Seasonic S12 vs. Seasonic Super silencer

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 3:50 pm

I am thinking of getting either a 380W S12 or a 350W super silencer.

Which one is quieter?

Also, what are the main differences between the power supplies?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 6:34 pm

Hello:

I don't know which is quieter -- in a cool running case, the SS has a chance of being quieter (by a smidge?), but in a more typical case, the S12 is likely to be quieter and certainly would be more helpful in moving air through the case.

The S12 is a newer design and is a bit more efficient, and therefore will contribute less heat to the system. Can you guess which one I'd use?

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:43 pm

hmm.... I have 2x120mm case fans at 5V.... an antec and a yate loon. I'm kinda hesitant about the S12 because it has a dual 12V rail, and I am not sure if that would provide enough power for my system. (My motherboard's manual says it requires 18amps on the 12v rail, and I have been having some stablity issues with video games)

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:25 pm

The S12 is ATX 2.01 compliant. The Super Silencer is not. That is the biggest difference.

ATX 2.01 calls for dual 12V rails. Expect any recent and decent PSU to have dual 12V rails, with their combined rating to be a good deal more than 18A.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:51 pm

you think i would be fine with a 15A 12V2 and 10A 12V1?

(last question, i'll order the s12 if it will be fine, the super silencer if not.)

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:21 pm

"Fine" depends on what components you're running. What is your CPU and VGA card ... those are more important than the 18 A "rating" for your motherboard, which most likely assumes the most powerful components available. If you're like 95% of the other people who post here, the 15/10A split should be just fine for you.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:40 pm

*NOTE* mobo, ram, sound card are estimates. CPU was 67W/12V = 5.8333A

I'm just really cautious because i've been having some stablity problems and i want to make sure the psu isn't part of the problem. my current one is a silenx iXtrema 350W with 16A on a single 12V line.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:33 pm

That estimate looks pretty reasonable. I'd say you should be fine with the dual line S12. You can probably treat the 5.6A for the CPU as its own line, and the rest will fit fine on any dual rail PSU.

Whether the problem is your existing PSU is harder to say. If it's started failing, you should be able to tell by testing the voltage lines with a multimeter. Don't rely on motherboard reporting to tell you the voltages, that includes power circuitry on the motherboard, and won't eliminate the board itself from suspicion.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:41 pm

well, i got the silenx last christmas... so it's fairily new, i doubt it would be dying now.

However, my computer crashes while playing games. Far cry would crash occaisionaly, and half life 2 would crash more frequently (i think hl2 would stress the video system more while far cry would stress the cpu more)... both would come up with the same error - machine check exception. I've stressed the cpu, and memory and haven't had any problems, which leads me to believe it has something to do with pcie system... possibly the extra power demanded by a pcie card (mine is a geforce 6600 gt) and lack of a 24 pin atx connector? My temps were fine - gpu at 60C max, cpu at 50C max.

biodome · Post by **biodome** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 6:58 am

Your system is PCIe based, these take the power for the GFX strickly from the motherboard, and actually part of the reason of the new Dual 12V+ specs in ATX 2.01.

I would go on a 24pin PSU like the S12 that supports this new standard.

I also believe this is what causing the crashes in your games.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:50 pm

The lack of a 24-pin connector could very well be your problem. The 6600GT is a fairly power-hungry card (up there with some of the lower-end 6800 models IIRC), I honestly don't know why nVidia didn't go ahead and specify an aux. power connector for the card.

Your current power supply also appears to be very weak for your system. +12V at 16A is not enough in my opinion for a 3700+/6600GT, especially from what I would consider to be a power supply of questionable quality.

I would definitely recommend the S12-380. I am confident it will solve your stability problems.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:33 pm

the S12 came in the mail on tuesday. i haven't experienced a crash yet.

kny3twalker · Post by **kny3twalker** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:40 pm

where can I ask did you order from
and was it the revised model?

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:02 pm

best byte computers (cheapest price - $64 shipped)

I believe the fan has 7 blades, meaning it is the Adda model, although it came with a 24 pin to 20 pin adapter... not the 20+4P connector

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:11 am

jamesm wrote:best byte computers (cheapest price - $64 shipped)

I believe the fan has 7 blades, meaning it is the Adda model, although it came with a 24 pin to 20 pin adapter... not the 20+4P connector

that doesn't sound like the new version
did it have the sticker on the box?

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:32 pm

only stickers on the box are the 380 watt ones.

oh, and my computer is still crashing.

I think i'm gonna rma the mainboard.

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:45 am

the specs don't look too far off, have you tested your memory sticks? if not visit memtest.org download the little prog and let your system do a lot of loops, like 50 or more. since it's be running in a native dos type environment, ie full power, if it does not lockup i'd say it's software related or if it detects a problem with the memory then you'd know that's the cooperate. at best then you've at least eliminated one possible cause in stability.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:15 pm

mem is good... my computer ran memtest86 for 8 hours with no errors or problems.

Again, I only get the crash while gaming (and heavy gaming... half life 1 or GTA San Andreas won't crash it, but Half Life 2 will, and occaisionaly far cry). I am beginning to believe my video card is bad... I used windbg, and the probable cause of the crash was nv4_disp.dll, a video driver file.

Well, at least I got a better and quieter power supply than the silenx.

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:02 am

farcry and hl2 fully use your cards memory, perhaps a bad vid card mem chip or overclocking it too high? do you get any image tearing? i'd find it hard to see hl1 and gta:sa full your cards memory banks, so if they don't crash it, but farcry does then maybe it's that. what brand nvidia card do you have? msi cards are usually trash, same with evga.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:01 pm

xfx. my video card is fine - I swapped cards with my friend (he has a bfg geforce 6600 gt oc). My card ran fine on his computer (7 hours of 3dmark loops on full settings), while my computer crashed in 15 minutes with his video card.