Seasonic Prime Titanium 650W PSU Review

Seasonic jumps onto the 80 PLUS Titanium wagon with three new units that belong to its Prime family. The 650 W model is under our scope today. Besides high efficiency, it also offers great performance, quiet operation, and nice looks.

By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published

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Packaging, Contents, Exterior, And Cabling

Packaging

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The SSR-650TD arrives in a large box featuring a nice silver background. Up front, we only find the product's capacity, the series description, an 80 PLUS Titanium badge, and mention of the 10-year warranty. Up in top corner, three logos advertise some awards that Seasonic earned recently.

On the sides of the box are technical and power specification tables, along with a photo of the SSR-650TD. Finally, around back, several paragraphs describe this PSU's strong points, including tight load regulation (micro tolerance load regulation, as Seasonic calls it), the 135 mm FDB fan, semi-passive operation, good ripple suppression, and the extended hold-up time, which exceeds 30 ms according to Seasonic.

Contents

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The outer sleeving hides a box with a nice black glossy finish. Seasonic pays a lot of attention to detail, which doesn't surprise us since this series is its flagship. Inside, the PSU is protected by packing foam; it's also wrapped in a nice cloth bag.

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A smaller box contains all accessories, including a set of Velcro straps, a case badge, several zip ties, fixing bolts, a Prime sticker, the modular cables, and the AC power cord.

Exterior

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The Prime PSUs feature a distinctive looks thanks to their unique fan grille. On the front, we find the AC receptacle, the power switch, and a spring-loaded push button that activates (or deactivates) the semi-passive mode.

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On the sides are two nice grilles that look like the ones sports cars have on their sides. They're probably mostly aesthetic, but we still like them.

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Around back, the modular board is the only part of this PSU's external design that doesn't look particularly impressive. Seasonic should probably use some colored sockets here.

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We appreciate the good looks and high-quality finish, though we weren't expecting anything less from such an expensive Seasonic PSU. The Prime units don't follow the external design cues of Seasonic's previous models, demonstrating the company's effort to present something totally new.

Cabling

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All cables used darkened wires, and they're all flat except for the main ATX one. Since Seasonic doesn't install capacitors on the modular cables to reduce ripple, we can't help but wonder why it didn't flatten the ATX cable as well.

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

48 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bharatwd
    60 Ampere of inrush current is too high for 230 V countries. Wont that damage the other parts in the pc?
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    It won't damage anything in the PC since it doesn't have to do anything with the PSU's secondary side. High inrush currents apply stress to the electrical infrastructure (switches, relays etc.)
    Reply
  • bharatwd
    Hi Aris, thanks for the reply..............So it will basically hurt the PSU components itself?
    Reply
  • josejones
    "Haswell Ready" ??? How about SkyLake or the soon to be released KabyLake ready?
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    My mind is blown. This is a great unit and I'm happy to see the transient response performance was good. HardOCP's testing on one of the Prime Titanium units shows not-so-good transient response performance.

    Whoops accidental upvote above.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    Nope it won't hurt the PSU, just the breakers and electrical circuits before it will be stressed a bit.

    Haswell ready: I was thinking to change this to S6/S7 compatible. Probably the time has come for this to happen.
    Reply
  • bharatwd
    Thanks for the reply Aris........10 years warranty will be fun if the current inrush is at 60+ Ampere :) especially in India :)
    Reply
  • Virtual_Singularity
    Excellent review. Impressive work/effort by Seasonic as well. Curious to see how the other units in this new line stack up to this one. Haven't seen HOCP's review yet, but there has been some variance in others, but still seems like a solid effort on Seasonic's part.

    With no capacitors in the cables, can't see a reason not to flatten the atx connector as well. I guess the sleeved atx connect look has become somewhat traditional. Not a criticism by any means, just saying.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    18563170 said:
    Excellent review. Impressive work/effort by Seasonic as well. Curious to see how the other units in this new line stack up to this one. Haven't seen HOCP's review yet, but there has been some variance in others, but still seems like a solid effort on Seasonic's part.

    With no capacitors in the cables, can't see a reason not to flatten the atx connector as well. I guess the sleeved atx connect look has become somewhat traditional. Not a criticism by any means, just saying.

    On Jonnyguru Oklahomawolf likes the ATX cable to be sleeved and the others to be ribbon; this is because 24 wires can sometimes become difficult to manage in ribbon style versus sleeved. That's just his thinking at least, and I sort of understand where he comes from with that. If it's ribbon style that also makes it an extremely wide cable, whereas if it is sleeved it's more narrow for better cable routing and then widens up at the end.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    I find round sleeved cables much more difficult to manage, and the reason why many builders sleeve there own cables or use extensions. OTOH, the plain flat cables are just fugly, you can get the best of both worlds with flat, individually sleeved cables. Individually sleveed cables, with cable combs, offer the optimal combination of aesthetic choice and easier cable routing.


    I don't really understand the big "ooh wow" about Titanium rates PSUs; all it is is a "green" energy consumption rating and unless you pay well above the average US utility costs, you'll never get a positive ROI. What I don't understand is why "PSUs and cables" aren't offered as a "bundle". I hate paying a quality set of cable and then leaving them in a box. I'd like to see some PSU manufacturer "step up" and and say offer every PSU with a $xx coupon for a set of cables. The value of the coupon would cover the basic cable set so it would essentially come free with the PSU. OTOH, if you wanted to move up to a, individually sleeved set, you would only have to pay the difference between the base set and the set of your choice

    http://www.frozencpu.com/products/18823/psu-cab-50/Corsair_Professional_Series_Individually_Sleeved_DC_Modular_Cable_Kit_Type_3_Generation_2_-_White_CP-8920050.html?tl=g2c413s1599
    Reply