Seasonic S12II: 330W to 500W of Silence
by Christoph Katzer on September 14, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cables and Connectors
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the 330W version doesn't have nearly as many cables as some other power supplies that we've reviewed. With only 330W available, users definitely shouldn't be thinking about powering multiple graphics cards or a dozen hard drives, and there are enough cables for your typical lower midrange PCs. The S12II 330W has six Molex and four SATA connectors for peripherals along with a single 6-pin PEG connector for PCI Express graphics cards. The 4-pin and 24-pin ATX connectors are standard and have a length of 50 and 55cm which is sufficient even for many larger cases. When the other hand, the peripheral connectors are all shorter and the first connectors are only 30cm from the PSU case. We had to rescale our cables graphic, but this isn't necessarily a bad design decision on Seasonic's part. They provide connectors at several different cable lengths, allowing the user to choose the appropriate connector for their specific setup. Moreover, a 330W power supply with shorter cables could be an excellent solution for many of the micro ATX cases on the market; after all, just because you want a smaller computer case doesn't mean you necessarily want a lower quality power supply.
The largest S12II is rated at 500W and comes with a few more connectors. There are three cables each with three Molex connectors at different lengths. The shortest distance to the PSU is again just 30cm and the largest distance is 80cm. There are two additional cables that provide three SATA connectors each. For graphics cards, Seasonic includes two 6-pin PEG connectors, one of which can be transformed into an 8-pin PEG connector by using the two additional pins that are next to it. The main 4/8 and 24-pin ATX connectors have a length of 50cm which is about average. All cables are sleeved until the first connector.
The Fans
The fans in the S12II series are the same for all four power supplies. Seasonic uses an ADDA AD1212MB-A7GL brushless fan with 0.33A. The 500W model has a small piece of plastic attached to the fan that is used to channel the air deeper into the case in order to improve the internal cooling.
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n0nsense - Sunday, September 16, 2007 - link
Btw, can you add 1 minute record of ambient, idle PSU, typical load PSU and full load PSU noises @ ~1 meter ?this will be much more useful then just dba levels.
vijay333 - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
lol. so many people requesting seasonic reviews lately and not a peep from them yet. these units are probably suited for budget systems but the added expense due to the seasonic moniker may be better applied to future-proofing and getting a higher wattage model from a less "esteemed" brand.yyrkoon - Saturday, September 15, 2007 - link
Not everyone requesting a review HAS to comment on the review. I could have been the first poster in this comment section on this article, but decided that the article was good enough to not comment. Granted I think for a lowly 500WATT PSU the Antec Earthwatts 500 PSU would be a better bargin(which I already own).customcoms - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
I'm waiting for a Corsair review from you guys, since they are based off Seasonic psu's and can provide higher wattage. Also, people looking at the Seasonic 500w model would also probably be looking at the Corsair HX520.My HX520 is silent (granted I have like 8 case fans+cpu+ram+8800GTS, so noise of the psu is of little concern) and as an added bonus its modular.
kmmatney - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
There is a new 550W Corsair available now, at a lower cost:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Christoph Katzer - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
Will have Antec and Corsair very soon but I can tell you already they cannot stick up to the originals.n0nsense - Sunday, September 16, 2007 - link
as I can see, Corsair HX520, HX620 are better.the 12V much more stable + modular cables + 0 noise.
but may be the Corsair's VX (budget) should be reviewed too.
Chunga29 - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
I want to see one of the X900 Seasonic PSUs tested now. See how Seasonic does when they have to deal with about 2X the power demand. Though, that design looks completely different so I expect silence isn't the goal in that case. Seeing the M12 700HM results would also be useful. The S12II is at 28dB at full load, but dealing with another 200W could mean quite a bit more noise.I would also be curious: can these PSUs handle higher loads than rated? I mean, I've heard rumors that something like a Seasonic 330W sold under a different label would get rated probably ~25% higher, so maybe 420W. That would make the S12II 500W potentially equal to other ~650W PSUs, *if* there's any truth to the stories. Just a thought, but I'd like to see testing push PSUs beyond the rated output to see what happens. Probably best to save that testing for the end, in case the PSU dies. LOL. But going 20% beyond the rating could provide interesting results.
Christoph Katzer - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
I was thinking about to add this kind of test. Last week I was talking to Paul from H about it and just for fun tested the Infiniti and got 1000 watts of load out of it. That might be surely a nice thing if more PSUs would perform like that.poohbear - Sunday, September 16, 2007 - link
chris are u saying the corsair hx series (which are designed by seasonic) can't measure up to original seasonics? they're pretty bad ass psus, i own the hx520, i can't imagine anything more silent than this unit?! or are u talking about efficiency? anyways, thanks for the review, seasonic rocks and my corsair is testament to that..:)