Lets take a closer look at the power distribution on our 850 Watt Quattro.  Antec named the Quattro line after the four available +12 volt rails and the TruePower designation indicates the power supply should be capable of delivering the full 850 Watts continuously 24 hours a day.  Most power supplies give their rated wattage off of their peak power or under some unrealistic lab condition, but with the Truepower Quattro you know you are getting every but of that juice right when you need it.  The Quattro is also 80PLUS certified which means it is extra energy efficient using up to 33% less power than similar units.

The install:

      I installed the Antec TruePower Quattro 850 Watt power supply into my Intel gaming build. The build includes an Intel Pentium Core Duo 2 6800 cooled by a passive AeroCool GT-1000, a Connect3D X1900 XT video card and a 2 x 1 GB kit of OCZ Titanium Series DDR2-6400 mounted on an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe.  Storage was provided by 2 x WD 74 GB Raptors in a RAID0, a Seagate 750 GB storage drive and a Plextor PX-755SA 16x DVD burner all mounted into the AeroCool AE plus.

     Here you can see the Quattro installed as the foundation for my Intel build.  Notice the extra length on the power runs for those long case installations or to hide those pesky cables for your latest windowed build.

     And here you can see the completed build.  As the AE Plus isn't a windowed case, I went with some basic cable management.  Airflow is critical when attempting a passively cooled CPU.

     And a second look at the 850 Watt TruePower Quattro.  Without the usual 120mm plus fan on the power supply I ended up installing a Antec Tri-Cool fan in the default exhaust location.  Things ran nicely but I feel better knowing its there.

Testing:

     To test the Quattro 850 I ran the system overnight idle before capturing these numbers using the ASUS AI Probe II.  With a power supply designed to handle two of the current power hungry top video cards, the Quattro easily handles my test build at an idle.

           Next I put each build under load by running Passmark's BurnIn Test and Futuremark's 3DMark06 simultaneously or about 15 minutes in two back to back sessions.

     Here you can see the numbers captured under load.  The Quattro 850 has no problem with the system under load.  Our numbers only change slightly from the idle readings and remain rock solid.  The single 80 mm fan spins up to an audible level but exhaust temperatures never reached over 87 degrees. Not to bad!

     To further test the stability I loaded up Sisoftware's Sandra Version XIIa (Final 12.30).  Sandra is an industry leader in performance tuning and benchmarking offering one of the more reliable environmental monitors on the market.  As you can see form the graph above, the stability of each rail is confirmed by Sandra.

     The stability of the rail voltage remains consistent while idle in the BIOS.  To test the stability I also used my trusty Cen-Tech multi-tester to monitor the +12 V rails.  killing around 4 hours with Civilization IV and Shadowrun provided no noticeable variations.  I was unable to find a description of the rails on the Antec site.  with no way of knowing if the rails are independent I tried daisy chaining everything possible onto a single +12 V rail.  With this build the 850 doesn't even seem to notice the change.

Conclusion:

     Antec's TruePower 850 Watt Quattro modular power supply is one of the most stable power supplies I have ever tested.  Turing all phases of testing I was never able to get a single rail to show a measurable ripple.  I am confident even a much more power hungry build would be handled with ease.  If you think your build might out power the 850 Watt rating, there is always the 1000 Watt version waiting in the wings.

     The Yellow striping may be the deal breaker for some of you but I think it really makes the Quattro stand out from the crowd of generic looking power supplies on the market.  The mix of fixed cables and modular runs gives you the versatility to use only the cables you need and makes the installation a breeze compared to a fixed unit. 

     Possibly the most important thing to mention in closing is the $249 MSRP on this power supply.  A quick search on Froogle shows this unit can be found under $170.  That's an absolute steal on a power supply with a true Power rating at 850 Watts.  And did we mention the 3 year warranty as well?  Don't skimp on the foundation, give your performance PC the power supply it deserves; a Antec Truepower Quattro.

Note: Club Overclocker is now using a new rating system based on a score of 1 to 5.
Please go to our rating system page for more information.

Performance:	5 out of 5
Innovation:	4 out of 5
Quality:	5 out of 5
Stability:	5 out of 5
Aesthetics:	5 out of 5
Software/Drivers Pack:	N/A
Overclocking:	N/A
Value:	4 out of 5
Project Skill Level (5 being most difficult)	3 out of 5