SeaSonic M12II 650 SS-650AM 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Semi-modular Power Supply

Pros: -DC-to-DC conversion, huge fan of this... Love the idea and how Seasonic executed this.
-Quality - Seasonic seems to deliver high quality components even if their website and customer service are shotty
-Modular
-Good price

Cons: -Loud

Alright, so I had this in my computer for all of 15 minutes before finding out what a couple of other reviewers were talking about, I'm surprised this isn't widespread. The computer was silent upon booting, so much so that I was impressed. I right away tried stressing it with Prime95 and furmark. I don't have an extreme system, a AMD 8350 and a AMD 7870 for a graphics card. I understand this powersupply ramps up when it goes under load... that is a bit of a understatement.

Within about a minute of starting those tests it went from near silent to jet engine loud. The rest of the components in my system were running cool as always... and quiet as I have custom fan speeds setup and this just blew everything away. It was pushing and sucking more air then I think all the other fans in my system combined were doing. It's not just loud, it's unberably loud. Louder then all my other fans when I ramped them up to 100% which they're never at.

Okay I thought, this is a simulated load and wouldn't be representative of normal computer use. So I removed the load (p95 and furmark) and waited for the fan to spin down... and waited... and waited. It took about 10 minutes before the fan returned to a semi-normal level. Waaaay too long as all my other fans spun down after the heat and load level were gone in about 15 seconds.

The funny thing is, it never returned to it's quiet state even after the load was completely gone... I tried power cycling the computer, that did nothing. I tried removing the power and plugging it back in, that also did nothing... It turns out I had to leave the computer off for around 15 minutes before the fan would reset to it's quiet state, regardless of load and heat levels. This was very aggrivating...

But I persisted. I then fired up the computer in it's quiet state and left it like that without touching it. Within about five minutes the fan spun up to the 'normal' level it was after I tried p95 and furmark earlier. Alright I thought... Maybe this is just normal and it is indeed tolerable...

So I fired up Guildwars 2 to simulate a normal load and within another five minutes it was spinning blender fast and with the noise to boot, even though the load wasn't all that intense. My CPU was running at about 40% load and my graphics card at 100%, but not with the same draw.

So, it went back in the box.

Other Thoughts: It's really a shame, I was actually pretty stoked to get this PSU as my OCZ 500w modular has been slowly giving me problems.

It sounds great on paper and I'm sure it performs up to par and I believe it, that's what makes this so hard. After picking through all the PSUs and coming across Seasonic I thought I found the best at everything except customer service which I really don't mind. The noise really is killer.

I'm surprised more of these reviews don't mention it, but all I can imagine is either they never actually put the PSU under load, they wrote them before they played some games, or they don't play games at all.

I'm sure other games would also yield similar results, especially Battlefield 3 which is quite popular. The fan really is terrible.

I would buy a different Seasonic model, but I'm not sure if this persists through all their models or just this particular series. I'm guessing they use the same fan speed control algorithm in all their PSUs, but they don't list which PSUs use what (most manufacturers are vague on this which is a shame).

Other reviews don't seem to mention this so it's quite hard to gauge whether or not other Seasonic PSUs have similar noise issues, which is also a shame. All you need to do to duplicate my results is run prime 95 for five minutes or so. My system isn't even OC'd... yet, which I'm sure would make these noise issues worse.

There really should be a chart on their website that shows fan speed at certain load levels. More so then that, the fan in PSUs should be based off temperature, not load. If it's frigid cold and the PSU is cold, there is no reason to run the fan at ultra high RPMs even if it is under load. I don't understand why PSU manufacturers are using load instead of temperature for their algorithms (Seasonic isn't the only one). It completely ruins a system builders ability to maintain a quiet system by venting heat through other means (like case fans).

If the case is cool, then once again the PSU fan shouldn't spin like the world is on fire.

I guess I'm going to dig through some more reviews and maybe take a look at Seasonics older M12 series. I'm guessing if they don't have a variable control and simply have a quiet fan that it'll be perfect (the 620w may be like this).

Otherwise I'll be going with Corsair. That was the choice I made, it was between Corsiar and Seasonic, and Seasonic won with it's epic build quality and DC-DC conversion. It's too bad they lost to decibels.

Pros: Cost: $74.99 before a $15 MIR.

High quality.

Modular

Bronze rated.

650w.

Looks appealing.

Cons: The 8 pin connector is really short. Need to buy an extension for proper cable management. It sadly has to go over the motherboard in the front. The rest of the cables seem fine.

Other Thoughts: Got it for a great price and it's a known high quality PSU, plus it's modular! Was very happy to grab this PSU and deal. However, I became sad when I realized how short the mobo 8-pin cable is so short. Requires an extension cable for behind motherboard cabling.

Pros: Quality PSU from Seasonic. Semi-modular for clean setup. All the power I need and runs quiet.

Cons: Cables are a little short if you run your cables through gromets for cable management.

But they are long enough for me cuz my case doesn't have good cable management.

Other Thoughts: I am trying to do my rebate, where is the EAN code?

I see a serial number on one side and I see a UPC-like barcode on a large orange sticker with the specs of the power supply.

Pros: its a PSU.. does what its made to do.. runs quiet.. and does not look half bad ohh its also modular

Cons: well the wires are very stiff took about 30 min to break them in to the point of being able to do my cable management.. and some of the wires that come with it are kinda short.. not a PSU for large cases.. had to dock one egg for this

Other Thoughts: still a great PSU would recomend it to anybody..

Cooler Master CM690 II
ASRock Z77 Extreme6
Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz
CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i Water Cooler
HIS IceQ Turbo Radeon HD 7850 2GB
ASUS VX238H Black 23"
Corsair Force Series GS CSSD-F128GBGS-BK 2.5" 128GB
Western Digital Scorpio Black 750GB
CORSAIR Vengeance 1600 8GB X2
ASUS 24X DVD Burner
SeaSonic M12II 650W
Arctic Silver 5

Pros: Very quiet. Works as expected.

Cons: A little difficult to maneuver around the CPU fan and somewhat bulky non-modular cabling, but I got in in fine with a little muscle.

Pros: OK, so yes it is semi-modular, but you know you'll need the 24-pin and 8-pin connections that are wired to this PSU. It comes with plenty of SATA power connections, and the other cables are likely enough, too. I only needed the SATA ones for the system I built. Installed perfectly into my case.

Cons: None that I can think of.

Other Thoughts: Great if you can get this around the $100 or so price point.

Pros: -Semi-modular is nice
-Very quiet
-Plenty of connectors

Cons: -Would be nice if the cords that aren't modular were on the opposite side of the power supply (toward the back of the case). The ATX 12V 2x4 power cord will not stretch around the back of a mid-size case to accommodate nice cord management. I have to route the cable over the front of my video card, which works, but looks ugly, and could potentially get caught in the back fan.

Pros: Got this unit to power my latest build, with a 3570k, 7970, 128gig SSD, 500gig hybrid, and 1TB 7200RPM drive. So far, it's doing it effeciently, quietly, and without problems. All the non-modular cables were used, and I had to add in a couple of the SATA power ones. Cables were just long enough to route through the back of my Corsair 600T case, so wiring looks nice. Also, all power wires are nicely sleeved. Overall, this unit feels solid and well built.

Cons: My one con with this PSU is the SATA power connectors. You really have to work to get them into the drives, and I ended up breaking one. Luckily, it came with enough I didn't need to scrounge up another.

Other Thoughts: PSU came with a little satchel to hold the unused power connectors, but the bag is kind of an odd material, and makes a lot of crinkling noises. Nice to have, but it almost feels like it's made out of cellophane.

Pros: Everything about this PSU has been astounding. This is my 1st Seasonic after being a longtime Corsair user and I was impressed with the quality and the sleek looks of such a well priced PSU when I bought it.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Powers my system flawlessly, I'm aware I need a new GFX card. Ordering 670 soon.

ASRock Z68 Extreme3
8GB G.Skill RipJaws 1.6GHz
GTX 560 TI
Core i5 2500k
2x WD 500G

etc etc.

Pros: This PSU is super quiet and comes with a ton of cables for those that need them. My current build has a single 550 Ti but I am moving to 2 650 Ti soon and I have all the power cables I will need. Build quality seems solid

Cons: I have a taller ATX mid tower and the cables for the 24 volt and 8 volt are tucked away but they are tight. I wish there were about 3 extra inches on each cable for larger cases. The position of the extra power plugs are close together and the way you plug in seems counter intuitive.

Other Thoughts: This is my first Sea Sonic PSU, it is in a new Ivy Bridge i5 system I built for gaming. I wanted to have a clean look inside to keep cooling top notch when I play FPS games so my system does not kick up the fans as much. I don't think I would put another Sea Sonic in a tall case again.