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

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.  

Our protection features evaluation methodology is described in detail here.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Protection Features
OCP12V: - 5V: 27.2 A (136%) 3.3V: 26.1 A (130.5%) 5VSB: 4.2 A (140%) (4.1 A @ 91.64 mV ripple)
OPP925.19 W (142.3%)
OTPYes (111 °C @ secondary heat sink)
SCP12V: Yes 5V: Yes 3.3V: Yes 5VSB: Yes -12V: Yes
PWR_OKOperating properly
NLOYes
SIPSurge: MOV Inrush: NTC & Bypass Relay

The minor rails' OCP triggering points look like they're set correctly, though that's not the case for the 5VSB rail, where a small load increase of only 0.1 A leads to very high ripple. To make this more clear, the ripple measurement is under control with 4 A load at 5VSB. But with just 4.1 A, ripple suppression goes south with a reading of over 90 mV. Seasonic should set the 5VSB's OCP triggering point 0.1 A lower to fix this problem.

The SSR-650TD delivers up to 925 W load with all of its rails staying within the ATX standard's specifications. This is a clear indication that Seasonic's platform uses components stronger than it needs. We had to use our trusted heat gun to figure out the OTP's triggering point, which is set close to 110 °C, on the secondary heat sink.

The rest of the protection features work properly, and the platform is also equipped with the necessary parts to safeguard against surges and large inrush currents.

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