Certification, Specs and Features
Certification
So Seasonic introduced the new 1000W Platinum series with an 80+ Platinum certification, tested by the 80PLUS organization (the people that certify and test efficiency). But what does such a certification entail?
Well, we have bronze, silver, gold, and platinum certifications. A PSU that is certified 80 PLUS Gold or 80 PLUS Platinum is more efficient than a normal unit. Below youll find a table that shows what efficiency levels a PSU has to achieve at a given load to make the grade for a specific certification level.
| Efficiency at 20% Load | Efficiency at 50% Load | Efficiency at 100% Load | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 PLUS | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| 80 PLUS Bronze | 82% | 85% | 82% |
| 80 PLUS Silver | 85% | 88% | 85% |
| 80 PLUS Gold | 87% | 90% | 87% |
| 80 PLUS Platinum | 90% | 92% | 89% |
The Seasonic power supplies is certified by the 80PLUS organization to deliver an 92% energy efficiency at 50% load (which equals with a Platinum label) and also comply with the ErP (Energy Related product) directive to ensure less than 1W of power is used in passive standby and off modes.
Specs and Features
Seasonic has actually developed two new Platinum certified models being the 860W (P-860XP) and 1,000W (P-1000XP), both PSUs feature completely modular cable management. The 1000W version as tested today packs six PCI Express connectors (!) as well as a silent Sanyo Denki fan which activated only when a higher than 40% load is recorded by the PSU. In the case of the 1000W model, this means that the fan won't start until the system draws more than 400W form the power supply.
Most of the PSU's innards have been taken from Seasonics X-series and then tweaked so that it would comply with the 80 PLUS Platinum standard.
The 1KW unit has one big slash huge single 12V rail, which is rated at a stunning 83 amps, so if you multiply that by 12 Volts then we see an available peak of 996W on the 12V rail alone.
Specifications:
- 80PLUS Platinum certified
- DC Connector module with VRM module
- Hybrid Silent Fan control
- Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Electrolytic Capacitors
- High reliability 105 degrees C capacitors
- APF
- High Current gold plated terminals
- Dual Sided PCB
- Honeycomb ventilation
- Modular design
- 150*160*86 mm (5.9" *6.3" *3.4")
- 7 years warranty
As such the power supply can be compatible with a wide range of CrossFireX and SLI setups as well as with all the upcoming high performance CPUs, including solutions built on top of the AMD Bulldozer and Intel Sandy Bridge-E architectures.
We'll be testing the 1000W model today with four GPUs. With prices of 210 EUR for the 870W model and 235 for the 1000W model these PSUs can be considered top of the line, yet affordable within its class .
