Introduction

We would like to thank Antec for supplying the review sample.

Antec, without any doubt, is one of the key players in the PSU market with long experience in this area. One of their most successful PSU series is High Current Gamer, which targets the budget oriented users who don't want any compromises when it comes to quality, just an affordable price. Although all High Current Gamer units were good performers, in order to be more affordable they didn't utilize a modular design, something that simply put off many future buyers. Now this changes with the three new HCG-M units with 400W, 520W and 620W capacity. The HCG-M PSUs utilize a semi-modular cabling design which includes 10-pin and 5-pin modular connectors, with only two cables being fixed. In our opinion this is a very good move since nowadays a non-modular PSU, regardless of performance, is considered by many somehow low-end or outdated.

Today's test sample is a HCG-620M PSU. This unit is 80 Plus Bronze certified, the letter "M" stands for the modular design it utilizes, its cooling fan has 135mm diameter and uses double ball bearings so it will have an increased life span and finally it has a single +12V rail which can deliver up to 48 Amps. With the two PCIe connectors it is equipped with, it will easily feed a midrange system with a single VGA and the three year warranty that Antec provides is good for the category that this unit belongs to. Finally Antec states that the HCG-620M exclusively uses Japanese capacitors, something that greatly enhances its reliability.

Specifications

Efficiency is Bronze, all protections except OTP (Over Temperature Protection) are included and the fan uses ball bearings. Also the dimensions are the standard ones, for the capacity of the unit and the same applies to its weight too. In the product's flyer and in the features description on the packaging Antec states that this unit is compliant with ATX 2.32 spec, however to the best of our knowledge the most recent ATX spec is 2.31 and in order to be a unit compliant with this spec, among others, it should have at least two +12V rails. So either there is an updated version of ATX spec to 2.32, which is not made public yet, or Antec has a typo here. Finally, the warranty is at three years and the price is a little stiff for a 620W Bronze unit.


There is only one +12V rail which can deliver about 93% of the PSU's total capacity, so it's pretty strong. The minor rails are strong too, with 130W max combined power while the 5VSB rail has the minimum allowed power, for a contemporary PSU, at 12.5W.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

We think that only two PCIe connectors are few for this unit and as it seems Antec agrees with us since it equipped the HCG-620M with four PCIe modular sockets (10 pin), so if you purchase another two PCIe cables then you can have a total four PCIe connectors available. What troubled us at first was the only two available modular sockets (5 pin) for the four in total peripheral cables, but then we noticed in the manual that the 5 pin peripheral cables can be also connected to any of the 10 pin modular sockets, so all peripheral connectors can be available at the same time along with the two provided PCIe cables/connectors.
Regarding cable length, we would like to see 50mm more on the 24 pin ATX and the PCIe cables. The peripheral cables have adequate length and the distance among connectors is sufficient at 150mm. Finally all cables consist of 18AWG gauges, which is the recommended wire size by ATX spec.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail we do not have anything to comment about its power distribution.

Packaging

The packaging is small and this is something expected since it accommodates a PSU with small footprint. On the front we find an angled photo of the unit itself in a dark background. On the top left side there is the series description along with the letter "M" which distinguishes the modular units. On the opposite corner resides the 80 Plus Bronze badge while on the yellow strip there is a phrase informing the interested user that this unit was designed by Antec in California. As it seems California's sun makes this department pretty active. On the rear side of the box we meet a description of the available connectors and a reference to the unit's most important characterististics and features. Antec states that the unit is ATX 2.32 compliant but to the best of our knowledge the most current ATX spec is 2.31. On the two sides of the box there is information about the fan's profile/output noise and a series of badges describing some of the unit's features. Finally on the bottom side of the box the power specifications table is given while on the top side there is a small table showing the unit's dimensions. As you can see there is plenty of information on the packaging, for everyone interested.