Specifications

The PSU is only certified for the basic 80 Plus level since Antec strove to keep the cost as low as possible and Delta is an expensive OEM. However, you do get what you pay for with these guys.

The official specifications don't mention the operating temperature range. We will still conduct our tests at the usual ambient used in all of our reviews (40-45°C). Also, the PSU is to our surprise equipped with a full set of protection features, including OTP, which mainstream units such as this one hardly ever include. Finally, according to the results of our tests, the unit isn’t Haswell ready--it failed the test Intel proposed to check for Haswell compatibility.

The cooling fan has a diameter of 120 mm and uses sleeve bearings to keep the cost down. Also, the VP550F doesn't feature a semi-passive operation because of its low efficiency rating. The dimensions of this PSU are pretty compact, and its weight is low as well. Finally, the warranty is set at two years only, with a price that looks very good for a PSU with such characteristics.



Antec, contrary to the single-rail trend, stuck with their believes and equipped the unit with two +12V rails. A single +12V rail would in our humble opinion suit a unit of such a capacity better as the pair of +12V rails can only deliver a combined total that is about 100 W less than the overall capacity of the unit, which points to an older internal design. The minor rails are pretty strong at 120 W and the 5VSB rail has the standard amperage of most entry-level PSUs nowadays.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

Only the main ATX cable is fully sleeved. The other cables have been left naked. This is surely not a nice sight but production costs demanded sacrifices and the first feature to go is usually sleeving; that is, if all cables are already affixed.

The PSU is equipped with a satisfactory number of connectors for its capacity. Regarding cable length, the ATX connector is installed on a rather short cable, but this unit will most likely be installed into a small case, so the length of the ATX cable won't cause any problems. Also, the length of all the other cables is sufficient and the distance amongst connectors is adequate. Finally, all connectors follow ATX specifications by using 18AWG gauges.



Power distribution is good since the EPS connector is fed by a dedicated rail. The 12V1 rail may appear to take on too much but there are only two PCIe connectors, and the small capacity of the PSU along with its small number of connectors won't cause the 30 A OCP trigger point to kick in--at least on paper.