Why isn't there any mention of what the input voltage is? I assume you're testing in 120V but i'm quite sure a large percentage of your readers are coming from somewhere with a voltage more around 230V.
Please, how does this affect the efficiency? Surely there's some way you can get a power supply that can provide these tests with both 120V and 230V tests?
~220v inputs generally make for more efficient PSUs, though ripple will often increase by around 16% to account for the variance of 50 vs 60hz commonly used in 220v-based countries like the UK.
The last high end PSU I've bought was an Antec Signature 850W a few years back. I believe it cost nearly $300, and there was NOTHING on the market that approached its quality at the time.
It's nice to see there are a lot of new units coming out that are giving great power quality with even higher efficiency at much lower prices.
Hopefully the quality/pricing continues to trickle down to <500W power supplies.
This makes it sound like 80% is the minimum efficiency for the Platinum certification.
This PSU only makes Platinum certification with 0.56% room to spare at 20% load, so I'd hardly say it "easily" makes it. Not that it matters, because the efficiency is still astounding.
They used to test with both, which I would personally like to see come back. They also used to use a proper dbA measurement for noise and not the 'subjective' measurement they now use. A bit of a shame.
There have always been far more PSU brands than manufacturers. Seasonic, at one time, didn't put their name on anything, they made PSUs for other companies to retail, and it was only through being mentioned in articles by sites like Anandtech and Tomshardware that end users came to know the name.
Any company that chooses Seasonic as a manufacturer deserves credit for making a great choice, since overall there is none better or more consistent (I rank Enermax up there as well, though being very picky about the electronic results puts Seasonic slightly ahead, overall). And, there is nothing wrong with having someone manufacture something you tweak the specs of to make your own design variation, or even just add a little "bling" as is pretty much the case here.
Just as an example, one reason I won't buy another Silverstone PSU is that you need a chart to figure out who made their particular product, and they more often choose by the manufacturing cost than by the quality of the work. Antec, on the other hand, chooses manufacturer quality over cost, generally speaking. You are more likely to find an Antec made by Seasonic than a Silverstone made by Seasonic. In fact, as far as I've read Silverstone has never used Seasonic. (Regardless of who's name is on it or who made it though, I firmly believe in buying a unit that you've read a proper review of.)
But I don't understand why anyone would care even the slightest about how their PSU looks. I read the review and watched the video (which was almost entirely focused on the exterior design), but...I still don't get it.
Some people like to have a showy case with windows. If that's the case, an 'agressive' looking power supply such as this might appeal to them. Same reasoning behind Corsair's GS series.
Some folks get all excited about the exterior look of the PSU. It's strange for sure. Some reviewers actually rate the BOX that the PSU comes in. Does it have pictures of a sexy girl and a carrying HANDLE? If not they deduct points from the score... Some people are really gullible. ;)
It's not relevant to the article but how can i keep track on my posts and the comment replies in the articles and such with my account? Must i get a forum account?
Not usually one to care about how an internal component looks, but this PSU is god-awful ugly. I would get the Seasonic in a heartbeat if these were side-by-side every time.
I have the XFX Pro 1250W Black Edition, which is very similar to this PSU and looks the same. All i have to say is that it's an excellent PSU, i've nothing bad to say about it at all.
It's powering a VERY high end socket 2011 system with multiple GPU's, SSD's + HDD's, water cooling, 32GB RAM, and a highly overclocked i7 (4.9GHz) and the PSU remains quiet. Looks sexy too, even the cables are nice and all black.
As you said this PSU is made by Seasonic and they reuse their own design so this is almost exactly the same as the Seasonic eponymous version with the differences being the Seasonic has the better San Ace fan, it doesn't look like it was made by the Dharma Initiative, it has a connection from the main PSU board to the back that the XFX doesn't have (no idea what it's for), and the Seasonic is $25 more than this XFX version. Looking at the parts I think the XFX may also use some less expensive components that are spec'd near the same tolerances to shave a few dollars off production costs.
If you want to save $25 (a good 10% of the cost) and don't mind the inferior, but still OK, fan and possibly some inferior components go for it. I'm not sure the better parts will make a real difference. That said I decided to spend the extra few dollars and went for the "real" Seasonic because I was buying the best and didn't want to skimp.
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Max- - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Why isn't there any mention of what the input voltage is?I assume you're testing in 120V but i'm quite sure a large percentage of your readers are coming from somewhere with a voltage more around 230V.
Please, how does this affect the efficiency? Surely there's some way you can get a power supply that can provide these tests with both 120V and 230V tests?
Omoronovo - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
~220v inputs generally make for more efficient PSUs, though ripple will often increase by around 16% to account for the variance of 50 vs 60hz commonly used in 220v-based countries like the UK.silverblue - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
230v. :)ahar - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
-6% to +10%connor4312 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
You can see in the picture on the second page that a European plug is included, so I assume it supports 230/220V.entity279 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
"for the difference ($17 USD) customers get a better fan and a few extras such as cable ties and a bag for the unused cables"The fan difference my be important important. Also, and it's not mentioned in the review, Seasonic offers 7(!!) years waranty versus XFX's 5.
Martin Kaffei - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
You're right.Warranty has been added..
mattgmann - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
The last high end PSU I've bought was an Antec Signature 850W a few years back. I believe it cost nearly $300, and there was NOTHING on the market that approached its quality at the time.It's nice to see there are a lot of new units coming out that are giving great power quality with even higher efficiency at much lower prices.
Hopefully the quality/pricing continues to trickle down to <500W power supplies.
ShieTar - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
"option to have the CPU run passively has <40% load is a nice feature if you don't need the airflow a PSU can provide"Having a CPU run passively (without external power) would be nice indeed ;-)
dqniel - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
This makes it sound like 80% is the minimum efficiency for the Platinum certification.This PSU only makes Platinum certification with 0.56% room to spare at 20% load, so I'd hardly say it "easily" makes it. Not that it matters, because the efficiency is still astounding.
80 Plus Platinum requirements at 115v:
20% load - 90% efficiency
50% load - 92% efficiency
100% load - 89% efficiency
dqniel - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
And yes, you should edit the efficiency testing charts to say the voltage at which it was tested (115v, 230v).ZekkPacus - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
They used to test with both, which I would personally like to see come back. They also used to use a proper dbA measurement for noise and not the 'subjective' measurement they now use. A bit of a shame.sonci - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
so, whats next, a Seasonic PSU with the Corsair name on it?I wonder how fanboys will swear how good is their psu,
they even have the same market USA, Europe, don`t know if they sell in Asia though...
Sabresiberian - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
What's your point?There have always been far more PSU brands than manufacturers. Seasonic, at one time, didn't put their name on anything, they made PSUs for other companies to retail, and it was only through being mentioned in articles by sites like Anandtech and Tomshardware that end users came to know the name.
Any company that chooses Seasonic as a manufacturer deserves credit for making a great choice, since overall there is none better or more consistent (I rank Enermax up there as well, though being very picky about the electronic results puts Seasonic slightly ahead, overall). And, there is nothing wrong with having someone manufacture something you tweak the specs of to make your own design variation, or even just add a little "bling" as is pretty much the case here.
Just as an example, one reason I won't buy another Silverstone PSU is that you need a chart to figure out who made their particular product, and they more often choose by the manufacturing cost than by the quality of the work. Antec, on the other hand, chooses manufacturer quality over cost, generally speaking. You are more likely to find an Antec made by Seasonic than a Silverstone made by Seasonic. In fact, as far as I've read Silverstone has never used Seasonic. (Regardless of who's name is on it or who made it though, I firmly believe in buying a unit that you've read a proper review of.)
;)
aranyagag - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
yes please do mention the voltage, at which you test.IKeelU - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
But I don't understand why anyone would care even the slightest about how their PSU looks. I read the review and watched the video (which was almost entirely focused on the exterior design), but...I still don't get it.ZekkPacus - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Some people like to have a showy case with windows. If that's the case, an 'agressive' looking power supply such as this might appeal to them. Same reasoning behind Corsair's GS series.Beenthere - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Some folks get all excited about the exterior look of the PSU. It's strange for sure. Some reviewers actually rate the BOX that the PSU comes in. Does it have pictures of a sexy girl and a carrying HANDLE? If not they deduct points from the score... Some people are really gullible. ;)dj christian - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
It's not relevant to the article but how can i keep track on my posts and the comment replies in the articles and such with my account? Must i get a forum account?Thanks!
iamkyle - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
It would be nice to see these reviews compared to other PSU's JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER REVIEW ON ANANDTECHmariush - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Don't you have auto correct in your text editor?but we need to find out how good this model acutally is.
acutally -> actually
page 2... last paragraph... fan has fluid dynamic), then you use FD bearing at the end, without mentioning the abbreviation before
Martin Kaffei - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
I'm afraid not!But we've corrected all mistakes now. Thanks a lot.
MySchizoBuddy - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
Can you do a review of the "Be Quiet" series of PSU. They are supposed to be super silent in operation. http://www.be-quiet.net/be-quiet.net/index.php?Sto...ExarKun333 - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
Not usually one to care about how an internal component looks, but this PSU is god-awful ugly. I would get the Seasonic in a heartbeat if these were side-by-side every time.kenyee - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
1000W systems would be hot, loud, and power hungry :-PGet me a 600-700W power supply w/ platinum specs and I'll be happy to stuff it in a low power build ;-)
B3an - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
I have the XFX Pro 1250W Black Edition, which is very similar to this PSU and looks the same. All i have to say is that it's an excellent PSU, i've nothing bad to say about it at all.It's powering a VERY high end socket 2011 system with multiple GPU's, SSD's + HDD's, water cooling, 32GB RAM, and a highly overclocked i7 (4.9GHz) and the PSU remains quiet. Looks sexy too, even the cables are nice and all black.
Finally - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
Cool story, bro.aranyagag - Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - link
and a serperate IC for PFC control on a single sided PCB.SERPERATE
mikbe - Sunday, May 27, 2012 - link
As you said this PSU is made by Seasonic and they reuse their own design so this is almost exactly the same as the Seasonic eponymous version with the differences being the Seasonic has the better San Ace fan, it doesn't look like it was made by the Dharma Initiative, it has a connection from the main PSU board to the back that the XFX doesn't have (no idea what it's for), and the Seasonic is $25 more than this XFX version. Looking at the parts I think the XFX may also use some less expensive components that are spec'd near the same tolerances to shave a few dollars off production costs.If you want to save $25 (a good 10% of the cost) and don't mind the inferior, but still OK, fan and possibly some inferior components go for it. I'm not sure the better parts will make a real difference. That said I decided to spend the extra few dollars and went for the "real" Seasonic because I was buying the best and didn't want to skimp.