Date: December 19th, 2005
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Antec
<--SHOP FOR A POWER SUPPLY
PRODUCT COMPOSITION
There is nothing really fancy about the packaging. As one would expect, the PSU is nestled in foam and wrapped in a heavy bubble-wrap to protect it during shipping and handling.
For around $100 US you get the power supply, a manual, mounting screws, a power cord and a 5.25-inch bay device that lets the user adjust the rail voltage and fan speed. That’s about it, although that fat bundle of wires has a couple of interesting surprises for us, and I’ll discuss them in the next section.
PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
The TC2 (I’m already tired of typing “TrueControl 2.0 500W, so from here on out, I’m calling this PSU the TC2, OK?) has a steel case with Antec’s traditional blue-gray finish. About the closest thing to any bling you’re going to find on the PSU itself is the gold-colored fan grille that covers its 120mm cooling fan. Utilizing the TP2s temperature response system, the fan runs at the slowest speed possible, while providing adequate cooling. The large bundle of wires coming out of the case are protected by a hard plastic grommet and secured with a zip-tie.
The rear of the TC2 has the customary on/off switch, power cord receptacle and input voltage selector. The square mesh provides plenty of open area to exhaust the air pushed into the PSU by its cooling fan. With dimensions of 5.9”L x 5.5”W x 3.4”H, the TC2 is quite compact and fitment issues should be non-existent in any ATX chassis.
The label confirms the specifications given in the chart we saw earlier, however one should note that the combined load of all positive rails is 530W and 36A for the two +12V rails, combined.
Like many other PSUs these days, the TC2 utilizes a snap-in plug to provide native support for both 20 and 24-pin motherboards. Unlike the rest of the wire bundles, this one is sleeved with a black and red mesh material secured with shrink tubing.
