Epilogue
The Seasonic Prime Noctua TX-1600 has the same internals as the TX-1600, but it uses a different fan, and the top cover, including the fan grille, has been redesigned. Moreover, it has special modular cables, individually sleeved and in Noctua’s standard colors. I know some users dislike these colors, but I don’t mind them; on the contrary, I like that they give this PSU a unique look. In general, this is a top-quality and top-performance PSU aiming at highly-enthusiast users with the money to spend to get one of the best PSUs available in today’s market. Kudos to Noctua and Seasonic for creating this beast, but there is room for improvement, given that the six-year-old Corsair AX1600i still leads my performance charts, even though it loses points because it is not ATX v3.1 compliant!
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The main asset of the Noctua TX-1600 is the notably lower noise levels compared to the “plain” TX-1600, which is also pretty quiet. These graphs depict the noise maps of the Noctua TX-1600 and the “plain” models. As you can see, there is no >30 dBA region in the Noctua edition unit, and the differences in noise output at light and moderate loads are also notable. The only problem is that the Noctua TX-1600 doesn’t come cheap, priced at 499€ in the EU, while in the US market, it will be sold at $569.
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 47°C
- High overall performance
- Silent operation
- Excellent soldering quality
- High-quality capacitors
- Efficient platform
- Higher than 70% efficiency with a 2% load
- The unit operates properly under all ATX v3.1 transient response testing scenarios
- Good transient response (normal loads) at +12V
- Extra tight load regulation at +12V from 60W to full load
- Good ripple suppression
- Long hold-up time
- Long and accurate power ok signal
- Efficient 5VSB rail
- Low vampire power consumption
- Satisfactory power factor at 115V
- Alternative Low Power Mode (ALPM) compatible
- 3x EPS, 6x PCIe and 2x 12+4-pin PCIe connectors
- Fan failure protection
- Quality FDB fan
- OCP triggering points need an adjustment on all rails
- Notable voltage drops at +12V and 3.3V during the 1kHz (180%) & 10kHz (200%) ATX v3.x transient response test
- The power factor at 230V needs to get higher
- Not so high efficiency under light loads
- Notably increased voltage on the +12V rail at 20W compared to other load levels
- Mediocre transient response (normal loads) at 3.3V
- Lower than 150mm distance between the 4-pin Molex connectors
- An additional 4-pin Molex would be ideal
- Huge dimensions
Thank you for the through review. Did you test for EMF? I don’t recall seeing it in the review.
EMI? Nope.
it’s up there with the 1kW (or more) passive PSU on the: impressive feat, but what for? list
with such a high load components you use absolutely will make tons of noise, even the beast won’t be able to handle them, so… it’s beyond flagship, it’s just a showoff
unless some users use custom water cooling with silent fans and huge radiators.