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The X-Series 460W Fanless Power Supply is another quality design from Seasonic, which we have seen used in other partner products such as the Silver Power SP S460FL a couple of months ago.
The bundle is particularly strong, specifically the modular cabling with dual pouch storage bag. Seasonic also bundle a plethora of felt and plastic cable ties to ensure the system build is as tidy as possible. We aren't sure that the end customer will get the Seasonic branded Haribo chewy sweet packets, but they gave us a smile when we opened the box.
The modular cables are high grade, with sleeving to enhance the appearance inside a quality system build. The 4+4 pin CPU power cable runs to 650mm and will be ideal for the largest of chassis environments.
The power supply is well protected during shipping, thanks to the sculpted foam and soft, black felt bag. The paint work is excellent, and the modular cable connectors are nicely laid out and clearly labelled.
Technically, the design is exceptional. Noise suppression is as good as we have seen, peaking at just 25mV on the +12V rail at full load. The +3.3V and +5V output are just as impressive, peaking at 10mV/15mV respectively.
The fanless operation and pure modular design makes this power supply ideal for a media center build, or high grade, silent office machine. The excellent efficiency performance also ensures that the system can be left on 24/7 without excessively draining power at the socket.
This is a specialised design and there will be always be a price premium, you can buy it from Scan for £116.95 inc vat.
Pros:
- Great finish.
- Strong bundle.
- Good cabling.
- Pure modular design.
- Silent.
- Technically very capable.
- High Efficiency.
Cons:
- Expensive.
Kitguru says: Seasonic rarely disappoint, and this particular design will find a home in many a high grade media center and server system.
Great design, but wow thats expensive. 850W are under £100 now.
Not much wrong with this, good efficiency, silent, nice bundle.
They make some great designs, id say 75% of the worlds best PSU designs are seasonic.
One slight problem which is made worse considering its intended application…
Many HTCP/cube cases sit the PSU against the side/top, assuming that the built in fan will push the hot air out of the back. This means that the top of the PSU is placed against a side/top panel with little to no gap (to save space)
As this PSU’s top panel is vented, and needs to be at the top, the side/top panel on the case will block it causing unsufficient ventilation. This means that the PSU can only really be used in more modern tower cases where the PSU is at the bottom.
This seems to me to be somewhat contrary to the intended use, don’t you think??
Hi Martin. You make a very good point. It would depend greatly on the specific chassis design and the air flow of the system. There may be some small physical case designs as you say that might have the top vented panel of the PSU partially blocked.
Hi Z
It wouldn’t be able use in my case for example. OK, it’s a cheap ‘cube’ case, similar to the Thermaltake Armor A30 but without the top fan. The PSU is set at the top of the case, tight against the roof. Also, take a look at the Antec Fusion Remote, the PSU is in it’s own ‘chamber’ (along with the 5.25 drives) with no top venting. And you can’t use this at all with most of the Silverstone Lascala’s and Grandia’s. They have the PSU set on it’s side so it’s a no go.
I don’t mean to do down what is clearly a very good PSU. I’d dearly love to have a fanless PSU in my HTPC.
It seems the only waypossible to use this though is to take a drill/saw to the top of most HTPC cases to create a vent and thus turning what you’s plan to be a pretty box sitting under your TV in to an eye-sore.
I guess much of my complaint is aimed at the case manufacturers that assume that the PSU will have it’s primary vent pushing air out of the back. They ought to have realised, seeing as fanless PSU’s have been around for a ling time, that HTPC case owners might want to use one and factored that in to their desins.
Sorry, I’ve just re-read that and realised I’m ranting a bit! I’ll put that down to my frustration at not being able to get my HTPC quiet enough!
Thanks for the great review!
Its actually a good point and I never thought about the problems as we are generally so focused on the design and performance, rather than the partnering cases available. Something like this would definitely need the vented top directly accessible to air and as you say a fan based PSU would be a safer option with restricted case designs.
There are some other higher output power supplies such as Corsair 750w and 850W models which don’t actually spin the fan until a specific power output is met, therefore in a low powered media center they would be silent, even when loaded (as long as the long variable is inside the limit for silent fan use).
Seasonic told us:
1. The 400/460FL is actually based on the X-850 platform so it can withstand quite a bit of abuse.
2. We have many customers put the PSU on its side without any heat issues because most HTPC system requirements is actually very low.
3. As well, so long as there is air flow movement within the case to the outside, it is enough for the PSU, especially due to the actual low consumption of most HTPC systems.
4. The FL series are all with OTP protection so when Temperature of critical components reaches a certain point, the PSU will shut down to protect itself.
5. All our X & P are hybrid Fanless with differences on to when the fan kicks in at what load points.
Caught one on sale for $100. Placed it upside down in a Lian Li PC V 351 with the side vents taped over so all the case air outflows through the ps. AMD A8 for HTPC. Sits behind TV . I never hear the fans and the outflow is barely warm.
I thought I read somewhere this is an X-750 without the fan. I have used other PS’s but now I only use Seasonics, never had a failure and voltage is rock solid over years of use.
I have read that such a PSU may annoy with a long pi sound, because this is difficult to create such a device. I am curious whether are many product returns? I am looking for a new PSU in vain. I think about buying a Thermaltake, but maybe such a device without a fan would be better?
PC24.de offers it for a pretty good price (although I should check it on Amazon).
I don’t want to send it back and have other troubles if it is not reliable enough.