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Our final PSU is from Vantec, another big US brand that isn’t yet big in Europe. This is more a case of poor brand awareness rather than anything else. The Stealth series is Vantec’s top of the range PSU line, with the VAN-470A being the middle model out of three. At first glance the Vantec Stealth immediately gave us a feeling of a déjà vu as it looked very similar to the Tagan products.

However, on closer inspection it is actually quite different. Although the Stealth is finished in black and has a front and a rear 80mm fan, it also has a third one mounted at the bottom. It still manages to stay very quiet, which is the idea behind the Stealth power supplies. There’s a switch around the back that enables you to adjust the fans. The options are Auto, Low and Medium, but leaving it on Auto seems to work just fine.

Unusually, the Stealth has a power pass-through connector on the back, but unless you have a US-style power wall socket connector this is pretty useless. This is something that was commonplace on AT power supplys and it was where you used to connect the monitor.

Vantec seems to have had the same idea as Tagan and is the only other manufacturer to use twisted power cables. There are ten Molex connectors in total, shared between three cables, two of which end in a floppy connector. Using four Molex connectors in a line on one of these cables is not the best configuration on test and we would suggest that you don’t use all of the connectors as the power supplied will be different between the first and the last plugs.

On top of this there are two SATA connectors on a single cable, as well as a 24-pin EPS style connector, with a 20-pin ATX converter supplied. There are two 12V connectors, one four pin and one eight pin. The only thing missing is a six pin PCI Express graphics card connector. Only the ATX power cable is braided, but the twisted cables are still tidier than on many PSUs. Vantec also supplies four cable ties in the box.

Looking at the test results the Stealth performed reasonably well, but it didn’t excel. The voltages are all at respectable levels although the 12V rail was on the weak side at 100 per cent load, though within spec. The PFC results were good, but this was expected as the Stealth features active PFC.

The Stealth is a full range PSU and it is rated as low as 88V, which we of course tested and it worked just fine. The price is also fairly attractive, but it just loses out to the Tagan TG480-U01 due to the power connector design and the lack of a PCI Express power adaptor.

Manufacturer	Vantec
Model	Stealth VAN-470A
URL	www.vantecusa.com
Supplier	Tekheads
URL	http://www.tekheads.co.uk
Price	£64.47
Molex connectors	8
Floppy connectors	2
SATA connectors	2
20-pin ATX / 24-pin EPS	Y/Y
12V connector	Y
AUX connector	N
Six pin PCI Express connector	N
Deditacted Molex for graphics	N
Fan speed header	N
Other connectors	8-pin 12V
Fans and size	3x 80mm
Extras included	cable ties
Max power output (manufacturers rating)
3.3V	26A
5V	47A
12V	28A
Total power	470W

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