Test – Seasonic G-550 – Conseil Config : Specs | CPU | Hashrate | Review | Config

Ola!

A small break from peripheral tests to come back to a power supply, and not the least because it comes from Seasonic I named the G-550 which offers an 80Plus Gold certification, therefore an efficiency of 90% at 20% load, 92% to 50% and 89% at maximum load, which means that the consumption of this power supply should be good! The power supply is also semi-modular which will logically allow easier storage of cables.
Without further ado, let’s unpack!

The front of the box is predominantly white with, and this is rare enough to be noticed, a complete lack of marketing ratings such as “The Quietest Food in the World” or “Best Choice for Gamers” and frankly we are certainly not going to complain about it.
Only the necessary information is present, the 80Plus Gold certification, the power of the power supply (550 Watts), the series (G Series) as well as a small “Haswell Ready” which quite frankly is not used for much except for reassure the neophyte but at least it avoids unnecessary questions!

At the back is a list of all the characteristics of the power supply, such as 80Plus Gold certification, the presence of a 12cm fan, support for multi GPU (SLI or Crossfire), a 5 year warranty etc.

On the side is a sticker with all the technical characteristics of the G-550, the number of connectors available as well as the power available (I will come back to this below).

By opening the box you are immediately on familiar ground, with a power supply well protected and wrapped in foam as well as a bag containing the modular cables and the power supply cable on the side. A great classic at Seasonic!

Once out of the foam we find a black power supply as usual at Seasonic with two sheathed fixed cables, the 24-pin cable and the 4 + 4-pin processor cable, both being mandatory for all configurations they will not hang around. not in the tower anyway.

Through the honeycomb grille we find an ADDA model AD1212MB-A70GL fan that can reach 2000 RPM, but it will not reach such high revs, far from it and luckily for our little ears.

On one side (when the fan is at the bottom) there is a “G-Series” sticker and on the other a more classic sticker showing the technical characteristics of the power supply.

In terms of connectors for modular cables, there is not much to say with 4 connectors for PCI-e or another CPU cable as well as 4 connectors for IDE / Sata devices.

The bundle consists of:

• 1 manuel
• 3 Seasonic colored cable ties
• 1 small handful of plastic cable ties
• 4 vis
• 1 Seasonic sticker

The bundle is therefore rather honest, the cable ties will be useful for a clean installation, and the Seasonic sticker essential to display it well on your tower!

Here is the list of modular cables available:

The number of connectors is rather complete and should satisfy almost all users, the only questionable point could be the presence of only two PCI-e connectors while the power supply is supposed to support multi-cards but quite honestly 90% of users will only use 2 PCI-e and the others who want to do SLI will opt for a more powerful model (wrongly or rightly for that matter).
Note that the cables are not sheathed but the wires are glued to each other to end up with flat cables, we like it or not.
The only small flaw I could find is the length of the 4 + 4-pin cable which could be a little bigger by 5 or 10cm in order to accommodate larger towers (type Corsair Obsidian 550D).

The characteristics of this Seasonic G-550 are attractive with everything you need to have a power supply that consumes little thanks to the 80Plus Gold certification, all electrical protections are required as well as a 5-year warranty ensuring a lifetime minimum more than reasonable.

The 3V and 5V provide a maximum of 100 Watts while the single 12V rail can provide up to 540 Watts, so no problems are to be considered compared to a multi-rail architecture and the 540 Watts will be largely sufficient in 99% of cases.
Now let’s go to the tests!

The test platform

The Seasonic G-550 power supply has been tested on the configuration below:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 875K @ 3,2 Ghz
• Motherboard: Asus P7P55D
• Memory: Kingston HyperX 4 x 2 Go 1600Mhz
• Hard disk: WD Raptor 150 Go
• Graphic card: Sapphire Toxic 5850

The test protocol

The core i7 875K has been slightly overclocked to 3.2Ghz. The readings in charge were taken during an OCCT Power Supply test, the readings at rest were taken after 15mins on the desk.

The power supply has been tested against the Seasonic S12 600 (from 2006), Seasonic X650, Seasonic P660 (tested here), Seasonic Platinum 460FL (tested here), be quiet E9 580CM (tested here) and the be quiet! L8 Pure Power 500 (tested here).

The consumption

Before starting, let’s take a look at the performance of the power supplies compared to the Seasonic G-550, in fact the different 80Plus certifications will directly influence consumption, so this will be a good way to have concrete results. Only the S12 600 does not have an 80Plus certification because it did not yet exist at the time of purchase (but the following versions of this power supply had the classic 80Plus certification, so 80% / 80% / 80% to 20% respectively / 50% / 100% load).

The consumption of the Seasonic G-550 is very contained, thank you for the 80Plus Gold certification which is really not usurped here. At rest with its 79Watts it is on par with the be quiet! E9 580CM which is also an 80Plus Gold power supply. In load it displays a nice 349 Watts, which is better than the be quiet! E9 and also better than its big sister the X650 (which is a 2011 model).
We can say that the Seasonic G-550 is doing brilliantly in terms of consumption, passing the other Gold power supplies in this comparison.
As a reminder, the above results are the consumption when taking the TOTALITY of the machine, taking into account the losses and an efficiency of 90% the machine actually consumes 314 Watts.

The tensions

Here again the Seasonic is faultless, the voltages are all very stable, the 3.3V varies by 1.8%, the 5V by 0.4% and the 12V by 0.25%. No problem for this power supply and the test configuration, it powers all this little world without the slightest worry and with great class! At the same time we are facing a Seasonic, another result would have been a very big surprise.

Noise pollution

Attention : Part to be taken with a grain of salt, unfortunately not having access to the appropriate equipment and using an android application to take the readings the measurements below are only indicative! The readings were taken 15cm from the feed.

Once again this is a faultless one for the Seasonic G-550, the test config only titillates the power supply and results in an extremely low sound level, whether at rest or under load. If a G-550 is installed in a PC and it makes noise, it will certainly not come from the power supply, as long as it is not equipped with SLI or CrossFire cards 🙂
Note, and like all Seasonics, that a very slight electronic noise is present when you stick your ear to the power supply, but which disappears instantly once you are a few centimeters away.

Here we are at the end of this test, what to say about this Seasonic G-550?
As usual Seasonic is an excellent nutrition from all points of view, the voltages are very stable, the performance is excellent thanks to the 80Plus Gold certification and it will certainly not attack your ears.
Take a Seasonic model X which represents a top-of-the-range model of the brand, remove the semi-passive operation, the completely modular cables, the slightly “bling-bling” covering, extend the warranty from 7 to 5 years and you get a Seasonic G which keeps the essentials at a much softer price (in the 100 € for the 550 Watts model).

You will understand, if you are looking for a power supply with excellent performance without all the artifices of a very high-end model for your pc config and at a lower price, you can buy the Seasonic G-550 with your eyes closed. .

A big thank you to Damien from Green Spirit who allowed me to do this test.

Where to find the Seasonic G-550?

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