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.
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emn13 - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Higher rated PSUs necessarily have reduced low-load efficiency, even PSU's as good as these. So it's highly unlikely the 600W fanless is a 1000W model minus the fan; that would significantly reduce the efficiency at low loads, which, given their aim with these models, I seriously doubt is a tradeoff seasonic would have been willing to make.SkipPerk - Wednesday, May 3, 2017 - link
Seasonic makes a 500W fanless unit, but it is simply a 1350W unit without the fan and some big heat sinks. Enermax also makes robust fanless units up to 500W, but they are basically the same high-wattage unit with the fan removed and larger heat sinks. You might as well buy a 1200W or 1350W PSU that does not spin up until it hits a certain wattage (usually 300W to 400W).Lolimaster - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
Considering they're titanium, most people just use 1 gpu and don't OC their cpu. They should launch more models, like 450-550w with fan.blahsaysblah - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Not that i wouldnt have minded getting one, but read the wiki on 80 Plus. Gold is plenty fine. Im very happy with my SFX Corsair SF450 PS that has never turned on its fan(GPU is GTX 1060 6GB). Never seemed hot to touch. A good GOLD PS seems to not generate enough waste as heat to matter. Its almost one year since using it in new PC.Of course its positioned nicely, big vent up, for convection, per fine print, and its right under a vent, SilverStone SG13B case. One 140mm fan upfront is only system fan. Its does not get noisy level RPMs either. (just get silverstone atx to sfx adapter that is vented, centers PS, dont get corsair one. last i checked a year ago...)
blahsaysblah - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
dang, no edit. i want to add, i made my own set of power cables(all) to de-clutter build. so my experience may be slightly different than yours.djscrew - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
Oh wow, the reviews are in and our product is exceptional. Now let's see if we can improve these margins! How would we go about that? Let's see... maybe we can find a manufacturer who can do it for less.surt - Sunday, April 9, 2017 - link
Online reviews are absolutely merciless when manufacturers do this, it has killed the sales of more than one vendor over the years. Remember OCZ?Solidstate89 - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
Interesting. Has Seasonic moved away from Sanyo Denki fans? I thought they used them exclusively?FriendlyUser - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
Great review as always. Having a good PSU is essential for the longevity of the components. I mean, what's the point of the 16-phase VRM design of your MB if you are feeding it crap power? And how far can you overclock your GPU if your 12V line is full of ripple and noise? The efficiency is the cherry on top.Being a very satisfied owner of a Seasonic Platinum 850W, the only reason I'm not buying the Prime is because the Platinum is already extremely good and it's powering my home server 24/7 for years now.
Lolimaster - Friday, April 7, 2017 - link
You should probably change for the 10-20% efficiency, which your server will run at most of the time.That's why lower than 600w Titanium PSU's are more important than useless 750-850w where low load efficiency is not as good.
Looking at the numbers you're getting 90% efficiency at near 35w load on the 650w vs 90% efficiency at 55w on the 850w model.