Antec EDGE 550W Power Supply Review
by E. Fylladitakis on October 3, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Antec
- 550W
- Edge
Hot Test Results
The tables below show that the Antec EDGE 550W has very good, albeit strange, electrical performance. It has excellent voltage regulation, maintaining all voltage lines between 1.7-2% across the load range. The filtering is where things get a bit peculiar.
The EDGE 550W has exceptional filtering on the 12V line, with our instrumentation displaying a maximum voltage ripple of just 38mV; however, the filtering of the 5V line is mediocre, reaching 38mV as well, which is nearly 80% of the 5V line design limit. The filtering of the 3.3V is excellent as well, with the ripple peaking at just 20mV under maximum load. As the 5V line is being derived by a DC-to-DC conversion circuit similar to that of the 3.3V line, we investigated this result extensively and even searched the parts for a malfunctioning component, but nothing was found to be problematic. It appears that the filtering of the 5V line (at least on the sample we received) is rather weak.
| Main Output | ||||||||
| Load (Watts) | 111.69 W | 278.11 W | 412.77 W | 548.36 W | ||||
| Load (Percent) | 20.31% | 50.57% | 75.05% | 99.7% | ||||
| Line | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts |
| 3.3 V | 3.12 | 3.37 | 7.79 | 3.36 | 11.69 | 3.32 | 15.58 | 3.31 |
| 5 V | 3.12 | 5.04 | 7.79 | 5 | 11.69 | 4.98 | 15.58 | 4.95 |
| 12 V | 7.01 | 12.19 | 17.53 | 12.15 | 26.29 | 12.01 | 35.06 | 11.97 |
| Line |
Regulation (20% to 100% load) |
Voltage Ripple (mV) | |||||
| 20% Load | 50% Load | 75% Load | 100% Load |
CL1 12V |
CL2 3.3V + 5V |
||
| 3.3V | 1.7% | 10 | 14 | 16 | 20 | 8 | 16 |
| 5V | 2% | 12 | 20 | 28 | 38 | 12 | 42 |
| 12V | 1.8% | 16 | 24 | 30 | 38 | 40 | 18 |
Aided by its low thermal losses and internal temperatures, it appears that a high ambient temperature hardly affects the performance of the Antec EDGE 550W unit. The reduction of the average nominal load (20-100%) efficiency is minimal, just 0.4%, while the maximum efficiency is 92.1% at 50% load. With these performance figures, the Antec EDGE 550W could receive its 80Plus Gold certification even under this much higher ambient temperature.
The high ambient temperature naturally affects the behavior of the cooling system and the acoustic performance of the unit. However, due to the low output of the unit, the temperature of the heatsinks still remains relatively low. As such, the Antec EDGE 550W does not really need to make its fan spin faster in order to maintain safe operating temperatures. The only difference is that the fan increases its speed further while the unit is under maximum load, but the higher SPL hardly makes a change that would be easily noticeable by a person's ear.
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bsim500 - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
Good review but I really don't understand the point of a low-mid wattage PSU that's 170mm in length when other brands on the market are only 140mm? Doesn't the target market for these also go hand in hand with compact short depth Micro-ATX cases?...PS: How about a roundup on the really low wattage stuff for increasingly popular Mini-ITX builds (ie, 40-160w "Pico-PSU"), and maybe Seasonic G360 (budget, Gold rated, 140mm length, ultra quiet) / X400 (totally fanless), etc, which are all a lot more interesting from a custom build HTPC / "netbox" perspective?
willis936 - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
Well at this point the target market is everyone who isn't running SLI or an overclocked HEDT CPU. In most cases (figurative and literal) the smaller PSU is nice but some people still do mid ATX cases with ATX mobos rather than uATX so I guess this is the PSU for them.willis936 - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
Also after looking at price and results I can't see why anyone would forgo a SS PSU if they care about sound and performance at this price.Bobsy - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
Well, it this is indeed based on the SeaSonic S12G, then it's like a S12G but modular, for almost the same price. I can easily see how this can be appealing.bebimbap - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
I believe the size is due to the "silence" of the PSU.smaller/compact PSUs would be harder to cool with no/less air flow.
I have the seasonic G360 it is a beast. even with a highly oc'd 4770k @4.5ghz and gtx 670 oc'd to 1250 with boost. it doesn't have a single hickup. but that said, Most workloads are either high GPU with low cpu load (gaming) or the opposite no gpu and high cpu load. Not many workloads can max out a 4core with HT AND a upper tier GPU. So in the end i'm sure i won't hit the 360w limit. But I too would be interested in small PSUs in the 40-160w range.
TelstarTOS - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
There are more and more people that wants a quiet computing, and use midtower or even full tower cases where space is NOT an issue. It's a trend that Antec chimed in.kmmatney - Monday, October 6, 2014 - link
Yep - that's I I still have my huge Antec P182 case, with sound deadening panels. While I prefer shorter PSUs, I prefer silence even more, and with a large case it doesn't matter what I use. I've been using a Corsair 650W PSU for the last 6 years, which for all intents and purposes, is dead silent.The_Assimilator - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
This PSU utilizes the S12G platform, which is not designed for modularity. Hence additional space was needed for the modular cables' PCB.JoBalz - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Definitely one where you'll want to measure your available CPU space before ordering. Some cases the length would be a definite problem. I think I could get it physically in my case but having to attach or remove cables might be the problem as it's push up pretty close to the hard drive bays in the front of the case. Otherwise, it sounds like a good unit and a good price for most mainstream users that don't overclock and that have only one GPU to power.JoBalz - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Excuse me, I meant to measure your available PSU space before ordering (particularly if you're replacing an existing unit),.