Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Seasonic G-Series: G-550 Power Supply Review

The Seasonic G Series PSU is here for review in its 550 watt capacity and it looks to be a return to basics for the company with this being basically a "no-frills" unit that has been released without much fanfare. But the basics for Seasonic usually outline what you truly need in a PSU; reliable clean power with a low sound profile.

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Load Testing

For those of you that are curious as to some of the reasoning and equipment behind our PSU testing program here at HardOCP, we have put together a living document that shares a lot of the behind the scenes of the program. The testing we are conducting today is exactly as described in that document and will begin with a range of loads tested at 120v input including our torture test and then move on to the same set of tests at 100v input but without the torture test.

100v Load Testing Results

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Test #1 is equal to approximately 25% of the rated capacity of the Seasonic G-550 at 45c. This makes Test #1 equal to 149W by loading the 12v rail to 10a, the 5v rail to 2a, the 3.3v rail to 1a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. The results of Test #1 show all the positive DC output rails starting off above nominal just as they did at 120v. The efficiency for this unit is starting off lower than what we saw at 120v, as expected, with a value of 84.07% and an exhaust temperature of 50C.

Test #2 is equal to approximately 50% of the rated capacity of the Seasonic G-550 at 45c. This makes Test #2 equal to 279W by loading the 12v rail to 20a, the 5v rail to 3a, the 3.3v rail to 2a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #2 sees the same across the board drops in the DC output voltages that we saw at 120v. Once more, the 3.3v and 5v rails have dropped by 0.01v while the 12v rail has moved down by 0.02v. The efficiency has moved up to 88.23% while the exhaust temperature has moved up to 51C.

Test #3 is equal to approximately 75% of the rated capacity of Seasonic G-550 at 45c. This makes Test #3 equal to 408W by loading the 12v rail to 30a, the 5v rail to 4a, the 3.3v rail to 3a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #3 once more sees the 12v rail drop by 0.02v while the 5v rail drops by 0.01v. The 3.3v rail stays even with its Test #2 value. The efficiency in Test #3 at 100v moves up over Test #2’s value as it comes in at 89.57%. The exhaust temperature has also risen to 53C in this test.

Test #4 is equal to approximately 100% of the rated capacity of the Seasonic G-550 at 45c. This makes Test #4 equal to 554W by loading the 12v rail to 41a, the 5v rail to 6a, the 3.3v rail to 4a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. In the final regular test at 100v, we see the 12v rail moves down by the same 0.04v we saw at 120v and the minor rails move down by up to 0.02v. At the same time, the efficiency has dropped to 87.93% with an exhaust temperature of 54C.

100v Load Testing Summary

The 100v load testing results for the Seasonic G-550 are excellent just like was the case with the 120v results. The voltage regulation is again excellent with the 12v rail showing the same 0.08v change as before followed up by the 5v/3.3v rails showing the same 0.03v change as before. With the efficiency we see that, as expected, it does trail that of 120v testing with a range of 84.07% to 89.57%. The exhaust temperature peaks at 64C which is a slight increase over the 120v test results. All in all, these are outstanding results again and place this unit in the same relative position compared to other units we have tested as the 120v test results did. Let’s move on the Torture Test now.