Antec Phantom 350:

Mega-efficient Fanless PSU

Conclusion

The Antec Phantom 350W is a bit different and probably the non plus ultra of the fanless PSUs , with the best effiency of all. Also the temperatures and voltage stabillitys are superb. With a real power of 350W the PSU offers enough power for a full loaded Highend PC. The processing is very good , and the manual and 20/24 ATX adaptor rounds it up. The Price of only 179 Euro is perfect in relation to what you get for it.

Thanks/ Award:

We thank Frozen-Silicon for fast and easy delivering of the testsample and Antec for its support.

The award the Antec PSU gets for its best effiency together with the temperatures , which no other PSU before got.

Foreword:

Already in January this year we wrote over the Phantom PSU and showed first pictures. A lot of new technical innovations , that should place it in the reference class over every other comparable PSU. The list of planned technical specifications wounded more like a wish note , where engineers and insiders first only laught. 88% effiency , fanless , no combined Power with all the way seperate voltage circels and much more.

Now finally after 10 month we have it here. The planned technical innovation where not finnished all the way , however this PSU still contains some specialtys.

Scope of Delivery:

The Antec phantom comes in a stable box which also includes:

• PSU
• Power Cord
• Screws
• Manual
• 24 to 20 pol ATX Adaptor

The manual in PDF format you can find  here.

Basic Knowledge:

Basically is importand to know that passive PSUs gets more hot than the activs pendants with a fan. Also a passive PSU cooling is more difficult to construct . Heatpipes and heatspreader plus the outside heatsink are almost standard

A year ago , PSUs with a effiency of 70% where the upper class. Todays PSUs , no matter of activ or passiv , have a effiency of 65-75% ( the relation of incoming and outgoing power). That means that during the transformation from high voltage (110 or 220V) to 12V , 5V and 3,3 V the most energy gets lots with heat. So is higher the effiency , the better is the transformation and less poer gets lost into heat.

Since a long time many manufactors try to build a PSU with a effiency of more than 80% , but so far with no result , because usually the costs are to high and such a PSU which would cost over 300 EUR wouldn´t be competitiv anymore. Antec has a effiency of 88% , which no PSU ever got.

Wattage:

Most consumers think that a 550 W PSU is more powerful and better than one with only 300W. And thats what many manufactors wants to make the people believe in. That the reality usually is different.

Words like Effective Power, Real Power, Peak Power , Combined Power, Short Time Power, Reactive Power, Max Power, True Power and many more comfuses most consumers. They only see the watt number on the PSUs box . The fact is  that often a 550W (Short time Power) PSU is not as good as a 300 W (effective Power).

If you want to know more then i recommend to take a look at  Tomshardware Guides Review.

Fact is that so far we where not able to build a High End PC , even with high power consuming components , like Graphic cards , CPU , many HD´s, which reach even 250W power consumption. The Antec PSU here has a real power of 350W, and the PC which really needs that kind of power i wanna get to know. Even acomputer with 2 3D Graphic card and 4Ghz CPU with HDs ect. probably will not go over 350W power consumption. And if a computer really needs that power , the antec PSU has its best effiency.

Structure and Processing:

The whole PSUs case is made out of aluminium and works as a enhanced heatsink , similar to the expensive Deltatronic Fanless PSU. A short look inside shows a very good processing quality of the used components. Every single source of heat is connected withthe  heatsink which is connectet to the case. With that the components can transfer its heat directly to the case. even the requiered natural air convection is reduced to a minimum.

Beside of that the overall processing quality is very good and clean. No cheap components are found. Therefor we expect a hot case , because the PSU omponents transfers its heat directly to the case. Many passive PSUs tranfers tis heat of sometimes around 80-90°C from the transistors to the internal heatsink but not to the case.

All used components makes made a good impression. Some parts are connected to the heatsink via a thermal pad. Good for additional cooling and antivibration

Effiency and Temperatures:

Like said , the temperatures at the PSUs case because of the the direct heat transfer should be higher than usual , but on the other side the higher effiency shouldn´t even create the heat. So we are excited what the practical test shows.

While customary PSUs with a effiency of around 70% have to transfer 128 Watt of heat , the antec only needs 40W . 120W Heat warms up the case which requieres activ cooling. This disadvantage in mind , many manufactors mount big heatsinks outside , to tranfers the heat outside the computer case.

One more importand thing to know is that the PSU rech its best effiency only under load. That means that a 500W PSU with 75% working on a good and fast office Systems which needs only about 100W  , drops the PSUs frequency down to 50%.  That heats up the components and is a waste of energy.

Installation and Switch on:

Like expected no installation problems occured. Atx formfactors where kept.

US and EU versions have different PFCs:

The US version have a passive PFC while the european version works with an active one. The differences are that the components of passive PFC could sometimes created electro hums. Active PFCs are working with a microcontroller which ususally doesnt´created such sounds. Whichis the case in the EU version.

Additional Specialtys / Seperated Voltage circles:

The Antec Phantom has 3 sperated voltage circles. 2 for the 12v line and 1 for 3,3 and 5v. Its offers a very high  voltage stabillity an and much Power. To bad that they didn´t sperate the 3,3v and 5v line too , like it was planned a year ago. A one more higher performance and stabillity could be the result , because no combined power is existing anymore. But anyway its already a positve step in the future.

Voltagestability:

The Antec was suberb speaking of voltage stabillitys. Absolutely stable on all lines even under load.

Intresting is the test with an Intel System , where a a short voltage overload occured after switching of the system. We don´t know why this phaenomenon happend. On the AMD system it didn´t occur. The the source for this , can be found somewhere else than the PSU.

Temperatures / final words:

The structure of the Antec Phanton is similar to the Engelking U1 , and we expected about 50°C at the PSUs case , because the heat does´nt stay inside , but is tranfered to the case.

Here is noticable the very high effiency of more than 82% ,which doesn´t even allow such temperatures.  Even after several hours of load the PSU is only hand warm. One more psitive effect is that it doesn´t heat up the case, in opposite to other PSUs.

hundertprozentig:

unabhängig
unentgeltlich
sachlich
neutral
werbefrei
sponsorfrei
shopfrei

von führenden
Fachzeitungen und Top WWW Seiten empfohlen