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Seasonic Super Tornado 300watt PSU |
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Written by Jason Owens
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
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Page 3 of 3
The 120mm fan mounted in the Super Tornado is visible in the shot into the power supply. While the grill is not terribly restrictive, it is still more so that a wire grill which could easily be mounted on the Super Tornado. Once again this brings up the modding potential that the Super Tornado brings to the table. For those willing, cutting out the stamped grill and adding a 120mm LED fan provides an aesthetically pleasing and excellent performing power supply, as you will see shortly.
The power connectors on the Super Tornado are standard. Included are the P4 connector and a fan RPM 3-pin connector. The motherboard power connector seems to be longer than those of many power supplies I have tested and owned, which is great when using a large full tower case, but can get in the way when using a mATX or small mid tower chassis.
Under the hood of the Super Tornado lie the 120mm fan and the large aluminum heatsinks. As previously stated, the fan is a Cheng Home Electronic SuperRed 120mm model. The two large sinks are set to the side of the power supply and are out of the dead zone immediately below the center of the fan. This allows the maximum amount of air to flow over and through the articulated fingers of the aluminum and in turn cool the power supply.
The sticker on the 300watt Super Tornado is white, back, and red and stands out immediately. It contains the graphics of the features Seasonic has included and shows what may be the largest drawback of the Super Tornado, and this is the fact that the +3.3V and +5V lines only have a combined 180watt output.
Test system specs
- Asus A7V333
- AMD Athlon XP 1700+ Palamino
- 16x10x40 Lite-On CD burner
- 12X DVD drive
Not only was I surprised after running Motherboard Monitor 5, but I was downright shocked. So shocked in fact that I uninstalled MBM5 reinstalled and then re-ran the series of tests. Not only are the +3.3V and +5V within the 5% range of tolerance that you would want and expect on a power supply, but they are absolutely rock solid, and held their voltages unwaveringly over two 3+ hour tests. The tests consisted of Prime95 for half an hour, followed by two gaming session of an hour each. The gaming sessions were in MOHAA and Battlefield 1942.
I can not begin to express how delighted I was to find these results from the Super Tornado, and was more than pleasantly surprised. All things considered this power supply brings quite a bit to the table and the small nagging issues I have with it are just that. When added up, the good of the Super Tornado far outweighs the bad. At the time of writing, the only place carrying the Super Tornado for sale is Fry’s/Outpost.com with a price of $69.99.
Pros
- 120mm fan provides better cooling with a quieter fan solution
- Rock solid lines are great
- Honeycomb rear helps with cooling and airflow
- Large potential for modding
- Dr. Cable kit makes cable routing much easier
- 3 year warranty from Seasonic
Cons
- Honeycomb structure can be weak when cover is removed
- 180watt combined +3.3V and +5V rails
- Fan may not quite push the >70cfm that is advertised
- Price of $69.99 may be a bit high for a 300watt PSU
The Super Tornado is one of the best power supplies I have had the pleasure of testing and I am able to recommend it without reservations to someone looking for a quality power solution. While more expensive than many PSU with more juice, I feel that it makes up for this deficit in the fact that the power rails are well within tolerances and very stable. I'd like to thank Seasonic for sending over this power supply once again. Thanks for reading and enjoy the site!
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 June 2007 )
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