Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Power Supply Review

The Prime TX-1600 is Seasonic's flagship power supply.

Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Editor's Choice
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

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OCP (Cold @ 28°C)

12V: 169A (126.77%), 11.991V 5V: 34.9A (139.6%), 5.053V 3.3V: 32.9A (131.6%), 3.341V 5VSB: 5.1A (170%), 5.210V

OCP (Hot @ 41°C)

12V: 168.4A (126.32%), 11.992V 5V: 34.8A (139.2%), 5.044V 3.3V: 33.0A (132%), 3.338V 5VSB: 4.8A (160%), 5.223V

OPP (Cold @ 31°C)

2089.77W (130.61%)

OPP (Hot @ 41°C)

2023.79W (126.49%)

OTP

✓ (162°C @ 12V Heat Sink)

SCP

12V to Earth: ✓ 5V to Earth: ✓ 3.3V to Earth: ✓ 5VSB to Earth: ✓ -12V to Earth: ✓

PWR_OK

Proper operation

NLO

SIP

Surge: MOV Inrush: NTC Thermistor & Bypass relay

The over power and over current protection features are correctly set on all rails but 5V, where OCP is set too high. Moreover, there is over temperature protection along with the other, essential protection features. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

No problems here since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified Fluke Ti480 PRO camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 640x480 (307,200 pixels).

We didn't measure high temperatures inside the PSU during this test. The highly efficient platform minimizes energy losses,

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • watzupken
    Not unexpected coming from the Seasonic Prime series. However, the lack of ATX 3.0 is going to affect its take up rate. Most people buying a 1.6K W PSU are likely enthusiasts that will want the latest and greatest. This is great, but clearly not the latest.
    Reply
  • escksu
    1600W is definitely overkill for most. For the rest of us, a good 600-800W will be sufficient.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    Every single time people think that Seasonic will have to go with digital circuits to reach requirements they figure out how to do it with analog circuits. It is amazing that they are able to get the same or better performance using analog circuits compared to most other high end PSUs using digital circuits.
    Reply
  • infopcX
    Thanks very much for review, amazing work !!!

    can we say that this is the second best source money can buy? just behind the Corsair AXi 1600 ?

    power factor could be better, in practice compared to the AXi would be imperceptible? would even values below 1% in efficiency be relevant? I say in practice

    I would like to know how much we could extract from the Seasonic source? up to 110% Load seemed pretty stable, could we go further with it?

    12 years warranty is a plus


    Best Regards,
    Reply
  • BoredErica
    infopcX said:
    Thanks very much for review, amazing work !!!

    can we say that this is the second best source money can buy? just behind the Corsair AXi 1600 ?

    power factor could be better, in practice compared to the AXi would be imperceptible? would even values below 1% in efficiency be relevant? I say in practice

    I would like to know how much we could extract from the Seasonic source? up to 110% Load seemed pretty stable, could we go further with it?

    12 years warranty is a plus


    Best Regards,
    ax1600i is more aggressive with fan curve vs Seasonic.
    Reply