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.

Tom's Hardware Verdict

The new Seasonic Titanium platform is awesome! The 650W Prime model offers amazing performance in all areas and super high efficiency. Hands down this is the best 650W unit money can buy today and on top of that it is dead silent, even under worst case scenarios.

Pros

  • +

    Full power at 47°C

  • +

    Efficient

  • +

    Ripple suppression

  • +

    Load regulation

  • +

    Hold-up time

  • +

    Silent

  • +

    Build quality

  • +

    Fully modular

  • +

    4x PCIe & 2x EPS connectors

  • +

    Selectable semi-passive operation

  • +

    FDB fan

  • +

    Warranty

  • +

    Looks

Cons

  • -

    Price

  • -

    3.3V rail performance in Advanced Transient Response tests

  • -

    Inrush current with 230V input

  • -

    Distance between peripheral connectors

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Seasonic SSR-650TD Power Supply Review

During this year's CES, Seasonic shared many details about its flagship Prime line-up, which includes three product families with 80 PLUS Titanium, Platinum, and Gold efficiency ratings. The Titanium range will include five members with capacities ranging from 600 W to 1 kW, and the lowest-capacity model will feature fanless operation. The Platinum Primes will number five in total between 650 W and 1.2 kW max power. Finally, there will be as many Gold Prime models as Platinum ones, covering the same capacity range. According to Seasonic's roadmap, all Prime models, 15 in all, will be available by the end of this year.

Aside from the Prime family, Seasonic plans to introduce a more budget-oriented one called Focus. There will be two Platinum Focus units, with 550 W and 650 W capacities, and four Gold ones with 450 W to 750 W maximum power. If all goes as planned, the Focus units will be released some time before 2017.

As you can see, Seasonic is quite busy. It's making the necessary preparations for a strong comeback, not only in the high-end space currently dominated by Super Flower, but also in the mid-range segment more interesting to budget-minded enthusiasts. 

The 750 W and 650 W Titanium Prime models are already available, and soon the 850 W version will surface as well. For now, we're reviewing the 650 W SSR-650TD. Aside from high efficiency, this PSU also promises increased reliability thanks to its Japanese caps and fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) fan. According to Seasonic, the Hong Hua cooler has a lifetime of 40,000 hours at 40 °C. Compared to the specs of other FDB fans, that's not particularly impressive. However, most fan vendors rate their products at much lower ambient temperatures, which isn't representative of a power supply's real-world internal conditions.

The SSR-650TD's other performance highlights include a hold-up time that Seasonic claims exceeds 30 ms, an improved transient response for the +12V rail, ripple that doesn't surpass 20 ms on any rail, and tight load regulation. Seasonic says its Prime units only have 0.5% voltage drops on the primary rails, a performance level we don't even see in the high-end category very often. Even better is the 10-year warranty. This is the first time we've seen Seasonic cover a product for so long, showing that the company clearly trusts its newest platform.

Specifications

Besides Titanium-class efficiency this Prime unit also has a 50 °C temperature rating for continuous full power delivery, and it is covered by a complete set of protections. Modular cabling is considered a necessary feature for every high-end PSU nowadays, and the FDB fan is a big asset when it comes to reliability. The semi-passive mode can be disengaged through a push button on the front side of the PSU, should you prefer normal fan operation. Finally, the dimensions of the Titanium Prime models are a little larger than normal; this model is 17 cm deep.

Power Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Rail3.3V5V12V5VSB-12V
Max. PowerAmps20205430.3
Watts100648153.6
Total Max. Power (W)650

The single +12V rail can deliver the unit's full power alone, while the minor rails are limited to 100 W maximum power output. Fortunately, that's enough for any modern system. At least the 5VSB rail is a little stronger than most, offering 15 W capacity.

Cables And Connectors

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Modular Cables
DescriptionCable CountConnector Count (Total)
ATX connector 20+4 pin (610 mm)11
4+4 pin EPS12V (650 mm)22
6+2 pin PCIe (675 mm+80 mm)24
SATA (460 mm+120 mm+120 mm+120 mm)14
SATA (360 mm+120 mm)12
Four-pin Molex (460 mm+120 mm+120 mm)13
Four-pin Molex (360 mm+120 mm)12
FDD Adapter (+101 mm)11

All provided cables are long enough, and this is the first time that we see a PCIe cable with its first connector installed at a longer distance than the EPS connector. However, we don't mind at all. The only negative we can find is the short distance between peripheral and SATA connectors, which can lead to compatibility problems in some cases. In our experience, you want at least 15 cm between them. Finally, all of the cables use standard 18-gauge wires.

Power Distribution

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to say about its power distribution.

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • 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