Exclusive: Antec Signature 850W
by Christoph Katzer on May 7, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
Since CES, the Signature series was highly anticipated and we have had the chance to take an early look at the upcoming series. We expected much from this unit and we can say the Signature delivered. The packaging gives an understated appearance to the product, which hints at the lack of need for flashy gimmicks and hype. Rather than broken promises, Antec delivers a top-of-the-line product that doesn't need many words.
The build quality was very good, starting with the housing of the unit. After looking inside, we found one of the cleanest builds possible that is further enhanced by the low height of the components. As the Signature comes with two PCBs sandwiched together there is enough space to build the tidy layout we saw today. The use of high quality components such as the Rubycon and Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors enhances the clean design.
 |
There are many connectors already fixed to the power supply, and users have four more jacks on disposal for additional cable harnesses if needed. All of the connectors have a minimum length of 20"/50cm, which is something of a basic standard today, though not a bad standard. On each peripheral harness are three attached connectors and the user has the choice between one fixed SATA and Molex harness and two additional cable harnesses. For users with multi-GPU setups Antec delivers two additional 6-pin PEG connectors.
Looking at performance, we saw voltage drops on the lower voltage rails as well as on the 12V rails. All of the rails perform well within specs but a drop of up to 5% is not small. As for the quality of the output, we measured a very small ripple of up to 26mV on one of the 12V rails.
Buyers of the Signature series can be happy with efficient work, as this unit achieved up to 87% efficiency. Even with lower input voltages, the unit manages up to 85% with 120VAC and up to 83% with 90VAC. These results are some of the best this year, and if the 650W version performs this well it will be a very good competitor to other offerings. That said, the 850W unit should not be used (i.e. it's overkill) with PCs that require less than 150W of power most of the time, as the efficiency is not good enough below this point. This PSU works best with a minimum of 400W power draw.
The acoustic noise was very low up to a load of 600W. Reaching that load with such a low noise was, until now, only possible from a 1000W+ unit. Users might want to take care that the load does not exceed 600W as then the fan will start spinning much faster and create a very noisy environment. The fan turns at only 700RPM at minimal load, and even when it starts spinning faster it remains quiet. Only from 600W onwards is noise a concern, where the PSU can generate up to 40dB(A) acoustic noise.
Antec states an MSRP of $249 for the 650W version and $299 for the 850W version. Both of the prices are quite high as there are 850W power supplies for much less than that, but the price will most likely drop once availability improves. The Signature series definitely left its mark today with very good performance and high efficiency. Now all we need is a more reasonable online price - it really needs to be under $200 and under $150 for the 650W model - and we'll be happy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
23 Comments
View All Comments
MrOblivious - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
You aren't going to get me to say that, but I will say he must be working in a different environment with different people than what we since Corsair, Seasonic, Enermax, SilverStone, etc have all asked/sent units of lower output to be reviewed. In fact, we have so many requests stacked up on those units that we can not take them all because we can not provide any kind of realistic time table to turn them around for them.Don't get me wrong I am all for doing them, but what happens when you throw a party and no one shows up? That is what happens when you do low powered units. Anecdotes of people requesting them can do nothing to change that fact that they get read by fewer people as we see from the page hits which does NO ONE any good as we don't provide the compelling content users want nor the coverage the brand is looking for.
So to answer your question, why target higher powered units? Its because that is what people want to read about.
Christoph Katzer - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
Agreed on that. I had several lower rated units before but after showing such a bad performance one manufacturer even refused to send any more of that kind. I do have several FSP models coming soon with 300, 400 and 600 watts. I will also be reviewing OEM models from Seasonic and FSP.As much as I would like to test really cheap models I am just stuck with the fact that I am not located in the U.S. and there is simply nobody who would send me all that stuff. I am also interested in seeing what these unit can offer like we have seen at jonnyguru a few month ago. It's just testing for fun since there is nobody really interested in the results. They all blow up when loaded with programmable loads which is the only fun we could offer with such a review.
I will anyway try to have more units from the lower and medium range in the future but there will be again a few higher models since I still have several 850-1000W units here...
Bozo Galora - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
Note to all PSU marketing dep'ts:the day when people will buy a psu with a rats nest of cables puking out the back is slowly but surely fading away
the graphs are some of the worst in recent reviews.
that they would send this thing out as an exclusive first look unit for testing on AT (on a chroma no less) is itself a bit scary
of course, as always, we will soon see an update to the review in a week or two that will report "the voltage drop prob has been fixed - was just a bad run of a certain component"
Stele - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
To an extent I agree with you. Nevertheless, there are pros and cons to modular power supplies. The most obvious con is the fact that modular power supplies introduce one more connection between the PSU's PCB and the connectors at the other end - with all the attendant issues that these have compared to non-modular power supplies, especially increased manufacturing costs and connection resistance, as well as connector reliability issues (a loose connection carrying 200VA is very bad news).Having said that, it is possible to greatly minimise the impact of such effects; the best thing manufacturers could do is to design and employ robust and rugged connectors with large conductor contact areas - plenty of connector manufacturers with plenty of experience in mission-critical and/or industrial-grade applications out there.
However, that means even higher costs. This would be no big deal in a world where money was no object, but in reality, in order to compete at a given price point this may lead to corners being cut where it really matters - the stuff inside the PSU, and the resulting performance, life expectancy and stability. Those that don't cut the corners end up having brickbats thrown at their naturally high prices.
Of course there're PSUs that are modular yet offer good performance without asking for your firstborn, but those aren't the overwhelming majority.
Personally, if I had to choose for a given price range, I'd take better performance/reliability over modular cables anyday.
harbin - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
I've been using the NeoPower series first entered the market. Quiet, solid PSU. Love it to date. Still runs my o/ced Q6600 happily.InternetGeek - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
I think you guys have it backwards about why antec is better known. Antec is better known for their PSU rather than their cases. ThermalTake is better known for their cases rather than their PSUs.In any case, an excellent PSU.
cg0def - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
Both Tt and Antec were making cases before they started making PSUs. Only Antec was making cases long before Tt and the Antec cases used to be synonymous with high quality. I'm not sure that is the case anymore since they are terribly overpriced and many of their models still used steel sheets for the construction.Anyway what I was saying is that Antec IS famous for their cases and NOT the PSUs and it is only in recent years that they have started making splendid PSUs and slightly shifted their focus. Oh and Tt actually became famous for their coolers ( CPU mostly ) and then extended their product line. There used to be a day when Tt heatsinks were the best you can get ...
granulated - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
LOL.. Some, if not all, of the high end Antec PSU's are actually made by Seasonics !SilthDraeth - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
LOLGive the man a cookie.
feelingshorter - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
Perhaps thats a matter of opinion, but i heard about antec cases first before hearing about their PSU. A lot of people (including me at one point), did not understand the importance of a good PSU, thinking any PSU will do fine. So unless your a person that does research on it specifically, you won't know just by chance. Whereas their cases...well they have a lot of cool cases and friends amongst each other will send links through instant messaging saying "look at this cool case from Antec" more often than messages saying "look at this extremely stable PSU".