Antec Signature Titanium 1000W Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, and the canvas wrapping, the first thing that strikes you with the Antec Signature is just how nice it looks. Antec is clearly proud of this new power supply release and this is clearly evidence throughout all of the nice aesthetic choices they have made in its design.

The ‘Signature’ logo supplied with the PSU looks absolutely fantastic and, in terms of prestige products, definitely lends itself well to that image.

This is also carried through to the fan section of the power supply. Not only does it carry nicely sized branding above and below, but the fan covering itself also looks excellent and especially so for that stainless seal surround.

Even the fan covering itself doesn’t exclude itself from the aesthetic party with an exceptionally nice pattern that’s not only very pleasant to look at, but should also provide more than enough space for air movement.

The cable input bank is well presented which each section is clearly labeled to denote its usage. As you can see in the image below, there are absolutely masses of ports available here to easily ensure that even for the most elaborate of PC setups, you shouldn’t have any problems getting everything neatly hooked up.

The rear section of the Antec Signature is again well presented with pretty much all of the available area utilised for airflow. With some Antec branding present, the aesthetics, particularly for an area usually rather drab, are quite nice. You’ll also note, however, that this power supply does come with a ‘hybrid mode’ functionality switch which, for those of you aware, effectively sets the fan to only operate when 100% necessary. The perk of this is that with the fan not running, your overall system noise should be lower. Given that this PSU has been designed to run as passively as possible, however, it remains to be seen whether this added functionality really achieves anything.

Finally, the base of the power supply contains a sticker listing all of its key technical specifications. While this information will likely not be important to most consumers, it is undoubtedly useful for those (like us) who do need to know this sort of stuff. – The only mildly detracting aspect is that one mustard cable you can just see poking out from underneath the power input port.

Cabling

Antec provides you with absolute masses of modular cables to ensure that even if your PC is something of a component powerhouse, you shouldn’t have any problems in getting everything successfully connected. While the cables are provided in a canvas covering, it would be something of a stretch to call it a bag as there are no ways to ‘close’ it. Still, it’s branded, and it’s definitely a handy place to keep the cables you don’t need right now for any potential upgrades in the future.

The cables themselves are each labelled to not only indicate which end goes where but also in terms of what components they should be connected to. For example, you can clearly see in the images above and below that this is a PCI-E cable designed for your graphics card (for example). Coming in a black plastic sheaving, the cables are both highly flexible, but give you plenty of reassurance that they’re strong and long enough for some nice levels of cable management.

Internals – A Look Inside!

Taking a look inside the Antec Signature, we are initially met with a very neat and tidy component layout. There are no masses of cables and, on the whole, all of the key parts look well organised and spaced.

Coming with a 135mm fan, we will admit that it’s mildly disappointing to see that this is not an Antec own design and rather a third-party product. Coming from ‘Ong Hua’, however, this is a brand we’ve seen utilised before in many high-end power supplies and, as such, gives us confidence that its performance should be every bit as excellent as we’ve seen before.

As noted earlier in the review, it does appear that Antec has designed this power supply to run as passively as possible. In other words, they don’t ideally want that fan to be running (adding to the overall noise levels) unless absolutely necessary. With this in mind, we find all of the key components and capacitors well-spaced, meaning they should have nice access to clean air. In addition, and unlike many power supply designs, the Antec Signature is absolutely packed with heatsinks. As you can see below, there are 4 separate modules that should really help keep this nice and cool even when operating to its fullest potential.

Antec clearly lists that 100% Japanese capacitors are one of the key features of this new ‘Signature’ power supply release. Although we, of course, do not doubt this claim, this is clearly something that we have to check. So, are they? Well, the short answer is yes. The long again is also yes, but with the added perk that they come from a very reputable manufacturer and are some of the highest quality components currently available on the market.

Overall Thoughts!

It seems pretty clear that Antec has taken a lot of pride in creating this new ‘Signature’ power supply. Something clearly to be expected as this is a flagship product release looking to celebrate the companies 35th anniversary. In terms of the design, so far everything looks absolutely faultless. A lot of kudos, however, has to go towards the aesthetic aspect. Usually, power supplies are quite boring affairs. However, what Antec has done here is to create an attractive design that hasn’t even had to rely on something as flashy as RGB lighting effects.

Put simply, it looks excellent, in every aspect, both inside and out. As such, this is clearly something we largely expect to be reflected throughout our testing process.