Seasonic G-Series 450W PSU Review

Reviews
By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published

Seasonic's G series consists of reliable, high-performance PSUs. Today, we're reviewing the G-450 with 450W capacity, which features a semi-modular cabling design.

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the G-450's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test12V5V3.3V5VSBPass/Fail
18.1mV6.8mV9.7mV8.5mVPass
28.8mV8.0mV9.8mV10.1mVPass
310.8mV7.3mV10.5mV11.4mVPass
412.0mV8.0mV11.0mV12.2mVPass
513.0mV8.6mV10.8mV14.0mVPass
615.1mV9.9mV11.1mV13.9mVPass
717.0mV11.5mV11.7mV15.2mVPass
819.2mV19.9mV12.6mV15.7mVPass
921.4mV20.1mV13.1mV16.3mVPass
1024.7mV21.9mV13.2mV18.0mVPass
1126.4mV23.7mV13.4mV18.4mVPass
CL111.1mV9.7mV8.7mV12.9mVPass
CL223.4mV18.4mV9.2mV16.4mVPass
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Ripple suppression is excellent on all rails; Seasonic did a fine job here. Some users may say that Super Flower's implementations are better in this area. However, we are satisfied with the G-450's ripple suppression.

Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). The bigger the fluctuations on the screen, the bigger the ripple/noise. We set 0.01V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V) as the standard for all measurements.

Ripple At Full Load

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Ripple At 110-Percent Load

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Ripple At Cross-Load 1

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Ripple At Cross-Load 2

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

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18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    0.4 ohm Rdson is not that bad for primary-side FETs where switching losses tend to be much worse than on-losses.

    Also, FETs with better on-resistance usually have larger gate charge, which means you end up needing more gate drive power to achieve the same switching performance. Saving 3W on full-load on-losses does not sound as good if it costs you 2W in gate drive regardless of load.

    Using FETs with lower on-resistance does not necessarily improve overall efficiency by much.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Good read. I personally have the 550W version of that PSU and it works very well. Very quiet too, however my entire system doesn't go beyond 350W at max load.

    BTW...The 550W version is usually only $3-$5 more than the 450W. I've never seen the price change either, so it is a bit silly to buy the 450W version if the 550W is always only $5 more.
    Reply
  • Dunlop0078
    I also have the 550watt version, its been going strong for about two years now its very quiet even under load I think I pull about 450watts or so when I have all my overclocks applied. It has been totally stable not a single problem with my PC or the psu since I bought it.

    However I think the price should be lowered a bit for the 550watt version because now it has to compete with the likes of the EVGA 550 G2 which is about the same price but it seems to perform a bit better and comes with a 10 year warranty.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    16760449 said:
    I also have the 550watt version, its been going strong for about two years now its very quiet even under load I think I pull about 450watts or so when I have all my overclocks applied. It has been totally stable not a single problem with my PC or the psu since I bought it.

    However I think the price should be lowered a bit for the 550watt version because now it has to compete with the likes of the EVGA 550 G2 which is about the same price but it seems to perform a bit better and comes with a 10 year warranty.

    10 year warranty!!?? I've been using EVGA graphics cards for years now, I think ill start buying EVGA PSUs now. :D
    Reply
  • Dunlop0078
    16760449 said:
    I also have the 550watt version, its been going strong for about two years now its very quiet even under load I think I pull about 450watts or so when I have all my overclocks applied. It has been totally stable not a single problem with my PC or the psu since I bought it.

    However I think the price should be lowered a bit for the 550watt version because now it has to compete with the likes of the EVGA 550 G2 which is about the same price but it seems to perform a bit better and comes with a 10 year warranty.

    10 year warranty!!?? I've been using EVGA graphics cards for years now, I think ill start buying EVGA PSUs now. :D

    Actually im wrong on that its a 7 year warranty for the 550watt model (still very good in my opinion) the 750watt g2 and above have the 10 year.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    I know Seasonic is good and an OEM to PSUs for Corsair and whatnot, but I was an unlucky one. My 620W S12II crapped out on an older backup rig after about a year of light use, maybe 250 hours. Unfortunately I voided the 5-year warranty when I had to break the screw seal and open it to get a screw out that accidentally fell in (PC was unplugged when that happened). I figured I'd never need to worry about dealing with a warranty RMA anyway since in nearly 20 years of PC building I've never had one die early on me. WRONG.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    16760681 said:
    I figured I'd never need to worry about dealing with a warranty RMA anyway since in nearly 20 years of PC building I've never had one die early on me. WRONG.
    Murphy strikes again!
    Reply
  • Blueberries
    This PSU isn't bad but I don't see why anyone would want to pay in the $70's for it when there are gold-- almost platinum rated Leadex PSUs for $80-$90.

    The build quality is what I've come to expect from SeaSonic. Very well built with mostly Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors. Rubycon is also a good brand, and I like to see Infineon MOSFETs in PSUs. This PSU should last forever but isn't very efficient compared to similarly-priced competition.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    16760497 said:
    16760449 said:
    I also have the 550watt version, its been going strong for about two years now its very quiet even under load I think I pull about 450watts or so when I have all my overclocks applied. It has been totally stable not a single problem with my PC or the psu since I bought it.

    However I think the price should be lowered a bit for the 550watt version because now it has to compete with the likes of the EVGA 550 G2 which is about the same price but it seems to perform a bit better and comes with a 10 year warranty.

    10 year warranty!!?? I've been using EVGA graphics cards for years now, I think ill start buying EVGA PSUs now. :D

    Yeah, aside from the fantastic quality, that was another reason I purchased the G2 over any other PSU.
    Reply
  • tsnor
    "... Seasonic doesn't use a fully modular design in its G series to keep production costs low. Of course, it would be nice if the company changed its strategy and went all-modular on its G-series models since many competing PSUs are, in fact, fully modular...."

    Or maybe they
    (1) know that people will always use the permanent cables that power the MB
    (2) know that two less connectors is a good thing for product reliability
    (3) want to ship a product for people like me that prefer this configuration to a fully modular configuration
    Reply