First Look
The HCG (High Current Gamer) series is a newish range of power supplies from Antec ranging from 400W all the way up to 900W. As the series name suggests, they are aimed at gamers and are both AMD/ATI Crossfire and NVIDIA SLI certified. They are also 80 Plus Bronze certified, so at 20%, 50% and 100% load, the efficiency should be at least 82%, 85% and 82% respectively, although it will probably be higher in my tests, because of the higher mains voltage here in Australia. As some of you may know, the last Antec product I reviewed (the SU-430) was a bit of a disappointment, due to the high ripple on the 12V output due to a missing choke in the output filtering. Now is Antec’s chance to redeem themselves.
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The HCG-750 has four 12V rails. The colour coding on the wires (all of which are 18AWG – the recommended gauge) suggests that one powers the ATX Connector and drive and peripheral connectors, one powers the ATX/EPS12v CPU connector, and the other two power two PCIe connectors each. This is the ideal configuration for a quad-rail unit, since it places all of the main loads on separate rails. The UL number (176105) points to Antec in the UL database. Nice try, Antec, but you can’t hide the OEM that easily. Like most high end Antec units, the HCG-750 is manufactured by Delta Electronics. The red and black colour scheme is interesting, but it seems to be the trend with a lot of cases now, so it would go well with cases such as Antec’s LanBoy Air Red and Dark Fleet 85.
In the way of connectors, the HCG-750 has a 20+4 pin ATX connector, a 4+4 pin ATX/EPS12v connector, four 6+2 pin PCIe connectors, 9 SATA connectors, six molex/peripheral connectors and an FDD connector, all of which are sleeved. Such a cable configuration is excellent, since it allows for a high end CPU, two high end graphics cards and more than enough drives for most users.
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A look at the top reveals that Antec used Allen key screws to secure the fan in place. Nice try Antec, but that isn’t going to stop me removing it for a picture. I do have an Allen key bit that fits. The back of the unit contains the IEC power inlet and an on/off switch. Since the unit has active PFC, there’s no need for an input voltage selector switch. The honeycomb-style grille is what most modern power supplies use, since it provides little air resistance.
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