Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W Power Supply Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W PSU costs £83.99 in the UK, in the USA we found it for $89.99 on Newegg.

Conclusion

There is a very fine line between what makes a good power supply and a bad one at any given level. There is such a large amount of competition in terms of pricing, features, performance and warranty policies that we think it is increasingly difficult for power supply vendors to win consumers over. For those of you who read my Antec EarthWatts 650W review you may have noticed it didn’t get an award and the conclusion wasn’t too favourable. The primary reasons for that decision were sub-par efficiency and a lack of PCIe connectors for its wattage. In my opinion this EarthWatts 550W Platinum does a lot better because it has better efficiency and more appropriate connectors for its wattage. Our results did show this 550W model missed 80 Plus Platinum at 50% load only by just under 1%, however this can be put down to testing variance and difference in efficiency calculation methods used by us compared to the 80 Plus organisation. We were happy to see it exceed 80 Plus Platinum requirements at 20% and 100% load.  This power supply performed very well in other areas with exceptional voltage regulation under normal loads and cross load and all that while maintaining almost total silence. The power supply also had very good ripple suppression on the 3.3 and 12 volt rails.

My only criticisms of this product are mostly minor. Firstly, the minus 12 volt rail had poor regulation. It does fall within ATX spec but the results were weak. That said the minus 12 volt rail is ancient and few PCs still even utilise it, especially if they were made in the last decade. Next I felt like the ripple suppression on the 5 volt rail could of been a lot better, sure it never exceeded 27mv (50mv is ATX spec) under our realistic % load scenarios but the (synthetic/unrealistic) cross load test pushed it well out of its comfort zone to 46mv. Finally the cabling options weren’t that impressive or exciting. There were enough cables to use 550W though some extra PCIe connectors would be welcomed. Furthermore, the cable sleeving disappointed with its low quality feel and the non-modular design certainly does very little to help sell this power supply, especially considering the relatively niche market the 80 Plus Platinum certification is targeting. However, it is worth considering non-modular units often have higher efficiency so this is one of the trade-offs Antec had to make in order to reach that 80 Plus Platinum level.

Pros

• Affordable 80 Plus Platinum
• Very High efficiency
• Good Voltage regulation
• Solid ripple suppression
• 3 year warranty

Cons

• Non Modular
• Poor quality cable sleeving
• Could benefit from more PCIe connectors
• Weak minus 12 volt voltage regulation and 5v ripple suppression

“If you’re looking to upgrade from an older PSU then the Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W is a solid entry in to the world of premium efficiency power supplies. 80 Plus Platinum efficiency is always going to be a bit niche but this power supply goes a long way to making 80 Plus Platinum affordable and accessible to the mainstream system builder. It’s also an added bonus that the PSU is a solid all round performer in other areas like voltage regulation and ripple suppression.”

Thank you to Antec for providing this review sample.