Epilogue
Now that I have evaluated all Seasonic’s Focus V4 line members, I have the complete picture, which I can share with you. The new PCB design is interesting but doesn’t offer much in terms of performance and noise output. The small heatsinks undoubtedly play a significant role in this. Although the distance between parts is considerable to allow for adequate airflow, it still cannot compensate for the lack of large heatsinks. Moreover, don’t forget the extended warranty for this product. An extended warranty means that the manufacturer has to play it “safe” with the fan speed profile, or else the elevated operating temperatures can bring trouble in the long run. This is why I no longer care for the provided warranty, as long as it exceeds 2-3 years.
I would like to see the new Seasonic Focus GX units achieving notably higher performance than their predecessors, but this wasn’t the case. Moreover, the 750W model has misconfigured protection features, so my samples died during the evaluation. I am expecting new samples from Seasonic, which will hopefully operate properly. Because I will probably receive this question from readers, I cannot know if the products in stock have the correctly set protection features. Still, I did my part at least, informing Seasonic that it should look into this matter as soon as possible. Because of the not correctly set protection features, this unit cannot get an ATX v3.1 pass from my lab.
The Seasonic GX-750 V4 is expensive for a Gold unit, at $130. There are many offerings in the 850W category at lower prices and with better performance. For example, at the time of the review, the XPG Core Reactor II was at a crazy low price of $85!
Before investing in a new power supply, read my Best ATX v3.x PSUs article to check all alternative PSU offerings. You help me a lot by using my affiliate links, which don’t increase the product’s price. I get a commission from Amazon every time you do it, which can make a difference for me, especially now that I am on my own, working exclusively for my media and not for someone else.
- Delivered full power at 46°C
- High build quality
- Cybenetics Gold efficiency
- Good ripple suppression
- Within 1% load regulation on all major rails
- Higher than 70% efficiency with a 2% load
- Alternative Low Power Mode (ALPM) compatible
- Good quality FDB fan
- Selectable semi-passive operation
- 2x PCIe on dedicated cables and 1x 12+4-pin PCIe connectors
- Adequate distance between the SATA connectors
- The protection features are not correctly set
- Increased MSRP
- Not competitive overall performance
- The fan speed profile needs improvements
- Mediocre transient response at 12V (ATX v3.1 transient loads) and 3.3V
- Sky-high inrush currents
- Not high Power Factor readings
- Increased vampire power consumption at 230V
- Lower than 150mm distance between the 4-pin Molex connectors
Hello.
I see that inrush current is almost 200A at 230V… is that real? Would this much power trip circuit breakers in the house or damage anything?
Is this PSU safe to use? I have it but now im scared to turn it on…
it is real yes. It is for a very short period, so it doesn’t trip the breaker.
Thank you for your fast response.
Does this high inrush current do anything to the lifespan of the PSU or PC?
I usually power off the PSU at night and power on in the morning to avoid the bright LED lights in my room and now im worried.
I wish i read your review on this PSU before i bought it. Im very disappointed in Seasonic.
It is hard to drain the APFC bulk caps completely. We follow a special procedure to do so. But yeah, they could use a larger NTC thermistor to lower it because we also have Murphy’s laws.
Hi
Thanks for the valuable work, there was an older ATX 3.0 version:
https://seasonic.com/atx3-focus-gx/
From other reviews seems this V3 version is the most reliable one, dodn’t you review that by chance? Best.
I have the V3 in one of my systems, it’s a solid psu. Aris might not have reviewed it but Anandtech did
https://www.anandtech.com/show/21101/the-seasonic-focus-gx-850-atx-3-0-psu-review-cool-quiet-and-robust
Hi
What about SeaSonic Focus GX-750 ATX2 version?
Does it also have those issues mentioned in the cons section?
And those listed as cons can be damaging the other parts of the system?
Thanks
I don’t have a clue what they fixed and what not, sorry. Seasonic barely sends me any samples to review.
Thank you for the review. You have helped me find good series of Kolink PSUs which have been proving good for the price. Fractal seems to be a very good alternative to Corsair, for similar prices.
I have been keeping away from Seasonic units due to lack of protection features.
I had both S12-IIs and M12-IIs (two units each) that only had a simple form of SCP protection. If there is any resistance in the path (as in a broken MOSFET), it will keep draining until one of this happens:
– Something blows up due to melting/burning shorted component.
– The PSU shuts down due to undervoltage protections (which from reviews of this platform seem to be set way too low).
Despite this, Seasonic claims that all protections work despite multiple of evidence from reviews that this platform was broken.
This was 10y ago and it has cost me hardware that was plugged into the damaged parts (which I didn’t knew had failed). A shame because otherwise they are very reliable, mostly silent PSUs.
You especially cannot run Seasonic PSUs unattended, as many models have proven to be a fire hazard due to non-functioning ATX protections like described in this review. Stay away!
Forgot to add that I had a 3rd Seasonic made XFX Core PSU that had the same issues. So, that is quite the track record of not doing QC properly.
Any news about the 750w protection features?
I think you were right and a lot of people who read your review are wondering if the retail 750w model should be considered when making a purchase.
Thanks a lot for all the amazing work.
Still, no new fixed sample from Seasonic.
Would you consider testing the Super Flower Zillion FG ATX3.1/PCIe 5.0 power supplies? I’ve recently stumbled across them as they are currently on sale and was wondering if they were good.
I will review them in the future!
Aris you should review the SuperFlower Leadex III ATX3.0