Antec TrueControl 550W PSU review
New CPUs, graphic cards and some of the extremer cooling solutions (peltiers, watercooling) ask a lot of power from your power supply. Most people do not realize how important a good PSU is when they buy a new computer. Why spend +$100 on a PSU when you can get one together with a case for $50? Well a good quality PSU is one that provides stable power, cheap and generic PSUs sometimes provide unstable power, which jumps a lot up and down, and that can make your computer system really unstable. A quality PSU like the Antec TrueControl 550 which we are looking at today however is supposed to deliver a stable stream of power! And this one does not deliver a small amount of power, it provides 550 Watt!
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Here we have the box in which the Antec TrueControl 550W PSU arrived. The box screams 'TAKE CONTROL'! With this they mean the bay device that is included with this PSU. It allows you to adjust to the output voltages of your PSU slightly and to control the minimum speed of the PSU fans.
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And this is the moment we have all been waiting for, a look at the power supply. On the left side, you can see a pink label with the specifications on and three air ventilation holes. In the second picture, you can see the front of this PSU. It has an 80mm fan with clear blades and a golden fan grill. To the right you the power switch, and left of it we have something special. Take a look at the third picture to see what is under the black piece of plastic. An external Molex connector! This is the first time that I see this on a PSU and I must say that I really like it. If you want to test a fan, cold cathode, fan controller,... then you do not need to open your case cause you can connect it to this Molex connector! Very nice feature Antec.
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The first picture is the underside of this PSU. It has a big 92mm fan to suck away the hot air coming from your CPU and to cool down the PSU components. In the second picture, you can see all the wires coming from this PSU. They are all very long, and special about them is that they have black connectors, another feature that I have not seen before on other power supplies. All the connectors are Gold plated by the way. On this side of the PSU, you can also see a lot of air holes.
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"WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED" we saw, and what did we do? We voided our warranty and opened the PSU! (I do not recommend that you do this, otherwise you will loose your warranty!!)
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Now I know why this PSU was so heavy, because of all of the quality material that they used, and the big Aluminum heatsinks. Together with the two fans, they will be able to keep the PSU cool.
Added: August 12th 2003
Product reviewed: Antec TrueControl 550W PSU
Reviewer: LSDsmurf
Score: 10/10
Page: 1/5