Antec Earthwatts 650w Review

Antec has sent us for Antec Earthwatts 650w Review. This is a semi-modular PSU covering the mid-range of the market. It features a server class full bridge LLC design with synchronous rectification. It comes with compliance to the ERP Lot 6 certification. It is built with APFC technology which enhances product reliability and performance.

Antec EAG Pro 650W Earths Watt Gold Power Supply Review

Being compliant to the Erp Lot 6 and CE it can lower the utility expense by power saving. Since we don’t have proper testing equipment at the moment; we will be giving you an overview of the PSU and the details of the PCB and circuitry used in this antec earthwatts 650w review PSU. This antec vp500pc review PSU has a single +12V rail for stable power. It features a 120mm fan for quiet cooling.

• Item:                     Antec Earthwatts 650w Review
• Manufacturer:       Antec
• Series:                  EarthWatt
• Price:                   Check Price on Amazon

EAG PRO 650W Specification

EAG PRO 650W Packaging and Unboxing

The power supply comes inside a cardboard box of white and black colors. On the top side, the Antec brand name is printed on the top left side. EAG Series is printed on the top right side. The picture of the unit’s fan with Antec printed on the sticker is printed on the main section.

A guarantee stamp is printed on the right side stating that this unit delivers the full Watts without any cheats. Eath Watts Gold Pro 650W is printed at the bottom. The unit has an 80 Plus Gold certification. It is Intel Haswell ready. The unit is designed by Antec in California. It is a modular (Semi) ATX PSU.

The backside of the packing box has salient features of the unit printed in 6 different languages. Antec is printed on the top left side. EAG Pro 650W is printed on the top right side. Power Table and other technical specifications are printed on the left side.

The unit has a power efficiency of up to 91% though their website is stating it to be up to 92% efficient. The unit features quiet Computing. This Antec earthwatts 650w review unit has 3 years of Antec warranty.

Contact info of their customer support in various regions is printed on the bottom. Info labels of various regulations to which this unit complied are printed in the middle of the bottom portion.

This side of the packaging box has Antec brand name printed on the top left side. EAG PRO 650W is printed in the middle along with the 91% maximum efficiency rating and mentioning of advanced hybrid cable management.

This side has the Antec brand name printed on the top left side. EARTH WATTS is printed in the middle mentioning the series of the PSU.

The left and the right sides have an identical layout. Antec is printed on the top left side. EAG PRO 650W is printed on the bottom. Modular ATX Power Supply is printed on the bottom as well.

EAG PRO 650W Accessories

We have a power cord only in the box.

Antec Earthwatts 650w Closer Look

The unit is wrapped inside the air pocket container for extra safety during the shipping. This is a semi-modular PSU with only 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS cables pre-installed and coming out from the PSU.

Other cables are modular and can be connected on as and when need basis. The unit follows the Intel Form Factor of ATX 12V V 2.3. It has a dimension of 150 x 140 x 86mm.

The input AC Voltage range is 100-240VAC. Input current is 10A to 5A. The input frequency range is 50 – 60 Hz. Efficiency is a maximum of 91% at typical load. Power Good is 100-500ms. Operating temperature range is 0 to 40°C.

The unit has 120mm silent fan. MTBF is ≥ 100,000 Hours. The unit has basic protection features of OCP / OVP / UVP / OPP / OTP / SCP / SIP / NLO.

The top side of the PSU has a standard 120mm fan for cooling the circuit of the PSU. There is a sticker on the motor hub of the fan with Antec printed on it. There is a warranty void label pasted on one of the screws removing which voids the warranty.

There is a fan grill on the top side. The fan is thermally controlled with low voltage fan control for optimized heat and noise management.

This side of the PSU has a plain surface area. The Antec brand name is engraved on the bottom right side.

This side of the unit has the power info label pasted on the main section. This label is two colored tone; dark yellow and black. The Antec brand name is printed on the top side. The unit is designed in California. The serial no info label is pasted on the right side. The model of the unit is EA650G PRO.

It is a switching power supply with Active Power PFC. The unit has a single +12V rail with 600W and 50A on it. Input Voltage Range is 100-240VAC with a frequency range of 50Hz to 60Hz.

The rear side has a mesh covering the entire side for effective heat dissipation. There are a 3-pin power connector and power on/off button.

The bottom side of the unit has a solid cover without any vent.

The unit has 24-pin ATX power cable and 8-pin EPS cable mesh sleeved in black color. Other cables are modular and are flat type. Connectors’ info is as under: –

Connector	Quantity	Length of the Cable (Approx)
MB 20+4 Pin	1x	600mm
CPU 12V 4+4 Pin	1x	650mm
PCIe 6+2 Pin	4x [2x on one cable]	800mm (650 + 150)
SATA	4x [3x on one cable, 1x on the other]	1000mm
Peripheral 4 Pin	5x [3x on one cable, 2x on the second cable]	1000mm
FDD Cable 4 Pin	1x [On the Molex connectors’ cable]	–

 

It is time to take a closer look at the PCB and circuit design. As the computer is comprised of multiple sophisticated circuits, it necessitates one to ensure uninterrupted availability of different stable voltages i.e. +5V, -5V, +12V, -12V, 3.3V, etc at respective terminals of a power supply.

In addition to consideration of stable voltages, current requirements also change on run time – gets steered by the load connected at the output stage of power supply.

But that consideration of parameters does not end only in voltage and current requirements, it stretches up to the features like harmonic factor, cross load regulation, noise resilience and other safety parameters including overvoltage protection OVP and overcurrent protection OCP, etc to ensure the optimized and standardized provision of power to PC.

Reliability, stability and continuous supply of power are the features cited by Antec for its competitive Earthwatt product line i.e. 650W Gold Pro. What makes power supplies to ensure the aforementioned features will be showcased in subsequent paragraphs.

To name a few, these are definitely deployed quality components, employed power conversion topologies, applied safety parameters, suppressed harmonics techniques and accordance with IEC standards that confirms a power supply to deliver the desired results.

With the ever-increasing demand for power by computer systems, many improvements have been made and are being made. Among which the introduction of active power factor correction, synchronous resonant power conversion, synchronous buck rectification at the secondary stage, etc in power supply units has significantly increased their efficiency. Anyhow, directly jumping over to an opened power supply unit, a black PCB housing in its nest, is populated with requisite components.

At the input stage (below image), epoxy potted high voltage components can easily be seen. Encapsulation of components with epoxy resin helps them to resist vibration, provide thermal conduction and shock absorption. Blue color ceramic capacitors (can be seen as soldered across ac voltage input) are serving to circumvent superimposed, high-frequency noise to ground.

The green wire serves to earth the power supply body. In addition, ac power is being welcomed with EMI interference filter stage, which is made up of black sleeves covered coils.

Appended image contains a big dia filter capacitor. It is connected after the heat sink full wave bridge rectifier. The sinusoidal DC voltage from rectifier filters through this good quality 105˚C tolerance capacitor from Nippon Chemi-Con corporation. White silicone potted transistors making full wave bridge for LLC circuit can be seen in the background with a large black heat sink.

The most differentiating feature of this antec earthwatts 650w review power supply is its resonant LLC circuit topology based power conversion. This topology provides very high efficiency in comparison to those supplies not equipped with the same.

It achieves its efficiency to operate on the resonant frequency of LLC (Inductor – Inductor-capacitor) circuit and zero switching loses. All component nested in black PCB has been annotated in the appended image to have a full picture of building blocks in front of readers.

Lastly coming towards its secondary side, it is equipped with synchronous rectification stage, power supervisor ic WT7527 along with Taepon manufactured capacitors for filtrations. Different voltage 3.3 V, 5V, 12 V, -12V is branching out from this stage to output PCB holding Molex connectors (SATA, VGA, and Peripheral) and direct black cables for exciting 24 pins motherboard and 2 × 4 pins CPU connectors.

After being through the salient building blocks of the power supplies, it is self-evident that Antec has housed all those features by which a power supply becomes reliable, robust and efficient.

Antec ea 650w Testing

As we don’t have adequate equipment to measure the performance of the PSU particularly its waveforms to determine to the true performance potential, we have used Thermaltake Dr. Power II to test the sample unit.

Thermaltake Dr. Power II has the functionality to test the ATX 20+4 pin, CPU 4+4 pin, PCIe 6 or 8 pins, SATA, and peripheral connectors and report the corresponding voltages by putting a load on the PSU. It also has the ability to report the issues with the PSU.

The reported voltages need to be compared with the Intel Standard and the Measuring Range of the testing equipment. The below-mentioned table has the Intel Standard, Measuring Range, and the Reported Voltages:

All the tested voltages fall within the Intel’s standard. Here are the connectors’ wise reported voltages:

Connector	Tested Voltage (V)
ATX 24-Pin	+12.1
CPU 4+4 Pin +12V	+12.1
PCIe 6/8 Pin +12V	+12.1
Peripheral	+5.0, +12.1
SATA	+5.0, +3.2, +12.1

 

Conclusion

The Antec Earthwatts 650w Review features high performance with an 80 Plus Gold rating, delivering up to 92% efficiency and reducing electricity bill. Featuring hybrid modular cabling, a whisper quiet 120mm fan controlled by Antec’s Thermal Manager, and CircuitShield industrial grade protection-all backed by their legitimate warranty.

The Antec EA650G Pro is a mid-level, power supply that has all necessary bells and whistles to do its job. It is a green power supply as it conforms to the ERP Lot 6 certification. That and CE would enable this unit to save more power and put less load on your utility bill. The unit has a dimension of the 150mm(L)x140mm(W)x86mm(H).

This is a semi-modular PSU with only 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS cables pre-installed and coming out from the PSU. Other cables are modular and can be connected on as and when need basis. The unit follows the Intel Form Factor of ATX 12V V 2.3. It has a dimension of 150 x 140 x 86mm.

The input AC Voltage range is 100-240VAC. Input current is 10A to 5A. The input frequency range is 50 – 60 Hz. Efficiency is maximum 91% at typical load. Power Good is 100-500ms. Operating temperature range is 0 to 40°C. The unit has 120mm silent fan. MTBF is ≥ 100,000 Hours. The unit has basic protection features of OCP / OVP / UVP / OPP / OTP / SCP / SIP / NLO.

Connectors included in the packing box are 1x 20+4 Pin Motherboard connector, 1x 4+4 Pin CPU connector, 4x 6+2 Pin PCIe connectors, 4x SATA connectors, 5x 4-Pin Peripheral connectors, 1x FDD Cable 4-Pin which is a part of the Molex connectors’ power cable. The PSU has a +12V rail with 50A on it delivering the continuous 600W.

The most differentiating feature of this antec earthwatts 650w review power supply is its resonant LLC circuit topology based power conversion. This topology provides very high efficiency in comparison to those supplies not equipped with the same. It achieves its efficiency to operate on the resonant frequency of LLC (Inductor – Inductor-capacitor) circuit and zero switching loses.

The unit employs Japanese high-quality capacitor having 105˚C tolerance from Nippon Chemi-Con Corporation. Epoxy potted high voltage components are at the input stage of the unit. Encapsulation of components with epoxy resin helps them to resist vibration, provide thermal conduction and shock absorption.

The Antec has definitely deployed high quality components, employed power conversion topologies, applied safety parameters, suppressed harmonics techniques and accordance with IEC standards that confirms a power supply to deliver the desired results.

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