What is 80 PLUS?

    80 PLUS® is: An innovative, electric utility-funded incentive program to integrate more energy-efficient power supplies into desktop computers and servers. Participating utilities and energy efficiency organizations across North America have contributed over $5 million of incentives to help the computer industry transition to 80 PLUS certified power supplies. To date over twenty power supply manufacturers have submitted product for certification and a number of computer manufacturers are selling qualified computers. Additionally, large commercial and institutional consumers are specifying 80 PLUS in their procurement policies at increasing rates.

Cables:

20+4 Pin Plug	4 and 8 pin Plugs	2 PCI-E Plugs
6 Molex Plugs	Molex & FDD Plugs	4 SATA Plugs

    The cabling on the EarthWatts EA-500 even looks old school, as it's missing the mesh over the cables, except these wire are more flexible than the wires of old. The only cable covered with the mesh is the motherboard power cable. This cable also has the 20/24 pin connector. A separate 4pin and 8pin 12v power cable are included and are non-meshed. Two separate PCI-E cables are also included along with two cables with three Molex plugs each, one with a FDD plug, and two SATA cables with two connections each.

Installation and Testing:

    Installing the Antec EarthWatts EA-500 power supply is like installing any other power supply. Slide the power supply into the proper location and use the four supplied screws to secure the power supply to the case. Now for testing. Since we at VH can't afford to spend $50,000 on a Chroma C8000 Automatic Power Supply Test System and Dice refuses to get one for review, we can only really test the PFC rating of a power supply. I did this by generating a 200W power load, along with the power load from the computer hardware listed below which gives me around 340W-350W. Also, showing voltage readings under idle and load conditions don't mean a thing without the proper test equipment, so my testing for now on will just show the Power Factor.

Test Rig:

    Seasonic Power Angel will be used to read the efficiency of the power supply under load. With my system setup, there is no way I'm going to get near the max wattage rating of this PSU, so we shall see the PFC rating under a normal system.

Back Side

Home Sweet Home

Results:

Conclusion:

    I mentioned retro a few times in the review and I really mean that. With the EarthWatts EA-500 installed, it reminds me of the older 250W power supplies with no paint or character. Anyway, during the testing phase I was able to use more than 50% of the power supply's rated wattage. During that testing phase, the efficiency of the EarthWatts EA-500 was over the required 80% and was actually 97% on the PF. I also checked the EarthWatts EA-500 at 20% load or 100W and the efficiency was 98% and finally with no load except for a power supply tester, it drew 8W and had a 91% PF

    I'm no tree hugging hippie by any means but I still think we need a clean environment to live in, and I'm all for a cheaper electric bill in the end. The EarthWatts EA-500 did perform as described which is a major plus. I do hope with future releases of this type of power supply we see some higher wattage units. I would like to thank Antec for sending VH this unit to review.