Are Seasonic power supplies reliable?

[Talon20]

I was looking at modular power supplies and saw a 520w power supply made by Seasonic for $54.90 USD on Newegg. I couldn't find other power supplies of the same type in that price range. I need to know if this would be a reliable power supply for my build.

[Lurick]

If you're talking about the S12II then not really, there are much better PSUs out there for about the same price or less.

CX550M is pretty solid or the CX (2017) series from Corsair are solid.

 

For solid PSUs anything from Tier 1 to 3 for the most part is good from this list.

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

In general, Seasonic is reliable (one of the few brands/OEMs that you can actually recommend as a whole). 

 

They don't have any particularly bad units at least, though some are mediocre. Then again, around that price I'd advise looking at the Corsair CXM series, they're often the best quality at that sort of price.

[Talon20]

the power supply model is the M12II

[seon123]

1 minute ago, Talon20 said:

the power supply model is the M12II

Same thing, and just as crap. It's just modular. There are better options when buying new

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, Talon20 said:

the power supply model is the M12II

Yah, the M12II and S12II aren't the greatest and you can get better for about the same price.

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, Talon20 said:

the power supply model is the M12II

It's okay, but not great. Have a look for a Corsair CX550M, it's better quality and should be around the same price. 

 

EDIT: CX550M for $65, down to $45 after a MIR. 

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139147&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

EDIT2: Or $60 from Amazon if you don't like MIRs.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B72W0A2/?tag=pcpapi-20

[STRMfrmXMN]

1 hour ago, Talon20 said:

the power supply model is the M12II

Was pretty good in it's day, but it's old and expired now.

 

Get a Corsair CX450/550.

[breixobaloca]

No PSU Manufacturer is reliable because all have good and bad models. Check by model. Is this model reliable? Not Is this brand reliable?

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, Talon20 said:

I was looking at modular power supplies and saw a 520w power supply made by Seasonic for $54.90 USD on Newegg. I couldn't find other power supplies of the same type in that price range. I need to know if this would be a reliable power supply for my build.

1. That one is shit.

2. In Forums you see many failed Seasonics

3. That one is 8 years old, without any noticable updates, on the earlier versions Seasonic even lied on the Label and printed something about two +12V Rails when there clearly is none -> no OCP anywhere. Not even on minor rails.

4. Loud under load.

 

In short, its shit for the Price.

 

Especially if you can get for like 4 bucks more a PSU that is just soo much better:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817376009

[Biggerboot]

Seasonic G-Series/Focus has that classic "Seasonic reliability", and is about $15-20 more.  

For the same money, I agree with the CXM recommendations, although I can say I personally had one fail on me.  Even Tier 3 PSU's aren't immune to failing, but they sure as heck won't kill your parts.

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, Biggerboot said:

Seasonic G-Series/Focus has that classic "Seasonic reliability", and is about $15-20 more.  

I really don't understand what you are talking about??

And depending on who you ask, it means different things....

And wasn't Seasonic the worst one in that RMA statistics that french site regularly does??

[Biggerboot]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

I really don't understand what you are talking about??

And depending on who you ask, it means different things....

And wasn't Seasonic the worst one in that RMA statistics that french site regularly does??

In my experience and research they're very reliable, though if I'm being honest that's not based on experience with the units I mentioned.  Their platforms are in a lot of Corsair and EVGA rebrands too.  I'd have to see the RMA stat for myself, but there could be a number of factors that play into that.  They have an OEM presence too, so if that's included then I'd expect they do more RMAs than some worser PSU makers.

[Stefan Payne]

44 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

In my experience they're very reliable.

Yes and how many PSU do you have??

 

People working at shops probably won't agree with you.

And what I've seen so far, many people are very unhappy with the fans in the Prime...

 

Quote

  Their platforms are in a lot of Corsair and EVGA rebrands too. 

That's just an absolutely false.

 

They were used in many Corsair PSU in the past, but that was around 10 Years ago or so. But Corsair switched to CWT and stuck with them. So today most Corsair PSU are made by CWT, some Great wall and a few from Flextronics. 

But today there are only two models available from Corsair: AX760 and AX860, wich are ancient and overpriced. The Rest is NOT from Seasonic.

 

As for EVGA they had the GS550 and 650 - wich were garbage, burned VRMs when overloaded - and something in the 850W+ Range. Not much else

EVGA has 54 models listed right now:

https://geizhals.de/?cat=gehps&xf=818_EVGA

 

Corsair has listed 69 models right now:

https://geizhals.de/?cat=gehps&xf=818_EVGA

 

I don't see many Seasonic there, your claim that its in "a lot" of both of them is just false. And you should have known it and looked it up....

 

More:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page2293.htm

Seasonic: 5

Super Flower: 33

FSP: 14

HEC: 17

 

So out of all PSU from EVGA, only five were ever made by Seasonic and the next one (FSP) has a factor of almost 3 times as much models as Seasonic.

 

Quote

I'd have to see the RMA stat for myself, but there could be a number of factors that play into that.  They have an OEM presence too, so if that's included then I'd expect they do more RMAs than some worser PSU makers.

Just accept the fact that Seasonic isn't as awesome as you make them out to be, that there are many people unhappy with them and that they don't do much OEM Stuff with the more interesting manufacturers like Corsair, Cooler Master, be quiet, EVGA and others these days.

[Biggerboot]

8 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Just accept the fact that Seasonic isn't as awesome as you make them out to be, that there are many people unhappy with them and that they don't do much OEM Stuff with the more interesting manufacturers like Corsair, Cooler Master, be quiet, EVGA and others these days.

Appreciate the info, thanks.

[Stefan Payne]

3 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

Appreciate the info, thanks.

Sorry, if I'm a bit harsh to you.

And I know that there are many people on the Interwebs that claim that Seasonic is the best and its not easy to get the Infos if you don't know where you have to look or what for to get the infos...

 

 

 

 

And there are many places with this misinformation out there, wherever that came from...

The Problem with the Internet is that most of the things that are talked about are just ancient, older than you can imagine. And things change but the rumors don't...

 

The Image Seasonic has right now is because they were one of the first to make somewhat decent PSU for Consumers - after Enermax of course...

And they also were one of the first with 80plus Gold units on the Market...

 

Other manufacturers like CWT, FSP and the big OEMs like Liteon and Delta (who can make the real good stuff!) are barely noticed...

And people believe strongly that if you do something yourself it has to be better than if you let other people do the stuff you want for you...

 

In reality there are companys that don't even want the consumer stuff and only do B2B or only in certain areas (like Asia Pacific Region and not much else)...

 

 

And those that specialized in that do whatever you want - they only attach a price to it but they might even do a better job than you yourself could do...

[Biggerboot]

13 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Sorry, if I'm a bit harsh to you.

And I know that there are many people on the Interwebs that claim that Seasonic is the best and its not easy to get the Infos if you don't know where you have to look or what for to get the infos...

Even if it was harsh there still was some insight there, so again thx.  I'm not afraid to admit my comment on Seasonic may have been complacent and based on approximate or outdated info.  I remember Corsair could do no wrong till they released the early CX units, because they wanted to venture into lower end consumer stuff. 

 

When it comes to the selection over in my neck of the woods, it's still easy to fall on Seasonic or Corsair when telling a newbie what PSU they should get, because the worst they can do is mediocre.

[Crunchy Dragon]

On 5/3/2018 at 2:55 PM, Lurick said:

CX550M

I second this. The CX550M is a great unit.

[JoostinOnline]

On 5/3/2018 at 1:55 PM, Lurick said:

If you're talking about the S12II then not really, there are much better PSUs out there for about the same price or less.

Not being the best option and being unreliable are very different things.

[awesomegamer919]

On 5/5/2018 at 12:44 PM, JoostinOnline said:

Not being the best option and being unreliable are very different things.

True, though the M12/S12II are missing important protections (OTP, OCP) so they are still shitty units...

[JoostinOnline]

1 hour ago, awesomegamer919 said:

True, though the M12/S12II are missing important protections (OTP, OCP) so they are still shitty units...

That doesn't make them shitty. It makes them lesser options.

[Stefan Payne]

2 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

That doesn't make them shitty. It makes them lesser options.

Wrong

It makes them Shitty

Because the most important thing is that PSU doesn't go up in flames when something goes wrong. 

 

Here an example what could happen with the Seasonic, as it does NOT have UVP on +12V!

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/artikel/hardware/netzteile/29916-enermax-triathlor-eco-650w-und-lepa-maxbron-700w-im-test.html?start=3

 

6V on +12V at 100A...

Yeah, that totally does not make a decet/OKish PSU shitty/garbage, absolutely...

As for minor rails, look here:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-07/cooler-master-cougar-xfx-zalman-netzteil-test/3/#abschnitt_schutzschaltungen

 

XFX XT500 (zweite Revision) is the S12II-Bronze varriant. 5V falls to 3,94V and 3,3V falls to 1,8V before anything hppens. 

In the overload test scenario, the voltages are garbage at at only 13% overload!

 

I'd call that XFX thing extremely shitty and if you complain about "but its not Seasonic", look here:
https://www.hardwareinsights.com/seasonic-energyknight-ss-350et-t3-the-cheapest-seasonic-unit/

 

Not much better either.

And Protection IC is: HY-510N!

[breixobaloca]

I'm pretty sure that if these units were made by another manufacturer, no one would consider them good units 

[JoostinOnline]

3 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Wrong

It makes them Shitty

Because the most important thing is that PSU doesn't go up in flames when something goes wrong. 

 

Here an example what could happen with the Seasonic, as it does NOT have UVP on +12V!

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/artikel/hardware/netzteile/29916-enermax-triathlor-eco-650w-und-lepa-maxbron-700w-im-test.html?start=3

 

6V on +12V at 100A...

Yeah, that totally does not make a decet/OKish PSU shitty/garbage, absolutely...

As for minor rails, look here:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-07/cooler-master-cougar-xfx-zalman-netzteil-test/3/#abschnitt_schutzschaltungen

 

XFX XT500 (zweite Revision) is the S12II-Bronze varriant. 5V falls to 3,94V and 3,3V falls to 1,8V before anything hppens. 

In the overload test scenario, the voltages are garbage at at only 13% overload!

 

I'd call that XFX thing extremely shitty and if you complain about "but its not Seasonic", look here:
https://www.hardwareinsights.com/seasonic-energyknight-ss-350et-t3-the-cheapest-seasonic-unit/

 

Not much better either.

And Protection IC is: HY-510N!

Basically "it's shitty because another model similar to it is shitty, although I can't provide an example of this specific model going into flames."

 

For like the fiftieth time, I am NOT recommending the S12II, nor do I recommend something because it's Seasonic (and eww on that last model you linked), but "not good by today's standards" and "shitty" are two different things. Given your regular desire to start flame wars (I remember when you started every damn post with "why do you lie and say..."), I won't respond anymore. Troll away.

[comicsansms]

40 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Basically "it's shitty because another model similar to it is shitty, although I can't provide an example of this specific model going into flames."

 

For like the fiftieth time, I am NOT recommending the S12II, nor do I recommend something because it's Seasonic (and eww on that last model you linked), but "not good by today's standards" and "shitty" are two different things. Given your regular desire to start flame wars (I remember when you started every damn post with "why do you lie and say..."), I won't respond anymore. Troll away.

One, many brands use the same PSU as the S12II, just has a different case design and sticker on the side, which includes the models that  Stef mentioned. 

 

Two, catching fire, so causes your house to burn down and being shitty are 2 very different things.

 

That POS doesn't have over current protection, so will put it's entire capacity of the PSU over one rail. You know why over current protection exists? So if a short circuit occurs, your components do not burn out (or catch fire) because of a very high current travelling through them. Even if the high current draw isn't because of a short, the computer will not be happy with the low voltage.

 

The S12II isn't some magic supply that is good because of its brand, because it really isn't. It's the same level of shit, but PSUs have improved a lot, pushing it further and further down the not good list.

 

The High Current Game is a slightly modified S12II, it has a decent sense Chip. So actually supports over current protection and shit like that, making it a far superior supply. If Seasonic hasn't cheaped out, the S12II would be a decent unit, but alas they did.

 

Also, the S12II platform is a group regulated supply, so even if in specced but unexpected current draws occurred (low 12V draw, but high 5V draw), every rail coming from that PSU will be outputting out of spec voltages, which isn't good. However, that problem occurs in a lot of entry level power supplies.