Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply Review

1. Introduction2. Antec High Current Gamer 900W (Bundle)3. Antec High Current Gamer 900W (External)4. Antec High Current Gamer 900W (Internal)5. Testing Methodology and Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Last month we reviewed Antec's new 80 Plus Gold Certified ‘High Current Pro 850W‘ power supply, and we were impressed. Today we are looking at the 900W model in their ‘High Current Gamer' range. As this series is 80 Plus Bronze Certified, it is a little more affordable, with the 900w unit retailing for only £100 inc vat.

The High Current Gaming series, in Antec's own words delivers ‘stability and relability' and was field tested by one of the world's most successful gaming teams – Team-Dignitas. We aren't quite sure how a LAN gaming team can conclusively verify the quality of a power supply, but the fact that they remained in operation for days on end within high ambient temperatures and under stressful situations indicates that they are designed to deal with long, less than perfect situations. Obviously our testing today will be a little more scientific than this, but its a catchy selling point for this range.

High Current Gamer Features:

• 900 watts of Continuous Power
• NVIDIA&® SLI®-Ready certified, ATI CrossFire™ certified
• 80 PLUS® Bronze certified – up to 88% efficienct
• Quad High Current +12V rails with high maximum load for better graphics card compatibility
• Quiet 135mm double ball bearing cooling fan with low start voltage
• Four gold-plated 8 (6+2)-pin PCI-E connectors for multiple-graphics card configurations
• All Japanese brand capacitors for reliability
• ATX12V version 2.3 and EPS version 2.91 compliant
• Gold-plated High Current terminals for optimal conductivity
• Universal Input – works on any 100V – 240V grid
• Active PFC with PF: 0.99 – less harmonic pollution, greater efficiency
• Full suite of industrial grade protection:
  – Over current protection (OCP)
  – Over voltage protection (OVP)
  – Short circuit protection (SCP)
  – Over power protection (OPP)
  – Over temperature protection (OTP)
• MTBF: 100,000 hours
• Meets 2010 EUP requirement: 5Vsb < 1W
• Safety: cUL, TUV, CE, CB, FCC, C-TICK, CCC, BSMI, Gost-R
• AQ5 Antec Quality 5-year limited warranty on parts and labor
• Unit Dimension
  – 86 mm (H) x 150 mm (W) x 180 mm (D)
  – 3.4″ (H) x 5.9″ (W) x 7.1″ (D)
• Package Dimension
  – 124 mm (H) x 310 mm (W) x 180 mm (D)
  – 4.9″ (H) x 12.2″ (W) x 7.1″ (D)
• Weight
  – Net : 6.0 lbs / 2.7 kg
  – Gross : 7.5 lbs /3.4 kg

The Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply arrives in a similarly designed box to the Pro 850W unit we reviewed in December of last year. The main differences are the accented red colourings, which are yellow on the Pro range.

Inside, the supply is protected within a felt bag, plastic covering and cardboard pieces.

The bundle contains a power cable, an instruction manual and four screws for installation into a chassis.

The Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply is shipped inside a soft felt pouch to offer a high level of shipping protection. This can be resealed later if you need to store the product. This particular supply is not a modular design, so all the cables are wrapped within a heavy duty cable tie.

The Antec HCG-900 is rated to supply a continuous output of 900 Watts at 35c internal case air temperature. This is a reasonable rating, but the higher end products are fully rated to sustain their maximum load within 50c environmental conditions. This shouldn't be an issue for many people, unless you are living in an extremely hot environment, then the more expensive unit might make a little more sense.

We like the red and black appearance, even if it isn't quite as sexy as the more expensive High Current Pro range.

The exhaust grill takes up a full side of the chassis, this ensures a high level of heat dissipation.

It is always reassuring to see a large fan incorporated. In this case, a 135mm unit. It looks like a double ball bearing design but we will know more when we open it later.

Being a non modular design means you have to deal with all the cables, all the time. The HCG 900 is supplied with a plethora of cabling, all covered with black plastic mesh sleeving.

Interestingly, there is only one 8 pin EPS12V connector instead of two and only four PCI-E connectors, when we would expect six. We would assume four to be enough for most people, however if you have a requirement for more connectors then you need to opt for the higher ‘Pro Series' range (it has six).

There is a total of 70.8 amps of current available from the 12V combined output of 850 watts.

A high quality 135mm ADDA fan (ADN512UB-A90), which is automatically controlled via an onboard controller. This double bearing fan is rated for .44A when operating at 12 VDC.

Immediately we were impressed by the exceptionally clean layout – something we expect from Antec before it is even opened. A Delta design incidentally, for those interested.

The AC receptable has two Y capacitors soldered to it.

All capacitors onboard are Nippon Chemi-Con, there is one we found which is a high quality Rubycon unit. PWM controller is a CM-6800G. The Two Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors used on the primary side are rated 330uF, 420V and to 85c. Nippon Chemi-Con caps are also used on the secondary side, good attention to detail throughout.

All cabling is fully sleeved inside the unit to protect against fraying over long term use. We can't fault the internal design of this product.

Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings recently – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
90W	1.58	3.37	1.76	5.12	6.65	12.13	0.50	5.10
180W	2.80	3.35	3.57	5.11	14.00	12.07	1.00	5.08
450W	6.15	3.35	8.08	5.09	32.32	12.00	1.50	5.05
675W	9.35	3.32	10.20	5.06	52.63	11.96	2.00	5.02
900W	12.59	3.31	12.28	5.04	68.12	11.92	2.50	4.98

Voltage regulation is solid across all the testing , holding to almost reference levels on the +5V and +3.3V output.

Antec HCG 900W	Maximum Load
	1043.7W

We managed to get over 1000W out of the supply, before it would shut down gracefully.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

Cross Load Testing	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		-12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
780W	1.0	3.37	1.0	5.08	65.0	11.88	0.2	-11.74	0.50	5.06
165W	15.0	3.26	17.0	4.97	2.0	12.06	0.2	-11.48	0.50	5.04

Cross loading results are impressive, especially considering the heavy 12V in test one.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum.

ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
Output	Ripple (mV p-p)
+3.3V	50
+5V	50
+12V1	120
+12V2	120
-12V	120
+5VSB	50

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the Antec unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
90W	5	5	10	5
180W	5	5	20	5
450W	5	10	20	5
675W	10	10	25	10
900W	10	10	35	10

Extremely good ripple supression from the Delta created Antec High Current Gamer power supply.

Efficiency (%)
90W	83.02
180W	88.32
450W	89.12
675W	87.31
900W	83.23

For an 80 Bronze certified power supply these results are yet again, excellent. Efficiency reaches just over 89 percent around half way through the range and remains above 83 percent throughout the full range.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise (dBA)
90W	27.5
180W	28.6
450W	29.7
675W	36.5
900W	40.2

The supply is very quiet until the upper 25% of the power load, when it becomes audible. At full load the fan is spinning very fast to help reduce the ambient temperatures. generally this supply should be operating in the 29-34 dBa range which is not intrusive at all.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
90W	35	36
180W	36	38
450W	38	44
675W	41	48
900W	43	53

The 135mm handles the temperatures very well, right up to full load, with only a 10c above ambient intake threshold.

Maximum load	Efficiency
1043.7W	79.3

Pushing the PSU above its rated limits generates an efficiency level of around 79.3%. This is not a viable ‘real world’ situation, but its interesting nonetheless.

When we reviewed the Gold certified £160 Antec Pro Gamer 850W last month, we received many emails asking us to review the lower range 80 Plus Bronze High Current Gamer model. For £60 less the 900W High Current Gamer offers a tempting solution, because while efficiency and cabling are compromised a little, in all other areas it is an excellent performer.

AC ripple suppression for instance is almost class leading and unless you really drive it hard, you will be hard pressed to notice any fan ambient noise distractions.

Cabling, while somewhat limited when compared to the more expensive Pro Gamer supply, is nicely sleeved and has more than enough connectivity for a powerful enthusiast gaming system. All of the four PCI-E connectors are eight pin compatible for instance, and we tested the supply under more ‘real world' conditions with two high drain nVidia GTX580's, experiencing no issues at all. We even matched them up with an overclocked Intel 980x processor and the supply didn't generate too much noise or heat. A cost of £100 to power a system in the ultra high end sector seems like a high value proposition to us.

This is a solid purchase for someone with a potentially demanding system in the pipeline. For the price it is one of the best value options on the market.

KitGuru says: Antec and Delta deliver another winner. No shock there.

For those who are interested in this particular range, but don't need such a high wattage power supply, Antec are selling five other models, from 400W to 750W in capacity.

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