Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Tuesday , February 15, 2011
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Antec High Current Gamer 900W Power Supply Review

Antec is one of the best known brand names in computer hardware enthusiast circles. Many HardOCP editor's personally use its products and Antec is a "go-to" brand that remains on our suggested hardware list. Can even a quality company like Antec miss the mark? It does this time.

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, Seasonic, and recently Delta. Some of the older Antec/CWT solutions were notorious for being plagued by the "Fuhjiyyu sudden death syndrome," but in the last couple of years or so Antec has dropped these older designs in favor of new products. Today, we will be looking at an offering from Antec’s High Current Gamer line that comes from Delta once more; the High Current Gamer 900W (HCG-900).

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.

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Game Changer?

With the introduction of the High Current Gamer 900W (HCG-900) today, we are looking at another new line of power supplies from Antec fresh on the heels of its recent High Current Pro line. With the introduction of their High Current Pro (we reviewed the 1200W model here) and the High Current Gamer lines Antec seems to have revamped its entire product mix aimed at the enthusiast market with these two product lines taking the lead in this segment. The previous 1200W specimen from the High Current Pro line we looked at was the best 1200W power supply we have reviewed to date, and with today’s High Current Gamer we find ourselves once more looking at a unit that is poised atop of its product line while being provided by the same OEM (Delta). With this in mind we have to ask, "Is this unit going to be a game changer?" because Antec sure seem to be positioning this unit as such:

Making quad rail power and highly advanced power supply design available at a popular wattage, the HCG-900 features special High Current connectors and heavy-duty cabling, earning it NVIDIA® SLI®-Ready and ATI™ CrossFire™ certifications. At the same time the HCG-900 is also 80 PLUS® Bronze certified for efficiency, and features active PFC with a swift, quiet 135 mm double ball bearing fan so you know you're getting not only High Current, but also high efficiency and excellent cooling. If loads of power, High Current engineering and exceptional efficiency are what you're after, the HCG-900 is the perfect PSU for you.

Moving on let’s see what we can expect when a user purchases the Antec HCG-900 power supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.