Antec NeoHE "High-Efficiency"

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:45 am

BrianF wrote:I appreciate everything you've said here in the way of a recap, but I want to tell you that I for one still don't feel I can "buy with confidence". There needs to be more formal disclosure from Antec.

I second that. After Antec having "fixed" the problem and introducting a new rev. of NeoHE, I waited several months before purchasing another one (P150+NeoHE). I was very disappointed to receive an old, pre-fixed version, again with warranty sticker voided.

In my system, this proved to be no problem in practice, but now I still have the possibility that at some time in the future if I want to put a different MB in that system, the PSU may stop working. So how does this let me buy with confidence? Do you expect to replace the PSU if I call in 2 years?

Also, I wanted to re-iterate what BrianF said, that it would be helpful to have full disclosure on the exact nature of the problem. I also thought your post really avoided being very specific about the problem. I would expect that within Antec, you know very clearly what the problem is. I can't understand why you won't disclose that to your customers, since it is us who have to put up with the issue(s).

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun May 21, 2006 1:21 am

Just purchased a NeoHE 430W revision A3 (A4 not available here).

After having read of various issues from people with DFI Lanparty Ultra -series motherboards I was a little weary of if it was going to work.

Seems to run ok on my DFI Lanparty Expert series motherboard (with 6 x optical, 4xHD, x1900XTX, 3xPCI,8xUSB devices,1xfirewire).

Just FYI and not a guarantee it'll work for you.

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:30 am

I have the opportunity of purchasing a revision A3.1 550W NeoHE. Is anyone aware of any problems with these and the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra?

Taliesin-DS · Post by **Taliesin-DS** » Fri May 26, 2006 1:29 am

Just bought a 430 watt NeoHE a3 and using it with a a8n-e, p180 case with all fans installed and at lowest speed, geforce 7600gs passive cooled and oc'd and amd stock cooler, works perfectly

Though i hope it will be the same when i replace the cpu cooler+ mobo cooler for passive heatsinks

allenlux · Post by **allenlux** » Fri May 26, 2006 5:26 am

I see that this thread is still alive, so I'd just like to follow up my post of 3 April.

At that point I had just received a replacement NeoHE from Antec, with revision "A2.2" on the sticker (see picture in my 3 April post).

As of today, I can confirm that during 8 weeks of operation the combination of the A2.2 revision NeoHE, ECS 760GX-M motherboard, AMD 3100+ etc has been absolutely without problems.

valnar · Post by **valnar** » Fri May 26, 2006 6:18 am

I received a new one back from Antec Tech support and it works fine too. It had a S/N, IIRC, of 0603......
March 2006 I believe.

Robert

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Fri May 26, 2006 6:55 am

Glad antec got this sorted out.

This PSU is an option ones again...until the Seasonic M12 comes out.

Bobendren · Post by **Bobendren** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:02 am

I've been following this thread right from the beginning. I waited a few months to make sure i bought an "updated" version, but still managed to buy one of the earlier versions (SN: 0509...).

I'm happy to say though that it works 100%. Even with a single harddrive plugged in i have experienced no problems. My system is pretty minimal too....P4 2.4c, 865G Gigabyte mobo, 1GB Ram, 9600Pro.

I measured the voltage on the 12v and 5v rails with a multimeter when under load and at idle, the results were as follows:

Idle
-----
5v : 4.93v
12 : 12.00v

Load
-----
5v : 4.93v
12 : 11.99

Good show!

SixToes · Post by **SixToes** » Fri May 26, 2006 9:08 am

I swapped my troublesome NeoHE 430 (0510) for an Seasonic S12 430 by returning it to eBuyer. I wish I'd bought the Seasonic in the first place and saved myself the time and hassle. The Seasonic was slightly cheaper and (subjectively) just as quiet.

Sgt_Strider · Post by **Sgt_Strider** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:28 pm

How do I ensure that if I do buy the NeoHE 430W that I'm getting the latest revision? There aren't any known issues with the DFI NF4 Ultra-d right?

miker · Post by **miker** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:40 am

I guess we will find out if they are still honoring the RMA's on these items for the incompatibilities. I got my P150 awhile ago, and now I am hooking it up to my Abit An8 SLI and no go.

I am sending in the RMA today.

I have the S0509 model.

george777 · Post by **george777** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:35 pm

I bought a P150 on Monday with the 430W NeoHE.

Serial number = S05120132603
Rev 2.1
QC Stamp inside case case says 2005-12-20

I also bought an Asus P5P800SE to use in this case.

Before I build I'm reading this thread and now I'm really pissed off.

There is no friggen way I could ever trust this PSU to be reliable after the history of problems playing out.

I buy quality components because I want to avoid problems- Instead that's exactly what I got.

This PSU is exactly useless to me now even though i havn't even hooked it up yet.

It's all about confidence and reliability and Antec has blown it big time.

I don't even want to hook anything up now for fear of damaging my expensive parts.

I have purchased antec products before and been delighted.
After reading the Antec Rep reply in this thread ( obviously the guy has no technical knowledge) he's just a PR man and offers no real help to us.

I won"t go thru hoops for hours just to do an RMA. And what is going to power my box in the meantime? Antec should have done a recall!!!Instead they are doing a PR smozzel that may very well destroy the company. They teach this stuff in Business 101 - did they attend that one ?! I guess they were at the Greed 101 class instead

I will never purchase an Antec product again - the company has obviously gone to the dogs. Chit like this happens. You become sucessful - you relax a bit - and then u fork up. No surprise here.

Not so bad they forked up if they fix it - but then the lame response to the prob is unfrickenbelievable. I bet they still dont even know what the f is going on themselves.

I got enuff headaches building these boxes without this sort of nonesense.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:07 am

george777 wrote:This PSU is exactly useless to me now even though i havn't even hooked it up yet.

I don't even want to hook anything up now for fear of damaging my expensive parts.

I won"t go thru hoops for hours just to do an RMA. And what is going to power my box in the meantime?

I will never purchase an Antec product again - the company has obviously gone to the dogs. Chit like this happens. You become sucessful - you relax a bit - and then u fork up. No surprise here.

0/10 on the rant

I'm not defending Antec in any way here, but...

You got the PSU but you won't hook it up to even try to see if it works? Plain stupid imho. And I don't recall any reports of the PSU damaging parts, it simply shuts off, that's all, it doesn't fry your components.

You won't go through RMA? Why not? Again, plain stupid IMHO. If I buy a product I expect it to work as advertised. I didn't pay for a defective product. So I will RMA as many times as necessary out of principle - I bought stuff, I expect it to work. And besides, that's a very good way to make sure this stuff doesn't repeat itself - it costs money for Antec to replace those, if on the other hand you don't RMA that just tells Antec you don't care and they are free to repeat the same mistake they've made with neohe.

And lastly, you say you won't buy any more Antec products, but it seems you knew about these problems before you bought the case. If you knew about them, then why did you buy it at all? It's irrational to knowingly buy a defective product and then loudly proclaim I've been so dissatisfied with it that I won't buy any more again...

george777 · Post by **george777** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:22 am

Mr. Jazz.

You use the term humble in the IMHO letters.
Calling me stupid is not so humble.

Anyways -you have some good points and you are just wrong on several others.

I didn't know anything about these problems before I bought. As I stated in my post. I bought - then I read the thread before I started to build.

I stated that I wanted to get quality parts and build a system that I can "RELY ON" to not break down on me when a client is waiting for some files. That means that I have no interest i using a power supply that has a history of failure with my particular motherboard. Make sense?? So this is why I wont even hook it up. Get it?

As I clearly stated in the post ... "It's all about confidence and reliability" but it seems that one went over yer head since your probably just playing games on your box.

I am not doing an RMA bercause I have no interest in installing this model of power supply in my box anymore. Since Antec will only supply some hack fix on the same model rather than give me a different design true power model, its all a waste of time. Are you following me??

Wasting time is what I don't like to do which is why continuing this topic with you, who can't seem to comprehend my clearly stated views and then calls me stupid is now going to come to an end.

I dont care what Antec does in the future "as you state" and I have no intention of trying to discipline them as you suggest, You go ahead with that if you want - LMFAO.

Good day sir. Er, i mean son.

george777 · Post by **george777** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:32 am

OK

Out of curiosity I hooked it up.

It's dead.

Green led on mobo lights up - but no cpu fan and no case fan spinning.

2 of the 3 12V rails are dead.

The warranty sticker was cracked too.

At least the store I got it from " Canada Computers " is a class act and they are willing to give me full credit against another purchase.

Antec might take note on how to treat customers properly.

Screw you Antec - I'm telling everybody about your reluctance to make a wrong right again because your greedy poor business men.

You have wasted too much of my time on this thing in order to save bucks in yer pocket. It will cost you far more in the end by not doing the right thing.

You should offer the truepower 430 as replacement to those with compat probs. But you wont do that.

I encourage all persons stung on this Antec PSU to tell everybody about the shoddy customer care policy at Antec.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:45 am

lol this has gone ugly.

You say you "clearly stated views" but your views are one sentence snippets and those 'clearly'

cannot be considered an efficient form of communication. You claim "stated in [your] post" you didn't know about the problems, but if you reread your original post nowhere do you explicitly say it. I don't want to guess what you were really trying to say. You call me a boy and yet you are the one who failed to do your research, good move buddy.

Like I said, I'm not defending antec, they have had enough mishaps with neohe and P180, however you can't place all the blame on the antec since this is a known problem.

Concerning RMA, well, that depends on your point of view. If you chose not to RMA, you just gave away $70 to antec for free (this is the retail cost of NeoHE 430). I work hard for my money, I'm not just going to give them away to someone.

george777 · Post by **george777** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:45 am

Mr. Jazz,

You failure to understand a simple concept.....
That I need a psu I can rely on now and later, and I thought I had bought that.
The NeoHE PSU is clearly not reliable for anybody now - nor will it ever be , even if they do their hack fix on it.
So that means that RMA is a waste of time since they wont replace with a different product - hellooooooo?

What about those peeps that got the psu working now, and dont know about any probs, but may try to upgrade to an incompat board later - they are screwed!

I spoke to the tech rep at Antech.
They denied there was any problem with the PSU after I told them I had an Intel board.
When I said it was in fact an Asus mobo they then said there was an incompatability prob with my board.
You see?, they know you'll get screwed if you change to Asus later but dont say a thing or care even.

I am returning this defective product to the store for a full refund and because Antec really dropped the ball hard on this one will never see my business again.

You see Antec should have done a recall - instead they are screwing people over - can you not see that??? Or do you work for Antec??

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:54 am

I've been following this thread since page 1 and I still don't know if it's safe to buy a neo. Since spcr has never published the neo 550w review planned in the upcoming reviews list, I'm assuming there are still some problems.

Products seem to drop out of the upcoming reviews list with no explanation, but the neo 550w is still there. Enermax must have missed out on the backroom deal to withdraw the latest noisetaker review. Maybe the neo 550w is not really quiet. Sort of like the s12 330w that turned out to be noisier than the others s12 models.

Anyway, who wants to get burned by antec again. Every neo installation seems to have a duct to keep it quiet - why not just get a seasonic before they all have 2 fans.

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:54 pm

frankgehry wrote:I've been following this thread since page 1 and I still don't know if it's safe to buy a neo. Since spcr has never published the neo 550w review planned in the upcoming reviews list, I'm assuming there are still some problems.

I wholeheartedly concur. I decided to chance it and build a system with the P150, because the P150/NeoHS combo is still really enticing even with the issues people have been seeing. Detachable cables, suspended HD, nice looking case...what's not to like?

Sadly, there is something to not like. The system sporadically does not boot. It's hardly a low power rig, either: AMD64 X2 3800+, Radeon x1300, 1 GB RAM, Samsumg 250 GB drive....that's a relatively low power system, but not that low. Once it boots, it works fine, but....it's still unacceptable behavior. I'm not particularly angry or upset, but I would definitely not recommend the NeoHE to anyone.

If you're debating it, save yourself the trouble and get some other PSU.

S/N was S05120167715, by the way...

george777 · Post by **george777** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:44 pm

I returned the P150 with that crapola NeoHE PSU and got an Enermax 500W Liberty - oh man - sweet PSU. Gonna install it into a P180 that I picked up as well.
They would not take back just the PSU so I was not able to put the Enermax in the P150 case. Was forced to fork over big bucks for the P180.

OK so - 288 plus tax for a case with a psu - I think i need my head examined but what the hey - you only live once. lol

psionic · Post by **psionic** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:23 pm

For those wondering about where to get the latest Antec NeoHE PSUs--

I just ordered an Antec NeoHE 550W from Buy.com ($99.99 w/ free S&H). It is the newer revision with the separate 4-pin ATX 12V connector and 8-pin EPS 12V connector. It works flawlessly with both my ASUS A8N SLI Premium and my ASUS A8V Deluxe.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:11 pm

frankgehry wrote:Since spcr has never published the neo 550w review planned in the upcoming reviews list, I'm assuming there are still some problems.

Products seem to drop out of the upcoming reviews list with no explanation, but the neo 550w is still there. Enermax must have missed out on the backroom deal to withdraw the latest noisetaker review.

Hmm ... I sense dissatisfaction and veiled accusations of bias... Well, fair enough. You're welcome to make what you will of MikeC's affiliation with Antec.

However, I do need to clarify a couple of things.

As far as I can tell the new NeoHE revisions work great ... but that's not saying much since I thought the originals worked great. The reason that the review hasn't appeared has more to do with a lack of interest than any problems we've discovered. The NeoHE is old news ... and it's really not worth spilling more electonic ink that will promote a product that may or not have compatibility problems depending on when it was made. If/when there is a way to distinguish the new versions from the old is when the review deserves to happen.

On top of that, the issues of reliability and compatibility are nearly impossible to test in our usual fashion. I can't imagine how our review could prove decisively one way or the other that the problem is fixed or not fixed. I think the fact that the deluge of complaints about the NeoHE has slowed significantly says more about the new versions than our review ever could.

Second, products get dropped from our review queue for all kinds of reasons, including lack of interest, lack of time, or lack of relevance. However, the number one reason that they get dropped is because they are immediately and obviously too loud to consider in a quiet system. This was not true of the Enermax Noisemaker (despite its poor review), and it is not true of the NeoHE 550.

@George: Your boycott was quite short-lived... I hope you like your new P180. Sorry to hear about your non-functional NeoHE, and hope you've cooled off after reading through 18 frustrating pages of hype and complaints...

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:38 am

I purchased the 550W NeoHE that I had the opportunity to earlier in the thread, and I have to say I am very pleased with it. It is much, much quieter under load than my previous PSU's (Hiper Type R 480W and Enermax Liberty 400W) and it works flawlessly. I would recommend it.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 9:57 am

roadie wrote:I purchased the 550W NeoHE that I had the opportunity to earlier in the thread, and I have to say I am very pleased with it. It is much, much quieter under load than my previous PSU's (Hiper Type R 480W and Enermax Liberty 400W) and it works flawlessly. I would recommend it.

So is the net consensus now that NeoHE's are a great silent buy, unless you have an Asus motherboard, in which case you're better off with a Seasonic? SPCR will have to have some kind of official position on this saga, eventually.

aqm consultant · Post by **aqm consultant** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:18 am

Since discussion of this topic doesn't seem to be abating, thought I'd provide an update. System:
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD x2 4800+ (stock HSF)
2 x 1Gb RAM
2 x Samsung SP250c 250 Gb SATA HD in RAID 1 (NVIDIA controller)
GeForce 6600LE passive cooler video
Running CoolNQuiet

Originally built with Neo HE430 SN S0509xxxxx. Booted OK and ran with light load, but would randomly shut down (5 min to 2+ hours) under heavy CPU load (e.g., multiple instances of CPUBURN running so both cores show 100% CPU).

Antec agreed to RMA immediately, and the replacement PSU (SN S0603xxxx) has been running silently and with NO problems since April under all load conditions.

The only problem I've had since is that two of Bill's security updates to WinXP didn't install cleanly and reboot, resulting in the RAID 1 array coming back as "degraded". Rebuilds of array were simple and uneventful, and I attribute this to Bill's software.

Overall, I trust the system, and greatly appreciate the quietness after a Thunderbird.

fyleow · Post by **fyleow** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:56 pm

I bought a NeoHE 550 because it was on sale at Fry's for $89 and it's been running great. No issues at all with rebooting or stability with my Asrock 939 (Asus manufacturers these boards). I have a S0605xxxx sn.

Does anyone know if the NeoHE 430 is quieter than the 550?

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:10 pm

I don't believe anyone has ever commented on the noise level of the 550w other than the post just above. The 430w is supposed to be very quiet however. How would you rate yours?

fyleow · Post by **fyleow** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:53 pm

Well I don't think my computer qualifies as "quiet" based on SPCR standards so I didn't comment but here are my impressions based on my setup:

Antec P 180
Thermalright SI-120 w/ Panaflo L1 (5v)
Evga 7900GT Zalman VF700 (5v)
Antec Tri-Cool on High (5v)

160 gb Seagate 7200.7
200 gb Seagate 7200.8
300 gb Seagate 7200.9
300 gb Maxtor

The previous power supply I had was the CoolerMaster Real Power 450(Reviewed here). IMO this PSU goes well with the P180 since the fan is entirely temperature controlled. According to the SPCR review it puts out about 23 db with the fan going at 5.5V.

I'd say that the NeoHE 550 is about the same as the CoolerMaster, maybe a tad quieter. The fan's sonic signature in the NeoHE is a lot smoother than the CoolerMaster and there's probably a bit less electrical noise. They are both really quiet though and it's hard to tell even after I disabled all the fans in my system. The hard drives' combined idle noise actually ends up being relatively loud, I guess I need to do something about that.

I've been debating whether or not to keep the NeoHE. The CoolerMaster serves me just fine but it's not as future compatible. The NeoHE has more SATA power connectors, has a PCI-E power connector and is modular so that reduces my cable clutter greatly. Air can also pass through the back of the NeoHE which is nice, so I can install a fan to keep both my HDDs and the PSU cool.[/url]

Ziplock · Post by **Ziplock** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:14 pm

NEO HE 430
S06050273691 (May 2006)
Ver A4

P4 Prescott HT 2.8/800
Zalman CNPS7000-AlCu
Gigabyte 8IPE1000PRO-G
1GB PC3200 Dual Channel DDR
Geforce 6800GT 8x AGP
Sil3112 SATA RAID PCI card
HighPoint Rocketraid 133 PCI card
SBLive PCI card
x2 80gb IDE Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
120gb SATA Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
160gb SATA Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
Plextor 712SA SATA DVD Burner

Bought this powersupply today from Frys (Austin, TX) as a replacement for my 300watt Sparkle. Purchase price was discounted from $89 to $49, which I thought was a great deal; this was not a returned item.

Since installation, my system has been rock solid stable. I ran through 4 hours of Prime95 (Normal Priority) and Real-time HDR IBL DX9 (16x Multisampling) with no issues. I later played 45 minutes of Oblivion, also with no hiccups. I have rebooted and shut the machine down multiple times, again no problems.

This may have to due with the newer date of manufacture. I suppose they have worked out the bugs? Maybe I just got lucky, either way I have been very happy with this PSU thus far. I will update if I notice anything out of the ordinary.

Cheers,

Zip

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 3:05 pm

Ziplock wrote:...Bought this powersupply today from Frys (Austin, TX) as a replacement for my 300watt Sparkle. Purchase price was discounted from $89 to $49, which I thought was a great deal; this was not a returned item...

Yeah, both the NeoHE 430 ($49.99 OTD) and the P150 ($99.99 AR) are on sale right now at Fry's. I was going to start a thread in the Hot Deals forum, but...

Here is the link for both.

Lucky dog.

I would give up French fries to have a Fry's Electronics in South Florida.