For the purpose of this review I will be installing the Antec True Power Quattro 1000 into the following pc.

Fitting the Antec True Power Quattro 1000 was a relatively straightforward job, I removed my old psu and slotted the Antec True Power Quattro 1000 into the case and screwed it in. It wasn’t until I started connecting it to my system that it became apparent that whilst there were lots of cables with a lot of connectors on I could only use a combination of 3, discounting the ones for the graphics card, as the psu “only” has 3 outlets for peripheral devices.

This meant that once one was taken for the sata drives I had 2 connections from the psu for Molex devices, not a problem you might think but now consider what actually uses Molex connections and the fact I had 6 outputs from the psu to work with. In my pc I have to connect up 2 fans on my radiator, 2 neon invertors, an optical drive, a Physx card and my pump, bang ALL the Molex connections were used up and I was still one short, so out came a Y converter. Not a great start for a 1000-watt psu coming up short on power connectors.

To test the psu I will measure the voltages using a digital voltmeter, as the readings from Asus Probe can’t really be taken as much more than a guide in my opinion, also it only shows a single 12v readout and this psu has quad rails. For this reason I will take 12v readings from the HDD, from the 8way connector on the motherboard and from the separate graphics card connections (the graphics card has 2 12v feeds) as this is how the 12volt rails are split. Readings will be taken with the pc at idle and at load. For the load readings I will be running Orthos dual prime to put maximum load on the cpu and 3d Mark 06 to put maximum load on the graphics card run a virus check and burn a cd, I feel this will give the maximum load this pc can put on the power supply.

Once the psu was installed and I had re-primed my pump, damn those air bubbles, I set about testing the psu. To begin with I will test the system just idling, running the usual background the power rails measured as follows: -

Well I think it is fair to say the Antec True Power Quattro 1000 aced that test, with 0.02v the maximum deviation on any rail it will take a FAR more powerful machine than mine to phase it.

Next Page - Conclusion