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.