Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W
by Jarred Walton on July 7, 2010 6:50 PM ESTAntec TruePower Quattro 1200W
Although many users are currently looking for smaller power supplies below 500W, there still is a demand for stronger ones, particularly if you are a gamer with Triple-SLI or Quad-Crossfire systems. Those planning on running NVIDIA's next generation "Fermi" will want a fairly beefy PSU, and the same goes for Folding@Home farms where you'd want a lot of stable power. For the upper end PSUs there are a wide range of models, which doesn’t make the purchase decision easy. In addition, these power supplies are usually expensive so you'll want to get the best features and a reliable power supply that can operate even under maximum load and summer temperatures.
We received a TruePower Quattro 1200W from Antec and as usually we're looking to see if it provides a good overall package. We'll check out the safety features, voltage stability, and the available connectors. Efficiency is also an important issue and affects the energy consumption as well as the internal temperature. We also got a special OC version from Antec. It has two big regulators for the internal fan and +12V voltages. You can easily adjust the rail when the voltage drops down too much. In all other areas the OC version has the same features as the standard model.
The TruePower Quattro 1200W is a PSU that polarizes because of its 80mm fan. Usually a bigger fan also has a bigger cooling area, but lot of it depends on the fan-quality and cooling topology. With a 120-140mm fan mounted on the bottom, you have a curve in the airflow, but with 80mm the airflow is more direct. So temperatures should not be a problem. But will the fan be silent enough for most discerning buyers? Let’s find out!
Package Contents
The product is well packed and includes four screws, the modular connector cables, a short information sheet as well as a power cord.
Six well dimensioned +12V rails with 38A each can deliver the full power of the PSU. Again, we can see a manufacturer using a DC-DC converter. +5V has 30A and +3.3V offers 25A. Together they can handle 170W. The massive standby rail is rated at 6A.
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bobbozzo - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Most houses in the US have 20A circuits, but 15A outlets.Klinky1984 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
A lot of people buying this probably don't need 1200 watts. There is some prestige to having a 1.2kW PSU, but what kind of system is really going to stress this power supply? Maybe if you got one of those 7x PCIe x16 motherboards and created a GPU distributed computing number cruncher, perhaps. But I'd think a more typical tri-SLI setup would have problems pushing 50% usage on this thing.Klinky1984 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
Well, perhaps I underestimated the power-fatty Fermi is.cactusdog - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
This doesnt appeal, there are much better options out there with truly silent 140mm fans. Most new high end PSUs are going back to a single rail too.HOOfan 1 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
>most new high end PSUs are going back to single railI wouldn't say that at all....some companies want single rail, but I think MOST is a serious exaggeration.
Why does it matter anyway?
Stuka87 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
If you buy a cheap supply, its going to be cheap. Regardless of the brand. I have a mid-range Antec and I have been very happy with it. Its quiet, and it weighs about 3x more than the cheaper PSU it replaced.doctormonroe - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
I'm not a big fan of having less than a 120mm fan, but the reviewer covered it when he said that you'd hear the rest of the system before a 1200W PSU under load.I'm glad that you've stopped using the charts that were in previous articles (as they were not easy to read and comprehend), but good charts are much better than tables, so hopefully soon you'll figure out a good chart to use.
HOOfan 1 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Yeah...that happens. It happens with anything...especially with electronics.What model was it? If it was REALLY one of their halo products, I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that it was built cheaply.
Of course you have some people who think the PSU is such a simple design and that there is no excuse for a well built PSU to fail. People like that just make me roll my eyes...and usually ignore them from then on.
Martimus - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Antec used to have a reputation for using low temperature Caps that would fail at actual operating temperatures over time. I had assumed that they stopped doing this, but it is possible that they still use this practice.TGressus - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
In general the more popular ODMs will have a portfolio of designs. Some better than others. In my experience this is where some of the vendors get away with shady practices. Entry level components get hidden within a shiny exterior, marketed as something they are not and no one is the wiser.I'd like to see the status quo among reviewers/enthusiasts change to focus on relative comparison, and historical performance of the ODM models inside PSUs. As it stands now we tend to focus on a visual inspection, and essentially a second wave of manufacturer QC testing.
When we discuss SSD or GPU we consider the chipset first, and the brand second. This enables the community to make better informed decisions, and allows us to steer trends in product development, rather than the vendor hooride that is the PSU market.