Starting with nothing connected to the PSU, connect something with a 0.05W load to the 12v rail of the PSU (for older split rail designs, the rail the 12V CPU plug is on), use the paperclip trick to jump the PSU on, and use a multi-meter to measure the 12V being given to your load. ATX spec is +-5% tolerance.
Most companies probably will not test all of their PSUs that have ever been produced. These companies will do a cost/benefit analysis and see which PSUs are still profitable to test. Currently selling models and previous flagship models will probably make the list. Sometimes it's a good idea to pay for the best. Good luck everyone.
The way I would go about this is to use a variable resistor and at least one multimeter (ideally 2). Set up the variable resistor in series with a multimeter set for current between the 12V rail and common. Use a paper clip to turn jump the PSU on. Adjust the variable resistor until you measure 0.05 A (or 50 mA), then read the voltage between the 12V rail and common. If the voltage is above 12.6V (or below 11.4V), then your power supply is not capable of properly delivering the 0.05A. I would guess that most likely the voltage would read high rather than low.
For many builders I imagine this will be a non issue. As long as your PSU is single rail, and you have A dedicated GPU, The GPU should pull plenty from the 12V rail to meet the old spec.
In fact if I had to guess, I think just the motherboard, and a few system fans should raise easily the load to the old ATX spec.
No surprise pretty much SeaSonic's entire lineup is up able to hold even higher standards. Why buy the second best when SeaSonic hits ~$100 for their X-series i'll never understand.
I've got three Seasonics -- 650W Gold, 750W Gold, and 1000W Platinum -- and they are all virtually silent (especially in hybrid mode). I have never heard even a hint of coil whine on any of the units.
I'm glad i splurged and went with the ax860i 80+ platinum with the corsair link integration since i also got the corsair h100i. Unparalleled monitoring abilities and now the added benefit of working properly with haswell. And to think I almost went with a 550 watt diablotek PDA series modular 80+ bronze since it was only 50 dollars and had a lot of features. Thank god for the corsair link monitoring convincing me to splurge. I know there is a 760 but the extra 100 watts for the ax860i was only an extra 20 dollars so I figured why not If i ever go 2x GPU i'll have plenty of power. Probably can handle 3x gpu no problem even maybe not 3x titans but 3x gtx 680's no problem. I'd heavily doubt in myself ever going to 2x gpu's. Everyone knows 1 super powered gpu is better then 2x lesser gpu's even if the 2x lesser gpu's can theoretically provide more power as gaming is just smoother and 1 card. Love the GTX titan.
Why am I even posting, the i7-980x 32nm Gulftown platform won't even be upgraded to haswell in the core i7-4960x. For some reason the enterprise cpu's with quad channel memory have the same series 4 number as the mainstream haswell but enterprise is 1 generation behind. So as the i7-3960x is sandy bridge-e even though the i7-3 series is supposed to by Ivy the next gen 4 series does the same. I'm guessing they keep the enterprise cpu's a generation behind to be sure the process is mature and reliable and error free.
I don't think I will be upgrading until they put an 8 core 16 thread into their higher end consumer socket. Doesn't look like this is coming in Ivy Bridge-E on the i7-4960x. Lets Hope Haswell-E i7-5960x can bring us 8c/16t christmas 2014. This i7-980x has had incredible staying power. I've got it liquid cooled with a corsair h100i with 4 high static pressure noctua fans in push/pull and it runs at a constant 4.26Ghz while staying at 76-78C under full load 100% with hyperthreading disabled I can bump it to 4.40ghz full time oc. I mostly leave it at 4.40ghz and 6c/6t. Only incredibly well multithreaded things like digital media encoding rly benefit from having more than 6 threads and usually the extra mhz boosts most things more than hyperthreading.
Basically until the high end intel chips at max oc can beat an i7-980x at max oc (4.26ghz) by at least a 75% gain The 3960x gets about 4.7ghz reliably 10% IPC gain from 980x to 3960x 10% faster clock speed so the 3960x is only about 20% faster than the 980x both maxed oc so unless the 4960x is an insane overclocker i won't be reaching the +75% gain I need to switch from the i7-980x and since its ivy we already pretty much know it's going to OC to a little less than the sandy unless they switch the solder back then it will oc the same as sandy so thats 4.7ghz best case. Which is only a total of a 30% performance gain. I'm doubting even haswell-E in Q4 2014 or Q1 2015 will even push me into the +75% gained. I'm still amazed at how long this system has stayed with near top performance levels. 3.25 years already under it's belt and it's got atleast another 2 years but more like 3 more years until it will need to be replace. 6.25 years of staying near the top of the pack when compared to the average comp. Sure it was a 1000 dollar chip but when u spread that over 6.25 years it's only 160 a year or 40 every quarter of a year.
Back in the day with tech evolving so quickly it wasnt very smart to pay a ton for the highest end chip as the next year the newer chips low end blew away the previous gens high end. I think that's where a lot of older people haven't changed their thinking. They still go for lower end chips with new upgrades every gen. You think you are saving money but nowadays you are best off getting the very high top end chip and holding onto the mobo cpu combo for 5,6,7,8,9 years. Each generation the tiny 10% performance boost is nothing like the 100% performance boost we used to get each gen. That's why you can hold the chip so many years as it takes that long to get the performance jump we were used to getting every year. Go for the top end chip, splurge the cash up front now and rake in the savings by not needing a new cpu/mobo/ram for 7ish years or more.
Luckily, even if your PSU is 'not compatible', you can just turn off the lowest C6/C7 idle modes and things will work fine. All you lose is that minimum CPU idle power goes from ~0.1W to ~10W.
Actually, both spellings are correct. It depends on whether you are referring to the parent corporation or the US subsidiary.
"Seasonic USA was established in 2002 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sea Sonic Electronics Co., Ltd. in Taiwan to develop retail channels and to grow Seasonic as a premier retail brand in the US and Canada. Both marketing and technical support are provided by Seasonic USA."
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23 Comments
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cfaalm - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
How can you tell if your current PSU would be able to deliver Haswell's requested 0.05A on the 12V rail?DanNeely - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
Starting with nothing connected to the PSU, connect something with a 0.05W load to the 12v rail of the PSU (for older split rail designs, the rail the 12V CPU plug is on), use the paperclip trick to jump the PSU on, and use a multi-meter to measure the 12V being given to your load. ATX spec is +-5% tolerance.paperclip trick: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22
cfaalm - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
Forget that. I just found a nice list that doesn't mention my current PSU.bebimbap - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
Most companies probably will not test all of their PSUs that have ever been produced. These companies will do a cost/benefit analysis and see which PSUs are still profitable to test. Currently selling models and previous flagship models will probably make the list. Sometimes it's a good idea to pay for the best. Good luck everyone.eBob - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
The way I would go about this is to use a variable resistor and at least one multimeter (ideally 2). Set up the variable resistor in series with a multimeter set for current between the 12V rail and common. Use a paper clip to turn jump the PSU on. Adjust the variable resistor until you measure 0.05 A (or 50 mA), then read the voltage between the 12V rail and common. If the voltage is above 12.6V (or below 11.4V), then your power supply is not capable of properly delivering the 0.05A. I would guess that most likely the voltage would read high rather than low.xath - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
PSU manufacturer be quiet! is also confirming through their forum in http://www.be-quiet.net/forum/showthread.php?823-H... that their Straight Power, Dark Power, and Pure Power L8 series are Haswell compatible.cmatt85 - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
For many builders I imagine this will be a non issue. As long as your PSU is single rail, and you have A dedicated GPU, The GPU should pull plenty from the 12V rail to meet the old spec.In fact if I had to guess, I think just the motherboard, and a few system fans should raise easily the load to the old ATX spec.
cmatt85 - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
*easily raiseEgg - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
Isn't the whole point deep sleep states? When all those things would be powered down?cmatt85 - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
No. We already had S1(sleep) The new states, are low power states for the CPU(S0) while the computer is on.MarkLuvsCS - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
No surprise pretty much SeaSonic's entire lineup is up able to hold even higher standards. Why buy the second best when SeaSonic hits ~$100 for their X-series i'll never understand.BMNify - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
If Seasonic could get their coil whine under control I'd be more inclined to buy another one of their products.MarkLuvsCS - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
They're easy as pie to RMA too. I still haven't had trouble with any coil whine in the past 5 X series I've bought - 3 x650, and 2 x750s.Razorbak86 - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
I've got three Seasonics -- 650W Gold, 750W Gold, and 1000W Platinum -- and they are all virtually silent (especially in hybrid mode). I have never heard even a hint of coil whine on any of the units.ZeDestructor - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - link
Don't ask me why, but when I was building my box, the Corsair AX850 was cheaper than the Seasonic X-850 its based on at the time...Laststop311 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
I'm glad i splurged and went with the ax860i 80+ platinum with the corsair link integration since i also got the corsair h100i. Unparalleled monitoring abilities and now the added benefit of working properly with haswell. And to think I almost went with a 550 watt diablotek PDA series modular 80+ bronze since it was only 50 dollars and had a lot of features. Thank god for the corsair link monitoring convincing me to splurge. I know there is a 760 but the extra 100 watts for the ax860i was only an extra 20 dollars so I figured why not If i ever go 2x GPU i'll have plenty of power. Probably can handle 3x gpu no problem even maybe not 3x titans but 3x gtx 680's no problem. I'd heavily doubt in myself ever going to 2x gpu's. Everyone knows 1 super powered gpu is better then 2x lesser gpu's even if the 2x lesser gpu's can theoretically provide more power as gaming is just smoother and 1 card. Love the GTX titan.Why am I even posting, the i7-980x 32nm Gulftown platform won't even be upgraded to haswell in the core i7-4960x. For some reason the enterprise cpu's with quad channel memory have the same series 4 number as the mainstream haswell but enterprise is 1 generation behind. So as the i7-3960x is sandy bridge-e even though the i7-3 series is supposed to by Ivy the next gen 4 series does the same. I'm guessing they keep the enterprise cpu's a generation behind to be sure the process is mature and reliable and error free.
I don't think I will be upgrading until they put an 8 core 16 thread into their higher end consumer socket. Doesn't look like this is coming in Ivy Bridge-E on the i7-4960x. Lets Hope Haswell-E i7-5960x can bring us 8c/16t christmas 2014. This i7-980x has had incredible staying power. I've got it liquid cooled with a corsair h100i with 4 high static pressure noctua fans in push/pull and it runs at a constant 4.26Ghz while staying at 76-78C under full load 100% with hyperthreading disabled I can bump it to 4.40ghz full time oc. I mostly leave it at 4.40ghz and 6c/6t. Only incredibly well multithreaded things like digital media encoding rly benefit from having more than 6 threads and usually the extra mhz boosts most things more than hyperthreading.
Laststop311 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Basically until the high end intel chips at max oc can beat an i7-980x at max oc (4.26ghz) by at least a 75% gain The 3960x gets about 4.7ghz reliably 10% IPC gain from 980x to 3960x 10% faster clock speed so the 3960x is only about 20% faster than the 980x both maxed oc so unless the 4960x is an insane overclocker i won't be reaching the +75% gain I need to switch from the i7-980x and since its ivy we already pretty much know it's going to OC to a little less than the sandy unless they switch the solder back then it will oc the same as sandy so thats 4.7ghz best case. Which is only a total of a 30% performance gain. I'm doubting even haswell-E in Q4 2014 or Q1 2015 will even push me into the +75% gained. I'm still amazed at how long this system has stayed with near top performance levels. 3.25 years already under it's belt and it's got atleast another 2 years but more like 3 more years until it will need to be replace. 6.25 years of staying near the top of the pack when compared to the average comp. Sure it was a 1000 dollar chip but when u spread that over 6.25 years it's only 160 a year or 40 every quarter of a year.Back in the day with tech evolving so quickly it wasnt very smart to pay a ton for the highest end chip as the next year the newer chips low end blew away the previous gens high end. I think that's where a lot of older people haven't changed their thinking. They still go for lower end chips with new upgrades every gen. You think you are saving money but nowadays you are best off getting the very high top end chip and holding onto the mobo cpu combo for 5,6,7,8,9 years. Each generation the tiny 10% performance boost is nothing like the 100% performance boost we used to get each gen. That's why you can hold the chip so many years as it takes that long to get the performance jump we were used to getting every year. Go for the top end chip, splurge the cash up front now and rake in the savings by not needing a new cpu/mobo/ram for 7ish years or more.
psuedonymous - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Luckily, even if your PSU is 'not compatible', you can just turn off the lowest C6/C7 idle modes and things will work fine. All you lose is that minimum CPU idle power goes from ~0.1W to ~10W.piroroadkill - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
If your power supply is DC-DC (12v rail is converted into 5 and 3) then it will be fine. There's always load on the 12v that way..gevorg - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
What about Seasonic X-560?Beenthere - Sunday, May 26, 2013 - link
Dustin - Seasonic is one word, not two.Razorbak86 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - link
Actually, both spellings are correct. It depends on whether you are referring to the parent corporation or the US subsidiary."Seasonic USA was established in 2002 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sea Sonic Electronics Co., Ltd. in Taiwan to develop retail channels and to grow Seasonic as a premier retail brand in the US and Canada. Both marketing and technical support are provided by Seasonic USA."
http://www.seasonicusa.com/aboutus.htm
Marlowe - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Here are some more PSU for Haswell compatibility lists. Maybe you guys can collect more?Enermax: http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=eng/press_b_1&a...
Seasonic: http://www.seasonic.com/new/twevent20130510.htm
be quiet! : http://www.bequiet.com/en/press/2635
Cooler Master: http://www.coolermaster.com/company/newsDetail-M13...
Fractal Design: http://www.fractal-design.com/temp/Fractal_Design_...
Thermaltake: http://www.thermaltake.com/content.aspx?id=3751