Antec VP450 Power Supply 450 Watts PSU with 120mm Silent Cooling Fan, Dual +12 V Rails, ATX12V 2.3, 2 Years Warranty

I had a Thermaltake 700 watt monster PSU for my big gaming and webmaster box. I was working on the office and accidentally turned off the breaker without powering down first. As most of you probably know, you shouldn't turn off the power before turning off the computer. But I forgot, and this very hefty Thermaltake modular PSU that cost me over $130 just could not handle it. I would like to mention that it was SUPPOSED to have some controls in the BIOS that would crank down fan speeds on both the CPU and chassis fan so that you could use it quietly when there was not a lot going on, and it was supposed to crank the fans up as you used more resources. That set of features NEVER worked with my ASUS motherboard, and even after calling and writing Thermaltake, they were not willing to support it as an ancillary feature. They would not exchange it for something like a "bonus" feature not working. So I bought this little 450 watt Antec as a replacement, after reading the reviews. I am absolutely thrilled with it. It powers everything, including three SATA hard drives, one old IDE hard drive (power hog) and one each SATA and IDE DVD burners. I bench tested everything before packing it back into the case and levels on all rails were perfectly stable and well conditioned, in spite of one rail being significantly loaded compared to the others. It had the "+4" for the main connector and two 4x4 connectors in case I had had a second CPU socket (which I didn't but what if I want to use it elsewhere?) and for $35, it was nearly $100 less than the power hog that just conked out on me. Once I set up the settings in the BIOS for the quiet fan features (I set the CPU fan on "optimal" and the chassis fan on "silent") and restarted it, I was shocked. It is just as quiet as my tiny SFF office box that sits next to the gaming box. Not only that but it has a great looking shiny black case and invisible black fan so that if I wanted to, I could have a glass-sided box (which I don't but you never know if I might want to) so it looks great too. It does NOT have braided covers for the rails, but most builders want to use their own anyhow. I'm impressed. I'm an IT professional and I endorse this lovely little PSU. :)

Purchased this power supply as a replacement for the one that stopped functioning in my son's Acer Aspire desktop. The power supply arrived in excellent condition ahead of the projected delivery date. The new power supply mounted easily into the place where the original power supply was mounted (top rear area of the mid-tower case). The PSU has plenty of connectors (molex, SATA, PCI-E, 8-pin CPU, etc.) to hook up to your PC. Cable length is more than adequate. I reviewed a number of power supplies from Amazon (specs, dimensions, customer reviews, etc.) before choosing this one. The original 300 Watt PSU had a rear exhaust fan (the 80 mm kind that was the standard but now seems to be giving way to the bottom mounted 120 mm fans). I had a concern over how this PSU would circulate and exhaust air through the PSU housing as I needed one that still exhausted through the rear of the PSU which faces outward when installed in the mid-tower case. I finally found information on Antek's website showing how their PSU's pull air through the bottom fan opening and exhaust out the back - exactly what I needed. I also wondered about the power switch on the back (many PSU's today seem to have this switch) and how that would interface with the operation of the power switch on the PC's case, but decided to order this one anyway as the price was too good to pass up. I found out that the switch on the back merely energizes the PSU. The PC power switch still turns the PSU on to power everything up. The PSU has been running now for a couple of months. It runs quietly. And, the CPU fan doesn't seem to run as fast, perhaps due to the PSU fan pulling more air through the case. All in all, we are quite satisfied with this replacement PSU.

The way I look at it, a PSU either works or it doesn't. Chances are good that if you are also considering on purchasing a power supply at this price point, you also have the same viewpoint as I. I've always told users that actually putting together and assembling a computer is not difficult at all. The hardest part is purchasing the right parts that goes in to that computer! This power supply has all the juice I need for it to power my budget build and the price looks very attractive as well. Antec, while I believe they are not considered one of the top power supply makers out there in terms of quality wise, they are still a good candidate. I love Antec computer cases (I think they are the same company) and so I would like to think they would make good power supplies as well.There's really not much else to say. It has the connectors I need and well, the power supply works! What many users want to know is is the thing quiet enough. I can assure you that this unit is pretty much dead silent when in operation. In fact, most power supplies I've come across these days are very quiet as well so you really don't have to worry too much about this issue.Many experienced PC builders can assure you that you should never, ever skimp on your power supply unit. It is one of the main component that actually gives all your hardware power and so a poorly made power supply can actually increase the chances of it ruining your computer. Although I do admit that I rarely see this, do you really want to take the chance? You could in reality save $10-$15 dollars and get a cheaper power supply but you also should understand the risk of doing so. I believe this Antec power supply is a perfect balance between it being cheap and yet still trustworthy enough for me to put in my build.