Introduction

We would like to thank Antec for supplying the review sample.

In the hard times we are experiencing, every dollar (or euro) counts so even when we have to decide about the most crucial part of our system, the Power Supply Unit (PSU), unavoidably cost is our primary concern. Antec has, without any doubt, a very rich product range covering all market aspects and lately decided to enrich their affordable PSU offers with three new entry-level units: the VP350P, VP450P and VP550P. As the names reveal, their capacities range from 350W to 550W and the most notable characteristic of these units, besides their affordable price, is that they work only with 230VAC power, so they are not intended for the U.S. market.

Antec states on their official site that these new units will not feature any twinkly lights or fancy paint jobs, but only the minimum to provide reliable and decent performance. Today’s review sample is a VP550P of Antec's Basiq series. This PSU features two +12V rails with max combined power very close to total, something really convenient. Regarding the other characteristics of the unit; briefly it is equipped with a 120 mm fan, has over 80% efficiency, is backed by two years of warranty (the minimum required for products sold in the EU) and finally has a pretty small footprint with only 140 mm depth. While Antec promises that its cooling fan delivers effective and quiet cooling, after we finished our tests we couldn’t argue about the first one statement but we were very troubled about the latter. You will read more about this on the test result pages.

Specifications

The unit, according to Antec, meets the 80 PLUS standard certification. However this is partially true since 80 PLUS tests with 115V while this unit supports only 230VAC power input. So it may be that the unit has above 80% efficiency but with 230VAC, where efficiency gets 1-1.5% boost compared to 115VAC. According to our humble opinion Antec should not mention the 80 PLUS standard at all and just state that the PSU has over 80% efficiency. However the fact that most users are familiar with 80 PLUS, pushed Antec to make a reference to 80 PLUS. Looking at the other characteristics we see that the warranty period is the standard one for all products sold in the EU, two years, the dimensions are restricted, so the PSU will be easily installed in every chassis and finally the price for EU standards is quite low. If the VP550P performs well then the price/performance ratio will be high.


There are two +12V rails and they can handle almost the full power of the PSU. This grants many usability points to the small PSU since a strong +12V rail is what all modern systems demand. The minor rails are also fairly strong for the 550W of the unit's capacity.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The connectors of the PSU are sufficient for its capacity. Cable length is also satisfactory, the only exception being the one that holds the 24 pin ATX connector, which is only 500 mm long. We would like it to have 600 mm length (although we seriously doubt that anyone will use this PSU in a large case). Regarding the distance among the connectors, this is compatible with the ATX spec recommendation of 150 mm. Finally all connectors use 18AWG wire gauges which is the recommended size. The only thing sacrificed here, in order to lower production cost, was sleeving on all cables and unfortunately nowadays the unsleeved cables look pretty weird/awful.


With only two +12V rails proper power distribution gets tricky. You have to separate the EPS connectors from the PCIe ones and at the same time not overload any rail. In this case the EPS connector is separated from the PCIe ones but the first +12V rail is overloaded with connectors. We would choose to add some of the peripheral connectors to the second +12V rail, in order to reduce load on the first rail.

Packaging

The packaging is really small, since the unit's dimensions are restricted. On the face of the box we find a close angled photo of the PSU and several icons inform us about the most crucial features. In the yellow strip, on a small grey background, a line of text states that the unit was designed by Antec's California department. This sound a little weird: a U.S. branch with 115VAC power grid designed a unit that uses 230VAC exclusively for the EU market? Finally in this case on the rear of the box you will not find any noteworthy information. On the contrary on the remaining sides there is enough info about the unit.