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.
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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.
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23 Comments
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PeteRoy - Monday, May 12, 2008 - link
Power supplies might be a very critical component in the system but they are also the most boring component.I thought power supplies reviews are only found in unpopular computer websites.
hansmuff - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
"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.""The Signature series definitely left its mark today with very good performance"
Huh? If I dish out that much money for a power supply, I will not even consider one that drops 5%. And how can that be called "very good performance"?
This PSU has some good characteristics, but my take-away from your review is "don't bother with this until (1) the voltage drop problem is verified to be fixed and (2) it drops not voltages, but $100 off it's price".
mindless1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
There is no reason to reject a power supply for 5% drop. Specs exist for a reason, that the powered components MUST also perform properly within the spec.What do you feel you gain with a PSU that has a hypothetically perfect 0% drop? Absolutely nothing. The drop is even less significant today with fewer and fewer parts directly powered by 12, 5, or 3.3V rails. Instead most now have buck conversion inbetween that can accept far more than 10%, letalone 5% deviation.
I do agree the price is a little excessive, although if someone is spending enough to actually need a PSU best at 400W+ output level, they have spent quite a lot on the rest of their system as well. Many overclocked non-SLI gaming systems stay far below 300W consumption.
deathwalker - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
This review certainly goes against the tide when it come to my experience with Antec over the last 10 yrs. My experience has led me to the feeling that when I bought a Antec product the results was generally that it was overpriced and it under performed.mongoosesRawesome - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
This seems completely overkill except for maybe triple SLI setups - which are also overkill.A good 500W PSU or even less should be plenty even for even mid/high end setups.
Efficiency is all well and good, but if people end up buying large PSU's which aren't efficient at the lower wattage's it's all just for show.
eetnoyer - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - link
power supply reviews for less than 5% of people who will ever need them (eg. care)? I would venture to guess that the number of users that are in the market to build a nice HTPC and are looking for a quiet low output power supply is greater than the number of ubersuperultramaxgodofgear power supply users.MrOblivious - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
Because no one cares. Seriously. It is the same reason why you see people looking at, reviewing, and talking about a Porsche when less than 5% of people will buy one. People don't read about random run of the mill power supplies so it makes no sense to produce reviews people won't read for the website or the brands themselves. Sorry.strikeback03 - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
People might read about the Porsche for fun, but they check Consumer Reports when they are trying to decide between an Accord and a Taurus. In this case I'd guess even fewer people care about the high-end power supply than the high-end car - a power supply isn't that exciting until it powers something else you have.The bigger reason is that the companies that send power supplies for review tend to send their biggest and "best".
MrOblivious - Thursday, May 8, 2008 - link
Those assumptions would be incorrect. I literally have companies begging me to take lower powered products in for review all the time and from the page counts people DO NOT read the lower powered offerings. It really is quite simple.strikeback03 - Friday, May 9, 2008 - link
Well, I suppose Johan could be lying when he states that the companies only prefer to send him big units. And I suppose the companies could be sending people to the comments here to ask in every review of big power supplies for reviews of smaller units.