Antec VP500PC PSU - Reviews and Benchmarks

After a long wait and obviously long searches both on and off the net I managed to find a budget PSU that is packed with enough punch to power any medium to high end computer PC, the Antec VP500PC 500Watt PSU. I know that name sounds a bit to tacky and clumsy but it sure has the stats to impress anyone around delivered both through quality and quantity.
So before we dig deep into under the hood and find out what all it has to deliver, let’s take a quick glance at the specifications.

Going by the stats this seems like a very promising PSU with a very light price tag. As it is too good to believe I looked at it a bit more closely.

The Power distribution

The most prominent feature of the VP500PC is that the 12V rails deliver a total of 408W which is not only a significant share of the total 500W delivered by the unit but is also greater than the combined value of the 3.3V and 5V rails showing clearly that it is based on latest architecture which makes it compatible with new components and most importantly the manufacturer has not compromised on quality factor. A few key connectors are as follows--

Dual 12V Rails: The Antec VP500PC comes with a 500watt power and as we can see in the image alongside the module has two 12V rails that deliver an appear-age of 24A and 21A respectively.
This is a very good tactic used by Antec to give extra protection to its consumers at such a low price. The main advantage of having multiple 12V rails on any Power supply Unit is double protection from OCP ie Over Current Protection. What is OCP? Well to put it straight, Over current protection is a safety feature that prevents your power supply from exceeding the amount of current present on each rail. This can happen if the component or device requires more current than available on 12V Rail of SMPS and causes the SMPS to overload, which can result into crashing of systems, burning of cables or explosion of your power supply! If OCP is present on the SMPS then the SMPS will shut down if the current on 12V rail exceeds it recommended rating.
So by putting a dual 12V rail system Antec has played it smart and given an extra layer of protection to the system that it'll be employed into. Thumbs up to that as this feature is rarely found in budget PSUs.

6+2 PCI-e Connector: It comes with two 6+2 PCI-e Connectors which makes it an ideal unit for using with any of the latest mid to high range graphics cards. You can easily run a mid range graphic card that uses a 6 pin PCI-e or a 8 pin PCI-e connector in SLI or CrossFire making it an ideal choice for gamers who want sheer power and no hassle from their computers.

4+4 ATX12V Connector: This feature not only makes it ideal to be used with power hungry processing beasts like the AMD FX 8350 Octa-core processors but also with high end processors/motherboards that require a combined 4+4 ATX12V CPU connector also known as a 8-pin EPS12V connector.

4xSATA Connectors: This is common in a 500W PSU but its worth mentioning over here as it is available at a very competitive price tag. With this you can easily connect upto four HDD/SSD or a permutation and combination between storage drives and optical devices. This is plenty and you'll not have to worry about converting any of the peripheral connectors for powering your devices making it ideal for a mini home server PC as-well.

The unit is surely designed to utilize all the 500W and not just a sham rendering the user unable to run most of the components in absence of the appropriate connectors.

The Load Test

To finally see how much the VP500PC had in it  to deliver and not just going by the outer looks and the hefty 500W claim on the box, I put the provided module through a load test. I kept the PSU under 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% load to determine the actual output in real world tests and applications.
Each voltage rail's output was recorded under varied loads and the entire output was kept in the "Total" column.
The results, were quite astonishing though

The Antec VP500PC passed with flying colors! Not only did all the rails delivered the promised outputs at varied loads but the total value was beyond my personal expectations from a budget power supply unit. For example, at near 100% load the total wattage delivered was fascinatingly 497W which is just 3W less than the promised 500W and obviously nothing is fully efficient so this is a wonderful score.
Also during our test we witnessed a 82%-84% efficiency along with the PSU staying under 40 degree Celsius with the room temperature at around 36 degree Celsius showing that the 120mm quite fan does it work pretty well and yes it did not sound like a jet engine running, it was indeed cool and quite as promised by Antec.

My Verdict

Priced at just Rs. 3100 the Antec VP500PC 500W PSU is a perfect combination of smart implementation of technology and quality production, ideal for a variety of consumers ranging from medium users to hardcore gamers. Using this PSU will not increase a budget build's cost significantly but will definitely increase the productivity and lifetime of the other components used substantially.
For those who can't distinguish between fact and fiction of PSUs the Antec VP500PC is the blind choice, light on pocket but heavy on performance.
I give it a 9.5/10
The video review is now available here

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