Antec EarthWatts EA 380D Green 380W
by Martin Kaffei on October 2, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- Green
- Antec
- Earth Watts
- 380W
Package Contents
The EA-380D (and the rest of the EarthWatts Green line) ships without a power cord. The supposed reasoning is that most households already have extra power cords, as they accumulate from older PCs and upgrades, but if you're new to the computing game you may have to order one (or ask a friend). While that may benefit the environment, it's also worth noting that Antec saves a bit on costs; the customer will have to decide whether the included matierials are sufficient.
Antec neglected to mention the absense of polystyrene in their packaging; the PSU is protected by two pieces of recycled cardboard. Also included are mounting screws and a product overview sheet. Besides the “green philosophy”, the removal of the power cord (~1$) is a useful way of reducing BOM costs, whereas the manual and screws are rather inexpensive by comparison. We would say that screws could be left out as well, since they could be reused from older PCs, but they cost (and weigh) less, so the there was apparently less incentive to remove them.
Going with the green image, a dark green coating was selected for this series; it's an unusual alternative to the grey predecessors and other (mainly black) retail PSUs. It won't matter one way or the other for windowless cases, but some customers might enjoy the change in style. The varnish resists scratches very well and fingerprints are not visible. With an 80mm fan at the rear of the chassis, there are no bulging fan grilles on the top or bottom. The ventilation holes are square-shaped and give the PSU an angular and rustic appearance. Otherwise the styling is straightforward and unobtrusive. With a depth of just 14cm, it is the smallest possible ATX-size PSU.
The +12V rails are rated at 15A and 17A respectively and deliver a combined 336W. +5V and +3.3V are specified with 20A and 115W combined. The peak power on the stronger rails is 450W.
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8steve8 - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
power consumption of 0.25A.azimex - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
Ok, its current drawn . Txs for pointing it out.gvaley - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I've seen worst. For example, "The current's power is 220V." :-)fausto412 - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
Ok, everyone who reads Anandtech and can use one of these 380W PSUs in any of your current or future rigs please raise your hand. anyone? hello? (crickets) anybody?Who thought it wise to waste their time reviewing this? I won't even read it.
DanNeely - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
Everyone who builds HTPC's raises hands and applies cluebats.bwj - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
I have a Core i7 CPU, 12GB of memory, six hard drives, three SSDs, and two video cards with a 300W power supply.Samus - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
I enjoyed the review, especially its technical component layout. It's nice to see Antec is making quality affordable, unlike PCP&C which makes quality unaffordable :)najames - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
I think you'd be surprised at the number of people using this size of power supply or even smaller. A lot of people even run dinky Pico power supplies. I have a couple rigs using 330W Seasonics, but I should be using even smaller supplies. I don't play ANY video games onboard video is fine for media server, or computers that crunch data.If I have a media server with a i3 530 that draws 35W idle and 100W load, I'd want a small power supply to make it run in the 80% efficiency range if possible. I'm looking to build a new one and am going to read the article. Even if it is not the power supply I want, I might still learn something.
mindless1 - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
The only system you should need a > 380W PSU in is your gaming rig. Since you can't play games on more than one system at a time, the rest of your systems won't need it unless you're a quite extreme overclocker.Leyawiin - Saturday, October 2, 2010 - link
I appreciate this review. I build a lot of basic PCs for friends and family that don't need what I have.