Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products -- because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration -- of which certain criteria consists of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with, and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 10W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply was very good. Unfortunately, no independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment exist at press time, so we are unable to comment on its efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple. This is an 80 Plus Bronze certified power supply unit.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation, all are within 2%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 300ms.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it; as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power -- with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of 150W (20%) on the Antec High Current Gamer Bronze 750W had the power factor at 0.97. As the load increases, the PF should approach 0.99.
The Antec High Current Gamer Bronze 750W is a reasonably quiet power supply, depending on the amount of power being drawn. Under regular loads, the 750W High Current Gamer Bronze is reasonably low noise. Personally, I found the Yate Loon D14BH-12 to be pretty good for a double ball bearing fan, but it is not as quiet as fluid dynamic bearing fans. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Antec High Current Gamer Bronze 750W to be at 2.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads, because the fan spins really slowly. The fan is out of the way to approximately 50% of its maximum speed, but it will become exponentially more audible when it kicks in. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the Antec High Current Gamer Bronze 750W is a respectable choice, but the fan is neither the quietest model available nor is there a silent mode.
Antec provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The Antec High Current Gamer Bronze 750W is a well-built fully modular power supply comprised of quality internal components inside a good looking enclosure. With an MSRP of about $90 at press time, the price is quite reasonable for what you get, especially if you can find it on sale at your favorite retailer below that price. However, at the suggested price, chances are that you can find an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply from other reputable manufacturers like Seasonic, Corsair, or FSP.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
