A Detailed Look

The steel enclosure of the Antec High Current Pro Platinum 850W power supply features a black-matte, scratch-resistant finish and measures 190mm (7.5”) long and is printed with yellow and white lettering.   

The High Current Pro Platinum PSU uses a single 135mm dual ball bearing fan (Delta Electronics AFB1312M-SM02) on the bottom for cooling (0.38A @ 12 VDC).

The fan speed is automatically controlled by the onboard Thermal Manager Control System – an advanced low voltage fan control circuit designed for optimal cooling and noise management.

In addition to the Antec nameplate, the backside panel includes a power receptacle and On-Off switch along with an open grill structure that allows air to exhaust out of the power supply with minimal restriction and turbulence.

(Courtesy of Antec)

The Antec High Current Pro Platinum PSUs are compliant with the new ErP Lot 6: 2013 standard, which defines how much power (or how little power) a PSU should use when in the Off-Standby Mode. All three High Current Pro Platinum PSUs are also Intel Haswell & C7 state ready.

OC Link

Antec’s new OC Link technology allows connecting two HCP Platinum PSUs together with the included OC Link cable, which allows them to work in tandem to power even the most demanding systems.  For example, you could use one HCP Platinum as the “master” PSU (24-pin ATX cable attached to PC motherboard) and a second HCP Platinum PSU as a “slave”, powering additional PCI-E connectors, HDDs, etc. Combining two HCP-1300s could result in delivering up to 2,600 Watts of DC power (217A) with 20 PCI-E connectors!

OC Link Cable (21.5” long)

(Courtesy of Antec)

The good folks at Antec sent over a second HCP Platinum PSU so we could check out OC Link for ourselves. For our testing we setup the HCP-850 Platinum as the “master” (675W load) and used an HCP-1000 Platinum as the “slave” (636W load). Each PSU was powered from a dedicated 120 VAC, 20A circuit. As expected, powering up the system resulted in both power supplies turning on and delivering over 1,300W combined DC load! Under normal operating conditions OC Link functioned perfectly.

However, we did find that in the unlikely event that the "slave" PSU doesn't power up (might be turned off , or unplugged, etc.) or if the "slave" PSU shuts down for some reason (overload, over temp, etc.) the “master” PSU continues operating, leaving the system with only one PSU instead of two. For example, if you configured a system to have the "master" PSU connected to the mobo and powering most of the PC components and used a second OC Link "slave" PSU to provide extra power to three power-hungry graphic adapters and maybe a couple HDDs; if the "slave" PSU doesn't start up or shuts down later while the PC is operating, the three graphics adapters and HDDs will suddenly become under powered or not powered at all while the PC continues to try operating, not a good scenario.  While admittedly unlikely, leaving a system that is configured to run off two PSUs with one PSU shut down and the other one running is not good and could potentially place a lot of expensive hardware at risk. So while OC Link sounds good in theory, we don’t feel like it has been fully or properly implemented. We have discussed our findings with Antec and they are actively working to find a solution to this potential problem. We’ll update you as more information becomes available.

There also aren’t too many PC enclosures on the market that can mount two ATX power supplies and Antec does not currently offer one (but I’m guessing they might have one in the works). The only two cases that can mount dual ATX PSUs that come to my mind are:
• Corsair Obsidian Series 900D
• SilverStone Temjin Series TJ11

Note: If you decide to go this route, you will most likely need to connect each HCP Platinum PSU to its own dedicated 120 VAC circuit. Plugging them both into one 15A residential circuit won’t work if you truly put a heavy load on both PSUs.

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