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
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox, and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The performance of the Antec EDGE 550W unit at room temperature is excellent. The unit easily justifies the 80 Plus Gold certification, reaching a maximum 92.4% conversion efficiency at 50% load. The conversion efficiency is also very stable, with an average of 90.9% within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity). Naturally, the efficiency of the Antec EDGE 550W unit drops at very low loads, dropping to 74.1% at 5% load. This is the expected behavior of any switching PSU and the Antec EDGE 550W has an output of just 28 Watts at that point; most systems will be closer to twice that power draw at idle, where the EDGE will be more efficient.
The high efficiency and low output of the Antec EDGE 550W translate to low losses across the entire load range. As such, the cooling system can easily cope with the thermal losses of the PSU, maintaining very low operating temperatures without the need to speed up the fan. Even under maximum load, the fan of the Antec EDGE 550W at room temperature is barely audible.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
25 Comments
View All Comments
Daniel Egger - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
> For non gaming rigs, it's more like 40-70w just browsing the web & using office, 100w max full video encoding, etc, and that could easily run off a Pico-PSU laptop style power brick.In fact HP and and a few other companies are selling not only all-in-ones but also mini-tower PCs which are powered by external 19V power bricks. I ordered one of those a couple of months back for a family member. Sure there's no discrete GPU in that but it still offers quite a bit of bang and is perfectly capable of handling any typical office activities and even light gaming. I couldn't make it draw more than 70W at the wall.
KAlmquist - Sunday, October 5, 2014 - link
Referring to 28 watts out of the power supply, and 37 watts measured at the wall, the reviewer writes that "most systems will be closer to twice that power draw at idle." So I'd like to underline the fact that you are measuring 37 watts at the wall idle even with a GPU.Morawka - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
whats wrong with all the images on this site? they are all broken. Same with daily tech. (reset your cache, you'll see.missing on both my iphone and desktop.
TelstarTOS - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
I've seen this 5V regulation issue on another PSU, I believe Seasonic's own latest G-series. I dont like it but it's within specs anyway.bhima - Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - link
Hrmm... $120 is a steep price to pay for silence on a component that is typically the least offender as far as noise in concerned (ie: Case, CPU fan and GPU are the big noise makers).