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| Antec TruePower 550watt PSU |
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| Written by Alexandru Spataru | |
| Monday, 18 June 2007 | |
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From the specs it seems like the PSU provides enough power for not only one, but two computers. Really, most of you will probably not need that much power, but then again you guy (and gals) are probably overclockers, so I might be wrong about that. The TP550 is exactly the PSU I dreamed of for a very long time, and Antec must have picked the minds of some overclockers and built this PSU just for them ... eh ... us.
When the TruePower series from Antec was released, I personally was very happy to see that a company finally overcame some of the biggest problems PSUs had. You will ask what makes the TruePower series so special, if you don't already know. Well, there are a lot of improvements over the standard PSU type, but the most important, and the one that the name TruePower describes, is the dedicated voltage circuitry. The traditional design for a power supply typically features circuit sharing for the +3.3V and +5V lines off the output transformer. Which means that if you increase the load on one line, the capacity for the other one decreases (as you load up on devices that use +5V, like drives and PCI cards, you have less power for the devices that use the +3.3V output, like the video card). The shared power circuitry also increases the chance of having interactions between the output circuits, and a sudden +5V draw will cause the voltage on the +3.3V line to drop, and who knows what the results of that might be. Like I said before, usually, the total power you can draw from those two output circuits combined is less than the sum of the individual ratings for +3.3V and +5V. Here's how Antec describes their new PSUs: TruePower has dedicated output circuitry for each voltage line, which means that there is no combined output limit other than, of course, that of the entire power supply. Each voltage line can perform up to the specification on the label, without regard to or interaction with the loads on the other lines, until the full capacity of the power supply itself is reached. Besides the dedicated voltage circuitry, the TruePower also has, and I quote, "voltage feedback detection and tighter performance tolerances." In order to increase stability, Antec designed the TruePower so that the power circuitry tests its own output voltages at the ATX connector and adjust its output to compensate for any drop off, including for the resistance of the wires. This allowed Antec to tighten up the voltage regulation from Intel's specified ±5% variance to a ±3% variance. Thus a more stable power signal is available to all devices. TruePower PSU also has active PFC (Power Factor Correction), but I am not sure if this feature also applies to models sold on the US market. Anyway, active PFC improves the power factor (efficiency) of the PSU by altering the input current wave shape (sinusoidal input voltage). This results in a increased energy efficiency, reduced heat generation, prolonged life for the power distribution and consumption inside the PSU, and most of all, improved voltage stability. After improving performance and efficiency, Antec decided to add another feature to their PSUs. So they developed the "Low Noise Technology", which, like the name implies, is a way to keep the noise created by the PSU to a minimum. Standard ATX power supplies with traditional thermally-controlled variable-speed fans have a linear increase of the fans' RPM based on temperature readings from the PSU, but Antec used a new approach to the temperature controlled cooling to achieve optimum balance between noise reduction and necessary cooling with an advanced temperature response system that outperforms previous solutions. The system constantly monitors the temperature inside the power supply, and then runs the power supply fans at the lowest speed appropriate to load and conditions. Here is graph showing how the RPM of the fans varies depending on temperature:
I like this system, the Antec Low Noise, much better than the manually adjusted fans on some other PSUs because it eliminates the risk presented by these solutions, namely that users forgetting to reach behind their computer to turn the fan speed up when their system gets hotter as the usage increases. I really cannot imagine a user pausing his fragging game just to turn the knob on the back of the PSU to speed up the fans 'cause the PSU got hotter from the stress of the 2-3 hour gaming, but then again maybe that's just me. The end result of the Low Noise Technology, the combination of these three major design improvements (dedicated output circuitry, tighter tolerance of the lines and the Low Noise Technology) results in not only more stability and power, but it also keeps you ears intact ;-) Now that you are familiar with the technologies involved, let's go ahead and present the actual PSU, the Antec TruePower 550W, which, believe it or not, is the subject of this review. When you actually purchase the PSU, it comes properly packed in a box.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 June 2007 ) |
