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- Date:
- Tuesday , January 29, 2008
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Antec NeoPower 650 and NeoPower 650 Blue
Antec is one of the most recognizable names in the industry when it comes to power supplies and chassis. Today we have a look at two units that are now considered "mid-range" offerings. So what makes an Antec 650w Blue?
Antec NeoPower and Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
Unlike previous head to head articles we have done, the two units we are looking at today, the NeoPower and the NeoPower Blue, are identical in so many ways that we are going to consolidate the overview section into addressing both units at once. So, the first thing we are going to look at with the NeoPower 650 and the NeoPower 650 Blue are their packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing, and use more efficient.
Antec NeoPower 650
Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
The only difference between the Antec NeoPower 650 and the Antec NeoPower 650 Blue box is the blue motif the Blue model carries as opposed to the orange motif of the NeoPower. The packaging of the NeoPower 650’s is subdued but carries a decent amount of useful information. Included on it are the power table (broken down below), the connector count (broken down below), labeling that indicates the unit is up to 85% efficient, a sticker claiming it is Dual Graphics cards ready (though no SLI or CrossFire certifications), a sticker branding the unit as quiet computing, and interestingly that it has Industrial grade protection. We find on the SLIZone website that while not specifically carrying the SLI logo the NeoPower 650 Blue and NeoPower 650 are both listed as certified for 7900GTX. On the ATI CrossFire side of the equation we find plenty of Antec products in the 550w to 650w range certified for varying levels of CrossFire but the NeoPower twins are nowhere to be found. On the efficiency front the unit is advertised as being up to 85% efficient so a quick check of the 80plus website was in order but as of the time of writing neither unit is listed as 80plus certified. It is possible that the units are up to 85% efficient but fall short of 80plus certification for various reasons or Antec may simply have chosen not to submit (and pay) 80plus for their certification. At any rate we will see how the efficiency holds out today. Finally, the NeoPower twins are backed by a 5 year warranty that while not the longest we have seen it is certainly an acceptable length of time.
*The asterisks indicate that the unit is actually a single rail model.
The power label from the NeoPower twins is identical as is the connector count so only one table is produced above. The power allocation for the NeoPower twins has the ability to be very 12v heavy if necessary with up to 96% of its total capacity dedicated to the 12v output. This is similar to what we saw some time ago with the Corsair HX620W. This is paired with a decent array of connectors that should keep most mid to upper end systems satisfied as they include 2 PCI-E connectors (one modified 8 pin PCI-Express Connector and one normal 6 pin PCI-Express Connector), 4 SATA connectors, and 6 regular Molex’s.
Antec NeoPower 650
Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
Once we open the NeoPower twins we find the same assortment of items with both units as we would expect. These include the power supply itself, the AC cord, mounting screws, the modular cables, warranty card, and the manual. The warranty card is certainly a nice addition as it publishes in detail the warranty terms, conditions, and information in 6 languages. The one problem is the warranty card contradicts itself by stating at the top that it is a 5 year warranty and then under section III it states “Note that our warranty is not an unconditional guarantee for the 3-year length of the warranty.” Also of interest to many readers maybe section II which covers who is protected. In short this section states the warranty only applies to the original purchaser and that you must have proof of purchase to make a warranty claim. Moving on the manual is 24 pages long and 6 languages worth of nothing. All the manual includes is a page advertising the units feature set that was on the box, and some installation instructions. Overall the documentation for the NeoPower twins is a wreck. Between being contradictory, and completely uninformative the paper provided was simply a waste of resources and the unit would have been just as well off without any documentation at all since the provided documentation was so very poor.
Now while the two NeoPower units are built on the same platform they do differ some so we are going to split them off into separate pages for the Build Quality followed by their load testing data. We are going to start off with the NeoPower 650.