Date:
Tuesday , August 12, 2008
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
Google +1

Antec Signature Series 850 Power Supply

Antec is back promising the pinnacle of power in the very popular 850 watt market. Cutting edge features never offered? Greater system stability with DC to DC regulator modes? And 80 PLUS® Bronze certification?

Introduction

One of the most prevalent companies in the consumer power supply realm, and general enthusiast PC realm, is Antec. Antec is a company that has been kicking around the PC DIY market since 1986 and in that time frame has become one of the most widely known brand names. In addition to power supplies Antec has product lines that include cases for work and play, cooling solutions, lighting, and other accessories. Over the years Antec has used a number of OEM providers for their power supplies including HEC, CWT, FSP, Enhance, and recently Seasonic. Some of the older Antec/CWT solutions were notorious for being plagued by the “Fuhjiyyu sudden death syndrome,” but in the last year or so Antec has dropped these older designs in favor of new products from FSP (Basiq), Seasonic (TP3, NeoHE, EarthWatts), and Enhance (Quattro). Today we will be looking at a brand new offering from Antec that comes from yet another new OEM, Delta, in the Antec Signature Series 850 (SG-850).

Delta Electronics Inc is part of the Delta Group and is one of the older presences in the power market in Taiwan as the Delta Group was founded in 1971. As an OEM Delta has been popular among higher end server solutions and for a selection of prebuilt PC’s from major worldwide consumer PC OEMs for many years but rarely has Delta shown up in enthusiast applications. Currently, Delta claims the title of the world's largest supplier of switching power supplies. However, even with a lack of presence in the power supply side of the DIY market Delta is still certainly a known commodity as most enthusiast users have certainly encountered their fans at one point or another. Today’s review of the Antec Signature Series gives us our first look at a Delta-based offering in our power supply review program so we are certainly intrigued to see what this OEM can provide in the DIY marketplace for Antec.

Article Image

The market segment that includes most 850w power supplies has become much more crowded in the last couple of years with the increasingly high power draw of enthusiast class GPUs and CPUs. As such, with more competition comes more need to differentiate your product from your competition in more ways than simply output capacity. Interestingly, Antec is overlapping a previous product line with the new Signature series as at 850w they already field the Antec TruePower Quattro 850w. As such Antec is going to have differentiate the Signature 850 from not only other brands but from their own Quattro products. So how does Antec plan to do this?

The Pinnacle of Power

Designed to appeal to system builders looking for a truly premium power supply, the Signature 850 boasts many cutting-edge features, several of which have never before been offered in a consumer power supply. The Signature 850 features DC to DC voltage regulator modules which ensure greater system stability, and an 80mm Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) fan which can run up to 50% quieter than standard fans. Not only does the Signature 850 deliver the latest in stability, reliability, and quiet cooling, it also passes 80 PLUS® Bronze certification, a rare distinction in energy efficiency attained by very few other power supplies.

Moving on, let’s see what we have to look forward to when we purchase the Antec Signature 850 power supply in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.