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- Date:
- Friday , September 18, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Antec EarthWatts 750W PSU Review
Antec, one of the best known computer power supply companies today shares with us its EarthWatts 750W PSU. New marketing seemingly pointed at being green means better efficiencies and lower power bills? We will see if the EarthWatts PSU is worthy of its namesake.
Build Quality
As we already know the Antec EA 750 features a single 135mm fan design that is used in the same vein as 120mm fans in that they can provide for quiet cooling environments due to the ability to move a larger volume of air at slower speeds than a smaller diameter fan. The 135mm fan is just short of the largest diameter fan we are likely to see in ATX power supplies given the physical constraints of the form factor. While great for quiet computing environments the key criteria in our evaluation is whether or not the cooling solution is sufficient, not necessarily it’s sound output level or form factor, although we certainly listen for offending units.
External Build Quality
The Antec EA 750 comes to us trimmed out in a nice flat black finish that is functional and resistant to damage which is excellent. The only real adornment to this unit is the small Antec embossing on one side of the housing. Otherwise, the top of the unit is dominated by the lone 135mm cooling fan and the rear is perforated for airflow with just the on/off rocker switch and AC receptacle. The front of the unit houses the modular interface which many users will find very helpful.
The Antec EA 750 itself comes in at a lengthy 7 1/8 inches. The cables provide a serviceable length of ~21 inches to the first or only connector which is certainly long enough for most applications. The sheathing on the cables, both fixed and modular extensions, are a bit short of being complete on both ends of the modular cables and well short of the housing on the fixed cables.
Internal Build Quality
Once we open the top of the EA 750 we are left looking at one of only a few Delta built units to come across our test bench (which is ironic given how many units Delta produces). This unit in particular has a bit of an odd topology. While the unit utilizes a fairly standard double forward primary topology the secondary is interesting. There are three coils on the secondary which is common for independently regulated units, but the 12v rails are actually for lack of a better term group regulated with the schottky's for 12v1/12v2 being completely different from 12v3/12v4. The 5v and 3.3v rails are further independently regulated and have their own coils. Why was this design was used? I don't know. Will it work? Well, we will see about that later on. Moving on, we see from the over head that the unit is mostly cleanly constructed with adhesive caulk used liberally in a few places (especially in securing coils). Lastly, the two thin heastsinks in this unit are paired with a 135mm Adda fan rated at 0.44A at 12v.
As we flip over to the primary side we see that while the unit utilizes a double forward configuration there are a couple of interesting points here as well. The first would be the majority of the input filtering being housed on a large PCB at the top of the unit, followed by the obvious use of 3 capacitors on an APFC unit. These three capacitors are provided by Luminous Town Electric Company (Ltec) and are rated at 420v 180uF 105c. In addition to these three capacitors, we see that the primary of this unit also has 2 bridge rectifiers that are separated by a good amount of space and both lack heatsinks (probably necessitating the use of 2 rectifiers).
Over on the secondary side, we see the three coils here that make it look like this unit is a straight independently regulated unit, however as we discussed above this is not quite the case. In addition to this, we see that the capacitors filling out the secondary are provided by Nippon Chemi-con and a few Ltec's as well. Surrounding these capacitors we see the wiring which is tightly bundled and routed out of the unit sans sleeving or to the modular interface. The modular interface itself is one small PCB that is set down low in the unit but it appears to be cleanly soldered and well constructed. Lastly, the add-in PCB houses the secondary protection circuitry and the fan controller.
Build Quality Summary
The Antec EarthWatts 750 is an entry level unit that still manages to present itself decently in most regards when it comes to overall build quality. The exterior of the EA 750 is generally well done with a flat black finish. This finish is very functional and the overall appearance is good without being really high-end. Less than complete sleeving on the cables is the only real downsides to the exterior build quality of the unit.
Once we move inside the unit we find a decently well built entry level product from Delta. We do find a couple of interesting points to the build as the unit uses an odd secondary topology, has three primary capacitors, and two bridge rectifiers separated by a considerable distance. Otherwise, the soldering is very well done, the component placement is excellent but occasionally possibly a little over secured with caulk. The capacitor selection for this unit is a bit mixed as the primary side is Ltec and the secondary has both Ltec and Nippon Chemi-con selections. This is a entry level product however, so it may be too much to expect super high-end choices across the board though. Now that we have seen what we are working with, let’s see how all of this performs.