550W-650W PSU Roundup 2014

Antec TruePower Classic 550W Review

Manufacturer: Antec
UK: £68.93 (inc VAT)

For a while, it appeared that Antec was on the decline, but as of late 2013 the brand has started renewing its product catalogue and introduced a number of interesting products in rapid succession. The TruePower Classic builds on one of the brand’s trusted series and proves itself worthy of the name. This Gold rated PSU promises 550W, delivered over dual 30A 12V rails, with a maximum combined current of 45A. Antec is about the only manufacturer to still adhere to the multi-rail paradigm, with Codegen being the only other brand in this test to send in a PSU of this type.


The TruePower Classic 550W was likely built by Seasonic and sadly comes without modular cabling. The number of connectors isn’t overwhelming either, though six SATA and five standard molex should suffice for most purposes, while two PEG connectors are likely enough, given the rated power.

On the plus side, it definitely is one of the cheaper options in this round-up. The good news doesn’t end there either, as our test results show that electrically, this is one very good power supply. First of all, it has extremely low ripple and delivers exceedingly stable voltages, with barely any divergence from the ideal values, even at high loads. Also, it managed to obtain the second spot in the average efficiency measurement, with its 89.62 percent being just 0.01 percentage point short of the number one, the significantly more expensive Enermax Revolution X’t 630W.

Lastly, the TruePower Classic 550W operates pretty silently, as long as you don’t demand it delivers its full potential: at 500W load it is definitely noisy with our meter registering 52 dB(A). In a more likely 300W scenario however, we measure a very reasonable 28 dB(A). In all, this is a very worthwhile PSU that should be on your short-list if stable voltages and low ripple are your first priorities.