Vantec ION 400W PSU - Articles / Reviews

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Vantec ION 400W PSU

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Vantec
Jul. 13, 2003

Specifications

Introduction

Vantec is the proud manufacture of the Stealth line of power supplies. They are quiet, powerful and reliable. Recently they have released a new power supply named ION. Today we will be taking a look at the new Vantec ION and see what features it boasts in order to overcome its opponents.

The Box

The box that held the PSU was a little worn, possibly from shipping or a group of angry midgets getting back at the world one small package at a time. The box is quite stylish and gives off a very high quality feel.

Connections

The Vantec ION has a 20-pin motherboard connector, one auxiliary, one 12 volt, nine 4-pin Molex, and two floppy connectors. The 20-pin motherboard connection is covered with black sleeving. This helps free a little bit of the clutter inside your case.

A Look at the ION

The ION comes with a few little extras that are very nice yet often overlooked. Along with the PSU, mounting screws and power cable, the ION comes with several zip ties in two sizes to help you arrange your wires. The ION also sports a very thorough manual that is easy to understand. Another great addition is the ION is SATA ready. Vantec includes two SATA power connections that plug into the 4-pin Molex connections on the power supply. This allows you to use the new SATA hard drives without buying anything extra.

The ION is a 400W PSU. This is plenty for most computer users. The peak output of the PSU is 500W (60sec. +-6%)

The Vantec ION is a dual fan PSU. Both are dual ball bearing 80mm fans for greater reliability. Both fans are controlled by a switch located on the back of the PSU. The switch has three options: Auto, Low, and Medium. These options cause the fan to spin based on the internal PSU temperature, low speed or medium speed.

Also located on the back of the PSU is an AC output. This is a great feature that hardly any other power supplies have. This gives you an extra socket to plug in your monitor or other devices. The nice thing is that when the computer turns off, the AC output ( and your monitor ) is also turned off. This gives you one less button to push when turning off your computer. Kudos to Vantec on this one!

An Inside Peak

Now it's time to take a look under the hood of the ION while voiding our warranty as we always do. The inside of the ION is pretty packed and has rather large heatsinks. There are a few removable connections inside the PSU. These are mainly the fans and the input power. It is nice to see that Vantec took an extra step and did this instead of having everything soldered to the PCB. One thing I noticed is there are three fan connections, but only two fans. Do I hear a triple fan ION in the near future?

Testing

To see if the ION can provide adequate power to our components, we will use motherboard monitor to check the voltages while under load conditions. Load conditions are created by running Prime 95 for an hour while running 3DMark03 in a loop.

System Specs:

( Many components were added just to stress the PSU )

AMD Athlon 1700+ overclocked to 2.2GHZ
DFI Lan Party KT400a
1GB Corsair PC3500
Geforce 4 Ti4200
SB Live!
Lite-On 16X DVD
40GB 7200rpm Seagate
200GB 7200rpm Maxtor
20GB 5400rpm Western Digital
10 12" Cold Cathodes
4x 120mm Aluminum fans
7x 80mm Thermaltake fans

Under Load conditions, the 12v line was at 11.7 volts. The 5v line was at 4.85 volts. The 3.3v line was at 3.4 volts. The ION managed very well under load conditions while staying rather cool for a power supply and quiet too!

With the fan speed on low, the PSU was extremely quiet. On medium speed, it was a little louder but still hardly noticable.

Conclusion

I must say that I am extremely pleased with Vantec's offering today. The ION is very well built, packed with features and runs like no other! The AC output gives the ION major points along with the fan control. The ION is extremely quiet thanks to the temperature and manual controls, and maintains low noise levels even under very stressed situations. If you are looking for a new PSU, look no further than the Vantec ION.

Pros

Extremely quiet
AC output
Fan control
SATA ready

Cons

Hah!

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by Sapphire9800 on August 30, 2003 - 9:49 pm

do u think this thing is necessary? and how much does it cost? so far looks good

2 - Posted by Brian on August 30, 2003 - 11:04 pm

You can probably get it around 70.00 USD.

Is it worth it? Is it worth it?!

My god, yes. I definately recommend this PSU.

3 - Posted by deftno9 on August 30, 2003 - 11:15 pm

holy pooper an AC output on a PSU..GENIUS. only wish it were cheaper, PSU's have gotten reallly expensive in recent years. If my PSU ever hits the pits I know what I want in my next. great review

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