300W to 450W: 20 Power Supplies on the Test Bench
by Christoph Katzer on December 31, 2008 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Seasonic SS-400ET 400W
We also brought in an OEM version of Seasonic's line up. It comes with the same housing as the S12II but in normal grey. In fact, this unit is almost the same as Seasonic's retail versions, just without a fancy package, painting, cable sleeving, and shorter cables. Unfortunately, these units are not much cheaper which means you can save a few bucks but you won't get the nicer appearance or warranties.
We apologize for the vast amounts of dust you can see on the pictures but this power supply ran quite some time in the office PC of our lab before we decided to include it in this roundup. We see again the same design as the Seasonic S12II, PC Power & Cooling Silencer, and Silverpower units. Surprisingly we found a Chemi-Con capacitor in the primary and Ostor caps in the secondary. The fan is again made by Adda.
The OEM Seasonic 400W is surprisingly well equipped with a 4-pin and 8-pin connector and a 6-pin PEG connector at decent lengths. However, all of the peripheral connectors are short, which means you had better have a chassis where the PSU is mounted in the top and not the bottom. It will be easier (possible) to reach the components this way.
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7Enigma - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
That is a heck of a lot of work for this article and we appreciate it immensely! Between this article and the upcoming mid-range builders guide (I'm begging...please get it out asap) you have reaffirmed for me this is the #1 site.Thanks again.
TheDoc9 - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
The breakdown of the cable connectors and the build quality descriptions were helpful. The power noise charts look useful as well.mino - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Copy that, one of the best PSU roundups around.magreen - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
We definitely appreciate the roundup. It addresses our needs as consumers. I wish you'd add more info about the Antec Earthwatts 430 though... it's one of the most popular PSUs on the forums here and always shows up for cheap in the hot deals section, often bundled with an Antec case. Wish you'd give us more details on its efficiency, ripple, and your overall take. I don't think you actually said anything about its performance at all. Thanks!OddJensen - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Isn't there a Delta made version of the 430 as well?Christoph Katzer - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Yes which we didn't have.Christoph Katzer - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.a...">http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.a...Here's the original review from a year ago. Even though I didn't mention it in the conclusion I think you have a great comparison with the respective graphics towards the end. :)
donjuancarlos - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
Thanks for this article. I am one of those who does modest OCing and no SLI, and this article was pertinent for me.eetnoyer - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
No temperatures at load? I would think that temps at 100% load for each unit shouldn't be too much. Just as a worst-case thing.