For those who are currently in the market for dual Opteron boards and are preferring products manufactured by Tyan, be sure to carefully pick power supplies with some research before purchase. We have been advised that certain Antec power supplies are having issues with the following motherboards from Tyan:

Thunder K8S Pro (S2882)
Thunder K8SD Pro (S2882-D)
Thunder K8W (S2885)
Thunder K8WE (S2895)

All the above boards are based on AMD's 8000 series chipsets except the Thunder K8WE (S2895) which uses NVIDIA's nForce Professional 2200 and 2050 south bridges.

The issues that are affecting the above motherboards have to do with a power fluctuation on the 12V rail that seems to be occurring only with Antec True Power 2 EPS power supplies. The units do not appear to be delivering consistent power -- often dropping to as low as 11.3V on the 12V rail. While some power supply units pass quality control tests initially, they end up failing after extended use. Using non-Antec power supplies solves the issue and for now we can only recommend that you use this work around until an official statement from Antec can be given. Tyan motherboards however, have always enjoyed a strong reputation for rock-solid stability -- although you may be required to be picky about which components you attach to the board.

Most power supplies have become all but commodity items on the market in the recent years but there are still companies out there that produce top-quality grade products. With all the newest high drain components coming out, the time is approaching again for us to do a power supply roundup.

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  • Googer - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    This is not the first time I have read about Antec PSU's having compatability issues. A few years ago there was a similar story involving Antec. Maybe someone remembers it better than me and knows where the link is.


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  • Googer - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    Adding to my last comment. I believe there were some press releases last time Antec's PSU did not work with certain Motherboards. Strike Two Antec!
  • ATTuan - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    Sorry, I neglected to include the power supply model. My mistake.

    It's the Antec True Power 2 EPS units that have the problem. You can find more information on them here: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=...">http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=...
  • essjae - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link

    " We have been advised that certain Antec power supplies " by who? Is there any data to back this up? Where's the link?
  • Googer - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link

    This is not the first time I have read about Antec PSU's having compatability issues. A few years ago there was a similar story involving Antec. Maybe someone remembers it better than me and knows where the link is.
  • Live - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    There are reports of antec NeoHE PSUs having problems with ASUS nvidia based boards both for the AMD and Intel platform.
  • hravn - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    Yes, there is alot of threads about it at silentpcreview.com. I'm one of the unfortunate suckers with an Asus A8N-SLI Premium and an Antec Neo HE. Computer powers on, and shuts down after 20-30 seconds. Doesn't matter what I do. Idle CPU temps when this happends is 25C. Computer works perfectly with a $25 generic noname PSU.
  • Rayvn - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    err...edit:

    Since November 2003 I've had a workstation with a Thunder K8W (s2885) and an Antec True 550 (v1) running without a single problem almost 24/7.
  • Rayvn - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    err...edit:

    Since November 2003 I've had a workstation with a Thunder K8W (s2885) and an Antec True 550 (v1) running without a single problem almost 24/7.

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