Antec TruePower New 750W Review

[Jester]

Hello GND community. The time is here, I finally got my new PSU, the Antec TruePower New 750W. This is Antec's latest revision in the TruePower series. First, lets see what Antec has to say about them.

New features. Same true power. The TruePower New series by Antec offers users an advanced power supply solution, striking the perfect balance of reliability, efficiency and quality. With DC to DC voltage regulator modules, a 120mm PWM fan, and 80 PLUS® Bronze certification, the TP-550, TP-650, TP-750 and TP-750 Blue are the ideal solution for elite system builders and quality-minded enthusiasts alike.

NVIDIA™ SLI™ - ready certified
80PLUS® Bronze Certified saves energy and lowers your electric bill
DC to DC voltage regulator modules for greater system stability
120mm PWM fan runs up to 50% quieter than standard fans
Blue internal LED illumination for TP-750 Blue
Advanced Hybrid Cable Management improves airflow and reduces clutter
Double layer PCB optimizes cooling efficiency and allows for heavy duty components
Universal Input and Active Power Factor Correction
Supports dual GPUs and dual/quad core CPUs
4 +12V output circuits provide stable power
ATX12V v2.3 and EPS12V v2.91
1 x 6 pin and 1 x 8 (6+2) pin PCI-E graphics card connectors for TP-550
2 x 6 pin and 2 x 8 (6+2) pin PCI-E graphics card connectors for TP-650, TP-750 and TP-750 Blue
Industrial grade protection
Safety approval: UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick, BSMI
Weight: 2.3 kg; 5 lbs
Dimensions:
- 3.4" (H) x 5.9" (W) x 5.9" (D)
- 86mm (H) x 150mm (W) x 150mm (D)

That's a lot of typing (well, copying and pasting). So yeah uh, 80 Plus BRONZE, dual layer PCB (yummy), SLI certified, DC to DC VRM (thank you Antec), PWM fan, somewhat modular. 80 Plus BRONZE means the following efficiency (minimum).

20% Load = 82% Efficient
50% Load = 85% Efficient
100% Load = 82% Efficient

Time to get down to business.

PACKAGING

The box is fairly straightforward. It has a picture of the PSU, 80 Plus BRONZE certification, etc.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

Upon opening the box, I disappointed to see how the PSU was packaged. My old, cheap OCZ StealthXStream 700W had higher quality packinging.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The PSU should arrive undamaged, being solid steel and in between lots of cardboard. This image is from jonnyguru.


Other than the PSU, modular cables were also included. This PSU is advertised to have "Advanced Hybrid Cable Management". I'll find out what this means.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

They also included a very short manual, power cable, and some screws. So what does the power supply look like anyway? To be honest, it isn't anything out of the ordinary. Yet another jonnyguru photo, sorry the camera I was using died out and had to be recharged while I continued my journey (that is, swapping power supplies). Sleeving is done all the way into the PSU, unlike most Delta based Antec PSUs. Woohoo.


The sticker is on one side - the side where you will see it unless you install your PSU upside down (necessary in Antec cases). Lets take a closer look at that sticker.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

That's a lot of 25A rails going on. So lets break this down. Both the +3.3v and +5v rail can output 25A peak. Each of the four +12v rails also output 25A peak. Time to get excited, four 25A rails is amazing on a 750W PSU. That's better than the Antec Signature 850W (God of power supplies) which has two 22A +12v rails and two 25A +12v rails. So that's a high OCP (over current protection), but how much does each +12v rail output continuously? Well, look down a little bit, combined +12v power is a whopping 62A. That's 744W fellas, forget about powering your ancient Pentium II system with this, not enough power on the other rails. But to those of you with modern day PCs, you should love such a high +12v rating. That's the same as the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W. The +12v rails power the following, in case you didn't know.

• Modern Day motherboards
• CPU cores
• PCI-E devices (most video cards, lots of sound cards, some network cards & RAID cards, etc.)
• Drives (HDD and ODD)
• Fans

The +12v rails are distributed as follows.

+12v1 = Motherboard, optical drives, 3.5" drives, and SATA drives
+12v2 = CPU

+12v3 and +12v4 are dedicated to video cards. So the video cards get their own 25A rails. Wow. The PSU comes with the following hardwired connectors.

20+4 pin motherboard connector (540mm) -> x1
5.25" Drive (540mm) -> x3
3.5" Drive (540mm) -> x1
SATA (540mm) -> x3
8-pin CPU Cable (540mm) -> x1
4-pin CPU Cable (540mm) -> x1
6+2 pin PCI-E (570mm) -> x2

The modular cables are as follows.

5.25" Drive (560mm) -> x6
SATA (550mm) -> x6
6-pin PCI-E -> x2

That's a lot of cables, you can certainly power more than what any 750W PSU is capable of. But there is something I dislike. Both the 8-pin CPU and 4-pin CPU cable are hardwired. Hello Antec, anybody home? Other power supplies have a 4+4 pin CPU cable, thus solving this issue. Now I have to go hide an extra cable, thanks.

So little modular connectors too, but the price of this PSU is incredible, $100 on newegg, so I can't complain. My old PSU wasn't modular at all either.

So far there was certainly a lot more said than done. So let's install this sucker, shall we?

INSTALLATION

I have a Cooler Master ATCS 840 case, you can mount the PSU on the top or bottom. I had my old PSU mounted on the bottom. The 120mm fan on it sucked air through ventilation at the bottom of the case, and there was a dust filter. That's lovely, but this time around I wanted to install the PSU on top. Why? Well this way, I'll have the 120mm PWM fan facing down, acting as a top exhaust fan (taking air out of the case, right away from the CPU cooler). Now I can use two 120mm bottom intake fans instead of one. More air intake for video cards? I'll take that.

Fitting the PSU up there wasn't the easiest thing in the world, I don't have very small hands. But I got it up there. It's much easier installing the PSU at the bottom. Here are some photos, before I installed the PSU supporting bracket under the PSU.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

I cut my knuckle somewhere in the process. Sucks for me. Here is a shot of the back of the PSU.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

Normal power cable -> Check
Power switch -> Check
Ventilation -> Check

Looking good. Especially compared to my old cable management. Turns out cable management is much easier with a top mounted PSU. Here is a picture of my old revision, OCZ StealthXStream 700W mounted to the bottom of the case.

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-06-19

Now with the Antec TruePower New 750W installed at the top...

By boredgunner, shot with Canon PowerShot A590 IS at 2009-08-26

Looking much better! Too bad the modular 6-pin PCI-E cable is too short to make it through the cut outs all the way down to my 9800GT. One of the molex cables going to the 120mm fan in the optical drive is also too short, but overall it looks much better.

TESTING

Finally we're up to the testing. I don't have a multimeter, so I'll have to rely on software for now. I'll report back with real results, I'm sure I have some multimeters somewhere in my garage around the old comic books, tools, cigars, Chevy Corvette, etc.

For testing, I used the OCCT PSU test for 30 minutes. That is, the CPU Linpack and GPU stress tester in one. I didn't open up the PSU, since I spent my own hard earned cash. I'd like to keep whatever warranty I have. Here is the hardware being tested.

(XFX) NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI MOBO (P33 Bios, 1.50v SPP)
Intel Core 2 DUO E8400 CPU - 3.8 ghz (1900 mhz FSB, 475 x 8, 1.35 VCore, 1.3v FSB)
2 x 2 GB RAM (OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066/PC2 8500 @ 1140 mhz, 5-5-5-18, 2.2v)
EVGA GTX 260 CORE 216 55nm - 190.62 WHQL drivers (670/1458/1153)
Galaxy Dual Slot 9800GT

For some odd reason, OCCT picked up 6 errors. This is probably due to my recent RAM overclock to 1140 mhz, I left the timings at default. I passed 20 passes of LinX with the same CPU clock but slower RAM, but hey, I can play games all day like this, so it's all good right?

Firstly, here are the ATX specifications for a power supply.

RAIL / Max and Min Line Regulation / Max Ripple Voltage

+5 VDC / ±5% (±0.25 V) / 50 mV
?5 VDC / ±10% (±0.50 V) / 50 mV
+12 VDC / ±5% (±0.60 V) / 120 mV
?12 VDC / ±10% (±1.2 V) / 120 mV
+3.3 VDC / ±5% (±0.165 V) / 50 mV
+5 VSB / ±5% (±0.25 V) / 50 mV

+3.3v line regulation is looking very good.

By boredgunner at 2009-08-26

+5v is in spec but not so good results. Funny, my old PSU had around the same reading (a tiny bit lower).

By boredgunner at 2009-08-26

+12v line regulation is in spec but a tad high. Also strange, my old PSU had similar results.

By boredgunner at 2009-08-26

I've come to a conclusion - take software readings with a grain of salt. I'll find a multimeter soon for more accurate results. According to jonnyguru's review, the line regulation and ripple voltage results are fantastic on this PSU.

Actual Results - For this test, the following hardware was used.

• XFX 680i LT Motherboard, 1.50v SPP
• Intel Core 2 DUO E8400 @ 3.8 GHz, 475 x 8, 1.35 VCore, 1.3v FSB
• 4GB DDR2 1140 @ 5-5-5-18, 2.2v
• EVGA GTX 480 @ 863/1726/1050, 1138 mV
• 12 case fans, one Panaflo 120mm x 38mm CPU fan, one WD Caviar 320GB HDD

For testing - I ran LinX with full memory testing as well as FurMark 1.8.2 with Xtreme burning mode, post FX, 32x AA and displacement mapping at fullscreen (1920 x 1080). I did all of this for one hour. I didn't have a kill-a-watt to measure power from the wall, but from my calculations this is slightly over 400W on the +12v rails with the other rails barely being under any sort of load. So this is roughly equal to 54% load. Here are the results.



So we're looking at better than 1% regulation on all of these rails. Excellent results.

Antec's PWM fan (pulse width modulation) is supposed to be up to 50% quieter than others. It was inaudible over everything else in my case throughout the whole test. To be honest I didn't expect to hear it over nine Cooler Master R4 fans rated at 19 DBA each, two Thermalright FDB 2000 RPM fans rated at 38 DBA each and one Panaflo 120mm x 38mm fan rated at 45.5 DBA. The loudest thing was of course the GTX 480 screaming at over 45 decibels.

Pricing on this PSU is out of this world. I payed $100 with free shipping at newegg. The same deal is still going on. This Seasonic-built half way modular TruePower New 750W (TP-750) is of comparable quality to the Corsair TX750 and PC Power & Cooling 750W, a little bit better in fact. The TP-750 also has an 80 Plus BRONZE certification unlike those, and has more +12v power (62A/744W vs 60A/720W). Great job Antec.

Overall, I'm going to say I am impressed by this PSU. Looks are uninspiring, as well as the modular cable system, but the price to performance ratio is top notch. Performs slightly better than my old PSU according to OCCT, but when I use a multimeter, I should see more closely regulated voltages (judging by other reviews). Thumbs up to this PSU.

[strudinox]

An amazing power supply for the $$$!!! Excellent review and pictures! I'll add this one to the main page!

+REP

[WASD]

Seems like a very nice and stable psu. Too bad i just upgraded a month ago or i probably would have ended up getting this one. Thanks!

[strudinox]

Quick question.... This doesn't make sence to me

20% Load = 82% Efficient
50% Load = 85% Efficient
100% Load = 82% Efficient

Why would it be low to start with? Then go up then back down?

[Jester]

Those are the minimum efficiency levels to make 80 Plus BRONZE. Power supplies are meant to be run at about half load, or 50%, therefore they'd be most efficient at those levels.

http://80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_join.aspx

Here is the 80 Plus efficiency report for the TP-750.

http://80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_reports/ ... Report.pdf

20% Load = 84.68% Efficient
50% Load = 86.31% Efficient
100% Load = 82.93% Efficient

[strudinox]

That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

[massdeth]

good job on this review!! im not a huge Antec PSU fan, but ive owned both the TPT 650(sold) and 550(have still) and ive never had problems with them. i would def consider this buy after your review. great details!!! in fact im going to try to do my review of my case the same way or at least close!!

[Jester]

Nice, I'm looking forward to your case reviews. The TruePower Trio series were okay, not nearly as good as the TruePower Quattro or TruePower New series. The TruePower Trio series are an old Seasonic build. The TPQ series are Enhance built, and just like many Enhance built PSUs, they've undergone a revision which have taken them to greatness. The TruePower New series are based off the Seasonic M12D (best Seasonic platform), and a little bit of the TruePower Trio build.

The TPQ and TPN are behind the CP series (there is only one CP series PSU, the CP-850). The CP series are built under the CPX form factor, they only fit a number of cases (Antec 1200, P183, P193). The CP-850 is top of the line, one of the very best PSUs out there. It's Delta built, Delta is the best OEM and makes server grade PSUs. The CP-850 is right behind the Signature series, which are the highest quality ATX power supplies on the market, also Delta built.

Antec also has a number of cheap PSUs such as the Neopower series and Basiq series, which aren't too good or bad. Antec is a mixed bag but doesn't have anything horrible these days, overall I consider them one of the best companies to buy a PSU from, due to their variety of power supplies, from mediocre to good, great to best.

[taurox]

I have the Antec 850W TruePower Quattro
Its very good for the price 120 $


Full throttle power

You could search the four corners of the earth for a stable and reliable power supply, but you won't find better than Antec's TruePower Quattro More compact than most competing power supplies of the same wattage, yet ideally suited for handling the most demanding system specs, the TruePower Quattro is designed to meet the 80PLUS Bronze certification which means that it consumes about 33% less energy than equivalent power supplies. Four 12V rails increase your system stability. The TruePower Quattro comes with four PCI-E connectors for powering one (or even two) of the newest generation of video cards. All modular cables are sleeved and labeled to give your system a clean and professional look while the racing stripe paint job adds extra style.
Features:

NVIDIA™ SLI™-ready certified
Universal Input, automatically adjusts for 100V to 240V power grids
Designed to meet the 80PLUS® Bronze Certification
Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) helps reduce electrical waste
Supports EPS12V v2.91 and ATX12V systems
Four 12V output circuits provide supreme system stability
Accurate power rating allows TruePower Quattro to deliver its full rated power (24 hours a day rated at 50ºC)
Up to 85% efficient
80mm low noise cooling fan
Industrial grade protection: OVP (Over Voltage Protection), UVP (Under Current Protection), SCP (Short Circuit Protection), and OCP (Over Current Protection)
2 x (6+2)-pin PCI-E connectors and 2 x 6-pin connectors for PCI-Express graphics cards
MTBF: 100,000 hours
Safety approvals: UL, CUL, FCC, TÜV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB
Gold plated connectors for superior conductivity
AQ5 -Antec Quality five-year parts and labor warranty
Unit Dimensions: 5.9" (W) x 3.4" (H) x 7.1" (D)

Package dimensions:
• 9"(H) x 11.5"(W) x 5.3"(D)
• 22.86cm(H) x 29.21cm(W) x 13.46cm(D)
Weight:
• Net: 5.75 lbs / 2.6 kg
• Gross: 8.4 lbs / 3.81 kg



Output

+5V 0.2A 30.0A ±3? 47A 50
+12V1 0.1A 25.0A ±3? 36A 120
+12V2 0.5A 25.0A ±3? 36A 120
+12V3 0A 25.0A ±3? 36A 120
+12V4 0A 25.0A ±3? 36A 120
-12V 0A 0.5A ±5? 120
+5VSB 0A 3.0A ±5? 50
+3.3V 0.1A 25.0A ±3? 41A 50

Total Power: 850W continuous output @ 50C
+5V and +3.3V combined max. output: 180W
+12V outputs combined max. output: 768W(64A)