Seasonic Launches Updated Prime PX and Prime TX ATX 3.0 Power Supplies

erek

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Seasonic seems pretty decent but their older units weren’t all up to the task of supporting an RTX 3099 back in the day

“The Prime PX is rated for 80 Plus Platinum and the Prime TX for 80 Plus Titanium and this appears to be the only major difference between the two models. Other interesting features include a 135 mm fan with fluid dynamic bearings and a digital hybrid fan control, as well as a bundles basic PSU tester. Both models also come with a 12 year warranty. Price wise, the Prime PX-1600 will retail for US$509.99/€459.99, with the Prime TX-1300 going for US$519.99/€479.99 and finally the Prime TX-1600 will set you back US$609.99/€549.99, suggesting a steep price premium for only a marginally more efficient PSU.”

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Source: https://www.techpowerup.com/310278/...-prime-px-and-prime-tx-atx-3-0-power-supplies
 
I can't see dropping 5-600 on a PSU. As much as I like Seasonic thats getting waaay into the area of unreasonable.
They hit OCP quite a bit with the RTX 3090s, consistently one of the identified PSUs that just wasn’t as good a they seem when it mattered

That’s what I remember the most cause I had to buy a new PSU as my Corsair AX1200 for 2011 wasn’t up to the task either
 
While I'm glad these are finally arriving - there are few ATX 3.0 PSUs with high wattage much less at Platinum and Titanium ratings - the pricing is definitely quite high. Some of that is the wattage I think, but also "Prime" branding from Seasonic is their top of the line. When we get to see teardowns hopefully it will become apparent if the surcharge enables Seasonic to make a meaningful difference, much less if its a good value or not. Considering that Seasonic's Vertex lineup, a step down from Prime but still highly regarded ATX 3.0, still hasn't offered its delayed Platinum PX lineup at retail yet and its Gold GX lineup has taken some time to become more consistently available in the past few months, I suppose we'll have to see how things evolve.
 
While I'm glad these are finally arriving - there are few ATX 3.0 PSUs with high wattage much less at Platinum and Titanium ratings - the pricing is definitely quite high. Some of that is the wattage I think, but also "Prime" branding from Seasonic is their top of the line. When we get to see teardowns hopefully it will become apparent if the surcharge enables Seasonic to make a meaningful difference, much less if its a good value or not. Considering that Seasonic's Vertex lineup, a step down from Prime but still highly regarded ATX 3.0, still hasn't offered its delayed Platinum PX lineup at retail yet and its Gold GX lineup has taken some time to become more consistently available in the past few months, I suppose we'll have to see how things evolve.
Maybe the cost in meeting the new ATX spec is contributing the price pushed to consumers? ATX 2.52-2.53 power supplies with similar wattage and 80 Plus certification are 70% the cost. Maybe consumer price will come down after amortization?

The PRIME PX-1600 is available at B&H Photo.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ime_px_1600_prime_1600w_80_plus_platinum.html
 
Maybe the cost in meeting the new ATX spec is contributing the price pushed to consumers? ATX 2.52-2.53 power supplies with similar wattage and 80 Plus certification are 70% the cost. Maybe consumer price will come down after amortization?

The PRIME PX-1600 is available at B&H Photo.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ime_px_1600_prime_1600w_80_plus_platinum.html
I'm sure the spec is part of it, but I'm not sure how much is a real significant increase in hardware necessary to provide ATX 3.0 compatibility (especially on the high end where something like PRIME 1300/1600w Platinum/Titanium should be ) vs a number of other circumstances and just plain "If they're buying, a mid grade or better enthusiast PSU, they want ATX 3.0 since they keep PSUs for a longer time so they'll pay" .

I think that Prime at B&H Photo is the "old" ATX 2.x version. Besides the much lower price than the $510 prediction, if you look at the ports on the B&H vs the ones in the TPU article, the B&H model lacks the 12VHPWR port (it does come with cables that seem to plug into regular PCI-E ports). If accurate this is is yet another reason for the confusion - they really need to put the ATX 3.0 version prominently on the box or something.
 
Steep prices; that said, my TX 1000 has proven to be one heck of a power supply, handily keeping an OC 4090 and an OC TR3 happy. I love it.
 
I’ve always assumed their Primes were industry standard tbh.
 
Found a review: https://hwbusters.com/psus/seasonic-prime-px-1600-atx-v3-0-psu-review/3/

The 3 huge capacitors that are removed, I think the reviewer did that to take pictures.. there are a lot of component closeups.

less than a tenth of a volt voltage change from 10% load to 100% load, that's pretty damn good. .049v on the 12v side if my math was right.

You really don't want to cheap out on the PSU. Crappy PSU's can cause all kinds of spurious problems that are intermittent and hard to nail down. And when they fail, they can take out your mobo and other components at the same time. Spend the extra $100 and think of it as insurance for all of your other expensive components.
Have a crappy PSU blow up on you and take your mobo and CPU with it, you will know what I mean. That's exactly what happened to me. This seasonic I am running is just over 5 years old and no complaints. Not noisy, no coil whine, fan still works.
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They've renamed the families since then and mine is now considered a PRIME TX-1000 in their newer naming convention. It was $255 in 2018, so yeah the prices are ouch, but it's a decade of not having to worry about it. Main thing is do not buy the exact wattage you need, aim for double. Then your PSU will last longer.
 
While these prices are pretty steep, I've never had any issue with any Seasonic power supply I've ever owned.

If I needed that much wattage, yeah, I'd fork over the money. To me, the PSU is the basic foundation of any build. Cases come and go, motherboards can be swapped, GPUs are temporary, CPUs and hard drives come and go. But Power Supplies? Yeah, Power Supplies are forever. ;)
 
While these prices are pretty steep, I've never had any issue with any Seasonic power supply I've ever owned.

If I needed that much wattage, yeah, I'd fork over the money. To me, the PSU is the basic foundation of any build. Cases come and go, motherboards can be swapped, GPUs are temporary, CPUs and hard drives come and go. But Power Supplies? Yeah, Power Supplies are forever. ;)

I had a Seasonic platinum pop once, didn’t kill any parts and the RMA was effectively painless, no questions asked.
 
I had a Seasonic platinum pop once, didn’t kill any parts and the RMA was effectively painless, no questions asked.
I think it's because Seasonic wants to be proactive about failures in their products so they can fix whatever caused them. They have built up too much of a reputation as an OEM to throw it away by wanting to save a few bucks.
 
But is there really cheap PSU to start with at those wattage.

When talking about a cheap 1600watt PSU it would be what an EVGA SuperNOVA, a silverstone, termaltake or some Corsair ? Would that really qualify as cheaping out and putting component and stability at risk ?

Depend obviously on what the machine do and used for (but server type redundancy, could be more common for something that really matter)

If it does remove a couple of blue screen a year, could be worth it for people with good money that spend a lot on the machine anyway
 
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But is there really cheap PSU to start with at those wattage.

When talking about a cheap 1600watt PSU it would be what an EVGA SuperNOVA, a silverstone, termaltake or some Corsair ? Would that really qualify as cheaping out and putting component and stability at risk ?

Depend obviously on what the machine do and used for (but server type redundancy, could be common)

If it does remove a couple of blue screen a year, could be worth it for people with good money that spend a lot on the machine anyway
EVGA sells 1600W power supplies for around $300 (the G+ and P+ series). They're made by FSP, though, which is much less consistent in quality than Seasonic. EVGA's P2 and T2 models are $100 more, but you get a better OEM in Super Flower with those.
 
Considering that Seasonic's Vertex lineup, a step down from Prime but still highly regarded ATX 3.0, still hasn't offered its delayed Platinum PX lineup at retail yet and its Gold GX lineup has taken some time to become more consistently available in the past few months, I suppose we'll have to see how things evolve.
Based on my conversation with them at Computex a few weeks ago, they are planning on updating all three lines (Prime, Vertex and FOCUS) over the course of time (along with having them offered at various 80PLUS levels). I know the Prime TX-1300 is slated for a July/August on market date and the Vertex GX-850 is the first 3.0 supply from them to be available.

For pricing on the 1600W level, it's not outrageous compared to other supplies that are entering the market - ADATA ($750 MSRP) and others are pushing out 1600W supplies in that same ballpark..
 
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I don't feel like the pricing is that crazy for how crazy the PSUs are or for their use cases. A 1600 watt PSU is only needed if you are doing something crazy, like multi-GPU. Even as hungry as the 4090 is, a 1000 watt still does the trick and you can get away with an 850 (even with a 13900KS).

Ok well if you are spending multi-GPU money, or "I'm going nuts with modded shunt and compressors for colling and OCing this to the moon," money then is $600 really that big a deal? Like I get wanting to spend a reasonable amount on a PSU in a normal build. If you are trying to put together a PC for $1500 then money spent on the PSU is money not spent on the CPU or the like and you'd rather have a good quality PSU for $80 than a top-quality PSU for $200 or something. But if you are spending on the kind of components that would need a 1600 watt PSU... who cares? If you are already into the system $3400 for 2 4090s, $500 for a mobo with 2 16x slots, $700 on a 7950 and however many hundreds more on RAM, SSDs etc... you are then going to fret over $500 on a PSU to drive it all? You are going to say "You know, $5000 for the components is fine, but $500 for the PSU is just a bridge too far!"
 
I don't feel like the pricing is that crazy for how crazy the PSUs are or for their use cases. A 1600 watt PSU is only needed if you are doing something crazy, like multi-GPU. Even as hungry as the 4090 is, a 1000 watt still does the trick and you can get away with an 850 (even with a 13900KS).

Ok well if you are spending multi-GPU money, or "I'm going nuts with modded shunt and compressors for colling and OCing this to the moon," money then is $600 really that big a deal? Like I get wanting to spend a reasonable amount on a PSU in a normal build. If you are trying to put together a PC for $1500 then money spent on the PSU is money not spent on the CPU or the like and you'd rather have a good quality PSU for $80 than a top-quality PSU for $200 or something. But if you are spending on the kind of components that would need a 1600 watt PSU... who cares? If you are already into the system $3400 for 2 4090s, $500 for a mobo with 2 16x slots, $700 on a 7950 and however many hundreds more on RAM, SSDs etc... you are then going to fret over $500 on a PSU to drive it all? You are going to say "You know, $5000 for the components is fine, but $500 for the PSU is just a bridge too far!"

I mean with a slight overclock I am nowhere near hitting 750w with my 7800X3D and 4090. I have a NR200 with 2x 2.5 SSDs, 1x M.2 drive, 2x Noctua 120mm fans, and a 240mm AIO. +200 on core and +400 on the memory for the 4090. I think with the 13900KS you'd maybe be getting up there cause the 4090 can push 450w and that thing at stock can possibly pull what 200w given the task? Another 100w for everything else and you could get within 50w maybe.

If it's a quality PSU it'll be more than fine imo but the absolute top of the line PC regardless of brand a 850w is likely a good baseline. I just didn't have a 850w SFF PSU availible. Luckily Corsair released their 750w SFX when I upgraded to the 4090. I had the 650w before (which might have still been alright given I'm using the 7800X3D).
 
I mean with a slight overclock I am nowhere near hitting 750w with my 7800X3D and 4090. I have a NR200 with 2x 2.5 SSDs, 1x M.2 drive, 2x Noctua 120mm fans, and a 240mm AIO. +200 on core and +400 on the memory for the 4090. I think with the 13900KS you'd maybe be getting up there cause the 4090 can push 450w and that thing at stock can possibly pull what 200w given the task? Another 100w for everything else and you could get within 50w maybe.

If it's a quality PSU it'll be more than fine imo but the absolute top of the line PC regardless of brand a 850w is likely a good baseline. I just didn't have a 850w SFF PSU availible. Luckily Corsair released their 750w SFX when I upgraded to the 4090. I had the 650w before (which might have still been alright given I'm using the 7800X3D).
My 4090 pulls 390W, at worst. Whole system power draw at the wall is around 700W while gaming according to my UPS, which means the power supply is outputting 640W with 92% efficiency. I got the 1000W PSU for my 3090 to handle the transient spikes, but the 4090 doesn't have that issue.

With a 7950X3D, you'd be using 130W less in multithreaded applications compared to the 7950X. A 1200W power supply would be enough when adding a second 4090 while still offering headroom. I guess if you're shunting the video cards like the original reply says, you'd want some more power, but you're going to need a lot more than 1600W with two of them (der8auer shunt modded a 4090 and was pulling 900W at the connector).
 
I don't feel like the pricing is that crazy for how crazy the PSUs are or for their use cases. A 1600 watt PSU is only needed if you are doing something crazy, like multi-GPU. Even as hungry as the 4090 is, a 1000 watt still does the trick and you can get away with an 850 (even with a 13900KS).

Ok well if you are spending multi-GPU money, or "I'm going nuts with modded shunt and compressors for colling and OCing this to the moon," money then is $600 really that big a deal? Like I get wanting to spend a reasonable amount on a PSU in a normal build. If you are trying to put together a PC for $1500 then money spent on the PSU is money not spent on the CPU or the like and you'd rather have a good quality PSU for $80 than a top-quality PSU for $200 or something. But if you are spending on the kind of components that would need a 1600 watt PSU... who cares? If you are already into the system $3400 for 2 4090s, $500 for a mobo with 2 16x slots, $700 on a 7950 and however many hundreds more on RAM, SSDs etc... you are then going to fret over $500 on a PSU to drive it all? You are going to say "You know, $5000 for the components is fine, but $500 for the PSU is just a bridge too far!"
The performance is good but at these prices I want to start seeing more GaN switching.
 
Steep prices; that said, my TX 1000 has proven to be one heck of a power supply, handily keeping an OC 4090 and an OC TR3 happy. I love it.

As soon as I installed my FE 4080S, my TX-1000 started switching off every few days under gpu load. It's driving me nuts. I tried disconnecting the 12V sense wire but no change. What's weird is that the 4080S is about 100w less than the notorious Evga 3080Ti FTW3 that was in the machine prior. Currently I've swapped in a second TX-1000 and am waiting to see what happens.
 
I thought about upgrading to the Vertex 3.0 unit, but never did it. I'm running a 5950x with PBO and an Asus Strix 3090 with a Seasonic Prime Gold 850 watt. I'm also pushing two DDC water pumps and 18 fans on a giant external radiator. Crossing my fingers.
 
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