Antec Power Supply???

[BlacknTan]

I recently finished a new computer build. I purchased an Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W PSU to power it on the strength of Antec's reputation for quality and recommendations. The PSU failed after 3 days of easy usage.
After doing lot's of research, I find that Antec Power supplies, and the SmartPower units in particular, are prone to failure, to say the least.I RMA'd the PSU to Antec. It seems the units are backordered. Antec will not send me a different model PSU even if I would pay the difference in cost.
I expect this new build will be down at least for 2 weeks before a new PSU arrives. I find this unacceptable. A new Seasonic 500W PSU will be here and installed tomorrow. I guess the new Antec will make a nice paper weight. I assume it will be reliable for that!
Has anyone else here had issues with Antec power supplies??
Are there other known issues from Antec that I may not be aware of??
Has anyone heard of any class action suits against Antec because of these failure to perform issues? The advertised MTBF on this PSU is more than 80,000 hours. This doesn't seem possible from all the complaints I've read.

I'd like to hear other thoughts on Antec and their qualioty control.

BTW, the rest of my system......

Gigabyte GA-945-S3 Rev.2
Pentium D 3.0
Cooler Master case
Sony optical drives
Kingston 1 gig x 2 667 DDR2
WD 250g SATA
eVGA 7600GT graphics
SeaSonic 500W PSU

[Steady Teddy]

I had the same PS as you. I've owned it since July 06 and it failed on me a couple of week ago. I bought it at Comp USA and took a two year replacement warranty so I just exchanged it for a BFG 650W because that was the best they had in stock. They didn't have much inventory because they're going out of business.

I overpaid for the Smart Power 2.0 at Comp USA but after reading your post, I'm glad I didn't have to contact Antec.

Here is a list of Good/Bad PSUs but it's not complete. Your Seasonic is listed as "top quality for high end builds".

Antec is listed as "good" though...

[Mr.Ferrari]

Antec, more recently has fallen victim to poor quality control and bad choices really. The CWT made antec's, I.E the TruePower II and Smartpower have 2 big drawbacks.

The capacitors they use, of the "Fuhjyuu" brand, are notorious for failure in less then optimal conditions. They dislike heat and have a tendency to just burst/fail after a while. Combined with the fact that those Antec units use VERY low speed fans, which then cause alot of heat to build-up = rupture.

Now this isnt usually an issue in powersupplies as long as the manufacturers keep up good quality control, but antec/cwt has more recently declined in that department and as a result, powersupply failures.

Antec Trio's and Earthwatts models are an exception, as they are made by a better company, Seasonic.