Antec Strictly Power VPF550 Power Supply Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The price of this PSU is obviously very attractive. If you’re not building a high-end gaming PC, it’s got more than enough power to suit your needs and at under £40, it’s certainly kind to your bank balance. The only downside is that it’s only available for 230v, so you can’t get stock in the US, which is a shame.

Conclusion

When I first saw this power supply, there was a little part of me that wanted to point and laugh. Let’s be honest, it looks a bit rubbish and while I admit that is not out of the ordinary for a budget power supply, it is hard to be particularly excited by products in this price range. Of course, the jokes on me, because after we plugged this unit into our load tester, it’s Antec who are doing the laughing.

The performance on this unit far exceeded my expectations, it’s on par with many of the high-end units we’ve tested in terms of ripple suppression, voltage regulation, PFC and its efficiency is fairly decent (for the price) too. That makes this an absolute bargain for system builders and while its design leaves a lot to be desired, it’s got all the performance in the right places.

The non-braided non-modular cables certainly aren’t attractive, but for a chassis that doesn’t have a window, does that really matter that much? Not really. The only real downside to this unit is the fan noise, it’s certainly audible and I’d be looking for a sound-proofed chassis as the ideal home for this unit. Of course, noise isn’t everyone’s top priority and when you’re looking for price vs performance, you’ll get a damn fine ratio here.

Pros

Reasonable efficiency
Good OPP
Excellent ripple suppression
Good voltage regulation
Very affordable price tag

Cons

No modular cables
Lack of good cable braiding
Noisy fan

“This may not be the best looking PSU we’ve ever seen, but when you need an affordable unit for a low-to-mid range system, you’ll have a hard time finding a product that matches the performance on offer here!”