Antec Truepower Quattro 850W vs Silverstone Decathlon 850W Review

Performance Tests

System Used

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz (B3)
Memory: 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 @ 1600Mhz (Thanks to Corsair)
Motherboard: Asus Blitz Extreme
Graphics Cards: 2X Gigabyte HD2900XT 512MB
Disk Drive: Pioneer DVD Writer
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATAII
Fans: 5X Yate Loon 120mm @ 1200RPM
Monitor: LG Flatron L2000CN-BF (1600X1200)

For our complete power supply testing methodology, please go here: Hardware Canucks Power Supply Testing Methodology


Efficiency



Since we have not tested any other power supplies with this new test system, getting a real sense of AC power consumption is a bit difficult. Yet, it is abundantly clear that Antec’s unit is a good 3-5% more efficient that the DA850 across the board. The only exceptions come during idle conditions where the Quattro is only about 1% ahead and when the system is off where the Antec unit consumes quite a bit more power. In this test, the Truepower Quattro walks all over the more expensive Decathlon even though Silverstone advertises its unit as being highly efficient. We saw this same issue with the DA650 so we were not surprised to see the higher-end Decathlon stagger a bit here.

Even though the last test is quite unrealistic, at these high loads it is really amazing to see how much difference 5% makes, isn’t it? I think this goes to show that when using an ultra high-end system, your electric bill will benefit in leaps and bounds from a power supply with good efficiency.


Voltage Regulation

+5V Regulation




+3.3V Regulation




+12V Regulation



Voltage regulation was phenomenal for both of these units considering the heavy loads they were under. Even though both the TPQ and the DA850 came out smelling like roses, the Quattro came out smelling like a whole field of roses. It was able to excel in regulating the all-important +12V rail so well, I had to check if my multimeter was on the fritz more than once; especially in the Stress test. It should also be said that the Decathlon performed amazingly as well….just not as good as its competitor in these tests.

Allow me to delve a little bit deeper into the issue of the +12V voltage drops we are seeing on the Silverstone unit. First of all you have to remember that the readings in the Idle and the CPU Load tests are taken from the 8-pin CPU connector while the GPU Load and System Stress tests have their voltages taken from a PCI-E connector. Due to this, the Quattro is able to display amazing regulation because it seems that voltage drops on one rail do not seem to affect all of the rails. On the other hand, the voltage drops were more profound on Silverstone’s DA850 since all of the components were putting stress on that one +12V rail. So, from a voltage regulation standpoint it may be better to have a multi-rail unit in come cases.


+12V Ripple



The ripple / noise suppression displayed by both of these power supplies is nothing short of astonishing. They are both among the best we have ever tested and for them to be performing like this speaks volumes about the high quality components used in both designs.