Introduction and Features

Seasonic has recently upgraded their Fanless 400/460/520 PSUs to 80Plus Platinum status with even better performance and a 7-year warranty.

Seasonic was one of the first manufacturers to offer a fanless PC power supply and they just keep on getting better! In their relentless pursuit to continuously improve their products, Seasonic has recently upgraded the Fanless 400/460/520 units from 80Plus Gold to 80Plus Platinum status while delivering even better performance and backed by a 7-year warranty. We will be taking a detailed look at the all-modular Platinum-460 Fanless power supply in this review.

Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless 460W Power Supply

80Plus Platinum The Platinum Series Fanless 400W, 460W, and 520W power supplies are certified in accordance to the 80PLUS organization's highest standard, offering the newest technology and innovation for performance and energy savings with up to 92% efficiency and a true power factor of greater than 0.9 PF.

Seasonic Patented DC Connector Panel with Integrated Voltage Regulation Module The Seasonic Platinum Fanless power supplies feature an integrated DC connector panel with onboard VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) that enables not only near perfect DC-to-DC conversion with reduction of current loss/impedance and increase of efficiency but also a fully modular DC cabling that enables maximum flexibility of integration and forward compatibility.

Full Modular Design (DC to DC) Seasonic’s Patented Fully Modular Design offers ease of installation while minimizing voltage drops and impedance and greatly maximizes efficiency and cooling to enhance overall performance and reliability.

Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless PSU Key Features:

• 80Plus Platinum certified super high efficiency (up to 92%)
• Fanless operation (0dBA)
• 7-Year manufacturer's warranty
• Fully Modular Cable design with flat ribbon-style cables
• Seasonic DC Connector Panel with integrated VRMs
• DC-to-DC Converter design
• Tight voltage regulation (±2%)
• Multi-GPU technology support
• Conductive polymer aluminum solid capacitors
• High reliability 105°C Japanese made electrolytic capacitors
• Ultra Ventilation honeycomb structure
• Dual sided PCB layout
• High capacity +12V output
• High current Gold plated terminals with Easy Swap connectors
• Active PFC (0.99 PF typical) with Universal AC input

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 Platinum Series Fanless 460W 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)
 

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