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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
69 Comments
View All Comments
marraco - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
"The Best PSU Ever" cannot have a noisy fan.cyberguyz - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
"The direct competitors include the already mentioned Enermax Platimax 750W / Platimax 850W and the Golden King Platinum design (Kingwin LZP-750) from Super Flower. The latter offering isn't just questionable in name, but the missing overcurrent protection and MOV are also a major drawback. As such, we wouldn't put that particular unit in the same category as the Seasonic; Super Flower products in general use cheaper quality."It was a reasonably good article tarnished by the reviewer's obvious hate for anything not Seasonic.
There is no taking away from Seasonic at putting out a kickass power supply. I like them so much I bought one myself and it is currently powering the system I am writing this on. But to unilaterally state something like "Super Flower products in general use cheaper quality." without posting quantitative data to back it up or "The latter offering isn't just questionable in name, but the missing overcurrent protection and MOV are also a major drawback" without actually looking at the reasons why they are not included (and there is one if you bother to look). Are these actually required on a power supply with a single large 12v rail (OCP is definitely a must for mutiple 12v rails to keep a power hog on one of them from burning out the limited rail)? For what? Please expand on why this is such a major drawback?
kensiko - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
Well said.It's not because Super flower produced cheaper power supplies that all their power supplies are cheap.
I hope Martin will think before making another statement as that.
Risforrocket - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Heck yeah I already bought one. So glad this review shows it to be as good as I thought it was going to be. All my power supplies have been Seasonic in recent years.cyberguyz - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
It is an excellent PSU. I replaced a Corsair HX850 with it (the Corsair was losing some of its regulation edge with age). So far I am really happy with its clean power delivery, tight regulation and efficiency (I hate waste).The downside is that it is a costly beastie but that is to be expected. It is after all one of the best available (yes there are others just as good) in that wattage range. Quality costs.
While I would not call this review objective, the product itself does merit some of the author's excitement. I would look to jonnyguru.com for more technical and objective power supply reviews though.
Cheers folks!
LintMan - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
It looks like Seasonic finally increased the length of the ATX12V/EPS12V cables a bit - but they're still too short!For many/most case and motherboard layouts these days, those cables need to be able to reach from the bottom-mounted PSU around behind the MB, up to the very top edge of the MB. Even in some mid-size cases, 65cm isn't long enough! My Seasonic X750 had 55cm cables and I had to buy a 15cm extension for it with my Antec P280 case, and even then it was barely long enough. These cables really should be 75cm to cover most non-jumbo cases.
shawkie - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Technically I'm talking about the 1kW version (SS-1000XP) and can't comment on the 860W version but it seems that the fanless mode is a complete lie. My PC has an i7 3770T (45W TDP) plus an SSD and an optical drive. I haven't measured it yet but even under full load I doubt it hits 100W. And yet its now idling in 22 degC ambient and the PSU fan is spinning. Its definitely in Hybrid mode and if I flip the switch it gets louder. Its really, really quiet but all the specifications say it should be "fanless" and "0 rpm" up to 30% load. If I'd known that wasn't true I would have got the 460W fanless instead.owen10578 - Sunday, December 18, 2016 - link
Im way late to the party but can anyone answer which connectors are connected to which 12v rails? Because I think my unit keeps on tripping if I load the CPU and GPU and the OCN guys said I might be plugging all my components to all one 12v rail.owen10578 - Sunday, December 18, 2016 - link
Im way late to the party but can anyone answer which connectors are connected to which 12v rails? Because I think my unit keeps on tripping if I load the CPU and GPU and the OCN guys said I might be plugging all my components to all one 12v rail.