Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Power Supply Review

The Prime TX-1600 is Seasonic's flagship power supply.

Reviews
By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published
Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Editor's Choice
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Seasonic made a point with the TX-1600, that it can create high-performance PSUs without using complex, digital circuits. Analog circuits still have life in them, but we are not sure for how long, considering the crazy requirements of the ATX 3.0 spec for every PSU featuring 12VHPWR connectors. 

Having proper protection features and being able to deliver twice the maximum power, for short periods, is challenging, especially for high power units like the TX-1600. This is why Seasonic had to derate it for ATX 3.0 compatibility and states that this unit meets Intel's newest design guideline up to 1000W only. Despite that, the TX-1600 comes with a pair of 12VHPWR connectors, which can handle up to 600W each. Testing aside, it will be interesting to see if the TX-1600 can handle the upcoming GPUs and why not, a pair of them. 

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The primary opponents of the Seasonic TX-1600 are the Asus Rog Thor with similar capacity, which stays behind in overall performance, registering a win only in noise output. At the same time, the Corsair AX1600i remains the performance king several years after its release. Seasonic's engineers did a fantastic job on this platform, but we expect them to continue working on it to make it fully ATX 3.0 ready. Moreover, it is high time for Seasonic to enter the totem-pole PFC train and introduce a digital platform able to take the lead from the AX1600i. 

The TX-1600 achieves top performance while keeping noise output low, utilizing a conventional platform proven to be super reliable. We get it. Why mess with something new when you can achieve such results with the technology you know best? But as we see it, digital circuits are the future for PSUs. 

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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • watzupken
    Not unexpected coming from the Seasonic Prime series. However, the lack of ATX 3.0 is going to affect its take up rate. Most people buying a 1.6K W PSU are likely enthusiasts that will want the latest and greatest. This is great, but clearly not the latest.
    Reply
  • escksu
    1600W is definitely overkill for most. For the rest of us, a good 600-800W will be sufficient.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    Every single time people think that Seasonic will have to go with digital circuits to reach requirements they figure out how to do it with analog circuits. It is amazing that they are able to get the same or better performance using analog circuits compared to most other high end PSUs using digital circuits.
    Reply
  • infopcX
    Thanks very much for review, amazing work !!!

    can we say that this is the second best source money can buy? just behind the Corsair AXi 1600 ?

    power factor could be better, in practice compared to the AXi would be imperceptible? would even values below 1% in efficiency be relevant? I say in practice

    I would like to know how much we could extract from the Seasonic source? up to 110% Load seemed pretty stable, could we go further with it?

    12 years warranty is a plus


    Best Regards,
    Reply
  • BoredErica
    infopcX said:
    Thanks very much for review, amazing work !!!

    can we say that this is the second best source money can buy? just behind the Corsair AXi 1600 ?

    power factor could be better, in practice compared to the AXi would be imperceptible? would even values below 1% in efficiency be relevant? I say in practice

    I would like to know how much we could extract from the Seasonic source? up to 110% Load seemed pretty stable, could we go further with it?

    12 years warranty is a plus


    Best Regards,
    ax1600i is more aggressive with fan curve vs Seasonic.
    Reply