Last updated on August 22nd, 2017
Looking for a new PSU? Need some basic knowledge related to buying something nice and effective? All your purposes will be fulfilled as we present you the Antec BP350PS Review. The brand name itself might be sending you some chills. Not only it’s a review but also you can get to know many things related to a PSU from this article itself that can further help you in the future to choose the right product before buying something. First of all let’s have a look at its specs:
- 350W Continuous Power
- 2 Year Warranty
- 75% Efficient
- Intel Haswell system ready
- 120mm silence whisper quiet high-quality double ball bearing fan with long lifetime
You must be astonished to see that it’s a 350W PSU and we are pretty sure that this question must have sprung up in your mind-“What the hell do I use a 350W PSU for?” Yes, that may be a logical question but think about it for a while and ask this question to yourself-“What is the need of a high-end PSU?” You already have the answer in your mind. High wattage PSU’s are required to power up high end systems comprising up of monstrous GPU’s and RAM’s. That would be a hardcore gaming rig or maybe a system meeting the needs of a Movie Editor or maybe a 3D Animation Artist.
Now, let’s answer your question related to the use of a 350W PSU. To be frank, it can suit all your needs apart from gaming purposes. What would you do with a non-gaming system? Some MS-Office? Internet browsing? Watching HD movies? And let’s say you have a 2 core processor like Core i3 or i5, a DDR3 RAM, 2x HDD’s, a Blu-Ray Drive, Full HD 1080p monitor and a low end GPU like 8400GS…a quality 300W PSU can easily handle all these components without any issues. Further, it has now become a trend in computer hardware to make things as small as possible. Companies are more focused towards manufacturing micro ATX cases as well as mobo’s. In fact there is another version of the cabinets called as ITX. So, these so called mini/micro cases, generally require low profile PSU’s to juice up the components fit inside them.
The more small things are, lower will be the power requirements. But to be honest, if we are talking about a low wattage PSU that can me these power requirements, has to be of good quality and should be highly efficient. Furthermore, it should have some sort of brand value like Antec or Corsair. Yes, it is evident that those low profile PSU’s won’t be able to meet the power requirements of a ‘monstrous gaming rig’ but they can easily provide enough power to support a conservative system. So, we hope that now you have a pretty clear idea of how effective a low profile PSU can be.
But according to Anandtech, a PSU within the range of 300-400 watts is sufficient to power up a system having a good processor, a single middle to high-end GPU’s and a few drives. Suppose you have a PC that has an Nvidia GTX 770, four HDD’s, one SSD and an overclocked Intel G3258 processor. The minimum power requirement would be around 460-500W (because that’s what the company people say) but to be frank the overall power consumption of your system turns out to be 300W. I seriously couldn’t believe what these Anandtech guys were talking about but after some research, I came to realize that what they say actually does make sense. So, you can definitely expect to power up a low-mid end gaming PC with a PSU between 300-400 wattage provided it has good efficiency and some brand value.
Now, let’s shift our focus to-“Antec BP350 PS”. Is this the ideal low-profile PSU that can match the requirements of a conservative system that we were talking about? How efficient it is and what is it’s quality? Don’t worry as we’ll answer all these questions one by one as we review the product.
Design
When we first saw, the first thing that caught our attention was the black color of the body. In black, it looks like something that you will definitely get attracted to without even looking at the features. The next thing that we liked was the honeycomb like structure. Many PSU’s at this price range (i.e. 1.5K-3K INR) lack this feature though some of them rather have large number of circular holes. But compared to the latter, honeycomb structure has the upper hand when it comes to cooling.
There is also a circular-shaped metal grill that acts as a shield to the 120mm fan located inside the PSU case. It’s common nowadays and these grills are usually added to prevent any foreign object or living thing like a lizard or rat or any insects enter the compartment of your PSU via the shieldless fan that acts as a barrier. Imagine what would happen if they go through it! To be frank, I’ve lost one PSU few years back, only due to that reason.
Rest assured it looks like a simple-cubic box with a basic layout and design, good enough for a low-profile PSU.
Cooling
Antec BP350PS houses a 120mm double ball bearing fan that serves the most basic and vital purpose of cooling. Generally, double ball bearing fans are very effective in removing internal heat from the PSU. In addition to that, the honeycomb structure that we mentioned above acts as an important factor for proper airflow in and out of the PSU, so that the temperature inside is as low as possible. Honeycomb is the best cooling layout at present. Overall, we would say the cooling of BP350PS is cool enough.
Build
The PSU seemed to be heavy when we held it and remember to do this when you are buying a new one…be it from any brand. Doing so ensures you that there are all the necessary components inside to juice up your PC. Who knows? Maybe there can be more than that.
We unscrewed the SMPS to check what treasure it holds inside. So, we present you two images below depicting the inner components of BP350PS.
As you can see, the architecture of the PCB has been efficiently designed to house all the necessary components such that the device can work with the maximum possible efficiency. The inner wire layout has been effectively designed to connect all the components together.
All the necessary connectors are also available. You have the most important 24 pin connector, a single 8 pin connector that can be split into two 4 pin connectors. Nowadays, most of the mobo’s prefer 8 pin connectors over 4 pin one’s that were in use by the traditional mobo’s. Furthermore, you get 3 Molex cables, 3 SATA connectors, 1 Floppy and one PCI-E 6 pin connector . The PCI-E 6 pin connector is generally for your graphics card. But really there wasn’t any need of a floppy connector. Don’t know who uses a floppy disk in 21st century these days.
But one major flaw that we instantly discovered was lack of protection of the wires and components. First of all, the PCB is directly located above the bottom case which is pretty much undesirable when security comes as a matter of concern. Antec could have placed a protective layer like padding underneath the PCB. The cables, mainly the one’s having 24 and 8 pin connectors are sleeveless. Next, they are very short. It may be very difficult to connect them to a mobo in a big cabinet. One important thing that you may not like after unpacking this PSU is lack of a power cable. You would have to separately buy one. Though we know that it’s cheap, the company wouldn’t have faced any problem adding a power plug in the package. Overall, we would say that the build quality is o.k.
Continuous Power and Efficiency
What is continuous power? How is that a deciding factor in a PSU’s performance? Most of the PSU’s in the market claiming to be of 400W or 500W actually display their peak rated output. In other words, suppose there is a peak rated PSU of 450W then you will get an average power around 350W. The so called 450W PSU can only deliver it’s promised power for a few milliseconds. That’s why it’s called as a peak rated PSU.
There are continuous-rated PSU’s too among which Antec BP350PS is one. With 75% efficiency, it maintains an average output of 350W without any issues. So, you can’t complain about its output and efficiency unless you care about 80 Plus certificate accredition.
Label and Safety Logos
As you see the front cover of the package, you will definitely come across a label ATX 12V v2.3. Now what does that mean? The version 2.3 revision of ATX 12V marks a series of highly efficient PSU’s. Furthermore, these PSU’s show higher compatibility in response to newer hardware. The higher the version better the PSU in terms of efficiency and compatibility.
Remember to check the number of safety logos in a PSU. The more the logos better the feel of having a genuine PSU.
FINAL VERDICT
Antec BP50PS can serve all the needs of a basic and conservative system at a price of 2K INR. If you are happy with watching movies at 1080p resolution alone then you can go for it. If you still want to setup a gaming rig with this PSU then we would recommend to use a single conservative GPU that doesn’t draw much power. But if you are so crazy to try high-end gaming then please get Antec Earthwatts EA 380D Green 380W (80 Plus Bronze Certified) rather than BP350PS. Overall, Antec BP350PS is nothing exceptional but a nice low profile PSU.
[socialpoll id=”2252178″]
Note: Antec is providing additional warranties on specific PSUs. Any products purchased during 1st July 2013 – 31st December 2015 gets additional warranty on registration. In order to redeem the additional warranty you may visit this link- http://www.antecindia.co.in/?
You may watch the video below to get a better idea about this PSU:
