Antec High Current Gamer 850W Power Supply Review

Antec have been a veteran of the power supply game for quite some time and today we are taking a look at their High Current Gamer 850W (Semi-)Modular power supply. Antec's High Current Gamer series was designed with a few key principles in mind. First they've opted to minimise the number of rails and maximise current going through each of these rails so most of their High Current Gamer series uses a single or two 12 volt rails. Secondly these power supplies are designed ruggedly with a gamer in mind which means the design isn't subtle or even that quiet but is more "bells and whistles" with an LED fan and red-accents. It is pretty simple then to see what the Antec 850W HCG-M power supply is offering. In terms of the rest of its specifications we can see it isn't that advanced as it only has 80 Plus Bronze Certification. A lower certification level generally means more wastage as "heat" and thus a higher fan speed is needed and so this probably isn't going to be the quietest unit on the market either. Already we can see that the Antec HCG 850W power supply is going to have to excel in voltage regulation and value for money to be a truly worth power supply - so let's see how it performs. The front of the box points out the key features of the product. The side gives rail information and power break downs. The other side features a break down of connectors available with this power supply. Included with the unit is a user's manual, warranty statement, power chord (connector will vary by region) and mounting screws. The top features a textured black finish and hexagonal mesh for the 135mm LED fan. The side of the unit features an Antec sticker with branding. The other side features the same in reverse if you want to top mount. The base features the information sticker with power distribution information and certifications. The rear uses a standard kettle lead, has an on/off switch, hexagonal ventilation mesh and an Antec logo. The cabling design is all modular except the 24 Pin and 4+4 pin CPU connector which both use a fixed design and because of that we would say this is still only a semi-modular power supply. There is also an on/off button for the fan's LED lighting system. Hardwired to the unit is a motherboard 24 pin and CPU 4+4 pin. Modular cables include four Molex and SATA cables providing 9 SATA connectors, 6 Molex connectors and 1 FDD connector. With the next set of modular cables you get four 6+2 pin connectors and a single 8pin EPS CPU connector. Internally the unit has a clean design that is based off an old Seasonic OEM design. The cooling is provided by a 135mm ADDA LED fan part number "ADN512UB-A90LD". The rear features the AC line filtering inside a sealed metallic enclosure to reduce Electro Magnetic Interference. The far right features two rectifying bridges for additional filtering. The rails are generated through the +12 volt rail with the help of two DC-DC converters and more Chemi-Con filtering capacitors rated for up to 105 degrees. At the front you can see the PCB where the modular cables connect. You can also see the array of aluminium heatsinks used for passive cooling that are aided by the airflow from the 135mm fan. At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously. For all power supply reviews we used a variety of Chroma machines and other digital power machinery provided by Enermax in their European test labs. We would like to say a huge thank you to Enermax for making this power supply testing possible. The test machinery included the following: A Chroma 6314A power supply load tester with two add on 6314 modules to support up to six 12 volt rails. A Chroma Digital Power Meter Model 66202 A Custom-made Enermax PCB circuit board to connect all the appropriate power supply cables A Tektronix TDS 3014C Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope A Voltcraft DT-10L Laser Tachometer The eTeknix test procedure involves: Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with balanced load across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12). Measuring ripple and noise with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Measuring voltage regulation and ripple/noise at Maximum 12v loads and maximum 3.3/5v loads while keeping the -12v and 5vsb consistently at 0.1A and 1A on the rail(s) not being tested. For example under 12v crossload we would load the 12v rail to its maximum and place 0.1A on the -12v and 5vsb as well as 1A on the 3.3v and 5v rails. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Other things to consider are that We recognise that a single yellow 12 volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply. Our power supply tester was capable of only 50 Amps on the 12 volt 1 rail, 50 Amps on the 12 volt 2 rail and 25 Amps on rails 3-6. This meant that for single 12 volt power supplies with rail Amps above 50 we had to split them virtually over two rails to maximise their load. There are no power supplies that we tested that have more than 50 Amps over two rails so this was only an issue for single 12 volt rail power supplies. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all noise and ripple tests. Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from their expected values. Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Voltage regulation on the Antec HCG 850W power supply is superb with less than +-1.2% across all the rails. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test 230v power supplies. The Antec High Current Gamer 850W power supply is rated for 80 Plus Bronze and we can see it exceeds that by far. It is more or less passable as an 80 Plus Silver Unit. Only the 50% load efficiency needs to be 1% higher for it to pass that certification. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). The Antec HCG 850W PSU had strong PFC across all load scenarios. Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3 volt and 5 volt rails, while the 12 volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 40 60 80 100 The Antec HCG 850W, like most Seasonic OEM units, has incredibly strong noise and ripple suppression. Across all rails it delivered a high level of performance and because all minor rails are provided by the 12 volt rail it is logical that the noise and ripple is similar across the 3.3, 5 and 12 volt rails. Our cross loading procedure is designed to rigorously test the stability of the main two rail combinations. We push the maximum rated current and wattage through the 12 volt rail(s), and then through the 3.3 and 5 volt rails combined, and see if the power supply is capable of delivering its specification for those. However, meeting the specification is not enough, the power supply must also maintain strong voltage regulation and noise/ripple to have "passed the cross load test. The cross load test is a "worst case scenario" for the two main power delivery rail mechanisms (12v and 3.3+5v) and so the power supply will always deliver slightly lower than realistic/expected results. However, this is not necessarily a realistic test and it is just a case of pushing a power supply's rails right to their rated limits to see how well they can hold up. 12 Volt Cross Loading Voltage regulation was flawless for cross loading and we have zero complaints. Ripple and noise was very strong though a few minor spikes did let the overall score down. 5 and 3.3 Volt Cross Loading Voltage regulation at 5 and 3.3 volt cross load was again very good. It certainly wasn't as strong as 12 volt cross load but is still within +- 2% which is top-notch. Noise and ripple on both rails was flawless and almost non-existent. When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Chroma corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. In the Enermax Europe PSU lab we had to do exactly that and we recorded the fan speed at each load scenario. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 26 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 RPM or higher - Intolerable The Antec High Current Gamer was audible up to about 50-60% load, at 950~ RPM it wasn't as quiet as I would of expected it to be. After 60% load the noise really started to pick up rather rapidly and it became very loud. This power supply certainly isn't one for quiet enthusiasts and I'm quite disappointed with just how loud it actually is at moderate loads of 60%! The Antec HCG-850M power supply has a retail of $149.99 in the USA and £119.99 in the UK. If we consider that you can get other 80 Plus Bronze 850W power supplies for around £75-115 the Antec HCG-850M is certainly at the more expensive end of the market. Indeed for the same money you could even bag yourself a couple of 80 Plus Silver or Gold rated power supplies at the same wattage. That leaves the Antec HCG-850M in a somewhat precarious situation. What does it have to offer that other units do not have? Well it is clear the Antec HCG-850M has brilliant best-in-class ripple suppression, noise suppression and voltage regulation. Furthermore we noted from our results that it is more or less an 80 Plus Silver unit in terms of efficiency and it has very high levels of active PFC. The ability to turn the fan LED off and the nearly-full modular design give this unit attractive functionality too, while the 5 year warranty gives you excellent peace of mind. On the other hand the unit only has partially sleeved cables and isn't fully modular. Additionally the fan isn't at all very quiet and you will certainly hear it even when spinning only at 1000RPM (when most power supplies would be quiet), at 60-100% load the power supply gets very noisy. It also is let down by what I'd say is a price that is too high. You can get other power supplies of the same calibre for much much less. There are a battery of Seasonic-OEM based 850W 80 Plus Power Supplies for £100 to £115 while XFX even do a couple of similar units for £75 and £95. That said we can see that Antec's pricing isn't that far out but at least a 10% reduction is needed for this unit to be properly competitive. Pros Rugged "Gamer" aesthetics Good selection of connectors and cables Above its 80 Plus Bronze certification, nearly an 80 Plus Silver unit Fantastic voltage regulation on the major rails (12v, 5v and 3.3v) Good Ripple and Noise suppression on major rails High PFC 5 Year warranty Japanese capacitors Cons Not fully modular Cables won't be to everyone's taste in terms of braiding and colour schemes Availability is hit and miss in the UK and USA from a lot of major retailers High pricing compared to the competition In the most part it is a loud power supply eTeknix says: "Antec's High Current Gamer 850W Modular power supply is a rock solid power supply that delivers clean and stable power capable of powering any high performance single or dual GPU system with absolute ease. It has very good ripple and noise suppression, solid PFC, and good efficiency. Yet the unit is let down by a combination of its uncompetitive pricing, noisy fan and lack of attention to detail on its cabling. Antec really have to tweak these things to gain an edge over the competition because right now unless you can get a good discount of around 10% on this power supply's list price, I would recommend looking elsewhere. " Thank you to Antec for providing this review sample.