Seasonic S12II: 330W to 500W of Silence
by Christoph Katzer on September 14, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Test Setup DC Outputs
As usual we are testing with our Chroma programmable loads to fully load each rail to a specific amount. This is important to get truly accurate results and not merely approximate values. The tests are conducted in two different temperature environments. One is normal room temperature of 25-26°C, while the second environment goes from room temperature and increases steadily up to 50°C. Especially during the higher temperatures we will see how good the power supplies are and what they're really made of. Components inside will perform much worse at higher temperatures, but we expect any good quality PSU to deal with such test conditions without failing.
Note: If you would like to know more about our testing methodology, equipment, and environment, please read our PSU Testing Overview.
To provide a better overview about the different temperatures and input voltages we test, we have decided to combine the input voltages into one graph and not four separate charts. We show an area in which the voltages have been measured. In past reviews we have seen steady voltage drops with increasing loads, and this new style of graph should make the results clearer. Each graph will show a single line and the distributed measured voltage fell inside of the specified area during testing.
330W
500W
330W
500W
Seasonic lives up to their promise of very tight voltage regulation. The voltages don't drop much from the optimal amount and hold pretty much stable under any condition we could have come up with. The 500W version doesn't seem to perform quite as well, however.
As usual we are testing with our Chroma programmable loads to fully load each rail to a specific amount. This is important to get truly accurate results and not merely approximate values. The tests are conducted in two different temperature environments. One is normal room temperature of 25-26°C, while the second environment goes from room temperature and increases steadily up to 50°C. Especially during the higher temperatures we will see how good the power supplies are and what they're really made of. Components inside will perform much worse at higher temperatures, but we expect any good quality PSU to deal with such test conditions without failing.
Note: If you would like to know more about our testing methodology, equipment, and environment, please read our PSU Testing Overview.
| 330W Rail Loading | |||||
| PSU Load | 3.3V | 5V | 12V1 | 12V2 | Wattage All Rails |
| 10% | 1.06 | 1.18 | 0.94 | 0.94 | 33 |
| 30% | 3.19 | 3.54 | 2.83 | 2.83 | 99 |
| 50% | 5.32 | 5.91 | 4.71 | 4.71 | 164 |
| 80% | 8.51 | 9.45 | 7.53 | 7.53 | 260 |
| 100% | 10.63 | 11.82 | 9.42 | 9.42 | 324 |
| 500W Rail Loading | |||||
| PSU Load | 3.3V | 5V | 12V1 | 12V2 | Wattage All Rails |
| 10% | 1.42 | 1.42 | 1.54 | 1.54 | 50 |
| 30% | 4.27 | 4.27 | 4.63 | 4.63 | 150 |
| 50% | 7.11 | 7.11 | 7.72 | 7.72 | 249 |
| 80% | 11.38 | 11.38 | 12.35 | 12.35 | 392 |
| 100% | 14.23 | 14.23 | 15.44 | 15.44 | 487 |
To provide a better overview about the different temperatures and input voltages we test, we have decided to combine the input voltages into one graph and not four separate charts. We show an area in which the voltages have been measured. In past reviews we have seen steady voltage drops with increasing loads, and this new style of graph should make the results clearer. Each graph will show a single line and the distributed measured voltage fell inside of the specified area during testing.
330W
500W
330W
500W
Seasonic lives up to their promise of very tight voltage regulation. The voltages don't drop much from the optimal amount and hold pretty much stable under any condition we could have come up with. The 500W version doesn't seem to perform quite as well, however.
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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..:)