Seasonic S12G 650W Power Supply Review
by E. Fylladitakis on February 28, 2014 2:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Seasonic
- 80 Plus Gold
Hot Test Results
From the table below, it can be seen that the output power quality of the Seasonic S12G is very high. The maximum voltage ripple that our instrumentation recorded is a mere third of the ATX design guide suggested limit (the limits are 120 mV on the 12V line, 50 mV on the minor voltage lines), under full load and inside the hotbox no less. Cross-load testing negatively affects the power quality of any power supply but its effect on the Seasonic S12G is small, with the 12V line registering up to 54 mV while delivering 512W. Cross-load testing has virtually no effect on the minor voltage lines, the performance of which did not degrade any further than during standard testing.
| Line |
Regulation (20-100% load) |
Voltage Ripple (mV) | |||||
| 20% Load | 50% Load | 75% Load | 100% Load |
CL1 12V |
CL2 3.3V + 5V |
||
| 3.3V | 2.1% | 6 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 6 | 12 |
| 5V | 2.6% | 8 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 6 | 16 |
| 12V | 1.7% | 14 | 22 | 30 | 46 | 54 | 16 |
The impact that the higher ambient temperature has on the energy conversion efficiency is rather small, reducing the efficiency of the Seasonic S12G by about 0.5% across the entire load range. As such, the Seasonic S12G easily retains its 80 Plus Gold efficiency certification status even inside a very hot environment. The average efficiency between 20% and 100% load is an extremely high 91.6%.
The difference between our cold and hot tests is an increase of over 20°C ambient and, naturally, all of the temperature readings increase significantly. We dare say that the temperatures of the heatsinks rise quite a bit beyond our expectations of an 80 Plus Gold unit by Seasonic; however, the heatsinks are rather small and the design of the power supply apparently focuses on low-noise operation, so sacrifices are made in the area of temperatures.
The low-noise aptitude of the Seasonic S12G becomes apparent when we see that the fan hardly exceeds 38 dB(A) under the harshest of conditions, which is an audible figure but hardly louder than three or four 3.5" mechanical disks -- and never mind the GPUs that would be required to hit such loads. Nevertheless, unless you somehow manage to maintain the unit at maximum load inside a >50 °C environment, the Seasonic S12G will not get nearly hot enough to cause problems.
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Samus - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Just buy a PCP&C 750 Quad and take the fan out/unplug it. I've had mine like this for 5 years. It doesn't even get warm pulling 300 watts. JohnnyGuru found it to be the coolest running PSU he ever tested at full load, so running 1/2 load doesn't even require active cooling. They have no electronic noise.They're $50 used on eBay.
tosisgray - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Thanks! That's the kind of testing I want to see. Embarrassingly, I have not heard of JohnnyGuru before. I will look him up.geniekid - Monday, March 3, 2014 - link
I've owned 4 Seasonic power supplies. One of them had coil whine, and it wasn't fanless.nagi603 - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - link
I have an X-400. Best PSU I've ever bought. No buzz, no problem of any kind.MuteyM - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
Going forward, it would be nice if the graphs used Wattage instead of Load % on the X-axis. This would make it easier for people to compare differently-rated PSUs for their own particular needs. For example if I know my computer idles around 50W and maxes at 400W, I could compare all reviewed PSUs and see which are the most efficient at my particular use cases.With Load % as it is now I have to manually do a bunch of math for that comparison.
GiantPandaMan - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
Good idea. Or they could just dual axis it.E.Fyll - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
That actually is a very good idea. I will see if I can make a dual axis graph or simply replace the % axis with wattage. Thank you MuteyM.lever_age - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
It's only Seasonic's X and Platinum lines that use the San Ace fan. All others pretty much use an ADDA.Also, the B in AD1212MB-A70GL should indicate it's a 2BB fan, not hypro. This is the model used in most of their power supplies and often even the ones they build for other brands.
lever_age - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
...that is, in the current lineup. Prior M12D or whatever previous high-end model may have also used San Ace.Flunk - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link
Not to nitpick, but if you're putting together a "powerful cyptomining system" you generally don't use a case at all. Not only that, but you're going to need more powerful or multiple power supplies.