Overall, the Antec TruePower provided the best all around performance. Feature-wise, it could not compete with the Enermax EG465 or the Vantec Stealth Aluminum, but the performance benchmark showed it has a slight edge over the other units. The selling point on the TruePower is its availability and price. The TruePower is the most aggressive marketed of all the units, pricing under 100USD, at least 10USD less than the other PSU's we reviewed.
Enermax made the second strongest showing in the shootout. The EG465 demonstrated a good blend of old and new technology, combined with low heat, excellent noise levels and clean voltages. Along with the TruePower, we rate this model a good buy, particularly if you like the degree of manual control the unit provides.
Even though Vantec's Stealth supply has been generating a lot of hype, we were only mildly impressed with the unit. The presence of three fans might have made the unit a tad too loud. As we mentioned earlier, these fans generated positive pressure inside the unit, which resulted in a general increase in noise levels as air was trapped inside the housing. Furthermore, the line purity on the 3 main rails did not impress us at all; we found instances where interference peaked at 60mv along the +5V rail. For the 110USD, we expected a little more. We were very pleased that Vantec actively worked with us to clear up the issue about the misprint on the unit itself.
ThermalTake's Purepower ended up providing fairly decent performance, but not a lot of features. The performance benchmarks only put the Purepower ahead of Vatec, but Enermax and Antec were tough competitors. Since ThermalTake has been doing a great job of producing themselves as a competitor in the HSF market, we are fairly certain they are here to stay in the PSU market as well. We are very excited to see some of their future offerings.
