A Bad Day for QA at Antec - The Case of the WTFPSU!
May 8 Trevor Flynn
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It is not an uncommon thing to receive a hardware part that is DOA. With so many units being shipped all over the world, it’s impossible for every hardware vendor to be able to ensure that every product they sell will arrive at your door in perfect working order. Even companies that employ strong QA policies such as Gigabyte, who individually test each motherboard, will have at least a nominal amount of product returns.
The one thing that no company can guard against however, no matter what their QA program, is human error. Every now and then a unit will ship out to the consumer that is just so obviously wrong that you wonder how it was missed on the line. To exemplify my point, I present to you exhibit A, my newly purchased backward PSU from Antec.
See anything wrong there? Yeah, so the power cables are coming out the same side as the exhaust fan and the power plug in. Think that might present a problem trying to hook it up in your favourite case? Please note the factory warranty sticker still intact and factory sealed before you suggest that I tampered with the PSU. ;)
If we check out the backside, we see the PSU mounting holes letting us know that it is in fact the exhaust fan and power plug that are on the wrong side.
And now, here’s my favourite part. The unit was approved by no less than 5 different QA testers!
Now admittedly the QA staff were testing for things other than assembly, and to their credit the unit does work flawlessly, but I mean…come on….you would think that someone would notice there was something wrong with the construction of this unit!
Update: As it turns out, this design was done on purpose. It is intended to be used in 3U rackmount cases that require having the electrical outlet on the FRONT of the case, instead of the back. So while this lets Antec’s QA team off the hook, I think it can still be considered the “WTFPSU”! We’re still not sure how this ended up in Trevor’s order; I don’t think he wanted this type of power supply ;)
Filed under: PC Hardware
that is hilarious. i can’t even imagine how that happened.
Hah! That is priceless. Must have been a Friday job.
[...] that plug into the components of a PC are on the same side as the exhaust fan and power plug! OOPS~!read more | digg [...]
Hi! I work for Antec, and I would like to verify with you what model of PSU that you bought. We do actually have some PSUs that are intentially made the way that your PSU is made.
To add to what Greg said…There are some Antec desktop cases I’ve worked with and the power supplies are designed that way as the PSU sets toward the front of the case and there is a power cable that runs to the back of the chasis.
Yeah I’ve been trying to find info on this all day. Basically the PSU model is an Antec Smart Power SL350XR.
I just did a quick check on it last night to make sure it wasn’t just an different form factor of sorts. Google shows very few places that have it in stock, but one of the few that do list it here: http://store.albertwhite.com/ssdetail.asp?pf_id=10186575
The photo shows a typical PSU but that’s not an accurate product photo.
Further investigation shows that the model is the part number to replace the stock PSU for an Antec Rackmount chasis model: 3U25ATX350XR
The Antec stock page has an image of the chasis which would look to support what was posted in the comments section: http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=03206#
So pie on my face it would seem
I wouldn’t pie you, Trevor. It’s still a WTFPSU in my book. I see it and still am like “WTF?” :P