Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 stars450 watt model: Fanless: as quiet as it gets, highest efficiency, fully modular cables
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020
I used this to replace an older X series 750 watt Seasonic power supply that began to shut down unexpectedly a few months after outliving its 7-year warranty. Until then, it had performed flawlessly for more than 7 years. After using a spare supply to run some power-intensive benchmarks, I determined that the maximum AC power draw of my system was around 160 watts, so I selected the fanless 450 watt Titanium model as my replacement.
Like the old supply, this one has a fully modular wiring harness, but with the difference that all the cables are now black. While that looks nice, I found the color coding handy for identifying and orienting connectors. Other than the color change, the motherboard cable is similar looking to the old one, with individual wires protected by a fabric mesh covering, which is secured with shrink wrap tubing.
However, the new peripheral power cables are made from a sort of heavy-duty black ribbon cable which I find more difficult to route through my drive bay. They are also harder to orient, since they have no color coding. But I will replace the old cable anyway in case the old SATA power connectors have become brittle.
As would be expected, the new supply is somewhat more efficient than the old one due to the lower output rating (still more than 250% of maximum observed power consumption) and Titanium efficiency rating rather than Gold. Efficiency in "suspend" mode is also improved by about 10% even though USB connectors provide about 4 watts to keyboard, mouse and speaker. With the power supply switch on and the computer shut off, power draw is too low for my Kill-A-Watt (TM) meter to measure (less than 0.1 watt).
Despite the absence of a cooling fan in the supply, the temperature inside is only about 3C above room temperature (as measured with an infrared thermometer -- please don't use a metal one!), while the system is drawing about 75 watts.
