Antec are a US company based in Fremont California, and have an excellent reputation for both high-end and entry level cases. Antec has a very solid PSU product line up, and the True Control 550W represents their current flagship. Since the last time we looked at the True Control, Antec has updated the model with a single 120mm fan configuration rather than the previous twin 80mm, so the unit is considerably quieter. As with its predecessor, you can adjust the rails manually whilst monitoring them in the BIOS to get as close to the desired values as possible. This is a nice, if slightly dangerous feature, but one that hardcore modders and overclockers will certainly appreciate.
Aesthetically, the Antec is the weakest in the group by quite some way, with a bland metal exterior and neither braided nor twisted cables. The control unit itself is also rather ugly, looking very plasticy and finished in a dark grey colour that oddly matches no case finish I have ever seen. When activated, the control panel glows blue, and you can install a 3.5” hard drive in it, which is a nice touch. The first three dials are used to control the 5.5 3.3 and 12V rails, with the right hand one being used for fan speed. Unfortunately the latter doesn’t seem to be an analogue control, as it had no effect on the fan’s speed until turned to maximum, at which point the PSU sounded more like a hair dryer than a usable PC product.
In terms of performance, the Antec was quite impressive, with quite solid rails (except the 12V which dropped lower than we would have liked) and 100% stable operation. It did get rather hot at full load, so actual incremental fan control would have been quite welcome. Connectivity on the Antec is good, with two PCI-E cables, a 20/24 pin main power connector, four SATA hard drive connectors, five Molex plugs and two mini-Molex plugs for floppy drives. There is also an RPM cable for PSU fan monitoring and two cables meant exclusively for Molex-terminated fans.
Overall the Antec is a solid workhorse of a PSU with some interesting features, good performance and excellent connectivity. For future models Antec really need to work on their aesthetics, and stronger 12V rails would also be very welcome. Nevertheless, the Antec would be more than adequate for even the most demanding of overclocked SLI gaming rigs.
