Neo HE 430 Serial No. S05100027679
A friend of mine recently bought a P150 case with the NeoHE430 installed. The PSU wouldn’t work with his ASUS A8N motherboard, so he RMA’d it. However, he couldn’t wait to build his PC so went out and bought a Seasonic S12-600.
When he got the RMA replacement, I bought it off him, still sealed in cellophane. It seemed slightly ‘grubby’ when I opened it (fingerprints all over it) and I noticed that the warranty seal was broken. When it didn’t work, a quick search bought me to this website/forum.
My system comprises an Asus A7V8X with an AMD Athlon XP 2400, Nvidia Ti4200, Creative Audigy soundcard and a couple of hard drives. The PSU gives a spurt of power and switches off immediately – just enough to start spinning the CPU + PSU fans. I gradually removed components, but even with nothing but the CPU plugged into the motherboard (and CPU heatsink and fan, of course), there is no change. Three or four other PSU’s I have to hand including an Antec True 330P, all manage to power each system ok.
I tried the NeoHE430 with a couple of other PC’s as follows:
PC1 – HP D530 P4 2.66 – Fans spin for a couple of seconds
PC2 – Advent (PC World) PIII Celeron 1.3GHz – Fans spin for a split second.
PC3 – Gateway PIII 1GHz – Works perfectly!
The motherboard’s on these 3 PC’s are generic/OEM Intel based boards without manufacturers’ branding but I don’t have time to cross reference the various OEM part numbers at the moment.
Labels:
I don’t believe the account given to Mike C by Antec about the warranty labels splitting in transit. My unit is very firmly put together and I can’t get any movement between the two sections bridged by the label. The label is positioned adjacent to a ‘lug’ which holds the PSU casing tightly together and any force sufficient to cause the label to split, would destroy the PSU never mind the packaging!
As mentioned previously, my PSU definitely looks like it’s been handled and closer inspection even reveals a couple of scratches on one of the screws!
Conclusion:
I wonder just how stringent Antec (or their agents or subcontractors perhaps) are with their QC. Either way, warranty replacements, at least, should be checked more thoroughly.
Whatever checks are being carried out are not very effective and it seems to me they are not too sure about the exact problem. Why else would they send faulty/incompatible PSU’s out as replacements, especially when they know the user has a ‘problem’ motherboard?
If anyone at Antec wants a couple of old motherboard’s that their PSU doesn’t work with, I’m open to reasonable offers!
Finally, my dilemma. Do I run my main system with a slightly noisier PSU or do I use the tired old 1GHz Celeron Gateway with my shiny new (read used and botched by Antec) Neo HE 430?
John
PS. Anyone got a quiet CPU cooler for a 1GHz Celeron?