Antec power supplies have won awards and accolades in both of our previous PSU round-ups, so our expectations were high for the company's new NeoPower 480W. The NeoPower is a somewhat radical design in that its peripheral power connectors are detachable. One may connect and disconnect them from the PSU as needed. This modular design makes for much cleaner system internals than usual, provided that not all the power leads are occupied. Gone are the days when a bundle of unused power connectors must be zip-tied together and tucked away into a corner of the case.

Look ma, no extra power cables

One fan to rule them all

Although its lack of peripheral power leads will draw stares, the NeoPower isn't much to look at otherwise. The PSU's flat titanium-grey finish is, well, dull. The muted aesthetic may blend well with aluminum cases, though.

Rather than use multiple fans to keep the NeoPower cool, Antec relies on one internal 120mm fan. The fan is temperature controlled and there's plenty of venting at the rear, so it should do a reasonably good job of keeping things cool without making too much noise. The NeoPower also has a couple of "fan only" four-pin Molex connectors that can control system fan speeds in step with the power supply fan.

The NeoPower's peripheral cables all come separately, which is really quite snazzy. There's nothing particularly special about the cables themselves, though.

What is special is what you can do with to the cables. Antec bundles the NeoPower with extra four-pin Molex and SATA connectors—two of each—that can be clipped onto available power leads—right on to the wires. The extra connectors are a great idea, especially since their judicious use can result in extra-tidy cable routing.