Hardware Antec High Current Pro 1200W Review

The High Current Pro looks good on paper, but can it come through our tests unscathed?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2011/07/28/antec-high-current-pro-1200w-review/1

 

"16AWG wiring, which it claims reduces conducted resistance and improves the efficiency of the PSU."

Laugh. Laugh. Congratulations Antec for build of such great PSU. It's nice. Is it worth a 20 pounds difference just because of such a funny explanation? Absolutely not.

 

"...we use a third-party lab - in this case, the R&D office of Antec out in Taiwan."

Thumb down.
You could use a real world conditions for testing. I would like to see a bunch of VGAs with some OCing to load the PSU. Furthermore you could use a mid-quality multimeter to measure the voltages and record min and max values. Sipmle as that. It really doesn't mater if I have 12,01 or 11,99 Volts IMO.

 

We do generally prefer real-world testing, however, with PSUs we don't do that because it would be impossible to accurately program in the same load onto every PSU, as in the real world, power load changes every few seconds.

In other words, you wouldn't be doing a fair comparison.

In contrast, using a Chroma, we can program in exactly the same value, day after day.

Besides, using your approach, we wouldn't be able to stress test every PSU to its maximum claimed output, thereby finding out how honest the manufacturer have been with its labelling (many are not).

 

"An efficient PSU, on the other hand, will run cooler and draw less power from the mains, which will help to reduce your electricity bill."
Here in Croatia we have a two-rate electrical energy providing system. Over night we have a 50% rebate per kWh.
Price per kWh over a daywould be like 0,1 pound per kWh.
6 hours per day x 30 days = 180h *1,2 kW =216 kWh per month x 0,1 pound = 21,6 pounds if loaded 100%.
Just wanted to clarify how much money we are talking here about.

" The ATX spec cites that, at full load, a PSU has to be at least 70 per cent efficient." Nice info. 70% is really low today. I wouldn't like to have such a PSU.

 

80mm fan? What is this, 2001? Even such high-capacity PSUs can be built to be dead silent and so they should be.

Not fully modular? What are you giving this an award for Bit-Tech? It's be a real pain to build a PC with all those wires in the way. "Premium Grade" PSUs should be fully modular, makes everything so much easier.

 

"...with the 12V lines again standing up particularly well and not dropping below 12V.
One slight niggle, however, is that the 3.3V rail only output 3.18V when the PSU was loaded to 100 per cent of its rated wattage.."

Nice test with a lot of serious competitors from different manufacturers. I also noticed the 12V lines exceeding 12V and 5V dropping below 5V for every PSU tested. Where is a catch?

 

I'm not entirely sure what the question is, but the ATX spec allows for some tolerance in voltage. It's 5 per cent for every rail apart from the -12V rail which is given a ten per cent variance. It's therefore no surprise to see that all the PSUs have voltages that differ slightly from 12V or 3.3V - as long as the variance is within the 5 or 10 per cent tolerance it's fine and won't cause a problem.

Does that help?

Oh, and as to the previous comment of 70 per cent efficiency at full load, that's just the absolute minimum. As you point out, things have got a lot better in recent years on the efficiency front. However, we're just reporting what the ATX spec says, as that's the absolute law as far as PSUs are concerned.

 

Shouldn't premium grade psu's wirelessly deliver their power from the box to a plug-in power adapter on the device? Then we could get rid of all the cables...

oh - I woke up...

 

Considering fully modular PSUs are already available from competing manufacturers (the Seasonic Gold series for example) then I don't think it is that much to ask for.

 

If you have bought a power supply this big it is a fair assumption you are powering a big SLI / Crossfire rig. Therefore the captive cables they have selected seem sensible as you will probably use them all.

If you have a rig that does not need this selection of captive cables then you probably have no need for a 1200w power supply.

But yes, if this were a lower power PSU the number of captive cables would be too high.

 

Fantastic power supply, silent, even at 100% load for me

So glad I picked it up for 135 quid

 

Antec PSUs have a rep for being noisy. How does this one fare?

EDIT: I see that they've gone for the air intake to be on the rear face of the unit, instead of on top/bottom - hence the piddly 80mm fan. This is because they've placed PCB's on the inside of those faces in an attempt to reduce the length of the unit and, to be honest, 180mm for a 1200W PSU is good going. However, if space is a factor, then 180mm is still too long. Consider the CM 690 II case. It advertises itself as being able to mount a 240mm radiator in the bottom of the case. I know from experience that this can only be done if the PSU is 160mm in length or less. So in this scenario, 180mm might as well be 220mm. I think Antec would have been better off with a traditional design. And that 80mm fan sort of answers my initial question.

 

What happened to the machine you guys used to have?

 

We've never had a Chroma of our own, but we stopped using the FSP one recently because it's gone out of calibration and hasn't been fixed yet.

 

It reduces all harmonics, not just the uneven ones. It doesn't reduce the PSU's power consumption, it reduces the reactive power consumption which is the component of the power out of phase with the mains voltage - the actual purpose of PFC is to ensure the PSU draws current in phase with the mains voltage, making power distribution easier for utility companies more than anything.

 

I have an antec quattro 1kw which has the same 80mm fan at the back. Every last inch of space inside the psu is crammed with heatsink, which is why they can get away with just an 80mm fan. The fan itself is very quiet and I only hear it spin up when cold booting. Even at full load it's the quietest fan on the pc, including a pair of noctua nf-p14.

 

My Antec 850 works great and I really don't notice much, if any, noise from under my desk. I purchased it in case I do decide to do dual SLI or tri SLI in the near future. That was over a year and a half ago and I'm still running a single gfx card. I've got more available wattage than I need at the moment, but I'd rather have more than not enough. Cable management of the non-modular part of the bundle really wasn't that bad. All said, the internals of my case are very clean and everything is neatly tucked away to ensure good airflow. Although, I can't take credit for that, my good friend is an artist when it comes to routing wires and cable managment. He spent more time doing that than we did putting the entire computer together and installing the software.

 

utterly pointless.

My 850w deals with a 920 clocked at 4.3, 5 drives, 2 GTX 580's and all the watercooling gubbins with no issues. In fact the only issue I do have is the rising eleky charges in the UK in the next week, which will more than likely lead to the sale of a 580. I also reckon hardware manufacturers will be wondering what gear to send to the UK as ppl start to get wary of their spends.