Buy the SEA SS-560KM shopping E-tail

$124.99
$124.99

Conclusion

Open your dictionary under the letter "Q", search for the word "quality", and you could just as easily put a picture of a Seasonic power supply. Seasonic offers a full set of modular cables, passive cooling below 20% load, and they do this while delivering very low ripple and noise results. With the X-560, Seasonic has created another market leader.

Starting with the connectors, Seasonic shows an instinctive feeling for different PC configurations we don't often find. The shorter peripheral cables with up to 50cm are perfect for HTPCs while the CPU and PCIe cables are long enough for larger cases. The FDD adapter is there if you need it. Even so, two 6/8-pin PCIe connectors are only average for a 560W power supply. Other manufacturers (e.g. Arctic Cooling with their Fusion 550) provide up to four PEG connectors. However, it's unlikely most users would need (or want) to power two high-end GPUs using all four connectors with only a 560W PSU, so this is only a small point of criticism. The X-560 has good-looking cable sleeving, a very long CPU cable (65cm), and moreover eight SATA connectors.

The most important advantages are the high-quality components. The SiC diode for PFC, MOSFETs with good characteristics, and a great line filtering stage are just a short part of what Seasonic provides. Since our sample came from a retailer, we're also happy to see that Seasonic is using quality Japanese capacitors in all of their "X-Series" products. In addition, the soldering quality is a feast for the eyes. Seasonic offers all important safety functions as well as an expensive flame-retardant PCB material.

With ripple and noise results below 30 mV, every enthusiast should be satisfied. +3.3V and +5V show less than 10mV while the load is below 20%. The voltage regulation is great as well. +5V has nearly no visible drop while +12V is always clearly above 12.00V. The fan might rotate quickly above 80% loads and generate some noise, but most GPUs (typically required to get a system to draw upwards of 300W) will end up louder than this PSU. More important is the ability for this PSU to run silent during low loads; if you write an email or use excel there will be no noise from the PSU fan, but you'll want to carefully select other components if silence is your goal.

Looking at online prices, $120 USD is a lot for a 560W PSU, but there's nothing that says lower wattage PSUs should be cheap, especially if they're 80 Plus Gold certified and deliver the quality of the X-560. We can see a clear difference between the previously tested Antec 550W ($90 USD) and the OCZ 550W ($70 USD) and the Seasonic X-Series 560W. The latest Seasonic is more efficient, has high output reserves, and comes with a long-life (and quiet) Sanyo Denki fan. Customers will have to decide if they need/want these features, or if they'd rather save a few bucks and snatch up an Antec or OCZ instead.