are going for the bling factor (which has been overdone for some time now) I guess you "need" a 600w Chrome plated monster.. even if the rest of the machine is only a P3 ;)

[IvanAndreevich]

Ok, let me report some weird results. My 6800GT which overclocked crappily in my previous system [420/1100] on the Neo2 + TrueControl is now doing 425/1200 on NF7-S + Powestream!

I am not sure if the mobo was at fault, or the PSU is so much better, but I will check when the Neo2 comes back from RMA.

[zA.Gosu]

Prolly a combo. You had same drivers?

[IvanAndreevich]

Yes, same drivers in both cases.