[geeks] FeeCee Power Supply Design

[nate at portents.com]

> I'm in the market for a beefier power supply for my multimedia box,
> since it's already having stability issues with the load it's currently
> supporting, and I'm about to add four hard drives to the mix.
>
> I saw this supply:
> http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=23650#
>
> Its specs list that it has three +12V rails at 19A each.  My video card
> requires 26A all by itself.  How will the supply be set up usually?  I
> hope they don't just partition it by putting some of the power
> connectors on each supply rail.  That would make this 650W supply too
> weak to power my video card.
>
> Any ideas?

The Antec Trio line, like the Antec Earthwatts and NeoHE, is a good line,
actually built by Seasonic (the Antec Basiq line is built by FSP, and
other lower quality Antec power supplies are built either by CWT and
Heroichi, which I would stay away from).

Most ATX power supplies outright lie in their specs, and somewhere along
the way Intel's server recommendation for seperate 12v rails got
misconstrued as a performance thing, and in most 'multi-rail' power
supplies there is only one 12v rail (in some cases they split that one off
and then limit the amperage on each branch, which isn't a good thing
either).  More common are the lies, from companies like Mushkin with their
"rail fusion" which is nothing more than an LED that lights up when the
power draw on one of the virtual rails exceeds a preset amount (there is
no fusing of rails going on).  For an explanation of how and why they lie,
I recommend reading "Why 99% of Power Supply Reviews are Wrong":

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/410

Personally I'd recommend either the Corsair HX520W:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=28

Or the Corsair HX620W:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/371

Both of which are actually built by Seasonic, but have internal components
rated to 105 degrees C and have five year warranties.

- Nate