Power supplies are some of the most ignored product categories around. Most users prefer to plan out and buy every other PC component out there before buying the power supply and cabinet. Antec’s presence in the Indian market hasn't been a significant one.
For those building budget gaming rigs, power supplies in the 450W to 500W range should suffice. The market is filled with models, many of which are fake and don’t offer the advertised power. Antec claims that their VP450P offers a stable 450W of power to the system.
Features
The Antec VP450P, like most other 450W PSUs is a non-modular design power supply. The VP450P comes built with a single six-pin connector, four SATA power connectors, four Molex connectors and a floppy disk connector. The fan being used on the power supply is 120mm in diameter. Antec claims that the power supply has all the features required to protect it from voltage fluctuations and short circuits.
Design and build quality
The VP450P is a complete black power supply with a large fan that faces towards the insides of the chassis. The rear of the power supply has a strong mesh that exposes most of the components, but is also likely to pull in a lot of dust. There’s a 120mm fan being used on the power supply, that’s protected by a grill. The quality of the metal used for the body of the power supply is of good quality, which makes the PSU very sturdy.
The primary 24-pin power cable has sheathed cables and it isn’t too flexible. The rest of the cables aren’t sheathed and don’t feel like they’re of very good quality. The quality of the cables is still better than most other cheaper power supplies. The cables are bundled at certain points, but the number of points at which they are clipped aren't sufficient. So, in some cases, such as the SATA power cables, cables are bundled in just a couple of places, which leaves a lot of cables lying in the open.
Performance
We ran the VP450P on an AMD Llanos system, as well as a more power confusing Intel Core i7 2600K Sandy Bridge system running a mid-range GPU without any issue. There were no stability issues noticed with and without any overclocking. The fan is pretty silent with no vibrations noticed from the power supply. Voltage fluctuations were minimal, as well.
Verdict
For a mid-ranged PC built around a Rs. 30,000 budget, the Antec VP450P priced at Rs. 2,900 makes sense. It’s a solid product made for entry-level PCs that should be able to take the load of reasonably high-end graphics cards and processors. This isn’t really designed to take the brunt of two graphic cards in SLI and CrossFire, though.
The price makes it one of the cheaper, good quality power supplies that you can find in the market today. We personally would’ve liked the cables to be of slightly better quality and also organized neater than they are.
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