The Seasonic PRIME Titanium PSU (650W, 750W, 850W) Review: Mythical Performance
by E. Fylladitakis on April 7, 2017 9:00 AM ESTConclusion
In this review we had a look at Seasonic’s latest top series, the PRIME Titanium 650W, 750W and 850W PSUs. They are not the most powerful models on the market designed for quad-GPU beats, but they are the technologically best units that Seasonic is currently offering to consumers.
It is slightly ironic to label these units as Seasonic’s “technological pinnacle”, because they are not using any of the latest “leading” topologies or technologies. As a matter of fact, their core topology is relatively common and simple; just a typical input bridge converter and APFC circuit, a resonant LLC full bridge on the primary with synchronous rectification on the secondary. It is a configuration that we have seen many times in the past, yet no other designer before Seasonic has ever reached such performance figures with it.
Seasonic made it easy for us to summarize the entirety of these units’ performance in just one word: mythical. The very high efficiency that easily broke the 80Plus Titanium certification requirements with 230V AC input was a small surprise at first, but surprise turned to shock when we began testing the units inside our hotbox. Not only the high ambient temperatures hardly shook the efficiency of the units, the power quality and voltage regulation figures were just incredible.
The AnandTech Recommended Award
For the Seasonic PRIME Titanium Series
Before testing these three units, we would not believe that such performance would be possible with a consumer-grade PC PSU.
In terms of quality, Seasonic did not hold back at all. We found only top-tier quality components in the PRIME Titanium PSUs, even down to the least significant elements of the design. The fact that the three units that we have tested display almost indistinguishable performance under the same load conditions suggests that there are no discrepancies due to component characteristics. Seasonic covers the PRIME Titanium units with a 12-year warranty, which is more than reassuring. The only small issue here is that the designer had to sacrifice some acoustics performance to ensure that the internal temperatures of the units will remain very low, even under very adverse operating conditions.
So perhaps the only real enemy of the new Seasonic PRIME Titanium series is their own retail price tag. Seasonic aims to be the best vendor with their OEM designs, and it all comes at a cost. With the 650W, 750W and 850W units retailing for $160, $175 and $200 respectively, many regular users will be satisfied with the performance of an “average” 80Plus Gold certified unit that will cost half as much, or even less. With all that being said, the retail price of these three units is not forbiddingly high - super high end PSUs reaching 1200W and above can come in at similar W/$.
But for these price tags, you get one of the most stunning PSU designs available today, combined with high efficiencies and a long warranty to back it up.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
86 Comments
View All Comments
nagi603 - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
Let's hope their eventual redesign won't be as bad as the X-series redesign was. I've had two fail (1 blew on first power-on, the other after half a year) while my original X-400 is still happy as ever after running out of its warranty, regularly driving ~400W of components.Freakie - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
In contrast, my 2nd gen X-750 has run like a champ for the last 4 years. My system also doesn't pull more than 450W so I keep the PSU power draw in the sweet spot which is why I got the 750W instead of the 650W.feelingshorter - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
I had the X-650, bought when it first came out in 2010 and used it in a computer that i rarely turned off until Jan of 2017 when I sold it. I payed $120 for mine at the time. But the competition is stiff and people are price sensitive, they do not want to hear why they need a PSU that expensive. I can imagine the company had to find ways to reduce costs on the X series, resulting in failures.I believe the PRIME Titanium series offered here represents the best the company can offer and we already know the company can produce a quality product, and quality costs money. The PRIME Titanium, at $160 shipped represents what the X Series was when it first came out.
azazel1024 - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
They certainly appear to be awesome power supplies. I just wish someone would focus on the low power market for ATX power supplies. I realize as a heavy user, my rigs are rather lightweight, mostly because I have heavy use, but not rigorous gaming. My Desktop running a GTX750 and i5-3570@4GHz sips 122w with an Antec Earthwatts PSU under both gaming and Handbrake loads. I could probably push it up over 140 or 150w with something like furmark, but that doesn't represent a realistic load case. That is with a couple of HDDs, an SSD, 16GB (4x4) GB or DDR3 1866. No, not the most ridiculous system ever, but even if I slapped in something like a 1060 or whatever it is doubtful I'd push the system beyond about 250w.My server is running a Celeron G1610, an SSD and a couple of HDDs with 8GB of DDR3 (2x4GB) and an Intel ET GbE adapter. It sips 19w at idle with the drives spun down, 31w streaming to my AppleTV with the HDDs spun up and about 50w under max CPU load all with a Seasonic SSR-360GP.
Realistically most gamers probably don't even need something with more than about 400w of delivered power and most mainstream users/systems are looking at <200w peak. For some of these lightweight builds it would be really, really nice to see some high efficiency systems in ATX form factors that were targeted more at 100-200w range.
Even my Seasonic SSR-360gp as nice as it is, only manages about 75% efficiency at 19w and its power factor is about .72-.74
mjeffer - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
While I agree 100%, it would be really nice to see some extremely high quality, lower wattage PSU, from my understanding it's a lot easier for them to hit higher efficiency ratings with higher power PSUs. However, I'd sacrifice the titanium efficiency for a lower power supply with the same top notch components throughout. I'd even pay good money for it. Sadly anything around 400W-500W is generally more focused on price than quality though some of the OEMs like Seasonic do make better ones in that range than you can find in your other brands.Mr Perfect - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Yeah, it's the same thing down in the mITX space. My i7 + 1060 ITX is only pulling ~120ish watts while gaming. Something in the lower wattage range, and preferably in a SFX form factor, would be well suited. Other companies make them, but not in Seasonic's quality range.If I remember correctly, a Seasonic rep used to post comments on reviews of their products here, and he stated that they couldn't source 80+ Gold quality capacitors that would fit in SFX PSUs. I wonder if that's changed in the last few years.
SkipPerk - Wednesday, May 3, 2017 - link
I want to say that Enermax and Seasonic have high-end 400W units that are platinum rated. They are not cheap, but they are really nice. I want to say I saw a review of them compared, but I forgot where. Many of the high-end low power systems are fanless.Chapbass - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
These units seem really cool, but the thing I really want to see is the 600w fanless unit. Wanted a fanless power supply for a long time.bji - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
I understand your point of view, as I also appreciate fanless. However, just keep in mind that very few builds are going to stress these power supplies to a point where they'll even turn the fan on. I have a Seasonic 650W from years ago and I am not sure the fan has ever even spun up.JasperJanssen - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Keep in mind the 600W fanless is probably just the 1000W model, minus the fan. Or maybe one of the others, but either way, it'll just literally be one of the other models minus the fan. *Possibly* with larger heatsinks, but I wouldn't count on it.