Antec Signature Series SG-850 850 Watt Power Supply

Antec has been offering power supplies for quite a long time now.  Their power supplies are synonymous with value and performance, with their Basiq, TruePower Trio and Quattro series, NeoPower.  The signature series breaks away from this and offers up a power supply like no other.  Antec's signature series of power supplies are of the highest quality, featuring true wattage ratings along with top of the line components, such as Japanese branded capacitors and cooling fan.   These power supplies also offer modular power cables, SLi Certification, 80Plus Bronze certification and a test report, certified with a signature.  Truly unique.

-The box is made out of a thick card board and makes the user feel that they actually have something that offers premium quality.

Upon opening the box, you will find the manual, screws, higher gauge power cable, modular cables, and the test report.  In the test report, Antec checks for 80Plus Bronze ratings at 20%, 50%, and 100% loads.   They also check for Full Load Line Regulation at 90v, 115v, and 264v loads.  Shortage protection is also tested on the 3.3v, 5v, 12v, and 5Vsb rails.  Lastly, Over Voltage Protection and Over Current Protection are tested.  This power supply has passed all tests, while the signature and serial number confirm this.  This is a great way to let users know that their power supply has been individually tested and verified. 

Here are some of the main features and specifications from Antec's Website:

The Power Supply:

The power supply features a matte black colored housing, which looks professional.

A large logo is on the top of the power supply.

Looking at the side of the power supply, there is a Antec label with their logo on it, the model number and a condensed specification list.  Note that there are four +12v rails with the +12v1 and +12v2 supplying up to 22 Amps, while the +12v3 and +12v4 rails supply up to 25 Amps,which is great for peripherals requiring more power such as a multi-core CPU's and/or multiple graphics cards.

There is an large grill on the back which allows the 80mm fan to exhaust hot air, an on/off switch and AC Power Input.  This power supply does feature Active PFC, so there is no need for a  switch to select the input voltage.

This power supply features the following cables:

Here are the modular connections on the power supply.  The red colored ports are connected to the +12v3 and +12v4 rails, while the black connectors both share the +12v1 rail.  Note the large grill in the back necessary for proper ventilation.

-A 24-pin ATX power connector with removable 4 pin for backwards 20-pin compatibility.

-A 4-pin +12v and 8-pin +12v EPS Power Connector

-2x  6+2-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors and 2x 6 Pin PCI Express Power Connectors.

-5x Molex Power Connectors

-5x Serial ATA Power Connectors

-1x Floppy Power Connector

Cooling:

There is a 80mm fan on the back of this power supply.  Unique to the Signature series of power supplies is its PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) controlled fan.  The fan speed is electronically monitored and controlled accordingly with more precision, leading to quieter fan operation.  During testing, at idle loads, this fan is whisper quiet, which is great for a 850 Watt power supply.  With loads, the fan slowly sped up to what I would call a medium speed, which was still pretty inaudible.  What is unique is that the speed changes are immediate, once I quit the testing programs, the fan throttled down in a series of 'steps'.  Pretty nice if you ask me.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty.

Inside the power supply, there are two large PCB's, one on each part of the casing.  The side of the case that has the fan on it holds the PCB with the primary capacitors.  There are also two narrow black heatsinks, which are not too big, because of the efficiency that this power supply offers.  On the other PCB are the secondary caps along with the main transformer.  Both primary and secondary capacitors are manufactured in Japan, both very high quality. Quite an interesting and unique design.  This power supply is manufactured by Delta Electronics, which is a new supplier for Antec.  They have previously used Seasonic.

The Primary capacitors are Rubycon branded.

The secondary capacitors are Nippon Chemicon branded.

The fan inside is a Nidec BETA SL branded fan, another high quality component and is extremely rare to find in power supplies. It has the model number D08A-12PS3 with a maximum draw of .50 AMPs.

Testing:

For this power supply, the test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Case

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor @ 3.4 GHz

-ZeroTherm Nirvana 120 Heatsink

-eVGA nForce 680i SLi Motherboard

-2GB (1GB x 2) of Mushkin XP2-8500 DDRII-1066 Memory

-320GB x 4 Western Digital 16MB Cache Hard Drives

-2x nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) Video Cards @ 715MHz Core / 1000 MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card

-Sony 16x DVD-RAM / 18x Samsung DVD-RAM Drives

-4x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

(Multimeter Results)

*For additional / larger pictures of the Antec SG-850, Click Here

*Voltages are at 'Max Load', running Orthos and 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

Voltage Results:

+The results were excellent for this power supply, well within range.

Stability Results:

+Everything ran fine during testing, the system was stable and performed the tests as expected. 

Fan Speed Impressions:

+During the tests, the fan speed varied from low to a medium speed and could not be heard over the system fans which are what I consider quiet. When the system is idle or doing simple tasks, the fan runs very quietly, spins slowly and is not noticeable at all.  I was very satisfied with the noise characteristics during the testing, especially from a power supply that is cooled by a single 80mm fan.

Installation:

+Installation of this power supply went well.  No issues fitting inside the test system's case.

Conclusion:

This power supply would be perfect for anyone looking to build a quad core system with multiple video cards.  It also is SLi Certified for up to two GeForce GTX280 GPU's!  At around $200, this power supply is a bit pricey for a 850 Watt power supply, but the premium quality and performance makes up for all of it.  Overall, this is a truly one of a kind power supply and should be purchased by anyone looking for extreme efficiency, amazing output performance and one of the best power supplies on the market.

Pros +

-Excellent/Unbeatable power output

-Quiet 80mm fan

-Factory tested and approved via signature

-Five Year Warranty

-Modular Cables

Cons -

-Pricey

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply an 'Editors Choice' rating.  Excellent Job, Antec!

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