Seasonic X-Series 560W
by Martin Kaffei on March 22, 2011 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Seasonic
- PSUs
- 80Plus Gold
- 560W
- X-Series
Noise, Efficiency, and Power Factor
| Sound Pressure Level | |
| Load | dB(A) |
| 10% | 0 |
| 20% | 0 |
| 50% | 18 |
| 80% | 23 |
| 100% | 30 |
| 110% | 32 |
There is no noise during low loads since the fan doesn't rotate until the PSU is putting out more than ~112W. If you select appropriate components elsewhere, you can actually use this to create a silent system for low to moderate loads, and you won't have to worry about burning anything out at higher loads. In addition, the RPMs are tolerable up to 50% load. Beyond that point, this PSU is no more silent than competing solutions, but we should keep in mind that most GPUs are louder while gaming so the results are fine. If you want to get uncompromising silence at all loads you can buy the X-460FL, but if silence is the goal you won't want to run higher-end GPUs.
Efficiency and PFC
| 115VAC, 60Hz | ||
| Load | Efficiency | PFC |
| 10% | 82% | 0.975 |
| 20% | 87% | 0.990 |
| 50% | 91% | 0.993 |
| 80% | 91% | 0.995 |
| 100% | 90% | 0.996 |
| 110% | 89% | 0.997 |
This is basically an 850W PSU that doesn't always run the fan. We can see that the efficiency is a bit low at 10% load, but 80 Plus doesn't worry about anything below 20%. The efficiency also drops off slightly at higher loads, but it does meet or exceed the 80 Plus Gold requirements (87/90/87% effeciency at 20/50/100% loads). We are also very happy with the high PFC at all loads, though this is no surprise for the American 115VAC power grid; Europeans and others on 230VAC will have to accept lower PFC but get slightly higher efficiency in return.
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Beenthere - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
This is a decent PSU but I'm not a fan of modular cables for PSUs and this PSU is over-priced IMO.ckryan - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - link
If you're not a fan of modular cables why would you even consider a COMPLETELY modular PSU? There aren't many of them on the market, only the Seasonics and the Corsairs (that are Seasonics).erple2 - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - link
What price is some basic peace of mind? While I've never had a power supply blow up and damage any of my components, I've also never bought the $30 specials, either. I see this as more of an investment to the future.This PSU (like all high quality ones) has very good voltage stability (ripple plus total), which is the one thing that a PSU is supposed to provide. All of the other stuff is completely superfluous.
Also, I think you're going to find that there are no other 80+ Gold certified PSU's that cost anything appreciably less.
Though I do agree, I'm not a fan of modular cables - I would imagine that you'd get better voltage regulation if the cables weren't modular (a little bit better, at least).
Plus, it's only $130.
Beenthere - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - link
I'd go with the PC Power and Cooling Silencer II for $100.Termie - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
I've always been a bit confused about the pricing of this model, which has been out for a while now. It's very close to the x650 in price (at least when the x650 is discounted, which the x560 never seems to be). Is the x560 actually higher quality than the older x650/x750 models?Martin Kaffei - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
It is.Well, not much. But the advantage is they have chosen better transistors. In addition the heatsinks for those SR transistors are larger now and the position of some components is different.
Fine tuning.
Termie - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - link
Thank you, Martin. It's great to be able to ask the experts questions!Uwanna - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
I did purchase the X850 instead of the X560 in this review.Once I saw the pictures of the internals on another website review I knew this was the one for me.
Tim
mino - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
"This is basically an 850W PSU that doesn't always run the fan."surely not 850W ...
MrSpadge - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Sure it is. That's the whole point of this sentence ;)MrS