Seasonic G550.
JONNYGURU.COM
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=373
Performance (40% of the final score) - scoring time again. First, we have a unit that did Gold in both hot and cold tests. No deductions will be made for that. Second, the ripple control. Again, there will be no deductions made from a perfect score there. That said, when it comes to voltage regulation I do find myself having to make a half point deduction, as this unit proved to be more in the very good bracket than the excellent one. All in all, this was a fantastic showing from Seasonic. 9.5.
Functionality (20% of the final score) - the usual modularity scoring procedure applies here... half a point removed straight away for being merely semi-modular. Only fully modular units have a shot at a perfect score in this category. Another half a point comes off for the manual. It just could have been better. Finally, I'm going to do another full point off combined for cable lengths and that zip tie on the hardwired cables. We did not see a zip tie inside the housing to hold the sleeving in place, so it is necessary to either keep the zip tie where it is or cut it off and put a new one on nearer to the housing. That's a fair amount of inconvenience to users, Seasonic. Otherwise, I can't complain about anything else from a functionality standpoint, so I'll toss out an 8 for this one.
Value (20% of the final score) - this unit is going for $85.99 at Newegg right now. At this price, this unit competes very well indeed with the other units its size Newegg has. I think I'll do a 9 here.
Build Quality (20% of the final score) - this unit had no issues I can think of to mandate any scoring deduction here at all. Seasonic has been improving across the board since I started reviewing their stuff, and there just isn't anything I can nitpick this time. 10.
Summary
Seasonic's F3 revision of the G-550 was no doubt produced to insure compatibility with Haswell. But, I really can't think how it's an improvement on the older revision. Haswell isn't going to be a problem for anything with DC-DC regulation, and as such the older model was already just fine. Indeed, the newer version actually performs not quite as well. Don't get me wrong... this unit is still just about the best thing you can get at its size and price there is available. But it just goes to show you that, even if you're Seasonic, it's not always possible to keep improving on past units. Especially if you're trying to stick to the bargain market.
The Good:
excellent 12V and 5V stability
excellent ripple suppression
lots of included goodies
affordable price
The Bad:
not a thing
The Mediocre:
nice unit, but not quite as good as the model it replaces