Seasonic G Series 650W Power Supply Review

Seasonic recently released a new range of power supplies targeting the cost conscious audience who want a quality product without paying premium prices. We have already looked at the 360W and 550W model before, but today we look at the higher capacity 650W model. Is it worth the asking price? The G Series has been designed by Seasonic to target a much broader audience who do not want to spend a lot of money on a quality supply. That doesn’t mean Seasonic are willing to compromise on quality however, because the 650W unit which we are reviewing today is 80 Plus Gold Certified with high grade Japanese components inside. Not only that, but the 650W unit is a modular design. In the United Kingdom today, this power supply retails for £99.95 inc vat. Specifications: 80 Plus Gold Certified DC to DC Converter Design Tight Voltage Regulations (±3%) Smart and Silent Fan Control High Reliable Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors Detachable Modular Cables High Current Gold Plated Terminals 12cm Ball Bearing Cooling Fan Ultra Ventilation (honeycomb structure) Mulit GPU Technology Support Universal AC Input 5 Year Warranty The Seasonic G Series 650W power supply ships in a nicely designed box, focusing on the letter 'G'. There is no image of the actual power supply on the box although there is the 80 Plus Gold logo bottom right. Seasonic bundle a case sticker, mounting screws, user manual, regional specific power cable and cable ties. They include a cable bag to store the modular cables. Always handy to have. The G Series 650W isn’t a pure modular design and a single thick cable emerges from the front of the chassis. This features the main M/B cable and an EPS12V/ATX12V cable. The modular cables are all ‘flat’ ribbon style, to help improve air flow. The G650 is the only unit in this specific range to feature 4 PCIE 6+2 pin connectors - ideal for a capable Crossfire or SLi configuration. The Seasonic G Series 650W Power supply is finished to very high standards. It is plain but therefore is perfect for inclusion in a variety of system builds. Negatively it does attract fingerprints quite easily. The unit passed our ‘screwdriver’ stress test, which involves running a Philip’s head driver down the side of the chassis with weak to modest pressure. How often have you accidentally hit a power supply with some tools during a system build phase? A large 120mm is showcased behind a black grill. No company branding on this, which is unusual. The modular cables all connect into a single panel on one end of the chassis. They are labelled and different sizes for ease of installation. The other end of the chassis is honeycomb vented for air flow. Next to the large vent is a Seasonic sticker, power connector and switch. The range of G Series units. The G650 can deliver 54A on the +12v output. Seasonic are using an ADDA AD1212MB-A70GL fan. This is a ball bearing unit rated at 0.33A/12V. This is identical to the fan used in the G550 and G360 unit. As we would expect the build quality is exceptional and it looks like an upgraded G550 unit, which makes sense. The non modular cables are sleeved into the chassis, protecting them against fraying long term. Filtering starts with an X Cap, four Y caps and a coil. On the main board is a TVS diode, two Y caps, an X cap and two coils. Soldering is high grade with no issues apparent on the main board. The daughtercard above holds the PWM controller, which is a ICE2HS01G. Solder quality is high also on the modular connection board. The primary capacitor is Nippon Chemi Con - a high grade Japanese model rated 420v 330uF 105c. All electrolytic secondary side capacitors are Nippon Chemi Con or Rubycon which is reassuring. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price. Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings recently – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions. We use combinations of the following hardware: • SunMoon SM-268 • CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs) • CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4) • Extech Power Analyzer • Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter • SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) • Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC) • Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA DC Output Load Regulation Combined DC Load +3.3V +5V +12V +5VSB -12V A V A V A V A V A V 152W 2.05 3.35 2.04 5.05 10.12 12.10 0.50 5.02 0.20 -12.06 270W 3.03 3.34 3.05 5.05 19.14 12.07 0.50 5.01 0.30 -12.06 400W 4.05 3.34 5.02 5.03 29.18 12.06 1.00 5.01 0.30 -12.08 523W 6.09 3.33 7.04 5.02 38.18 12.04 1.50 5.01 0.30 -12.07 650W 8.00 3.32 9.00 4.98 48.00 12.03 2.50 5.01 0.30 -12.09 Load regulation is very good across the output range. No concerns here. Seasonic G Series 650W Power Supply Maximum Load 733W The power supply would shut down at 733W, gracefully. The protection circuitry worked well. Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly. Cross Load Testing +3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5VSB A V A V A V A V A V 590W 1.0 3.35 1.0 5.05 48.0 12.00 0.2 -12.07 0.50 5.02 145W 12.0 3.31 15.0 4.96 2.0 12.12 0.2 -12.10 0.50 5.01 Cross load results are excellent. All rails held steady even when tasked with high load. We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum. ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide. ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance Output Ripple (mV p-p) +3.3V 50 +5V 50 +12V1 120 +12V2 120 -12V 120 +5VSB 50 Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard. AC Ripple (mV p-p) DC Load +3.3V +5V +12V 5VSB 152W 10 10 15 10 270W 10 15 15 10 400W 15 15 20 15 523W 15 20 30 20 650W 20 25 40 20 Ripple suppression falls within the rated tolerance guidelines. The +3.3V and +5V output peak at 20mV and 25mV respectively. The +12V output hits 40mV at full load which is well within the rated guidelines. Efficiency (%) 152W 87.45 270W 91.88 400W 90.67 523W 89.31 650W 88.74 Efficiency is very impressive – peaking around 92 percent at 50 percent load. At full load this drops to around 89 percent efficiency. We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 Player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Noise (dBA) 152W <28.0 270W <28.0 400W 31.4 523W 32.2 650W 33.9 The fan maintains a low level of noise throughout the range, only picking up over 500W load. In the last 100W of output it spins up quickly becoming clearly audible although not too intrusive. Temperature (c) Intake Exhaust 152W 36 39 270W 39 43 400W 42 47 523W 43 53 650W 45 56 The large fan spins slowly through the load range, spinning up between 500 watts and 650 watts. Maximum load Efficiency 733W 87.8 Pushing the power supply above its rated limits generates an ultimate efficiency level of around 87.8%. This is not a viable ‘real world’ situation, but its interesting nonetheless. Having reviewed several units in the Seasonic G Series already we expected good results from the G650 unit, and we weren't disappointed. These power supplies are almost seen as a budget range for Seasonic, even though they are semi modular and 80 Plus Gold Certified. Technically they are impressive and none of the units we have tested so far have exhibited any weaknesses or related concerns. Initially, the power supply won't leave much of an impression because Seasonic have opted for a plain black paint finish. That said, most people with side windows do like a black power supply as it will fit in with any colour scheme. The paint is deep and can withstand rough handling. Fingerprints are the only issue, but a quick clean with a cloth removes them easily enough. The unit was able to withstand quite extreme load variance and it could deliver over 730watts before shutting down. Seasonic do tend to over specify their power supplies which means they are capable of dealing with load peaks above their rated limit. Ripple suppression is very good, holding +3.3V, +5V and +12V well within industry rated tolerance guidelines. All of the other G series power supplies we have reviewed to date have only had two PCI E connectors, but this one has four. This means it can handle a powerful Crossfire or SLi setup without a reliance on adapters. You can buy the G Series 650W from ARIA for £99.95 inc vat. Pros: neat design. modular. quiet. can deliver 730 watts. Cons: A lot of competition around £100. Kitguru says: Seasonic deliver yet another quality power supply.