Date: April 8th, 2009
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Antec
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
The Signature 650W eschews any bling for classic good looks. The matte black finish is accented only by a bronze medallion (ostensibly as a nod to its 80Plus Bronze certification) and the label. Antec uses a PWM controlled 80mm fan to cool the unit, promising good cooling of the double-layer circuit boards with a minimum of audible noise.
The Signature Series power supplies use an “Advanced Hybrid Cable Management” system that allows Antec to provide support for the vast majority of systems with native cables while using modular cables to allow the PSU to support more sophisticated and demanding systems.
Antec has labeled the modular connectors to show the user which one of the three rails the power is coming from. The individual +12V wires in the main native bundle are labeled by color, as follows.
+12V1 (solid yellow wire) : Main motherboard cable, peripheral power connectors and SATA power connectors, including those from the modular cabling system.
+12V2 (yellow with black stripe wire) : ATX12V and EPS12V connectors.
+12V3 (yellow with blue stripe wire) : Video card auxiliary power connectors, including those from the modular cabling system.
Notice also the innovative way in which Antec has secured the sleeving and cable bundles. The hard plastic ferrules are much more secure that the more common heat shrink tubing one sees on other power supplies. I like this design and its features very much and they go a long way toward pushing the Signature Series PSUs to the upper echelon of their market segment.
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