Antec HCG 850w Bronze Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

The Antec HCG 850w power supply isn’t much to look at, but then power supplies so rarely are. Following the seeming age-old standard of design, it’s a black-matte square with the Antec logo to the top center with some HCG branding in close proximity. That’s not a criticism incidentally, it’s just what everyone seems to do.

The main fan vent to the top is nice and large with decent sized gaps to allow for good air movement.

As this is a fully-modular power supply, the bank of inputs are nice and clearly labeled. They are, however, a little bit cramped and unlike some other designs, they have not rotation the cables to the bottom to allow for easier removal. This is a minor point, but then when the upper and lower cables are inserted opposite to one another, removing them is so much easier.

The backplate, similar to the top plate, also has some nice large vent holes which should allow for a good air flow. As the Antec HCG does not have passive cooling or a ‘hybrid’ mode, large vents such as these are not entirely necessary and this could potentially be a bit of a dust magnet over time.

Accessories

The Antec HCG power supply comes with everything you need to get started. You are provided with the power supply itself is a nice thick canvas bag covering. In addition, the cables to connect it up to your PC are also stored within a similarly branded black canvas bag. You are also provided with a product overview sheet as well as details on the 5-year warranty the power supply comes with.

Interior

Accessing the interior of the power supply was a straightforward process. Not, of course, that we would recommend this as it is both dangerous if you tinder and also invalidates the warranty. Inside everything is well laid out and what particularly catches the eye are the 2 large banks of heat syncs on the main power board.

It’s difficult at a glance to find anything to criticise with the interior design. Everything is well spaced and even the bank of cables has been well designed to run around the perimeter of the power supply.

Due to the location of the capacitors, it was difficult to see what branding they were. While the Antec HCG is advertised as having 100% Japanese capacitors, we can confirm this to be true.

Although getting a good angle wasn’t easy, we can confirm that the capacitors are produced by Nichicon. This is a name we are highly familiar with and don’t worry, it’s not for bad reasons. Both capacitors run at 420v/330uf.

Our only slight concern in this area is the rather heavy use of the glue to not just affix these in place, but also the adjoining copper cylinder. It’s all a little bit messy which we hope doesn’t indicate sloppy design procedures.

The main fan is of a Yate Loon type. This is a fairly common choice for manufacturers, but overall is an unremarkable brand from Taiwan. That’s not being mean, there’s just not much to say about it.

Important – Please Read

To understand the results on the new few pages, please take the time to read our detailed testing methodology page. The next page of this review will help you understand what the results of our testing mean, and educate you on the various qualities we look for in a good PSU.