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Seasonic X-Series

birthdaymonkey

birthdaymonkey

Golden Member
I'm just wondering about the difference between the different Seasonic X-Series 80-plus gold rated PSUs. Currently on newegg, I can get an X-650 or X-660, or an X-750 or X-760. The *60 models are a bit more expensive than the *50 models and I think they're newer. Can anyone elaborate on the differences between these models?
 
I posted the same question for the author of Anandtech's X-560 review:

Question: I've always been a bit confused about the pricing of this model, which has been out for a while now. It's very close to the x650 in price (at least when the x650 is discounted, which the x560 never seems to be). Is the x560 actually higher quality than the older x650/x750 models?

Answer: It is. Well, not much. But the advantage is they have chosen better transistors. In addition the heatsinks for those SR transistors are larger now and the position of some components is different. Fine tuning.

Based on that answer, I just bought an x-650 today for $110 (code: EMCKGHE78), with free shipping, on Newegg. The x-660 is $160 plus shipping.
 
Just after I posted this I noticed that someone had just posted about the X-660 review on HardOCP.

i'm thinking I'll just go with the 560 anyway. I doubt I will ever go with a multi-GPU setup.
 
birthdaymonkey said:
I'm just wondering about the difference between the different Seasonic X-Series 80-plus gold rated PSUs. Currently on newegg, I can get an X-650 or X-660, or an X-750 or X-760. The *60 models are a bit more expensive than the *50 models and I think they're newer. Can anyone elaborate on the differences between these models?
Click to expand...

If you aren't doing anything serious with your machine get either the X 400 or the X 460 for dual PCI-E cables. If I didn't already have the X 650 I would opt for the 460w for my main rig.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
If you aren't doing anything serious with your machine get either the X 400 or the X 460 for dual PCI-E cables. If I didn't already have the X 650 I would opt for the 460w for my main rig.
Click to expand...

The X-560 doesn't have dual PCI-E cables?

It would be neat to have one of the fanless models, but I currently have a pretty power thirsty GTX-280 in there, and I'd like to push the OC on my i5 a bit more too.
 
Of the 400 vs the 460, the 460 has dual PCIe cables. If you get a 20$ appliance wattage reader, you'll be able to figure out what you need with better precision.

Rig 2 in sig, when i had dual 5870s, never came close to ??? 4-500w while gaming UT3, never... with the current setup right now, it only drawls 265-290w when gaming
 
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BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
Of the 400 vs the 460, the 460 has dual PCIe cables. If you get a 20$ appliance wattage reader, you'll be able to figure out what you need with better precision.

Rig 2 in sig, when i had dual 5870s, never came close to ??? 4-500w while gaming UT3, never... with the current setup right now, it only drawls 265-290w when gaming
Click to expand...

The problem with the 400/460 is that they are more expensive than the 650. That just doesn't seem like a wise purchase, unless you truly never want to hear a fan.

By the way, 265-290w with your rig sounds pretty low. I hit that with mine in BC2, and my components should suck down way less juice than yours. Must be because UT3 is a low load on the system.

I think most people would recommend at least 500w for your system, and I believe that wouldn't be "over-doing" it. Do you have an x-650 in that system as well?
 
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Termie said:
The problem with the 400/460 is that they are more expensive than the 650. That just doesn't seem like a wise purchase, unless you truly never want to hear a fan.

By the way, 265 with your rig sounds pretty low. I go over that in mine with BC2, and my components should suck down way less juice than yours. Must be because UT3 is a low load on the system.
Click to expand...

I have BC2, let me boot it up and see. BRB with an edit

EDIT: at idle with no power saving features on (recently turned this off) I went from 144w - 171w
BC2 sees an average of 363w
UT3 I am seeing an average of 300's (i need to start correcting this when i post my UT3 numbers) odd, ingame i see 300's, but in the ingame browser mode i see 364w

could have something to do with the GPU power saving features...

EDIT2: Furmark 1.8.2 I am hitting 452w
 
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BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
I have BC2, let me boot it up and see. BRB with an edit

EDIT: at idle with no power saving features on (recently turned this off) I went from 144w - 171w
BC2 sees an average of 363w
UT3 I am seeing an average of 300's (i need to start correcting this when i post my UT3 numbers) odd, ingame i see 300's, but in the ingame browser mode i see 364w

could have something to do with the GPU power saving features...

EDIT2: Furmark 1.8.2 I am hitting 452w
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. BC2 at 363 sounds about right for your build. That's about 70w higher than mine. Why'd you turn off power saving? Did you have problems with those settings? I will only OC if I can keep those on, because low idle power is critical to me.

What PSU do you have in the UT3 rig? I just bought the x650, and I'm looking forward to dropping my idle and load wattage by 10% versus my old Seasonic.
 
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Termie said:
Thanks for the update. BC2 at 363 sounds about right for your build. That's about 70w higher than mine. Why'd you turn off power saving? Did you have problems with those settings? I will only OC if I can keep those on, because low idle power is critical to me.

What PSU do you have in the UT3 rig? I just bought the x650, and I'm looking forward to dropping my idle and load wattage by 10% versus my old Seasonic.
Click to expand...

I am using an Enermax Revolution 950w revision that was revised to work with the EVGA 760 motherboard. I bought it before I bought my 20$ watt reader otherwise I would have 2 Seasonic X 650s. The 950w is actually decent and falls right in the sweet spot of the efficiency curve. The machine is only used for gaming so the idle watt consumption wasn't a priority over the gaming load watt consumption.

I turned off the bios power saving features from a BSOD - didn't do any trouble shooting just turned all of those features off and so far haven't had a BSOD.

Yeah, the benchmarks on the X 650 are amazing! 90% plus efficiency from 134w all the way to 588w and ripple suppression is very nice too :thumbsup:

If I do go for another PSU, maybe when I sell my other Revo 950, I'll probably either buy the X 400 or 460 (460 has dual PCIe cables, 400 does not)
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
Of the 400 vs the 460, the 460 has dual PCIe cables. If you get a 20$ appliance wattage reader, you'll be able to figure out what you need with better precision.

Rig 2 in sig, when i had dual 5870s, never came close to ??? 4-500w while gaming UT3, never... with the current setup right now, it only drawls 265-290w when gaming
Click to expand...

whats the aversion to buying a higher wattage PSU?

It will still only use what it uses.

Also most higher wattage PSU`s are just more efficient than lower wattage PSU`s.

I am sure that you can find an exception to what I just said.

But the fact is he might not need the wattage but it wont cost him anymore to get a nice PSU!
 
JEDIYoda said:
whats the aversion to buying a higher wattage PSU?
Click to expand...

It depends what the user is looking for, and what possibilities the machine will exercise in the future, and how the machine will be used, and if the user wants to be at the peak efficiency part of the curve, how efficient the user wants the PSU to be (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or 80+) and what quality of ripple suppression is in the user's interest.

Multiple GPUs now or in the future?
Gaming ONLY or multi purpose?
Gaming efficient or idle watt efficiency or the best of both?
What % of efficiency are they looking for?
A junk PSU used in an overclocked machine or a good PSU used in an overclocked machine?
and there is an order to making these decisions.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
It depends what the user is looking for, and what possibilities the machine will exercise in the future, and how the machine will be used, and if the user wants to be at the peak efficiency part of the curve, how efficient the user wants the PSU to be (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or 80+) and what quality of ripple suppression is in the user's interest.

Multiple GPUs now or in the future?
Gaming ONLY or multi purpose?
Gaming efficient or idle watt efficiency or the best of both?
What % of efficiency are they looking for?
A junk PSU used in an overclocked machine or a good PSU used in an overclocked machine?
and there is an order to making these decisions.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but you are trying to act like you know something when you know very little.
Regardless what you said above......
Say your system uses only 400 watts max.....
Both PSU`s made by same company.
yet you want to get the latest greatest 800 watt Seasonic PSU.
When you check the price of the 400 watt vs the 800 watt you find that for $20 more dollars you can get the 800 watt unit.

Now explain how any of the above would keep you from buying the 800 watt unit...excluding price...even though $20 is miniscue.

You say efficiency....as if every Tom dick and harry are looking at efficiency. Let me clue you in...the average user is NOT looking at efficiency.

People need deal with the fact that just because a system might only use at a max 400 watts, there is nothing wrong with purchasing that 800 watt behemoth!!
 
JEDIYoda said:
I am sorry but you are trying to act like you know something when you know very little.
Regardless what you said above......
Say your system uses only 400 watts max.....
Both PSU`s made by same company.
yet you want to get the latest greatest 800 watt Seasonic PSU.
When you check the price of the 400 watt vs the 800 watt you find that for $20 more dollars you can get the 800 watt unit.

Now explain how any of the above would keep you from buying the 800 watt unit...excluding price...even though $20 is miniscue.

You say efficiency....as if every Tom dick and harry are looking at efficiency. Let me clue you in...the average user is NOT looking at efficiency.

People need deal with the fact that just because a system might only use at a max 400 watts, there is nothing wrong with purchasing that 800 watt behemoth!!
Click to expand...

Basically, I agree with you on this. Yes, the 800 watt unit may not be in its efficiency curve if the system is only drawing 300 watts, but if the difference is only a few percent, it's not going to make a big difference over the course of a year anyway.
Myself, I don't like to ever load a PSU past about 75% max, and am more comfortable if I'm only drawing about 50% of the units rated capacity.
If the difference in price is fairly insignificant, I'll go with the larger unit almost every time.
 
Just installed my X-650. Efficiency is amazing compared to my old Seasonic S12 500w, which probably peaked at 80%.

Idle: Dropped from 87w to 76w (12% drop)
Load (BC2): Dropped from 296w to 265w (10% drop)

Fan doesn't turn on until I hit around 200w. Another bonus is that using the off-state power saving settings in the BIOS, I'm at 0w after shutdown, vs. 1w on my old PSU. Assuming there is some rounding on my Kill-a-watt, I'm at least below 0.5w, which is amazing.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
Nice! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Are you sure you don't want to grab another one of these for $110? Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...seasonic%20650

I just don't see the advantage of the 400/460. They don't seem to have better low-power efficiency that the 650.

400 review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=200

650 review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=169

Plus you still get low load silence. Is there something I'm missing? Just trying to get you a good deal!
 
No, the 650 is fine, love mine 🙂

For a daily user (non-game machine) with no overclocking and a few hard drives like Rig 1 in my sig, a lower watt PSU would work best for me.. The lower the PSU power, the earlier the efficiency starts... for example, my Enermax Revo 950 doesn't start to hit the peak efficiency plateau until after 190w. So at 99w, the % is more than likely low at that point.. the 460w should start to hart to hit 90% around 92w and going a little higher to my idle watts, it would more than likely hit that 92% ... ~ 2% isn't much but to me it is. For a gamer machine, this wouldn't be the best idea.
 
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