Power supplies are covered infrequently in PC Authority, but we do receive the occasional request. Having a stable supply of power means a happy system, and with sound levels dropping across the board for all other components in your PC, the PSU is quickly becoming one of the noisiest, making a quiet one highly desirable.

Fortunately, this is Seasonic’s speciality. The S12+ supplies 650W of power – enough for a beefy dual graphics rig with multiple hard disks - at an impressive 80% efficiency (cheap equivalents waste load) while remaining whisper quiet. At idle, the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails delivered a comfortable 3.4V, 5.05V and 12.20V respectively. When under load (where it counts), it barely batted an eyelid returning 3.4V, 5.04V and 12.19V. Significant fluctuations would cause crashes.

It sports a full complement of connectors for new and older systems. You can certainly buy cheaper, but for a stable system, Seasonic’s S12+ is the ideal choice.