Antec HCG 620W Power Supply Review

Conclusion

Antec’s High Current Gamer 620W power supply is currently retailing for £76.34 and £79.99 in the UK while in the USA it retails for $89.99. This puts the power supply at a competitive level in terms of what you’d expect to pay for a high quality 600-650W modular 80 Plus Bronze power supply. The Antec HCG 620W is actually about 5-7.5% more expensive than the Seasonic part it is based on which is something to consider if you aren’t interested in having Antec’s customer support, warranty services and aren’t a fan of the colourful stickers and connectors Antec use. That said the Antec 620W HCG is still well priced for gaming power supply and from our testing there is certainly no reason why you’d want to avoid this power supply.

The Antec HCG 620W benefits from 80 Plus Bronze levels of efficiency, some of the highest PFC we’ve ever seen, very tight voltage regulation at normal system loads and a reasonably quiet operation up to about 80% load (which most systems will rarely reach unless at very high gaming loads for consistently long periods of time). In terms of noise and ripple suppression we again saw a very competitive picture and the PSU does a better or at least equally as well as all the other competitors on the market, this is thanks to the high quality Seasonic design.

What’s not to like about the Antec HCG 620W you might ask? Well there are a few things in my opinion. Firstly, the fan isn’t that quiet and inside cases with only a few fans, especially these new “Silent cases”, the fan would be amplified louder than our tests as the higher ambient would cause higher fan speeds and thus higher noise. Seasonic OEM based units have a tendency to equip cheap and cheerful ADDA fans so seeing a custom Antec fan on these units would of been nicer but obviously this would have increased costs. I was slightly concerned with the units performance under CrossLoad. We saw up to +-6.5% voltage deviance at CrossLoad compared with just +-1.5% on normal loads. This isn’t that much of a concern though since your PC will rarely/never exhibit CrossLoad circumstances when being used normally, aka like a PC. Finally the fact the design isn’t fully modular, and that the cables are only sleeved 2 inches up to the end of the cable is slightly sad, the quality of the sleeving is also a bit hit and miss. Though the modular design does allow for better cable management which is a plus.

Pros

• Stellar PFC performance
• Amazing voltage regulation at conventional loads
• Good efficiency
• Value for money
• Rugged Gamer style looks
• 3 Year Warranty

Cons

• Noise after 60-80% load
• Cable braiding and sleeving isn’t at all impressive
• CrossLoad revealed some large voltage fluctuations

eTeknix says: “Antec’s High Current Gamer 620W modular power supply is the ideal solution for any budget conscious gamer who wants the flexibility of a modular power supply. Its efficiency, PFC and voltage regulation performance were all right on the money and even though this unit does lack some finesse in terms of acoustic performance and overall cable quality, for a gaming system this unit ticks all the right boxes with reliability, clean and stable power and enough amps to power the most demanding graphics cards. Antec’s HCG 620W is a smart choice for gamers given its current pricing.”

Thank you to Antec for providing this review sample.