Review

Antec VP500PC Power Supply Review

Antec VP500PC is the first power supply we are reviewing from Antec. Interestingly, it is a 500W low cost and non-enthusiast grade power supply that Antec offers. Today VP500PC puts Antec into the highlights of people looking for mid-power and reliable power supply units. With so much of PSU market being dictated by the lowest number that users see in their shopping cart quality is often hard to come by. Certainly the VP500PC is crafted for quality, performance and incredible value. This entry-level solution gives you everything you need to power a mid range hardware. 120 mm fan for effective and quiet cooling, dual +12V rails for amazingly stable power and heavy-duty protection circuitry for peace of mind.

Now let's see what this Antec VP500PC has for us.

Features

• 500W Continuous Power - Guaranteed 500W of Continuous Power from Antec
• Up to 82% efficient - To reduce your electricity bill
• AQ2 - Antec Quality 2-year warranty and lifetime global 24/7 support
• 120 mm Silence - Whisper-quiet high-quality fan with long lifetime
• Thermal Manager - An advanced low voltage fan control for optimal heat & noise management
• Multi PCI-E - 2 PCI-E connectors for multiple GPU support
• CircuitShield - Full suite of industrial grade protections : Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Under Voltage Protection (UVP), Over Power Protection (OPP) & Surge Inrush Protection (SIP)
• Heavy-duty Caps - High-performance capacitors ensure tightest DC stability and regulation
• ErP Lot 6 - Compliant to the toughest energy standard available
• Active Power Factor Correction (PFC)
• MTBF >= 100,000 hours

Specifications

• INPUT Voltage: 200VAC - 240VAC
• INPUT Frequency Range: 50Hz – 60Hz
• INPUT Current : 4 A @ 230VAC
• OUTPUT Max. Load Voltage: +5V / 19A, +3.3V / 22A, +12V1 / 24A, +12V2 / 21A, -12V / 0.3A, +5VSB .2.5A
• Total Continuous Power: 500W
• +12V1, 12V2 Maximum combined output: 408W
• +3.3V and +5V Maximum combined output: 130W
• Fan : 120mm
• Safety Approvals: CE, TUV, CB, C-Tick, CCC, Gost-R
• Net Weight: 4.0 lbs / 1.8 kg
• Size: 3.4" (H) x 5.9" (W) x 5.5" (D) / 86 mm (H) x 150 mm (W) x 140 mm (D)

Cable Lengths

• 24pin ATX cable: 1 x 460mm
• EPS cable: 1 x 510mm
• PCI-E cable: 1 x 460mm + 140mm (Second connector)
• Peripheral cable: 1(SATA) x 440mm + 140mm(Second SATA) + 140mm (Molex) +140mm (Floppy)
• Peripheral cable: 1(SATA) x 440mm + 140mm(Second SATA) + 140mm (Molex) +140mm (Molex)

All wires are of 18AWG Gauge (minimum requirement of high load handling), which is excellent for a budget 500W PSU.

Package

Antec VP500PC comes in a box securely packaged with PSU graphics, Model name and features highlights on front and the back of the box.

Inside the box

Along with the PSU the box also includes Power cable and Instructions manual

Looks

Have a close look at Max. Combined load row. Combined load for 12V rails should be 408W (WATTS) instead Antec has printed 408A (Amperes). It's not good for brand like Antec making such a silly mistakes in their product specifications label.

Inside

The power supply is manufactured by CWT, having a huge production capacity resulting much cheaper cost of manufacture. CWT is a popular OEM manufacture in low cost PSU segment.

Let's have a look inside the PSU. There goes my warranty.

Cooling is handled by Yate Loon D12SM-12, 120mm fan have a maximum of 1650 rpm. / Min., 33 db noise and airflow of 70.5 CFM. Fan rpm are managed via a small thermostat glued to the secondary section heatsink.

Component Layout

1. 2. Power Socket and EMC /EMI transient filtering stage with two coils, one MOV, four Y caps and two X caps.

3. Power supply uses GBU 8J bridge rectifier, which is not attached to a heatsink, clearly an 8A part, so with 80% efficiency of the bridge diodes, this part can deliver up to 736W without burning itself.

4. The active PFC circuit used one IPA60R125CP MOSFETS, capable of delivering up to 25A at 25C or 16A at 100C in continuous mode, an Active PFC Diode and a PFC Coil packed inside a ferrite enclose.

5. Main bulk Capacitor is CapXon LP 270 uF / 400 V, 85 ° C rated, not a top of the line cap, but a decent cap with respect to the cost of the PSU.

6. In the switching section we have two SPA20n60C3 power MOSFETS, each one capable of delivering up to 20A at 25c or 13A at 100C in continuous mode or 62A in pulse mode at 25c, with resistance of 190mohms, when turned ON, a characteristic known as RDS(on) – lower this number the higher efficient is the MOSFET.

The whole PFC and switching transistors on the primary section is controlled by Champion Microelectronic CM6805 IC.

7. 5v Stand-by section used Power Integrations TNY176PN tinyswitch – LT, Energy Efficient, Offline Switcher with Enhanced Flexibility and Extended Power Range with Peak or open frame output power of 19W.

The only very good quality capacitor in whole PSU is for +5VSB supply, it is Nippon Chemi-con series KY

8. Secondary section with DC rectifiers( with lot of silicon glue over them), coils and some mixed brand electrolytic capacitors from CapXonu, Aisha and JunFu. Which are again not a super good quality caps, but at least Antec must have used single brand caps instead of mixed brand. It look like they have used whatever caps were available in stock .

For 3.3V output we have one STPS40L45CW Schottky rectifier(40A at 130C and 0.70V voltage drop), giving us a maximum theoretical current of 29A

5v output uses one SBR30U30CT Schottky rectifier(30A at 130C and 0.54V voltage drop),, giving us a maximum theoretical current of 21A

12v output uses two SBR40U60CT Schottky rectifier(40A at 130C and 0.60V voltage drop) in parallel,, giving us a maximum theoretical current of 58A

9. Power supply uses SKronix ST9s313 monitoring integrated circuit. Unfortunately we couldn't find its datasheet.

10. Back side of the PCB shows decent soldering, with heavy current path having extra solder to increase path current handling capacity. Strange pointed track breaks near the bridge rectifier are called Spark gaps, designed to allow an electric spark to pass between the conductors and to protect PSU from high-voltage transients.

Testing

Test system configuration -

Custom made DC Active dummy load PSU tester.

Power Consumption

Pc power consumption, wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Load Test

To test the PSU on my Active load test, I have manually increased the load in Amps on 12v first rail, 12v second rail, 5v and 3.3v rail to simulate 100%, 80% 50% and 20% load.

5V stand-by and -12V supply was left at a constant 0.3amp load throughout the test run.

Maximum theoretical load handling capacity of my tester is somewhat around 1500W, but due to MOSFETs safe operating area (SOA) characteristics and thermal load handling capacity of the heatsinks, this tester can handle Max 1300W.. For safety reasons I have also installed a thermal controller which turn OFF the attached PSU if temperature exceeds SOA specifications.

Overload Test: For overloading the PSU I set the 5v and 3.3 v rails to 10A than slowly started increasing both 12v rails from 20A reading @ 500W up till 22A on both rails giving 600W, little more increment and PSU Overload triggered and it turned OFF the PSU.

So maximum load this power supply can handle is about 550W.

Pros

• Good Value for money
• Overload and high voltage protection.
• Silent fan even at max load
• 2 years warranty

Cons

• Mix brand of caps in secondary
• 8 Pin CPU power cable should be little longer.

Conclusion

Most budget 500W power supplies have fake two +12V rails, but VP500PC really have two +12v rails with over-current protection. (Carefully following the PCB tracks, found that two separate tracks from both +12v outputs go to the monitoring IC Section).

With costing just Rs.3000/- Antec VP500PC is terrific PSU with nice build quality.

Finally if you are building a mid-level PC, that doesn't requires a lot of power, you and your wallet will be very happy with Antec VP500PC power supply.

Manufacturers Info

Thanks.

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