Antec HCG 850W Gold Modular Power Supply Review

Introduction Antec HCG 850W It's no secret that Antec has been on the market for a long time now. I think my first ever self-built PC was with an Antec chassis and PSU, and that certainly was more than a "few" years ago. They've got a strong reputation for high-quality power supplies too, and their first High Current Gamer units were practically forged from Kryptonite, as they could withstand some serious abuse over the years. With that in mind, I'm sure excited to see what their new HCG unit is capable of. It's not looking to reinvent the wheel with 850W of power and 80 Plus Gold efficiency. However, that's way above what most system builders will ever need. A modern dual-GPU system with an overclocked CPU can peak around 600W after all. Features With a single powerful +12v rail, it's perfect for high-performance hardware and overclocking. No mucking about balancing rails is required. What does catch my eye is that it uses a compact form factor, Zero RPM hybrid fan mode, fully modular cables, and 100% Japanese Caps. If that wasn't good enough, it's got a fantastic 10-year warranty. If that's not competitive with the best in the business, nothing is. Single +12v rail with 70amp / 840watt Compact form – full-size performance Zero RPM fan speed at low load Fully Modular 100% Japanese Caps AQ10 - 10-year warranty In the box, you'll find a few velcro straps, cable ties, screws, and the power cable. Not much, but certainly more than you need to get started. Specifications For in-depth specifications, please visit the official Antec product page here. What Antec Had to Say "The latest generation of High Current Gamer power supplies are available in a 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating, they offer unparalleled stability thanks to the top-grade Japanese capacitors and Active PFC. Advanced thermal control with the zero RPM mode enables optimal balance between silence and cooling and comes with a Fluid dynamic bearing 120mm fan to complete the package." - Antec Cables 1 x 20+4-Pin ATX12V/EPS12V 1 x 4+4-Pin ATX12V/EPS12V 6 x 6+2-Pin-PCIe 10 x SATA 5 x 4-Pin-Molex 1 x Floppy 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. Test Procedure At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated) Stingray DS1M12 USB Oscilloscope Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced 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 on the main rails). Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. 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. Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 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 to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selection Our Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12-volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12-volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12-volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only). Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the 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. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. 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 power supplies at 230v. 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). Ripple 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. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. 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. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning 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. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 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 above - Intolerable Efficiency, PFC and Voltage Regulation Voltage Regulation Straight away, we see that Antec has made some great component choices here. The voltages are all well within a tight margin of their target voltages and pretty consistent overall. There's some deviance at 20% and 100% load on the -12v rail, but that's really not an important rail for any system these days. Power Efficiency The HCG 850 cruised through this test with ease. It's certainly hitting the requirements of 80 Plus Gold. However, if it weren't for it dipping at 100% load, it mostly sits in 80 Plus Platinum territory for day-to-day usage. Power Factor Correction There is a small dip here, but it's pretty small overall. For low and high loads alike the PFC does a great job Ripple We're used to seeing low ripple on modern power supplies, so it's no surprise that the HCG850 delivers some solid results here. Regardless, I'm extremely impressed with these figures given the unit has a bit of an older internals design. Those hoping for low-noise power delivery will certainly find it here. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 3 3.2 12 40 3.6 4 15 60 3.6 4 17.4 80 4.2 4.2 15 100 5.4 5.4 26 Over Power Protection and Max Wattage Holy big numbers Batman, the HCG may be rated for 850W, but we managed to push it to a staggering 1255.9w before the OPP kicked in. That's around 50% of rated values. I'm sure you could run this unit at 1000W draw all day long. However, for dealing with the occasional power spike, it'll get the job done. Fan Speed Fan speeds were fantastic on this unit, and while it looks like it shoots up at 40% load, it really doesn't. The fan never even got much above 450 RPM, and was virtually silent overall. In hybrid mode, the fan didn't kick in till 60% load, and even then, it was under 500 RPM. Final Thoughts Pricing The Antec HCG850 850W 80 Plus Gold PSU is available now for around £120-130. That's about the same as a few rival PSUs of the same power and efficiency, which can often be around +/- £15. However, the Antec unit is more compact than most, is fully modular, and comes with a 10-year warranty. Overview I really can't fault this unit at all, it's exceeded my expectations in regards to performance and design. Of course, with Seasonic doing the internal work, it was bound to be fantastic, and I can see this proving to be a very popular unit for Antec this year. If you're building a new gaming system with high-end power requirements, 850W should be more than enough for almost anyone. Efficiency and Beyond The High Current Gamer range is built for systems that pull high wattages for extended periods of time. Of course, I have complete confidence this unit will be able to run hard around the clock with no issues. However, I'm more impressed by the low ripple power delivery, it performed much better than I thought it would in this regard. Add to that impressive efficiency that dips into 80 Plus Platinum territory, and stable voltages, and you've got a pretty fantastic PSU here. Should I Buy One? At this price range, you're hardly short of options for great power supplies. That being said, the Antec HCG850 is ticking all the right boxes. I think the main selling point, aside from the performance, is the compact and stylish design. It's sure to look great in any system, and with fully modular cables, it'll be easy to get great cable routing too.