[Alexhk]

Antec EarthWatts 380W

Vs.



Before we get started a special thanks goes to mcoleg who’s thread got this all started.


Purpose: To see if an EA 380W is up to the challenge of powering a single GPU gaming rig.

Specs:
e6600 @ 3.1Ghz - 1.4125v in bios
Sapphire x1900 XT 512MB – stock
2 x 1GB DDR2 @ 688 – 2.1v
4 HD + an optical
4 Case fans
X-fi

*Misgivings: While the EA 380 is a Seasonic built supply lets not pretend that it’s S12 quality. The EA380 is not the equal of an Etatis, Zippy, Win-tact or even an S12 quality Seasonic unit but with that said it should be more than adequate for the proposed job. I wouldn’t be comfortable running one at its max rated load (supplying 380W to a system) 24/7/365 but since neither my rig nor mcolegs draws that much it isn’t something we have to worry about. To be honest I’m more concerned about Oklahoma Wolf mistaking me for a deer and trying to eat me than I am worried for the safety of rig.

Testing methodology: For each test the voltage on the 12v rail is measured with a DMM and the power draw from the wall is recorded using a kill-a-watt meter. The peak values for each test are displayed in the results.

Test Points:
1. Windows Idle - … goes the CPU usage graph ; )
2. Full CPU load – Intel TAT, 100% both cores
3. CPU + GPU load – Intel TAT + 3dmark 03 (nature test)
4. Real world game test – Oblivion
5. Maximum power consumption – Intel TAT + 3dmark + all 4 hard drives reading & writing + optical read.

Results:


To estimate DC power usage I referenced the SPCR review of the EA430 and the jG review of the EA500. The highest observed efficiency was 83.5% so to be safe I used that value across the board (rather than try to plot points on the efficiency curve.) I'd rather overestimate than under estimate how much juice my system is using.

Analysis:

Looking at the voltage readings we see a drop of .13v when going from idle to the maximum achieved load. Not the best I’ve ever seen for sure but still solidly within ATX spec and acceptable by my standards (not quite as good as the Enermax it replaced.)

In terms of maximum power consumption it comes as no surprise that test 5 was the most demanding. What is surprising though was the very small delta between test 5 and the next most demanding test, test #3. To try and confirm these results I started with my system at idle and had all 4 hard drives read and write + the optical read at the same time which resulted in a 15W increase in wall draw. I believe this “discrepancy” in the increase in draw can be explained by the CPU cycles that are grabbed away from TAT are less taxing. To support this theory I loaded the CPU with Orthos and saw the system drew ~15 less watts from the wall when compared to TAT draw. Even if we aren’t losing many CPU cycles to the file copies, these operations have to be less “taxing” than Orthos so the result is a smaller increase in power usage than initially expected.

Another interesting point of test 5 is observed voltage. Despite being the greatest draw in watts the PSU is doing a slightly better job regulating the 12V rail in this situation. Being a group regulated design I would wager the increased load on the 5v rail from the hard drives and optical produced this result.

Overall I am very pleased with how my EA380 has performed in my main rig. Its been well over a week since I put it in and I’ve experienced no problems. Just incase anyone was wondering, this system has been stressed with TAT + looped 3dmark just about every night since it was installed so it has proven it can handle (at least in the short term) prolonged stress without a hitch. Only thing left to determine is long term reliability but given that at max I was only able to reach ~73% of this PSU's rated load I have no qualms about leaving this PSU in my main rig long term (at least until a GPU upgrade.) Its comforting to know that one can go to Circuit City and pick up a EA 380W for $50 and be able to power this kind of rig with it.

One last note - The power usage for my system was slightly less than I expected (290-300W range was my guess) so its nice to know that I over estimated my draw, rather than under.

To wrap things up how about some random equipment shots:

Kill a watt meter in action during test 3


DMM in action during test 3

[burebista]

Nice one, too. Thank you for your time.

[mcoleg]

hey Alex, you posted

just so that everyone knows - he was the first to test this psu with a high-power pc, that happened several days before i even got my hands on one.

being the first into the watter takes some courage. respects, man :P

excellent job. concise and methodical, not like my stuff, it's all over the place. i need to be more like you :P

[muhon_zen]

Alex and mcoleg have finished convincing me to get the EA380W. Good thread

[johnjohngoose]

Thanks, man! It's good to know that we can build serious rigs and not have to purchase ridiculously high-powered supplies.

I guess I could have saved a couple bucks on that 530W supply I bought the other day to throw into my AMD by purchasing a lesser supply. I mean, there's no way the total power draw of my rig even compares to yours.

[RollingThunder]

Alex, MC,

Great job, very informative and nicely done! I learned a lot. This rates five stars.

John,

I don't think you wasted your money, we all have bought new power supplies that leave some head room or in my case, I wanted a good modular that just happened to be twice my needs that wasn't that expensive. Your purchase was similar to mine and both of ours should run anything we want for a long time.

If I had seen these tests before buying my Corsair, I would have bought this modular Corsair anyhow.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Originally Posted by Alexhk

To be honest I’m more concerned about Oklahoma Wolf mistaking me for a deer and trying to eat me than I am worried for the safety of rig.

Hmm... I haven't had venison in like, forever...

Interesting results thus far.

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

we all have bought new power supplies that leave some head room

Heh - I don't think I've had one yet that isn't at least twice as powerful as I actually need. Except the Deer, and that doesn't count since I didn't know what I was doing that far back.

[ryanmartini]

very interesting. I havent read a thread in full like this one in a loong time. Thank you for all your work!

So seeing it run your system with stability, could I run my pc with one?

AMD Athlon64 Venice 1.8ghz @ 2.7ghz
2 x 512mb RAM
1 Hitachi Deskar 200gb
1 Maxtor 175 gb [backup, data hell]
DVD Burner
Nvidia 8800GTS 320

I am slowly upgrading and next summer is when I am going to go with new mobo/cpu/ram. I have one of the ol'school Rosewill PSU's that have a huge 12V rail and was one of the tech deals a few years ago, however I do not know how it will handle the Nvidia.

Thanks again for your input!

-Ryan

[Hazaro]

If it can power a OC'd E6600 and a 8800GTX I don't see why not.

[ryanmartini]

Originally Posted by Hazaro

If it can power a OC'd E6600 and a 8800GTX I don't see why not.

im getting one. i went voltage happy with some kingston bh-5 I have and blew up the rosewill... woops lol

[powersupply]

Would this power supply be enough for a Intel Dual Core CPU, Nvidia 8800 Ultra, 15,000 rpm WD 150 gig hard drive, 500 gig Hitachi hard drive, 4 gigs of 1x4 sticks of DDR ram, dvd-rw drive, tv tuner card, four 80mm case fans, and one cpu fan ?

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by powersupply

Would this power supply be enough for a Intel Dual Core CPU, Nvidia 8800 Ultra, 15,000 rpm WD 150 gig hard drive, 500 gig Hitachi hard drive, 4 gigs of 1x4 sticks of DDR ram, dvd-rw drive, tv tuner card, four 80mm case fans, and one cpu fan ?

Do you already own it or still shopping?

The reason I ask is because this one:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=373100

is also modular and will give you more overhead. There is no shipping or tax from ZZF plus a $10 mail in rebate. By the time you pay tax and shipping from New Egg, the price is nearly the same and you're getting a lot more. The Corsair is a Seasonic built and first class and a 5 year warranty.

[powersupply]

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

Do you already own it or still shopping?

The reason I ask is because this one:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=373100

is also modular and will give you more overhead. There is no shipping or tax from ZZF plus a $10 mail in rebate. By the time you pay tax and shipping from New Egg, the price is nearly the same and you're getting a lot more. The Corsair is a Seasonic built and first class and a 5 year warranty.

Already own it.

A lot of the reviews of the power supply said it really is a 440 watt power supply but not sure how true this is. Would this power supply be enough for those kind of power hungry pc parts though ? What if we added instead of a intel dual core but now a intel quad core cpu ? Would it still be enough? I saw the results of the power supply draw test and thought maybe I was in luck and if I ever upgrade a lot I won't need to buy a new power supply or one just for the graphics card.

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by powersupply

Already own it.

A lot of the reviews of the power supply said it really is a 440 watt power supply but not sure how true this is. Would this power supply be enough for those kind of power hungry pc parts though ? What if we added instead of a intel dual core but now a intel quad core cpu ? Would it still be enough? I saw the results of the power supply draw test and thought maybe I was in luck and if I ever upgrade a lot I won't need to buy a new power supply or one just for the graphics card.

I think I'll let the more experienced here comment and give you a better opinion. Enermax has a fine reputation overall and rates well on OC Forums with most. On paper it should be fine but "quad core" may start to push your luck in the long term.

You're not going to have much overhead left over. One of the guys will be along with a better opinion.

[powersupply]

Thank you for the help!

[Oklahoma Wolf]

The Liberty units have an unusually high failure rate compared to other Enermax units - I'd avoid them. They're no competition to the Corsairs at all.

[powersupply]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Wolf

The Liberty units have an unusually high failure rate compared to other Enermax units - I'd avoid them. They're no competition to the Corsairs at all.

Thats not good at all. Hope mine isn't one of them. I wish I knew this before. I should of researched more. Stupid me.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Well, they're not that bad... they're just not something I recommend for those wanting a new unit.

[powersupply]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Wolf

Well, they're not that bad... they're just not something I recommend for those wanting a new unit.

Thanks. Curious what is bad about them that they are not recommended please?

[ne0-reloaded]

very interesting alex. i'm gonna try the same thing when i build my pc this fall. curious to see how many amps a oc'ed q6600 will draw. I have a question though, is there a way to tell how power each component is using? like if i wanted to see what my video card, cpu, and drives are drawing individually, is there a way of doing that?

thanks

[powersupply]

Would the Enermax Liberty 400 watt power supply be enough for a Nvidia 8800 Ultra, Intel dual core, 15,000 rpm 150 gig Raptor hard drive, 500 gig hard drive, 4 gigs of DDR 2 ram, dvd-rw drive, tv tuner card, and four 80mm case fans please ?

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by powersupply

Would the Enermax Liberty 400 watt power supply be enough for a Nvidia 8800 Ultra, Intel dual core, 15,000 rpm 150 gig Raptor hard drive, 500 gig hard drive, 4 gigs of DDR 2 ram, dvd-rw drive, tv tuner card, and four 80mm case fans please ?

Power,

Personally, and this is only my opinion, but I would get something a little bigger with more power and give yourself some overhead in reserve.

You're spending some good bucks on nice equipment. If that's the card I'm thinking of, it's some serious bucks. Give your system some breathing room.

[powersupply]

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

Power,

Personally, and this is only my opinion, but I would get something a little bigger with more power and give yourself some overhead in reserve.

You're spending some good bucks on nice equipment. If that's the card I'm thinking of, it's some serious bucks. Give your system some breathing room.

Thanks, the reason I am asking is because Alexhk showed that you really may not need that much power even for very powerful gaming machines! I just wasn't sure what others thought about his test! I thought it proved a good point! Though its always best to just have breathing room like you said if at all possible!

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by powersupply

Thanks, the reason I am asking is because Alexhk showed that you really may not need that much power even for very powerful gaming machines! I just wasn't sure what others thought about his test! I thought it proved a good point! Though its always best to just have breathing room like you said if at all possible!

I agree but if you ask Alex and MC directly, I would bet they won't recommend you try that. Their test is for the present, both will tell you to come back in a year and see what happens. Nobody knows yet.

Read between the lines of what Oklahoma Wolf said above. You can always try it and see how it performs but at the first indication something is not right, yank it out.

[mcoleg]

powersupply, hi m8.

there's a couple of things i'd like to ask you to consider about your planned rig.

first off, don't get 8800 ultra - it's just wasting money and buying into the hype. you'd need to overclock whatever c2d you are planning quite a bit to balance it with a 8800gtx, let alone ultra.

secondly, the heat output. you got c2d overclocked to whatever you plan to overclock it, 8800 vid card, raptor at 10000 rpm and another 500GB drive (that's 3-4 platters spinning at once). you will be getting, depending on you overclock 220 to 300 watt of heat dumped into the case. i am not even counting the motherboard. some, like those with nvidia chipsets, might take up to 100w on full load.

you got 2 80mm fans and psu to exhaust all that heat. i am afraid that 2x80mm might not be enough for cooling the case effectively at full load. large portion of the heat will go through the psu; psu will heat up; the efficiency will drop, heating up the components even further; it's lifespan will shorten considerably. for each additional 10C the capacitors inside of the psu loose a half of their rated life expectancy.

lastly, there's a there's a human factor. i posted this story at jonny's forum:

i had (notice - HAD :P ) a friend whom i let borrow my 300w pcp&c once. it's been some while ago and that psu was pretty much close to the top of the line in terms of power. i used it on my test bench since i knew that it could handle anything i threw at it.

one thing led to another and the psu ended up powering his system for almost a year.

and it died... when i looked at the remains, i saw the pure thing packed with dust; i am not sure the fan was even able to turn at it's last hours. i do distinctly remember introducing him to the novelty (for him :P ) product we all know as canned air; he ignored it big time and psu paid the price.


i think it might be one of the reasons guys in testing/review business would rather oversell us on power needs then recommend something more balanced - they know from experience - humans are just not that bright.

the point is - if you fail to maintain it, it will die much faster then you expect it to.



there's no question Enermax Liberty 400 is capable to power your proposed build. it's not the best psu to choose though. it's an older design with efficiency only up to 80%. it has 120mm fan - not all of them are good for cooling due to the way the components inside a psu are arranged. it has modular cables, meaning added resistance, meaning the psu has to work that much harder to supply the juice to the components.

Enermax Liberty 400 has been around for a while; the general consensus is that while it's an ok psu, there are better ones available for the same $. you could look into more recent models. seasonic s12 are pretty good. if you ask Oklahoma Wolf directly, he'll know what the latest and the greatest for sure.


with all that being said, do you think that you might want a little more buffer for your psu? lets say 430w range? m/b even 500w?

[nookuwn]

hmm I suppose an Earthwatt 500w would handle this?

quad Penryn say 3GHZ
4x1gb
2hdd
2900xt
plus miscellaneous

[Super Nade]

Would it handle it on paper? -Yes

Would it work short-term?-Perhaps

Is it a good idea to run on a 24/7/365 setup?- Perhaps not.

What am I missing here?- Running at the 80-85% capacity mark is not a good idea, given that your case would probably get hot (say 50C). If you intend to keep the unit for a few years, I would not recommend doing this.

[systemhost]

^^ Prolly could

Thanks for this share!

[nookuwn]

Originally Posted by Super Nade

Would it handle it on paper? -Yes

Would it work short-term?-Perhaps

Is it a good idea to run on a 24/7/365 setup?- Perhaps not.

What am I missing here?- Running at the 80-85% capacity mark is not a good idea, given that your case would probably get hot (say 50C). If you intend to keep the unit for a few years, I would not recommend doing this.

hmm...that was the worst case scenario components, chances are I probably won't have a hd2900xt... instead, more like hd2600xt. In this case the Earthwatts 500W should be good for long term use?

The thing is, where I can get the parts, the Antec Sonata III with an Earthwatt 500w is a good deal.... decent case and decent PSU. The next option with similar quality would cost me $30 more.

hmm

[Alexhk]

Originally Posted by nookuwn

hmm...that was the worst case scenario components, chances are I probably won't have a hd2900xt... instead, more like hd2600xt. In this case the Earthwatts 500W should be good for long term use?

The thing is, where I can get the parts, the Antec Sonata III with an Earthwatt 500w is a good deal.... decent case and decent PSU. The next option with similar quality would cost me $30 more.

hmm

Well the 2600xt draws almost nothing compared to the 2900, it would be a sure bet in that case. I agree the Sonata III/EA500W is a nice case/psu combo, if the price is right I don't see any reason not to get it.

With regards to running a quad core penryn with a 2900XT, I'd say it would depend on how much you're overclocking (and ambient temps/airflow as SN mentioned.) I'd do it, but I'd be watching my Kill-a-watt(and DMM) to make sure I wasn't putting the EA500 under to much stress.

As for my rig, I'm just a few days shy of the 3 month mark and my EA 380W is doing just as well as the day I threw it in. Conclusive of long term reliability? Hardly, but a damn good start given how hot this summer has been so far. Rig is always running seti and sometimes gaming so its been getting a good workout ; ) I think the fun will start when my G0 quad shows up though.