Introduction and Features

Seasonic’s new S12G Series delivers solid performance at a user friendly price.

We have been reviewing Seasonic power supplies for over ten years here at PCPerspective and they have never failed to impress us. Seasonic is also one of the few companies that actually builds their own power supplies (along with supplying units to numerous other big-name brands). Seasonic has built a stellar reputation for producing some of the best PC power supplies on the market today. In their ongoing pursuit to continuously improve their products, Seasonic has recently introduced the S12G Series, which includes four models: S12G-450, S12G-550, S12G-650, and the S12G-750 that we will be taking a detailed look at in this review. Here are a few of the highlights offered by the new S12G Series power supplies.

• 80Plus Gold certification

• Standard all in one, flat black cabling

• High +12V Output

• Smart and Silent Fan Control (S2FC)

• S12G-750/650: PCI-E 8P/6P x 4, SATA x 10, 4P Molex x 4, FDD x 1

• S12G-550/450: PCI-E 8P/6P x 2, SATA x 8, 4P Molex x 3, FDD x 1

• Worldwide 5-Year Warranty

The S12G Series is targeted towards gamers and PC enthusiasts who want solid performance at a user friendly price. To accomplish this Seasonic has designed the S12G Series on the same basic platform as many of their premium products but has forgone a few features like modular cables and fanless operation for price conscious consumers. Retail prices are currently ranging from $79.99 USD for the S12G-450 to $109.99 USD for the S12G-750 (newegg.com, November 2013).





Here is what Seasonic has to say about the new S12G Series: “The S12G Series is the newest addition to Seasonic’s families of award winning retail products, representing the latest innovation of our engineering team. To meet the demands of users who are looking for reliable 80Plus Gold performance for gaming and overall usage, the S12G Series is designed to support Intel’s Haswell processors, features more SATA cables and is an affordable solution for a wide range of applications.”

Seasonic S12G Series Key Features:

(Courtesy of Seasonic)

PSU Testing Methodology

Establishing an accurate load is critical to testing and evaluating a PC power supply. PCPerspective’s power supply test bench can place a precise DC load on the PSU under test. Each power supply is tested under controlled, real-world conditions up to its maximum rated load (at 40ºC), using both 115 VAC and 240 VAC line voltage. Our current suite of tests includes:

• DC Load Regulation

• AC Ripple and Noise

• Efficiency

• Differential Temperature

• Noise

The Seasonic S12G-750 power supply was evaluated on both features and performance. A full range of equipment was used to test the power supply under controlled load conditions.

• (2) CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)

• (4) CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)

• (2) 200W Precision resistor load bank (+12V5 and +12V6)

• Switchable precision resistor load bank (-12V and +5VSB)

• Agilent 34401A digital multimeter (Accuracy ±0.0035% vDC)

• Extech 380803 Power Analyzer (Accuracy ±0.5% of full scale)

• DS1M12 "StingRay" digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)

• Powerstat Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA, 0-140 VAC

• Extech Model 407738 digital sound level meter (Accuracy ±1.5 dB)