Antec had been quiet for some time in the PSU market, but that changed recently with its new High Current Gamer Gold line. The company revealed two 80 PLUS Bronze certified models with 750W and 850W capacities that belong to the High Current Gamer Bronze line.
Despite the low efficiency rating, the HCG Bronze units use quality components along with a fully modular cable design, which is the main reason behind their increased prices. We found the HCG850 Bronze at $100 and its smaller brother at $90, both on Newegg. For a few dollars more, you can get similar capacity Gold (or ETA-A) certified PSUs from respective manufacturers like Seasonic, Corsair, and EVGA, so it's unlikely that the new Antec PSUs will set any records. On the contrary, most users will prefer to invest in higher efficiency, and more silent, PSUs rather than spend roughly the same amount of money for a notably less efficient power supply.
The HCG Gold units are based on Seasonic's Focus Plus Gold platform, but we aren't sure about the OEM of the HCG Bronze units. The latter, according to Antec, exclusively use Japanese caps, along with a double ball-bearing fan. DBB fans are noisy, especially compared to fans that use fluid dynamic bearings, but they're much more resilient to high operating temperatures. The provided warranty for the HCG Bronze units is set at five years, which is quite long for PSUs of this efficiency rating, while the max operating temperature for continuous full load operation is 40°C.
Both units use the same cable configuration, which consists of two EPS and four PCIe connectors, along with nine SATA and four 4-pin Molex connectors. The number of provided connectors is adequate, and we're satisfied with the couple of EPS connectors, because they make those PSUs compatible with mainboards that need more juice in the CPU socket's area.
| Antec High Current Gamer Bronze Series Features & Specs | |
|---|---|
| M/N | HCG850 Bronze, HCG750 Bronze |
| OEM | No Info |
| Capacities (W) | 850, 750 |
| PFC | Active PFC |
| Efficiency | 80 PLUS Bronze |
| Noise | No Cybenetics Rating |
| Modular | Yes (Fully) |
| Intel Haswell Ready | Yes |
| Operating temperature | 0°C - 40°C |
| Protections | Over Voltage Protection Under Voltage Protection Over Power Protection Over Current Protection Over Temperature Protection Short Circuit Protection |
| Cooling | 135mm Double-Ball Bearing |
| Semi-Passive Mode | No |
| Dimensions | 150 mm (W) x 86 mm (H) x 165 mm (D) |
| Compliance | ATX12V v2.4, EPS 2.92 |
| EPS Connectors | 2x |
| PCIe Connectors (6+2pin) | 4x |
| SATA Connectors | 9x |
| 4-Pin Molex Connectors | 5x |
| +12V Max Power | HCG850 Bronze: 850W HCG750 Bronze: 750W |
| 5V & 3.3V Max Power | 150W |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Price | HCG850 Bronze: $99.99 HCG850 Bronze: $89.99 |
