Pulled my hair out for the last couple weeks...

Hey all,

As you know from this thread a while back my Enermax 620 psu went suicide bomber on me. :
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=162592

So I replaced it with the Antec Quattro power 850. It got great reviews from the big guys so thought it would last me a while. But no...

Well, at first all was grand, it powered my quad and x1900xt with no problems at all. But then Nvidia comes out with the 8800gt. Woot! New card time. Card arrives from the Egg and I immediately yank the stock sink off and apply some water. System boots no prob, into Windows no prob, start a 3d app, problem. Hard lock of the system. Thinking maybe it was a bad mount I take the water block off and remount, still get the bsod. Okay, time for the stock sink to go back on, and, yup still get the bsod. Unbelievable! New card and it is no good, or so I thought.

I read about the Antec having trouble with 8800gtx cards and that the problem was solved in newer revisions. Mine was supposed to be a newer revision, revision 3 to be exact. So I figure the card must be a dud, rma time. Unfortunately New egg is out of stock and refunds me instead of a new card. I hunt around local and find a Best Buy with two in stock, cool I only need one.:p:

Install the new 8800gt and all seems well, windows is good, start up RTHDIBL and it works! But wait a minute, 31 fps seem kinda slow for a 8800gt. Start up a couple games, 5 fps tops... Now I'm truly aggravated, reinstall Vista 64bit, but still same problem. Used 169.02 and .04, both were slow as dirt. Time to do more research.

Find just a couple threads on google with issues similar to mine, and there is one common component, besides the 8800gt that is, yup Antec Quattro psus'. Back to MicroCenter it goes. Shame too since it was on sale for $159.00, a great deal for top notch 850 watt psu. Anyway I pick up a PCP&C Silencer 750. Put it in my system and.... Wow! Everything works great! My 8800gt is blazing fast, no bsods', no more Antec ever in my system.

I'm baffled that a psu as powerful as the Quattro 850 is hamstrung by shoddy... who knows what, whatever it is that keeps it from being compatible with certain hardware. I mean isn't that why there are standards, so electronic components can work with each other? Stupid psu cost me $23 shipping, plus another $12 shipping on the return, plus two weeks of pulling my hair out wondering what was wrong with my system, two reinstalls of Vista along with other software, more beer than I care to mention, (although the beer would of been drank anyway:p: ).

Just glad it is over and my system is running smooth again...


Ply

I've heard this too, and I cannot figure out why or how it has problems. Power availability sure isn't the problem, the quattro has plenty of it. And considering all it does is supply the power to the card and there is no communication circuitry involved or anything it doesn't make sense why there is an issue. The old Neo + certain mobos made sense (power good signal) but this.... :shrug:

Glad you got it figured out though.

Yeah, last thing I thought about was the psu. Especially since mine was the "new" revision to fix the Nvidia issues. And unlike the other thread posted here, the video driver never said I was using a reduced functionality mode, so I thought everything was fine...


Ply

thanks for the heads-up!

werent Antec PSUs crap back yrs ago?

Thanks for the heads up.

Not that I'd ever buy another Antec PSU again, but at least I won't ever recommend one for a similar setup. :p