Is the Seasonic PRIME Noctua TX-1600 Reliable? Thermals Comparison vs. “plain” TX-1600

I have tested a while ago the Seasonic Prime Noctua TX-1600 and I found it to be a good PSU, but I was troubled by the change of fan without any internal modifications. So I thought to re-test it, and this time perform a full thermal analysis. In this review I used a sample bought from the market and not the original sample which was shipped by Noctua. 

A manufacturer must conduct a complete thermal analysis when a significant component change affects cooling in a power supply (or other IT part). During this procedure, thermal probes are carefully attached to all crucial parts inside the PSU not to affect airflow at its internals. You push it to the absolute maximum to find out whether this component change has affected its reliability and operation and, if this is the case, to what degree compared to the “original” configuration. We will do this today with the Seasonic Prime Noctua TX-1600 and the “original” TX-1600.

According to Noctua, this PSU is around 8-10 dBA quieter than the regular version in the 17-100% fan speed range. This means that the fan speed profile is more relaxed, but Noctua also changed the fan and the top cover. There are no other changes at the internals, with both PSUs also using the same heatsinks.

1500-1600W ATX v3.x PSU Reviews:

Technical Specifications Seasonic Prime Noctua TX-1600:
  • Manufacturer (OEM): Seasonic
  • Max Power: 1600W
  • Cybenetics Efficiency: [115V] Cybenetics Titanium (91-93%), [230V] Cybenetics Titanium (93-95%)
  • Noise: Cybenetics A++ ( <15 dB[A])
  • Compliance: ATX v3.1, EPS 2.92
  • Operating Temperature (Continuous Full Load): 0 – 50 °C
  • Alternative Low Power Mode support: Yes
  • Power 12V combined: 1600W
  • Number of 12V rails: 1
  • Power 5V + 3.3v: 125W
  • Power 5VSB: 15W
  • Cooling: 120mm Hydraulic Bearing Fan (NF-A12x25 – High-Speed)
  • Semi-Passive Operation: ✓ (Selectable)
  • Modular Design: Yes (Fully)
  • High Power Connectors: 3x EPS (3x cables), 6x PCIe 6+2 pin (6x cables), 2x PCIe 12+4 pin (600W)
  • Peripheral Connectors: 18x SATA (5x cables), 3x 4-pin Molex (1x cable)
  • ATX Cable Length: 610mm
  • EPS Cable Length: 700mm
  • 12+4 pin PCIe Cable Length: 750mm
  • 6+2 pin PCIe Cable Length: 650mm
  • Distance between SATA / 4-pin Molex: 155/125mm
  • In-cable capacitors: No
  • Dimensions (W x H x D): 150 mm x 86 mm x 210mm
  • Weight: 3.18 kg (7.01  lb)
  • Warranty: 12-years
  • MSRP: 499€, $569

Power Specifications

Rail 3.3V 5V 12V 5VSB -12V
Max. Power Amps 25 25 133.33 3 0.5
Watts 125 1600 15 6
Total Max. Power (W) 1600
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25 thoughts on “Is the Seasonic PRIME Noctua TX-1600 Reliable? Thermals Comparison vs. “plain” TX-1600

  1. @Slim_Thug
    1 minute ago (edited)
    http://www.youtube.com/@HardwareBusters

    I ordered a workstation setup that I put together.
    One of the components is Astral 5090.
    The second one is Seasonic Prime TX-1600W Titanium Noctua Edition which has 3.1 ATX and 5.1 PCIe.

    Someone mentioned to me that Asus ROG Thor Titanium III 1600W has Voltage Stabilizer and GPU-first function.

    Does this thing actually work, does it distribute evenly, does it solve the problem so my GPU wouldn’t be in danger of melting?

    I really hope You answer at all and with a good one because I am waiting on my order which arrives at the beginning of march.

    Someone had bought the Thor III and if it really helps then I have to hope that it comes back in stock so I can switch it out.

  2. I got this PSU and have until 2/21 to return it on amazon. I plan on having a 5090 gpu and 9800x3d cpu. Should I be concerned about reliability? I live in the states (Iowa), my other option would have been Lian Li 1300 psu or the NZXT (I don’t really like NZXT’s cables). Should I switch PSU’s?

    1. I also have until the end of the month to return mine… Was going to do exactly the same as you. But these reports got me worried and now I don’t know if I should return or not…

      1. thinking I’ll return it if I don’t see an answer by next week and go with the other 2 options. I’d rather not take a risk on the psu.

  3. Hello,
    will there be a test of the new ASUS ROG Thor Titanium III 1600W in the near future and is this PSU better than the Seasonic Prime TX-1600?

  4. I got the PRIME TX ATX 3.1 1600 watt , not Noctua , but also notice 12v is 11.84 from MB reading , out of the the PC , used DR Power III to check , it was 12.3v for the CPU and 12v2x6 was 12.2v , also used WireView for the 4090 11.999 to 12.0 rock steady , software reading from the MB is a waste of time .

    Seasonic Support Desk

    You

    Dear Harmon,

    Thank you for your reply.

    The PSU is ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1. Intel simplified the naming of ATX 3.1 to ATX 3 and PCIe 5 to avoid confusion. Therefore, our PRIME TX-1600, which follows ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 standards, will include the 12V-2×6 cable and connector on the PSU side. You can check the connector on the PSU; it should have shorter sense wires and longer power pins. The packaging will also feature a 12V-2×6 logo to differentiate it from previous ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 (12VHPWR) versions.

    If you have any other questions, please let us know.
    Thank you.

  5. Just my luck. Pulled the trigger a few days ago on one Noctua Edition PSU after spending loads of time reading through reviews and checking the lists.
    I am still well within the return period, in your opinion, would this be a reason to to return the PSU and choose another model? I am on 240v.
    Thank you so much for all the wonderful analysis and reviews you make, they are extremely helpful.

    1. I just measured the rails on my Noctua Edition PSU with a Fluke multimeter and I get 12,16v readings on the 12v rail. Is the problem with the lower 12v rail only when there is load applied?

  6. Really good article as always Aris, just one comment. You cannot use percentage values to quantify the differences between two temperatures taken in Celsius degrees; you have to use absolute values instead.

    1. Good point – you *could* compare percentages based on delta over ambient.

      For example, taking the PFC MOS #1 measurements in the 115V test:
      * TX-1600: 35.36 °C over ambient
      * TX-1600 NE: 43.78 °C over ambient
      * Delta: 8.42 °C, 23.81%

      1. Hi Aris, let me rephrase what I said in a more long winded answer.

        It’s not that it’s not possible to express the difference between two readings in Celsius or Fahrenheit as percentages, but it’s more than those two types of units work in a “relative scale and not an absolute scale” (from Wikipedia). That is, Celsius only measures stuff relative to the boilling and freezing points of water at 1 atmosphere. That’s unlike something like Kelvin or Rankine units, the former of which is described by the US National Institute Of Standards and Technology as an “absolute unit” because it measures the “average energy of motion (kinetic energy) [an object’s] atoms and molecules have”. As such, the percentual difference between two readings done at Kelvin and Rankine describe the change of kinetic energy between two objects. Based on my understanding, I could only describe the percentage difference between two readings done in Celsius as how much the thermometer readings changed, which is a pretty weird usage when a Celsius reading is on itself an already straight-forward way to understand temperature. Using percentages is only making things more complicated!

        With that said, I’m not saying that Hardware Busters should now measure everything in Kelvin just so that we can present temperature deltas as percentages. It’s especially silly when the temperature of air and water cooled PC components never goes below ambient temperature .It’s just that based on what I mentioned above, a percentage difference is very rarely used when comparing two Celsius readings. I can recall that Steve from Gamers Nexus has said a similar thing in camera (he probably said something along the lines of “You cannot use percentage values to quantify the differences between two temperatures taken in Celsius degrees; you have to use absolute values instead”, which admittedly was my viewpoint before I actually done some research to write my answer lol), and I imagine it’s a similar reason why I can’t ever recall seeing this on other competing tech sites (including Anandtech, Tom’s Hardware, Techpowerup, etc.) and on other contexts for that matter (like weather forecasts). And talking about weather forecast, I found a post on ResearchGate that mentioned this exact issue, and there’s an answer posted by someone called “Peter Urich” that includes a response from a chief meteorologist at WGN-TV that mentions similar points to what I said at the beginning of my answer. I’ll link you with the URL: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Percentage-change-in-temperature-in-future-climate-condition

        Even if I’m no physicist, I just find it more straightforward to represent those differences as an absolute value instead, which is what’s already used in most tech websites.

        Cheers!

        1. Got it, thanks! But given my academia background, I still see nothing against using percentages apart from the fact that some users might get confused. These big sites, I used to write for them too, Tom’s and TPU, and the fact that they don’t use percentages doesn’t mean anything to mean I am afraid, since they are not the “standard”. The “standard” for me is what you know personally and your studies and research in the field and I have a strong background there that I trust to guide me. This doesn’t mean of course that I will be right on all cases.

          But please we should not confuse what is “not right” with what can be confusing. Using percentages for temperature readings might not be common but it is not wrong either. Now if I did that in dBA which is a logarithmic scale it would be wrong for sure, but temperature is NOT logarithmic but linear. It is just that the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales are a fraction of the whole range.

          1. I agree with the other two commenters, that using percentages here is not great. If I have to stop and ask or think about 5% relative to what then I think you can do better at communication. I had to quickly calculate what the percentages meant here. There is an unspoken assumption that 0 is the start of the scale here. Even without using that assumption lets say we were going to compare the base psu with a special version. Would measuring two values 100C and 0C really be 100% better cooling? Does it even make sense? This approach can give numbers that start to lose meaning quickly. What the reader wants to really know is if they used both power supplies about how much cooler would it be in degrees delta.

            I’d say a percentage really only works if we were able to compare heat transfer rates/efficiencies.

      2. It’s essentially the same reason that when showing a graph, it’s often seen as misleading to put the minimum value at something other than 0. An example that’s commonly used to illustrate this is charts of average height (of a human) by country, if you draw in silhouettes of humans instead of bars (but don’t start the “feet” at 0 but something higher like 1 meter).

        But I think it’s reasonable to use percentages when using difference over ambient temperature, because that’s also an effective 0 (the point of thermal equilibrium). IIRC thermal energy also scales linearly with temperature so you can say it’s x% worse at dissipating thermal energy (but don’t quote me on that).

  7. even on 230V the fan is running over 1200(sic!) RPM faster than acceptable
    if put under serious load this PSU would be louder than graphic cards, not a great experience
    also, while many of PSU use special 135mm fans using a 140mm one should be possible, A14x25 anyone?

    1. It would be possible, but more difficult, since the side plates would have to have holes cut out, since 140mm width of PSU is given by the standard. In 150x140x86 PSU with the NF-A14x25r G2 it could look like this: https://imgur.com/xFs5L9R

      1. yeah, I guess all the 140mm fans used in power supplies are ones without the standard frame, a collab on a product like this should be able to pull it off, but not this time

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