Specifications

The PSU sports Platinum efficiency since it is based on Seasonic's top XP3 platform. It is also fully modular and can deliver its full power continuously at up to 50°C. It is equipped with all available protection features except for OCP (Over Current Protection), a rather useless feature in a single +12V rail PSU of high capacity.

The main difference between this unit and the Seasonic SS-1050XP3—besides its look—is the fan the Snow Silent edition uses. Fluid Dynamic Bearing fans are the best money can buy today since they not only last long, but are also as quiet as new units for a longer time, which is contrary to ball-bearings fans that start to produce more noise as their bearings wear down. Some experts also believe even sleeve-bearing fans of good quality to be preferable to ball-bearing ones because of the performance of the latter after a period of time. Seasonic also equipped their white PSU with a less aggressive fan profile, so we expect it to produce much less noise than the rather noisy SS-1050XP3.

There is a semi-passive mode should you want total silence with light- and mid-level loads; however, the switch is in an inconvenient position right at the rear of the PSU. The warranty is pretty long at seven years, and Seasonic's asking price is decent given the unit's features.

There are no change over the plain SS-1050XP3 here. The single +12V rail can provide enough juice to power four mid-level VGAs or two high-end ones with increased clocks. The minor rails are also quite strong, and the 5VSB rail is a little stronger than the minimum allowed; that is, for contemporary PSUs.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The Snow Silent Seasonic with 1050 W capacity has eight PCIe and two EPS connectors, and all of them are all available at the same time. There are also many SATA and enough peripheral connectors to meet the needs of every high-end system. All cables are long enough to provide for a trouble-free installation into even full-tower cases, and the distance between connectors is also good. We noticed that the distance between peripheral connectors is longer than the distance between SATA connectors since drives the latter supplies with power are usually installed closer to one another. Finally, all connectors use 18AWG connectors.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on when it comes to its power distribution.