Product Analysis:

Unlike the latest trend of sleek with glossy finished power supplies, Seasonic takes a different approach with more of a traditional concept. The power supply has a black exterior with a 120mm fan at the top, covered with a grill. Thankfully, more and more manufacturers are opting for 120mm fans in their power supplies. This not only reduces the noise aspect of the unit, but the larger fan also adds to overall thermal efficiency. The S12 series come with high quality leads for better voltage control and all-purpose computing.

The sides of the unit include no ventilation holes for heat dissipation. The only openings that you will find are conveniently located on the front side. The backdrop of the power button and the power plug contains a grill that will allow heat to pass through the power supply.

The insides of the power supply include aluminum heatsinks to cool the circuitry and electric components of the unit. From a thermal perspective, the S12 series is great. It includes an exceptional 120mm fan with grills on the top, as well as the side, and sufficient aluminum heatsinks. That being said, Seasonic isn’t up to the market standards with their power supplies. We have seen better aluminum heatsink blocks inside power supplies. The heatsinks are usually closed to the electric components, which helps cool them even better. We are hoping that since this is a 380W solution, Seasonic has decided to use low profile cooling that seems to get the job done fairly well. Hopefully, their 500W and 600W editions have better heatsink implementation.

Despite being too simple in its category, it does come with a few exciting options, such as dual 12v rails, external fan control output, an attached PCIe connector and support for ATX, EPS and BTX systems. Seasonic has created a product that is a mixed bag of treats to say the least. It is unsophisticated, yet future-ready with features that really matter.

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