Seasonic Prime TX-1600 ATX 3.0 Titanium Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing Methodology and Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Seasonic have just released a new range of power supplies in the PRIME TX range, in both Platinum and Titanium efficiencies. While they sent us some other Platinum units, today we test the company's flagship 1600W Titanium model which is priced at a somewhat staggering 550 euros / 480 pounds.

The Seasonic PRIME Titanium range is certainly fully populated now, with 1600w ATX 3.0, 1300w ATX 3.0, 1000w, 850w, 750w and 650w units available, alongside both 700 and 600 Fanless options.

As we would expect this supply is a fully modular design, equipped with a large fluid dynamic bearing fan, gold plated high current terminals, and a full suite of OPP, OVP, UVP, OCP, OTP and SCP protections.

This unit is priced at an eye watering 549.90 euros or £480 of our King Charles pounds. Married men need not apply.

Watch Leo's unboxing of the Platinium unit on youtube!

Feature highlights:

• High efficiency – 80 PLUS® Titanium and Platinum certified
• Cybenetics ETA Titanium and Lambda A (TX-1600) and A- (PX-1600)
• ATX 3.0 and 16-Pin PCIe Gen 5 Cable (12VHPWR)
• MTLR (Micro Tolerance Load Regulation) @ 0.5 %
• Premium Hybrid Fan Control – Fanless until 40 % system load
• Top-Quality 135 mm Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) Fan
• Super low ripple noise (25 mV)
• Cable-free connection design
• High end components and design
• Gold-plated high current terminals
• Highly reliable aluminum electrolytic solid capacitors
• Protection features: OPP, OVP, UVP, OCP, OTP, SCP
• 12 years warranty (industry leading).

Seasonic PRIME box artwork is very distinctive – with some details of the unit along the right side of the box.

The bundle includes a pouch with all the cables inside, along with a user manual on the product, cable combs, case badge, PSU tester (which doubles up as a 90 degree adapter), mounting screws and a variety of cable ties and velcro cable ties.

As with the earlier version of this unit, the Seasonic cable quality is high and they should appeal to a wide audience in regards to appearance. Seasonic supply two 12VHPWR connectors on dedicated cables. If you want to run a lot of storage drives, then the 18 SATA connectors will sure tick the right boxes!

The unit is supplied with a C19 power cable. We do like these recent braided cables from Seasonic – they look fantastic.

The TX-1600 follows the Seasonic styling ethos in recent years for their PRIME series of supplies – a colour neutral black with chrome accenting.

We reviewed a very small 130mm footprint FSP Hydro PTM X pro 1200W last week (HERE), but this Seasonic power supply is massive. This unit measures 150mm x 85 mm x 210 mm (W x H x D). It's critical you check first that your chassis is able to accommodate this monster.

A large fan is hidden behind the grill – we will look at the fan shortly when we open the unit up.

The modular bay for this unit is cleanly laid out and labelled to ensure its straightforward to follow. The other side of the chassis had a power connector, power button and hybrid mode button.

Got beef? Yes, that is 133.33A via the +12V rail. No doubt, this is a powerhouse of a supply.

Inside the power supply is a Hong Hua fan, marked HA13525H12SF-Z – a favourite with Seasonic and many other brands. This is a 135 Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) fan, which you can disable under lower load situations with the switch on the back of the unit.

Seasonic say their cable free connection design helps reduce production errors during manual insertion. The Seasonic design is well thought out and perfectly executed from the ground up. Soldering quality is high on the PCB and there are several small rows of heatsinks to keep temperatures in check.

Seasonic are using a full bridge topology inside this power supply with an LLC resonant converter alongside a bridgeless interleaved PFC. The power for the 12V rail is created via 16 FETs. The minor rails are generated by a pair of DC to DC converters.

Titanium efficiency levels will certainly help reduce unwanted heat internally as well. We are pleased to say that the build quality throughout represents what we would expect from a flagship Seasonic design. Soldering quality is also extremely high across the board.

Seasonic are using high grade 105C Japanese capacitors throughout the design, with high grade Nippon Chemi Con caps making up the primary stage. Three massive 420v 820uF capacitors deliver a total of 2460uF. This is significantly higher uF than the 2022 version of this supply which we reviewed back in September 2022 (HERE). Due to this massive capacity we noticed Seasonic have used dual NTC thermistors with 20ohm x2 resistance. These are installed on a vertically mounted board into the main PCB to save horizontal foot print.

The previous version of this power supply that we reviewed in 2022 was not ATX 3.0 compatible, with a peak 2000W limit. This version has upgraded power delivery, primary stage capacitors and is capable of a 3200W peak delivery.

It is very densely populated with a lot of components crammed inside, with a few large heatsinks in various positions – clearly to help reduce temperatures inside the chassis, and the need to spin the fan up to compensate. We all want as little noise as possible.

All in all this is a very impressive design and despite the massive physical size of the unit, it is crammed with components across the board.

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
• Extech digital sound level meter
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

12V output is single rail for our testing.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
500W	7.63	3.33	8.82	5.01	36.05	12.02	1.5	5.01	0.30	-12.02
750W	12.63	3.33	14.12	5.01	52.06	12.02	2.0	5.01	0.30	-12.01
1000W	17.75	3.32	20.00	5.01	72.25	12.02	2.5	5.01	0.50	-12.02
1250W	18.84	3.32	24.04	5.00	90.14	12.01	3.0	5.01	0.60	-12.01
1500W	18.87	3.30	22.64	5.00	115.90	12.00	3.5	5.00	0.80	-12.01
1600W	10.00	3.29	10.00	5.01	125.00	12.00	3.5	5.01	0.80	-12.02

Load regulation is stellar, even when delivering the full 1600 watts of power.

Seasonic TX-1600 Titanium PSU	Maximum Load
	1895W

We managed to get the PSU to achieve 1895W before it would shut down, delivering 295W more than the rated specifications.

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
1150W	3.0	3.33	2.0	5.02	92.0	12.00	0.2	-12.03	0.50	5.01
250W	20.0	3.31	24.0	5.01	5.0	12.01	0.2	-12.03	0.50	5.01

The Seasonic TX-1600W Titanium Power Supply produced class leading results in the cross loading test. It exhibited no discernible weaknesses in any of the testing.

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
500W	5	10	10	15
750W	10	10	10	15
1000W	10	10	15	15
1250W	10	10	15	15
1500W	10	10	15	15
1600W	15	10	20	15

Great ripple suppression results throughout the testing, showcasing how good the design is.

Efficiency (%)
500W	93.83
750W	95.72
1000W	96.21
1250W	95.41
1500W	94.54
1600W	94.29

Overall efficiency is excellent, peaking over 96% at around 50% load.

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 Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 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 Refrigerator
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)
500W	28.0
750W	28.7
1000W	32.4
1250W	33.3
1500W	35.1
1600W	35.9

The fan in this unit performs well, and even at higher load levels, the pitch is never too intrusive. Under most situations noise levels will be masked by system fans.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
500W	36	38
750W	37	43
1000W	42	48
1250W	46	52
1500W	48	53
1600W	50	56

The large fan copes with the heat inside the chassis, spinning more actively as the load increases above 1,000 watts.

Maximum load	Efficiency
1895W	93.85

At 1895W, the efficiency level is still good, measuring 93.85%. Not a practical situation to be running 24/7, but worth noting.

This latest Prime TX-1600 ATX 3.0 Titanium power supply continues the long-running streak of top quality designs from Seasonic. The unit is heavy when you lift it out of the box, and at 210mm long it is not going to fit into every case design on the market. Internally it is densely packed with components, and Seasonic have not cut any corners either with the choice of components.

Technically, this unit excelled in our testing. Ripple suppression is tight, and load regulation falls within 1% across the rails. It coped perfectly fine with our cross loading test and was able to achieve maximum efficiency levels in excess of 96%. Unlike some other power supplies we have tested recently, this unit is whisper quiet until over 1kW of power is demanded, and this point alone will appeal to an audience of high level enthusiasts.

The fully modular design, high levels of efficiency, low noise, and immense levels of high quality power will satisfy even the most demanding person, and with such quality comes a high asking price. At around £480 in the UK (550 euros), it's going to be a select few who can afford it. I actually don't think it is excessively priced – considering 2023 prices for processors and graphics cards and when you factor in that this power supply will likely last 2-3 future builds.

It's a good decision to spend as much as you can on the best unit you can afford. High quality components aren't cheap and we admire Seasonic for their continued investment into making the best possible power supplies money can buy. Buying a cheap, substandard power supply is one of the worst things you can do because we guarantee it will give you never-ending problems.

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Pros:

• Highly efficient.
• Within 1% load regulation
• Very Quiet – even at high load demands.
• 105C Japanese Nippon Chemi Con capacitors.
• High quality internal design.
• 12-year warranty.
• Stellar performance.
• Fully modular.
• FDB fan is quiet.
• Plenty of high quality connectors with good spacing.

Cons:

• Nothing really, but be prepared to pay for it.

KitGuru says: The Seasonic Prime TX-1600 ATX 3.0 Titanium is without a doubt one of the best power supplies on the market. If you can afford it, you won't find anything better.

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