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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.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Antec EA 750 is the packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a 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.
The packaging for the Antec EA 750 is trimmed out in white, black, and earth friendly green. On the packaging we find a lot of advertising points, various certifications, the power label, connector count, and basic warranty sketch. Among the more interesting certifications we find that the unit is advertised as being SLI certified, and 80Plus certified. A quick check of the SLIZone website finds that indeed the EA 750 is certified for 8800GTS SLI while a quick check of the 80Plus website turns up the EA 750 being certified for just Climate Savers 1 (80%-80%-80%). Given the rather profuse efficiency marketing on the EarthWatts webpage such a lowly level of Climate Savers certification seems a bit underwhelming. Lastly, the packaging lists the unit’s warranty as being 3 years, which is certainly on the short side for a real enthusiast quality unit but this product is not really marketed as such. That being the case, we will just call the length of support for this particular model adequate.
The power information for the Antec EA 750 is similar to what we have come to expect from other modern designs in this general power output range. The 12v rails account for a possible 90% of the unit’s total DC output capacity, while the minor rails have a combined capacity of 170W. The 12v rail distribution is also mostly what we have come to see from multi12v units in this capacity and only looks complicated because of the mixture of fixed and modular connectors. However, with 25A capacities on each rail it would be hard to over load any given rail with the connectors provided on each rail. The closest rail that could come close to doing this would be 12v1 if you were to use the Molex connectors to try and run a few big TEC’s, but that still seems unlikely. Beyond that, the unit has one interesting point in that to use all 4 PCI-E connectors users need to watch the modular cables PCI-E’s as there is only one cable with both connectors on it. As such, if users are to only cast a quick look at the unit they may think they can only use 3 PCI-E’s when that is not the case. Lastly, the Molex and SATA appointments for this unit are largely going to be functional for the majority of users out there as they are not skimped on in the least for a 750W unit.
Once we open the Antec EA 750 packaging we find the usual assortment of power supply accessories including the unit, modular cables, power cord, product overview (manual), and mounting screws. While everything here is fairly standard fair, the product overview (manual) is less than complete by far. In reality it isn't a manual in any real sense as the top of the thing says (in my own words here) "go online and read the manual." However, I would like to point out that it does provide the very key point of the 12v rail assignment here and the breakdown of modular versus fixed cables which is relevant and useful. Otherwise, the product overview is a wash and if you need any other information, so let’s hope your PSU is already installed (and working) or you have another system to access Antec's website from if you ever need the manual. Let's move on now and see what we have when we look at just the unit.