Reviewed by: brickfungus on 19-Mar-09 Rating:

Strengths:Efficient, powerful enough for most applications

Weaknesses:none

Summary:I bought this in my attempt to make an energy effienct gaming maching (an oxymoron, i know). With everything else I assembled, I\'m able to run Battlefield 2 with full graphics at ~200W. Idles ~150W. Have had no problems at all with it.

Reviewed by: netigen on 28-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Brand, efficiency rating, cost

Weaknesses:no modular cabling

Summary:Excellent power supply, very quite, highly efficient with 80 rating and environment friendly. I also found it to relatively light weight compared to my older Antec. I read online that this is originally a sesonic OEM which we all know if one of the best OEM brands. It comes with voltage autodetection but lacks the modular cabling which so important nowadays.

Reviewed by: An19884 on 28-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:efficiency, quiet

Weaknesses:cost, support

Summary:I have been using this for more than 6 months now and I have found the power supply to be highly dependable, very quite and energy friendly. I can keep runnig my PC without worrying about high energy bills. The power supply was also able to handle the following:

1. Radeon 9800
2. Core 2 duo processor and motherboard
3. 3 PCI cards
4. 4 HDD
5. 2 DVD Writers

hope this helps

Reviewed by: scottegos2 on 04-Jan-08 Rating:

Strengths:quiet stable efficient good tech support

Weaknesses:no detachable cables only 430w

Summary:I like this PSU very much. It\'s very plain-looking -- no fancy pictures or whatever, but works very well. Its internal fan is essentially inaudible, and the power has been very stable. You don\'t want this for your SLI super-power rig, but you probably DO want it for your HTPC or basic desktop.

Reviewed by: Tiberium on 02-Jan-08 Rating:

Strengths:Efficient, quiet, easy to set up

Weaknesses:No modular cable management

Summary:This Antec PSU appears to be a very solid build and has performed stably for 3 months with very low noise and low heat. Multiple testing sites have reported and confirmed its 80+ efficiency. The only downside is that there is no modular cable design, and there is a lot of clutter inside a case (esp. for small cases) which could block air flow.

Reviewed by: ffariad on 29-Dec-07 Rating:

Strengths:Rebate, Pro Green, Low Heat, Low Noise, Not That Much More Than Standard Power Supply

Weaknesses:No Sensor Cable, No Cable Sleeve on Every Cable

Summary:Big believer in the Go Green push. So when I saw this available with a decent rebate, I immediately jumped on it. I was actually very curious how this would compare against my Antec Smart Power 350. The Smart Power, while sufficient for my PC\'s needs, seemed to be producing too much heat and noise. My knee would sometimes get close to the air out of the Power Supply and it\'s quiet hot. Installation was a breeze in my Sonata - nothing out of the ordinary. Too bad there isn\'t a Sensor Cable - no way to truly gauge against my older Power Supply. My PC is an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe with a 500 GB Seagate drive, 2GBs Memory, CD Burner, Hauppauge HVR-1600 and an nVidia 7600GT.

Reviewed by: ubiquinol on 17-Dec-07 Rating:

Strengths:quiet, stable power supply, little heat, easy to install

Weaknesses:No modular cable leading to a lot of clutter inside the case

Summary:I replaced the stock PSU from a brand-name computer with this and it worked perfectly with very little noise and stable performance.
The only downside is that there\'s no modular design on this one, and the cables are everywhere inside the case.

Reviewed by: cheapbuzzard on 05-Dec-07 Rating:

Strengths:Low cost (after rebate), good efficiency for a budget unit, 3-year warranty.

Weaknesses:N/A

Summary:Has enough power to meet most users needs. Good for slight overclocks and up to about an 8800GT graphics cards. For power users go for more watts. I was surprised that a power supply in this price range was 80 PLUS certified. Has plenty of connectors. Only 1 pci-e connector, but if you plan on running dual 8800GTS cards this probably isn\'t the ps for you;)

Reviewed by: bdubslawman on 01-Dec-07 Rating:

Strengths:-Price after rebates/deals-Quality Antec stepping up to Seasonic Quality &-Focusing on Power Efficiency is Important-Partially wrapped cables (24 pin main power)

Weaknesses:-Not Modular (can\'t remove or change cable config)-Not Sexy Looking for a show case

Summary:-I was planning a new build and so I decided to do some research on Power supplies etcetera. Well I was amazed at how much there is to know about power supplies.-
-----
-Things that were important to me, I have only a single PCI-E graphics card, and a new Core 2 Duo E6750. So I learned that finding the right size power supply is important...People often think they need a much larger power supply than necessary. By finding out what my components Wattage needs were, I was able to calculate that this power supply has a lot of extra headroom for me.-

--But it\'s not too large that it falls out of the 80+ percent efficient range. (which is like a bell curve). To little power draw on a 850 or 1000 watt PSU and you are running them in-efficiently. Which is something I am very concerned over (why throw money away to in-efficiency if you don\'t have to). Several sites have PSU calculators to help you find what your component\'s wattage range is. MOST PEOPLE NOT RUNNING DUAL PCI-E\'s are way over estimating there power draws.-

-I know there are cons (shorting, slight power loss) to modular cables, but my biggest gripe with this power supply is where to tuck all the cabling... Antec did a nice job of partially wrapping the main power cable bundle for cable management & looks but left the rest going commando. The case is not pretty also if you have a show case, but then I care 99% about the parts and efficiency of the unit not what it looks like.-

-So far I have seen great power readouts through the motherboard and software like CPU-Z. The unit has a single rear exhaust fan which has been able to handle the heat with no problem. My Antec 900 case has a fan that blows directly across to fee into the PSU\'s open grates.-

-My case (Antec 900) has the PS mounted on the bottom. So until I installed this thing I wasn\'t sure if the main power cable was going to be able to make the long reach. But it did that & gave me room to tuck it behind the drives that stick out. VERY NICE. The 4 pin CPU power supply was a lot closer, in fact to make it fit and be able to tuck it to the board (GA-P35-DS3R) I had to cut the cable tie of Antec\'s to get that extra two inches of pull so the cable isn\'t strained to fit. It mounts inverted and runs just fine.
-The Molex & SATA cables were able to reach to the top of the case and then some. Allowed me to use the molex for the case fans & the single Raptor drive I installed.

Reviewed by: yanusbfd on 29-Nov-07 Rating:

Strengths:Cool, quiet, reliable

Weaknesses:Modular cables would be nice

Summary:I\'ve been running a system with the Antec EarthWatts EA-430 for about 3 months now and am very impressed.

Like all Antec power supplies I\'ve used, the EarthWatts 430 is solidly built and heavy. They don\'t skimp on build quality or the internal components.

The EarthWatts line is compliant with the 80PLUS specification, an electric utility initiative to incorporate more efficient power supplies in desktop computers and servers. The \"80PLUS\" means that the supply, must be 80% efficient or better at 20%, 50%, and 100% of its rated load (wattage). This may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but it is not uncommon for electrical power supplies to be 30% - 50% efficient. The lost efficiency is wasted power (heat) that ultimately shows up in higher than necessary electric bills.

With so many computers on 24x7, an 80PLUS rated supply can save $30+ over its rated lifetime (4 years per the calculator on the 80PLUS web site). This may not seem like a huge amount, but considering that I paid around $25 after rebate, the savings in my monthly will actually pay off the EA-430 over time, making it cost me nothing.

I have both the EarthWatts 430 and an Antec Neo HE500, and I have to say I like the EarthWatts better. The Neo HE500 has a modular cabling system, but the cables are so stiff that they\'re a pain to route inside of my case. It\'s a good thing I could remove all of the cables I didn\'t need, because I can\'t see how I\'d get them all bundled together and out of the way of everything else.

No modular cables on the EA-430, but the cables are sufficiently bendable to make routing of used ones and bundling of unused ones no problem.

The best thing, however, about the EarthWatts 430 is how quiet it is. I actually have my case completely open now (been in the midst of an upgrade for a few months), and the only thing I can hear is the Intel CPU stock cooler. Even when I stop the CPU fan with my finger, the noise from the EA-430 is just a whisper. Once I finally get everything put back together again, I expect to hear little else other than whatever hum remains from the CPU fan after it\'s deadened by the acoustically damped side panels of my Antec Solo case.

Reviewed by: florabing8 on 28-Nov-07 Rating:

Strengths:very stable, enough cables and ports

Weaknesses:not enough power for SLI system

Summary:I bought this power supply because of its brand antec. And the fact told me that it is really a worthy buying PS, although it is a little bit expensive than the other brands. It works stably, my computer never got stuck. In addition, this PS has enough long cables and ports so that you can connect every component of your computer in a comfortable way. The potential problem is it is only 430W. If you want to run a SLI system, it might not be your choice.

Reviewed by: sgi01 on 27-Nov-07 Rating:

Strengths:High quality, performs well and uses less power.

Weaknesses:None.

Summary:I have used several Antec power supplies; they are built solid, work well, and I have never had one shock me, catch fire or damage the equipment it was connected to, like some other brands. I used the EA430 to replace a 500 watt power supply, and it handles the load fine. I did notice that the EA430 is somewhat lighter than the other Antec power supplies I\'ve used, and there is no second fan; but I would guess that this is to reduce the power consumption. It\'s great that these power supplies are made to be more efficient and have features like active power factor correction. Before Earthwatts, it was difficult to find a power supply that had these features at a reasonable price.

Reviewed by: sarinole on 24-Nov-07 Rating:

Strengths:delete this review

Weaknesses:no detachable cables only 430w

Summary:I like this PSU very much. It\'s very plain-looking -- no fancy pictures or whatever, but works very well. Its internal fan is essentially inaudible, and the power has been very stable. You don\'t want this for your SLI super-power rig, but you probably DO want it for your HTPC or basic desktop.

Reviewed by: vivianzhang08 on 21-Oct-07 Rating:

Strengths:quieteasy to install

Weaknesses:none

Summary:This is a very quiet power supply. So far I don\'t have any complaint about the sound it made on my machine. The wires come with this power supply are just fit and made it easy to be installed. I strongly recommend this one.

Reviewed by: hetch on 08-Oct-07 Rating:

Strengths:Quiet; Powerful; Affordable; 4 cables for Serial Devices

Weaknesses:430 watts may not be enough for some users

Summary:I purchased this because it was advertised to have low power consumption. This was put into a brand new HTPC, so I don\'t have any basis of comparison as far as energy consumption. However, the unit is quiet, and has plenty of power for my setup. I really liked that it has 4 cables for serial devices. Plus, Antec is a brand that hasn\'t let me down over years of system builds.