700W to 850W PSU Group Test

Seasonic M12 700W Modular

Manufacturer: Seasonic
Price (as reviewed): £129.24 (inc VAT)

Seasonic is another popular brand, but have more of an association with the 'silent' sector of PSUs, often finding places in media centres and solutions requiring very quiet cases.

It comes in just a small cardboard box that lacks a handle and offers no extra internal protection. It's certainly basic compared to the other PSUs we tested here. The box does contain some information on the outside about the general features, cooling ability and plugs included as well as a picture of the product itself.

The PSU is just 2kg in weight and is 16x15x8.5cm in size with a black painted coating identical to the Tagan. It has a plain black 12cm fan with silver fan grill in the top, and a thermally controlled 60mm fan in the rear which helps to push air out the honeycomb rear if the unit gets too hot.

Accessories

• Manual;
  
• Power cable;
  
• Four case screws;

That's all, no extra cable management or extras bits chucked in. Even the power cable is very black and generic. It's really a very basic offering and feels as though you've either been short changed of your £130 or the actual PSU is something very special indeed.

Supplied Cables

• Two 50cm, black braided cables with two Molex plugs;
  
• Two 50cm, black braided cables with two SATA hard drive plugs;
  
• One 45cm, black braided cables with four SATA hard drive plugs;
  
• Two 45cm, black braided cables with three Molex plugs;
  
• Two black braided dual cables with one 55cm and one 60cm 6-pin PCI-Express plugs;
  
• One 55cm, black braided 20+4pin ATX cable;
  
• One 55cm, black braided 8-pin 12V cable;
  
• One 55cm, black braided 4-pin 12V cable;

The unit is also modular, but again features a unique type of connector in comparison to Tagan, Hiper or Enermax. The plugs for Molex and SATA are all linear 5-pin, rather than the more usual rounded style, but the 6-pin PCI-Express plugs are distinctly separate. There are no colour differences and the black sockets sit flush, almost hidden against the black painted metal housing.

The 5-pin sockets are very solidly attached to the unit, and are unable to be pulled out by accident. However, they are also placed very close together because Seasonic decided to put an extra 60mm fan on the rear. This makes getting your fingers in between connectors very difficult and you may have to unplug them from the top down systematically.

Seasonic builds a solid unit but it doesn't have the little extras like the others do. While there could be an argument for a 'discrete theme' due to the overall black adornment even down to the screws, it also comes off as a bit cheap and generic. The fan could use the same bigger 13.5cm clear bladed, perhaps? The sides aren't even Seasonic embossed. It just doesn't look or feel like £130 worth of PSU.