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- Date:
- Wednesday, October 03, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
$50 Power Supply Roundup
We went to Newegg and purchased five US$50 computer power supplies that we thought should be solid buys. But what happens when you ask these PSUs to put up its advertised power numbers in heavy usage conditions? You might be surprised what 50 bucks gets you now days.
Antec Basiq 500w
The first thing we are going to look briefly at with the Antec Basiq 500w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The Basiq’s package does indeed fit the motif its name implies but at the same time the majority of the things on the packaging are relevant. Straight and to the point is certainly better than rambling and uninformative. As we find out from the trilingual box, the concept of Basiq extends beyond the price and packaging to the warranty as this unit only has a 1 year warranty. This is the shortest warranty we have seen to date from units that actually got to the trouble of listing a warranty period. This could be construed as a cost saving measure but certainly a narrow one year warranty is not going to give the customer that warm fuzzy feeling about their new steel gray purchase, but then again this product is only $50. Moving on, the back the of the box includes a few bullet points such as dual 12v rails, APFC, the unit’s dimensions, and most importantly the power table which is reproduced below. Being a “Basiq” unit it does not sport any multi-GPU certification or 80Plus certification. This is after all a basic power supply meant to drop into a very average build.
The power label from the Basiq 500w is interesting in that it gives us most of the important information about the unit except the combined 12v rating. If we compare it to other FSP units in this range it should have a combined 12v rating in the 29A range. The connector count on this unit is a bit slim but does include a 6 pin PCI-Express connector but only 2 SATA and 5 Molex connectors. This does fit with the “Basiq” premise but still is a bit on the short side for a good 500w unit.
Once we open and clear all the Basiq packaging out of the way we are left with the power supply, a “manual,” mounting screws, and the power cord. All of these items are very standard with no little extras thrown in, again adhering to the philosophy of this product. Frankly though, calling the paper thing that comes with the unit a “manual” is a huge disservice. There really is nothing to it at all. Why Antec bothered to include something so useless (in three languages no less) is simply beyond me. Antec might as well jettison this thing and save some more money on this unit since it isn’t going to be of benefit to anyone due to the utter lack of pertinent information.
External Build Quality
The external build quality of the Antec Basiq is again basic. The unit features a generic steel gray enclosure with a single 80mm fan in the rear. The unit’s fan grill is punched from the steel housing saving some more money on this build; though as we see there is no voltage selector and the unit features APFC which certainly adds back to the cost and allow the unit to be marketed internationally.
The Antec Basiq comes in at a trim 5 1/2 inches long and sports wiring that is ~18 inches long to the first or only connector. The wiring is not sleeved and is the typical multicolored spaghetti mess found on less expensive units.
Internal Build Quality
Once we open the Basiq we are greeted by the sparse internals of a newer FSP model power supply. The overall build quality of the unit is good and as it turns out the PCB is the same one that was used in the FSP BlueStorm II 500w that we reviewed in the last roundup. While the PCB remains the same, the Basiq features a different transformer, different brand of capacitor on the primary side, and a new cooling configuration. Of real interest in the cooling side of the equation is the fact that the heatsinks are the same yet the fan orientation has changed from a 120mm overhead fan in the BlueStorm to an 80mm one in the Basiq (the 80mm fan in the Basiq is an Adda fan rated at 0.30A at 12v). The heatsink and fan combination of the Basiq seems to make more sense than the one employed in the BlueStorm II as the thin simple heatsinks here are directly in the airflow were as the BlueStorm II had the fan blowing down on them from a 90 degree angle without much surface area exposed to the direct airflow.
On the primary side we see that the single large capacitor here is a Teapo rated at 400v 330uF 85c as opposed to the OST we saw in the BlueStorm II. The secondary of the unit is populated with CapXon capacitors just like we saw in the BlueStorm II. While we are on the secondary we also see that the unit has a wire guard and the fan controller is located on the main PCB.
Overall the build quality of this unit is what we have come to expect from the sparse new FSP platforms and since we have already seen a similar unit from FSP in the BlueStorm II it will be of great interest to see how the Basiq fares.