Introduction:
Antec is the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming and Do-It-Yourself markets. Founded in 1986, Antec pioneers in enclosures, power supplies, media components and cooling products. They have maintained their position as a worldwide market leader of quiet, efficient and innovative products.

Antec power supplies need no introduction since they are known from providing power supplies crafted for quality and performance. Their power supplies are also used by many renowned overclockers and hardware enthusiasts around the world for benchmarking and hardcore overclocking. Antec not only excels in providing high end – high wattage power supplies, they are also making low end – incredible value products for entry level systems.

Today, we’ll be having a brief look at one such product from their ‘Basiq’ power supply series – Antec VP450P 450w power supply. It is specifically rated for 450w of continuous and pure power for your machine. With up to 82% efficiency, VP450P can provide 360w (30A) over two 12v rails. It’s equipped with Japanese made capacitors. 120mm fan delivers quiet, reliable cooling.

Packaging and the Power Supply:
Antec VP450P comes in a simple card board box with Antec’s signature yellow and black theme. Some salient features of this power supply are mentioned on the top of the box such as 450w continuous power, active PFC and 120mm fan.

All the features, power ratting and connectors are mentioned on the sides of the box.

Power supply comes protected in a shell made up of re-usable material – pretty good approach by Antec. It not only does its job but it also helps in keeping the enjoinment green.
Power supply comes with an AC power cord, four screws and two product information leaflets.

Antec VP450P comes with a nice matte black finish. It really enhances the overall look of the PSU. It is only 140mm deep hence it will easily fit in most the standard sized cases.

Back side of the power supply has traditional power plug and switch. Some of you must be wondering that why there’s no AC voltage input selector, that’s because this PSU has Active PFC. Rest of the back has honey comb mesh to provide fresh air intake.

Antec VP450P features a black 120mm fan which ensures quite operation along with sufficient cooling to the inner parts. As all other Antec PSUs, this entry level PSU features Japanese made capacitors. These capacitors are built with high grade material and parts. Capacitors are a major factor when it comes to the lifespan of a PSU and Japanese capacitors, having better build quality ensure longer life span.

This PSU carries dual 12v rail design. Each one of these two rails is rated to deliver 18A at max and a total combined 30A can be provided via both 12v rails. Over Current Protection (OCP) kicks in when more than 27A passes through any of these rails. OCP will simply turn the system off even if any component tries to suck too much power.

You must have figured out by now that this is a non-modular unit. All cables are fixed.

Testing:
Testing a PSU ‘properly and completely’ isn’t an easy task. It requires multiple thousand dollar equipment along with qualified technician. As former one is missing in our case hence we’ll be doing a basic real world voltage regulation test on this PSU with the help of our trusty multimeter.

We’ll power up our mid-range desktop rig with power supply (Specs of the rig are mentioned below). Then we’ll measure voltages on all rails when PC will be idling and then again when it’ll be under gaming load. This is a pretty basic real world voltage regulation test.

ATX Specifications allow a maximum of 5% voltage variation over 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails.
12v Rail = 11.400v – 12.600v
5v Rail = 4.750v – 5.250v
3.3v Rail = 3.135 – 3.465v

Here are test results:

Final Words:
Antec VP450P with 30A on dual 12v rails and a good number of connectors should be a first choice for any entry level rig. As you can see in our testing it can easily handle an overclocked i7 processor with an nVidia GTX40 graphics card. What else one can expect from such a well-priced entry level PSU. You might face problems if your graphics card requires two or more than two 6 pin PCIe connectors. For cards requiring only two connectors, you can always use dual molex to 6 pin connector but for anything higher than that I would not recommend using such kind of techniques.

4+4 pin EPS12V connector makes life a lot easier as now-a-days most the motherboards require 8 pin connections so you wouldn’t need to use any molex to 8 pin connectors or anything along those lines. One of the 12v rails is totally dedicated to power CPU, it wouldn’t restrict you from using a high end CPU.

With 4 molex and 4 SATA connectors you can install fair good amount of hard drives and optical drives in your PC. An FDD connector is also provided in case you still require any of those.

Voltage regulation is also pretty good on Antec VP450P. It stayed well with in ATX limitations, which again, adds plus points for this little entry level PSU.

Antec VP450P is rigged up with all necessary protections such as OCP, OVP, SCP, OPP to secure your computer from any electrical dangers.

All these factors make this PSU a perfect buy for your next entry level PC. Its available for 3,300PKR.

-Pros:
• Price
• Quite operation
• Good voltage regulation
• 2 Years warranty
• Active PFC

-Cons:
• Only 1 PCIe 6 pin connector

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