Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W PSU Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing and Methodology6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we take a look at one of the latest power supplies from Antec's new ‘High Current Gamer Extreme Series'. There are two models in this specific range, and Antec sent us their flagship 1000W model to analyse (there is also an 850W in this range). This power supply is certified 80 PLUS GOLD and is a pure modular design with a 10 year warranty. Price is set around the £190 mark in the United Kingdom.

Antec power supplies have proven to be a bit hit and miss for me over the years. As they don't actually make any of their designs, the OEM's they team up with can vary in regards to quality (some of their units are made by Andyson, a truly dreadful OEM partner for instance).

Thankfully we already know this HCG Extreme Series unit is created in partnership with market leader Seasonic, so we are fairly confident it will deliver high quality power in our tests later in the review. At least we know for sure that the capacitors will be 100% Japanese throughout.

HCG Extreme Series Features:

• Guaranteed 1000W of Continuous Power from Antec
• 100% Modular－Improves airflow and reduces clutter
• 80 PLUS® GOLD certified－Up to 92% efficient, to reduce your electricity bill
• PhaseWave™ Design－A server-class full-bridge LLC design with a synchronous rectification based on a DC-DC topology
• 16 pin Socket－Industry-leading 16-pin sockets double the modular connectivity by supporting 2 different 8-pin cables per socket and allow for future connector changes
• Antec Quality 10-year warranty and lifetime global 24/7 support
• 135mm FDB Silence－Whisper-quiet high-quality fluid-dynamic bearing fan with long lifetime
• Zero RPM Manager－An advanced low voltage fan control with fan-off mode at low loads for absolute silence
• 99%+12V – Output for maximum CPU & GPU support
• CircuitShield™－Full suite of industrial grade protections: OCP, OVP, UVP, SCP, OPP, OTP, SIP, NLO
• 100% Japanese capacitors achieve unprecedented tight voltage regulation & low ripple & noise to maximize your system’s performance
• 28(18+10) pin MBU socket – For possible future MBU connectors
• ATX12V 2.4－Engineered according to the newest PSU guideline and compatible with the latest CPU generation
• HCG Extreme delivers non-stop industrial class performance for high-end computer systems at up to 50°C ambient.

Review photography handled in house at KitGuru with a Leica S series medium format camera and S series prime lens. Please do not use any of the images within this review without express permission.

The Antec box artwork for the High Current Gamer EXTREME series units is rather lovely. Its difficult to photograph properly as its very reflective, but its certainly eye catching. On the front of the box is a list of key features, and the rear of the box goes into a little more detail.

As we expected, due to the Seasonic connections, there is an icon on the front of the box showing that this unit will indeed have 100% Japanese capacitors. A ‘Teapo' free unit is very welcomed!

Inside the reflective gold sleeve is a black box with Antec branding. Inside, we see the power supply protected between big foam blocks and all the accessories around the unit. The packaging is very good.

Inside we have a felt bag containing all the modular cabling, a regional specific power cable, some cable ties and screws and some literature on the product itself.

 

The cables in the box are a mixture of sleeved and ribbon style. The main ATX and PCIe cables are all sleeved, and all the peripheral cables are ribbon style – meaning routing them around the back of the chassis is a little easier. If you are using a system with multiple graphics cards, there are a total of 8 PCIe connectors (6+2).

The power supply is protected inside a little bag, sandwiched between the foam pads.

The Antec HCG Extreme Series power supply is certainly not understated. The gold finish is glossy and will certainly catch the eye inside a case. The only real concern I would have is that Gold is not a very popular colour amongst the European audience and it will likely clash with themed system builds. If you have a power supply shroud this will of course not be an issue.

its worth pointing out that the Antec on the sides of the power supply are silk screened, but the product name at the lower part of the side panels is just a sticker with transparency. Its not really a bad job overall.

The modular panel is cleanly laid out and easy to follow. No problems even for newbie system builders. The other side of the unit is home to the power panel which includes a power button, connector, and ‘Hybrid mode' button which when enabled allows the fan to switch off completely, under low load situations.

The large fan is hidden behind a black grill with the ANTEC logo highlighted in the center of the panel, shown above.

These specifications (and for a good reason) are identical to the Seasonic FOCUS PLUS 1000W GOLD unit – 25A on both +3.3V and +5V rails, and 83A available from the +12V rail for 996 Watts of the 1000W total.

This particular power supply has adopted a Hong Hua fan (Model: HA13525H12F-Z). This is a high grade Fluid Dynamic bearing fan built for quiet operation and long life. It is rated 0.50A at 12VDC. Maximum speed is rated at 2,300 rpm. We have seen this fan used in most of the Seasonic GOLD and PRIME Platinum power supplies. The lifespan is rated at 150,000 hours when operating at 25c.

Below - a High Resolution Gallery of the internal layout of the power supply

If the gallery above does not display then disable your adblocker as they are known to interfere with our code.

Soldering quality is high throughout, as we would expect from a Seasonic OEM design. The design is based around the FOCUS PLUS+ platform which I reviewed some time ago (I didn't get the 1000W unit, but the 850W is clearly from the same platform). Its very clean throughout and the layout is intelligent. Antec claim that they have a server grade 50c Temperature rating on the HCG Extreme which ‘delivers non stop industrial class performance for high end computer systems'.

We can see that Antec have upgraded the Bridge Diodes, PFC MOS, PFC diodes (based on internal shots of the Focus Plus+ 1000W that Seasonic sent me). We can see that Seasonic Focus Plus+ is rated 0-40C (40C ~ 50C @ 80% load). All Seasonic PSUs are 0 ~ 50C @ 100% load notated at Safety Agency testing. For 40C ~ 50C, Seasonic Focus Plus operate at 80% derating.

Inside are a fair few smallish heatsinks to aid with cooling key components. The power supply is using a full bridge LLC topology with synchronous rectification with DC-DC VRM’s for +3.3V and +5V rails on secondary.

Input filtering starts on a small PCB with Y and X capacitors in place – moving to the main PCB for completion.

This design uses high grade 105c rated Japanese capacitors throughout the build, with a single 105c 820uF 400V Capacitor used in the primary stage. By comparison , the PRIME 1000W Gold supply we reviewed back in April 2017 shipped with two primary capacitors rated 450uf and 560uf (for a total of 1010uF). The older Seasonic PRIME GOLD 1000W has around 200uF extra, which might prove useful under very heavy load situations.

I never tested the newer ULTRA revision but as far as I was told by Seasonic at the time, they never felt the need to send it to me to test as they only made small component tweaks and DC cable capacitors were moved to the back plane. As I don't have one on hand to check, I could be wrong.

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.

We test ambient temperatures at 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

We test in a single +12V configuration.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
100W	0.90	3.32	0.90	5.01	7.35	12.02	0.50	5.02	0.20	-12.04
200W	1.60	3.32	1.64	5.00	15.13	12.01	1.00	5.01	0.20	-12.04
500W	3.20	3.32	3.25	4.98	38.60	11.97	1.50	5.00	0.20	-12.05
750W	4.03	3.32	4.16	4.98	58.53	11.94	2.00	5.01	0.30	-12.04
1000W	5.45	3.32	5.51	4.98	78.13	11.92	2.50	5.01	0.30	-12.04

The load regulation of this power supply is stellar, with all rails exhibiting very minor fluctuation under load.

Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W PSU	Maximum Load
	1090W

We managed to get another 90W from the power supply before the protection circuitry kicked in. The supply was undamaged and it was ready to fire up again when we were a little more sensible with the load.

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
885W	2.0	3.32	2.0	5.01	72.0	11.94	0.2	-12.02	0.50	5.01
240W	20.0	3.28	24.0	4.94	2.0	12.06	0.2	-12.00	0.50	5.00

The Antec supply handled the Cross load tests without any concerns.

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 unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
100W	5	5	5	5
250W	5	5	15	5
500W	5	5	20	5
750W	10	5	20	10
1000W	10	5	25	10

Ripple noise suppression is impressive, hitting 5mV and 10mV from the +5v and +3.3V rails respectively. The +12V rail peaks at 25mV, which is an excellent result.

Efficiency (%)
100W	88.7
250W	90.6
500W	92.4
750W	91.5
1000W	90.1

The efficiency results are excellent, peaking at 92.4% at close to 50%. This drops to 90.1% efficiency at full load. These are solid results for a 80 Plus Gold certified unit.

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)
100W	<28.0
250W	<28.0
500W	30.1
750W	31.7
1000W	35.5

The large fan does not make much noise until the last 200 watts of power delivery. At full load its fairly active, but its hardly likely an end user will be running this supply at 1000 watt conditions continuously (100%). At 800 watt load, the fan is spinning moderately and will likely be masked by several case fans in a system build.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
100W	37	39
250W	38	42
500W	40	51
750W	45	54
1000W	47	60

The large fan works very well in getting rid of heat inside the chassis. Overall results are excellent.

Maximum load	Efficiency
1090W	89.3

Pushing the PSU above its rated limits generates an efficiency level of around 89.3%. This is not a viable ‘real world’ situation, but its interesting nonetheless.

The Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W is without doubt, a very fine power supply designed to deliver the highest quality power. Antec may partner up with some awful OEM partners such as Andyson in the low end but at least someone in the company is aware that they can't get away with that for their more expensive products.

The HCG Extreme 1000W is based on the Seasonic Focus Plus+, a solid series of units which i looked at last year. I rated their 850W Focus Plus very highly, based on the performance combined with the competitive pricing.

Antec have created an outer chassis which is sure to be a talking point, after all its a fancy gold silk screened (on the Antec logo) shell which is very eye catching. I am split over the gold finish to be perfectly honest. It will stand out in a system build, but that is perhaps the biggest concern for me.

Gold is not a colour that many European enthusiast users gravitate towards – it seems from reading our social media posts that Asian people are more inclined to opt for Gold colours in system builds. I am not sure many users will want a gold coloured power supply clashing with their tight themed builds. Adopting a PSU shroud would negate this problem, but Antec did put a lot of work into producing this fancy finish, so it seems silly to hide it. If you are planning a gold system build, this should be top of your shortlist however!

Technically, the Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W is solid. Ripple suppression is first class, with +3.3V and +5V rails peaking at 10mV and 5mV respectively. The major +12V rail hits 25mV at the full 1000W load. Load regulation is also stellar.

Internally we can see a very clean design, with high grade soldering throughout, and noise levels emitted from the large 135mm Fluid dynamic fan are very low. It is only really in the last 200 watts of load than the fan makes its presence known. It never becomes too obtrusive however as the fan pitch is quite low – clearly aided by the large blades.

The unit also achieved its 80 PLUS GOLD certification in our tests without a problem and overall efficiency across the board is commendable.

The cabling is excellent, but like the Seasonic units we have tested in recent months, we can imagine a specific audience would prefer the cables to be all ‘ribbon' style rather than the fatter sleeved cables for PCIe and CPU connections.

My big concern right now is based around pricing in the UK. You can buy the Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W for £184.99 inc Vat from Overclockers UK HERE. You can buy the Seasonic Focus PLUS 1000W Gold Modular supply for £152.99 inc vat HERE. Thats a £32 saving if you opt for the Seasonic. If Antec are able to drop the price in the coming months then the HCG Extreme will be more appealing – technically it is a great unit.

Its worth pointing out again that Antec have upgraded some of the components including the Bridge Diodes, PFC MOS and PFC Diodes and can operate at 50C without derating, whereas the Seasonic Focus Plus can operate at  0 ~ 40C (but can run at 50C @ 80%). In the real world this is likely to make little difference.

Pros:

• large 135mm fan is quiet under load.
• Gold finish set to appeal to a specific builder audience (likely Asian).
• technically solid unit.
• 10 year warranty.
• fully modular.
• 80 Plus Gold achieved.
• 105c Japanese capacitors throughout

Cons:

• More expensive that competition.
• Gold colour may alienate system builders

KitGuru says: The Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W is a fantastic power supply encased in a shiny gold enclosure – which is very eye catching. Pricing seems a little high in the UK, but perhaps in the coming months that will change. 10 year warranty offers peace of mind.

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