Customer Reviews

Antec TruePower 330-Watt Power Supply

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4 star:		(1)
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My PC (2yrs old) came with a 250W power supply. This was great for everything that came with my computer at the time. However... I have since added a lot of parts to my PC which now has a CD-ROM, CD-RW, 2 7200RPM hard drives, ZIP Drive, 640MB RAM, 5 PCI cards, etc., etc. So I needed a new power supply...

This one is a whole lot quieter than my old one even though it has an additional fan. The power supply has internal cicuitry that varies the fan speed according to how much power is being used. If you have the right connectors, this will also control up to two of your case fans as well as plug into your motherboard so that the fan speed can be read by the BIOS. The wires are plenty long enough to reach anywhere I needed to in my full-size tower case (although stowing away the extra is a bit of a pain). It even comes with an manual (I have personally never seen this before with a power supply) that is actually helpful. Plenty of power, quiet operation, neat features. What else could you ask for? Oh yes, the price on Amazon.com is significantly cheaper than what I saw at local retailers in the area...

Antec's Truepower series are truly good Power Supply. Power is solid, and as the box says it is quiet. But if you compare Truepower's noise with a Compaq-Presario's PS noise, you will be amazed at Compaq's real silence. Compaq-Presario's power supply is BESTEC brand, and it is really silent. (Antec Truepower is quiet, but not silent much.)

I want to know where I can buy BESTEC's power supplies.

I have built and upgraded six computers. Of the various components I have tried, some stand out. The Antec TruePower 330-Watt Power Supply is one of them. I use Antec cases and power supplies for my three desktops. On my last upgrade from a Pentium II to a Pentium IV, I needed a power supply that not only provided power to the mother board itself, but special 4 pin plug to provide power to the Processor as well. The older power supply did not have one. Since I have had such good past performance with Antec, I considered no other. I found the supply I wanted on the Antec website, but I found the best price at Amazon.com. This is a truly great performing supply with a variable speed fan that adjusts to the conditions needed and is very quiet. It is perfectly suited for my ASUS motherboards and Intel Processors which I use exclusively.

I'm an electronics nut. I can repair all sorts of electronic equipment, and even build circuit boards. It's been my passion since I was 10 years old. I often take apart electronic equipment to evaluate the design and quality...

Antec has been around for as long as I can remember. When I built my first PC in 1995 I searched for the best and most reliable parts. It was hard to do back then since the public Internet was in its infancy. I basically searched though magazines. I finally bought an Antec tower case with a 250W PS. The case looked great and the power supply was called "smartpower". I was so happy with it that I was sure to buy 2 more Antec cases & PS for my next two computers in later years. I run my computers 24/7 and I never had a problem.

I can't say the same for the power supplies I see on production machines. Companies like Compaq, HP, IBM, always use cheap, underpowered supplies which only meet the minimum requirements. After all, they do need to keep to the "bottom line" and when the profit on a computer these days is around $50, and it's a competitive market, you really can't put a $50 power supply in.

Sadly, ALL of the failed power supplies I have seen have been these "standard issue" supplies. The fact is that when you buy "off the shelf" computers, the manufacturers do tend to use quality motherboards from Intel and Asus in order to avoid tech-support problems with crashes and incompatibilities, but they save on the power supplies, figuring that since the computer will be obsolete in 2-3 years, then it doesn't need to last long. In fact, if you notice, they even save a penny on the "Reset switch" which is sometimes neccessary to reboot Windows, when you get a "blue screen". Don't they care if the supply burns out? Well, since the warranty is often 90 days to 1 year, if the power supply fails they can make some good $ selling you a $10 supply for $100.

When you look at their supplies, you can see how pathetic they are. They are so cheap they usually don't even include an ON/OFF switch on the back, just like the cheapest "no-name" brands you can get for $10. It is good to be able to shut down the power completely sometimes, particularly if you open the case to do upgrades (So you can keep it plugged in for grounding) or if you go on vacation. Also you can see how few connectors they include--usually there is only one spare.

Someone here mentioned how quiet the Bestec supply was compared to the Antec. I don't know--I happen to have a Compaq sr1300nx here and just the CPU fan sounds like a jet engine, so that would mask any power supply noise I imagine.

The explanation for the quieter Bestec is likely that there is only a single fan in it, compared to two in the Antec, which helps keep the computer/CPU cooler, as the fan is right over the CPU. In terms of build quality, the Bestec is cheap-looking, with few connectors and sells for a few $ on ebay, pricewatch, etc. It's also only 250W. Not recommended if you want to be sure your hardware and hard drives are getting safe and reliable power. Believe me, you are much better off with the Antec--you DON'T want a Bestec instead!!!

Let me conclude by emphasizing how critical it is for the power supply to be the very best. The power supply runs the whole computer, and if it's not good, you could end up frying your whole system, even losing your data! I've even seen some off-the-shelf computers where the power supply exploded with smoke and flames! I once plugged in a Gateway that was having problems, and I heard a lound bang and flash from the power supply. Someone else I know had a cheap Powmax supply and his computer would crash all the time. When there was a storm, it would reboot constantly while his other computers didn't blink. I put in a 400W Antec, fixed all his crashes, and no more reboots!

For the safety of your data and peace of mind, I highly recommend replacing your cheap, "no-name" or "off-the-shelf" supply, with an Antec!!!

I installed this PSU in a Compaq Presario case and it took a little bit of trimming with a hacksaw and file to get it to fit, but nothing major. The Antec is at least as quiet as the stock PSU (Bestec). Upgrading the PSU is important if you are adding RAM, hard drives, graphic cards etc. to a stock computer. It was obvious from the fit, finish, and weight that the Antec was much higher quality than the Bestec, I feel better knowing it's on the job now.

I had another power supply and wasn't happy with it. I upgraded to this new True Power 330. I was recommended to buy it directly from the motherboard manufacture -ASUS. They told me for what I need, that this power supply would be more than sufficient. I received it in great shape and all install directions are included. I am so so happy with this power supply. It is quite and easy to install. They also warranty it for 3 years which is great!!. I trust Antec and they make great products. Way to go Antec!! A+ product. Definitely buy this unit and you will not be disappointed.

i am usin a junked up pc runnin on windows 95. Before evrything possible was going wrong with it so i decided to invest a couple hundred to uprgade(cd-rw's, harddrives,RAM,audio and sound cars and windows xp os). So was a litle more then a couple hundered. After i got everything in and running i didint have the power i needed and nothing was working. so i added a measley [money] to my grand total and it all came together. It was plug and go so i could spend all my hours gettin evrything else to work. GREAT BUY!