Antec HCG 850W Gold Modular Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

The HCG 850 is very nicely designed. It uses a much more compact form factor than I was expecting for an 850W unit too. Antec has downplayed the graphics on the unit too, with small corner logos that are painted on, rather than a full side sticker.

I love fully modular units, as it makes it easier to route all the cables just how you like them. The connectors are of a good quality, and there’s plenty of options here for peripheral and GPU connections.

Since it offers a passive cooling mode at low loads, ventilation is very important. It comes as no surprise then that there’s a lot of room for airflow on the top and the rear of the unit.

Hybrid Cooling

If you prefer your fan to spin 100% of the time, you can disable/enable hybrid mode from the switch on the rear. There’s also a master power switch here for when you need to completely power off your system.

On the bottom of the unit, you’ll find the specification sticker, detailing all the rails and power outputs. All pretty standard stuff, but handy to have if you misplaced the box.

Interior

The interior of the unit looks pretty good. There’s a lot of space in here for good airflow between major components. There are also some nice quality heatsinks on the hardware, which should help with the hybrid fan mode. There’s quite a bit of glue showing on the PCB, which does look messy. However, it’s of little concern to the performance. The unit is made for Antec by Seasonic, so it’s pretty similar to the FOCUS series on the interior, which is no bad thing either, Seasonic knows how to make a great performing unit.

The main bulk capacitor is rated at 400v 680uF and 105c. This is a Nippon capacitor, and all the other caps in the unit are of the same quality.

The HCG 850 uses a HA1225H12F-Z fan from Hong Hua. We often see this unit in Seasonic units, and it’s a great fan with a Fluid Dynamic Bearing, and should be pretty quiet.

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.