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First Impressions |
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An informative little box, well built to hold the weight of the unit itself.
In fact it’s so well built; I’d be willing to bet the empty
box could hold my entire weight. Yup, I was right; all 155 pounds of me
are easily supported. This may not be one of the main points you’re
looking for in a PSU, but still, it’s nice to know.
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Here you see the contents of the package in one piece and nicely wrapped.
The contents consist of a power cord, mounting screws, instruction booklet
and the unit itself. Please be sure to use the cord provided with the power
supply. I noticed the cord supplied was slightly thicker than the one used
by my test bed. Upon examination I noticed that the cord was labeled (13A-125V).
The cord I was about to use was only (10A-125V). You may not think that
makes much of a difference, but it is enough to void your warranty. Who
am I kidding? We’re modders, a warranty doesn’t last more than
a day or so in my house anyway.
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The unit comes with one ATX 20-pin Main Power Connector, a 6-pin AUX Power
Connector and a 4-pin +12V Power Connector to the motherboard. Its also
comes with seven 4-pin Peripheral Power Connectors and two 4-pin Floppy
Drive Power Connectors to your drives. The TruePower power supply is also
equipped with a 3-pin fan signal connector. Connecting it to one of the
fan headers of your motherboard allow you to monitor the speed of the rear
fan through your bios or monitoring software
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As mentioned earlier, the unit can also monitor and control the system case
fan speed. There are two dedicated fan connectors marked “Fan Only”
from the power supply for system case fans. Connecting fans to these will
allow up to three case fans to be controlled via the True550. This allows
the unit to greatly reduce the noise created by case fans while still maintaining
a decent case temperature.
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As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, the unit is equipped with one clear
bladed 90mm dual bearing fan on the bottom and one standard black 80mm fan
on the rear. They are both covered with very attractive gold colored fan
grills. The only part that disappoints me about the setup of the True550
is the lack of an LED fan in the rear. From this angle you should notice
the small rectangular connector to the rear (just below the switch). This
seems to be the connector used by the TrueControl550 to enable adjustments
on the power supplies rails. Unfortunately I was unable to get a reliable
answer from Antec regarding whether or not this particular sample was fully
functional as a TrueControl. Upon checking the box of a TrueControl model,
the connector is clearly explained. The box that this one shipped in however
mentioned nothing of it, so I’m going to have to leave it at that.
You may also notice the cable sleeving on the Main power cables. It seems
Antec chose to go with a red and black crossed spiral pattern rather than
the usual solid black. It adds just that little extra flair and shows the
attention to detail that Antec prides itself on. One thing I would like
to see though is the cable sleeving extended all the way into the casing.
If Antec ever decides to wrap all the cables, I’m sure we’d
all be very appreciative
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