Seasonic Platinum Series 860W - Platinum without the Fuss
by Martin Kaffei on February 24, 2012 12:00 AM ESTVoltage Regulation
| +3.3V Regulation/Ripple and Noise | |
| Load | Voltage |
| 5% | +1.28% (5mV) |
| 10% | +1.24% (6mV) |
| 20% | +1.12% (8mV) |
| 50% | +0.24% (10mV) |
| 80% | -1.23% (11mV) |
| 100% | -1.67% (14mV) |
| 110% | -1.79% (14mV) |
| Crossload +12V max. | +0.61% |
| Crossload +3.3V/+5V max. | +0.00% |
| +5V Regulation/Ripple and Noise | |
| Load | Voltage |
| 5% | +1.20% (7mV) |
| 10% | +0.82% (7mV) |
| 20% | +0.40% (9mV) |
| 50% | -0.02% (11mV) |
| 80% | -0.94% (12mV) |
| 100% | -0.92% (12mV) |
| 110% | -0.86% (13mV) |
| Crossload +12V max. | +0.28% |
| Crossload +3.3V/+5V max. | -0.04% |
| +12V Regulation (Worst Rail)/Ripple and Noise (Worst Rail) | |
| Load | Voltage |
| 5% | +1.13% (4mV) |
| 10% | +1.04% (5mV) |
| 20% | +0.98% (22mV) |
| 50% | +0.48% (16mV) |
| 80% | +0.01% (20mV) |
| 100% | -0.31% (24mV) |
| 110% | -0.67% (26mV) |
| Crossload +12V max. | -0.17% |
| Crossload +3.3V/+5V max. | +0.13% |
Noise Levels
| Loudness | |
| Load | Opinion |
| 5% | low fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 10% | low fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 20% | low fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 50% | fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 80% | strong fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 100% | strong fan noise and small electrical side noise |
| 110% | strong fan noise and small electrical side noise |
Efficiency and PFC
| Efficiency (AC input minus DC output) and Power Factor | ||
| Load | Efficiency | PFC |
| 5% | 79.83% | 0.712 |
| 10% | 86.53% | 0.898 |
| 20% | 90.77% | 0.942 |
| 50% | 93.03% | 0.979 |
| 80% | 91.99% | 0.988 |
| 100% | 91.40% | 0.989 |
| 110% | 91.27% | 0.990 |
The ball bearing is (almost) inaudible under high loads. During low loads you might hear the PFC choke if you are close enough, but this shouldn't be a problem when the PSU is mounted in a closed case. If desired the fan can be turned off through up to 40% load by a small switch on the front of the casing, which would make the PSU completely silent at lower loads (other than the electrical noise we noted).
Efficiency is much higher than expected. Seasonic is well above the requirements for the 80 Plus Platinum certificate (90%/92%/89% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% load). Even at lower loads Seasonic is able to surpass most results from competing products. In addition the Platinum Series 860W performs much better than what we saw from the Enermax Platimax 750W. It's only at 5% load that this PSU is below 80% efficiency, and even then it's basically a rounding error. So far this is an exceptionally good result; PFC could be a little better, but we don't want to overdo things.
During all loads voltage regulation is simply perfect. Even under crossload conditions all voltages are close to their optimal values. -1.67% is the "worst" result on 3.3V while 12V is much better (-0.31% as long as we stay at <100% load). Another highlight is the low ripple voltage. We would like to see such results more often, since 26mV on 12V is only 0.22% ripple and noise—according to the ATX specification 1% is allowed. Enermax had no problems with this level as well and makes stable outputs too, but ripple was noticeably higher. Given these results, Seasonic is clearly the winner in our head-to-head comparison.
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Martin Kaffei - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
Tcha, that's one disadvantage of those full modular PSUs.I always forget the cables. I'm sorry.
Cobra Commander - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
Displeased with the subjective noise levels - they're 100% meaningless to me.Create a standard on how Anandtech wishes to objectively-benchmark PSU noise and stick to it, please.
Oxford Guy - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Agreed.The chart says "strong fan noise" and then the article's body text talks about how very quiet it is at high load.
? ? ?
vicbee - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
What?!? They didn't get your Platinum Award?!? how disappointing...rtothedizzy - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
I think you might have overstated your conclusion a bit.While this is a great power supply it's hard to argue that it is superior to its 1000W big brother which (I believe) matches this one in all the efficiency, regulation, and noise benchmarks and adds another 140W.
The only way I can see you claiming this one is better is maybe a price/W metric or whenever you wrote this article you weren't aware of the 1000W version.
just4U - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
Martin,How about some pictures of the cables please. These things are important to many of us as we like to see what they look like for case work arounds asthetics, what type of ribbons their using or sleeving etc.
TY!
Martin Kaffei - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Done.There will be more pictures next week. The 24-pin cable is probably a bad example, but this was the only picture I made. The peripheral cables are more opaque.
tzhu07 - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
I'm currently on a SeaSonic X750. I like the hybrid fan mode. Keeps things quiet when I'm not doing much.Nfarce - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
I've got a SS 620W Bronze running an older now-backup gaming rig and it's been flawless for over two years (overclocked E8400, SLI'd o/c GTX 275s). However, the reviews of the 1000W version of this PS on NewEgg are a little disconcerting with a 25% failure/DOA rate - especially at this level of supposed quality (and price).AssBall - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
$220... ouch. But I guess if you need the best, you pay for it.