Test Setup

All measurements are performed utilizing a custom designed and built load tester, called Faganas, which is able to stress PSUs up to 1800 Watts. We also use a DS1M12 (Stingray) oscilloscope, a CHY 502 thermometer, a Fluke 175 multimeter and an Instek GPM-8212 power meter. Furthermore, in our setup we have included a wooden box, which along with a heating element is used as a Hot Box. Finally, we have at our disposal three electronic loads (Array 3711A, 300W), a Rigol 1052E oscilloscope and a CEM DT-8852 sound level meter. In the near future we plan to acquire six additional loads to complete our new test set up, which with the help of our custom built software will have the same capabilities with the, ultra expensive, Chroma ATEs. In this article you will find more details about our equipment and the review methodology we follow.

Voltage Regulation Charts

The following charts show the voltage values of the main rails, recorded over a range from 60W to the maximum specified load, and the deviation (in percent), when compared with the voltage values at 60W load.

Efficiency Chart

In this chart you will find the efficiency of X-460FL at low loads and at loads equal to 20-100% of PSU’s maximum rated load.

Voltage Regulation and Efficiency Measurements

The first set of tests reveals the stability of voltage rails and the efficiency of X-460FL. The applied load equals to (approximately) 20%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 80% and 100%, of the maximum load that the PSU can handle. In addition, we conduct two more tests. In the first we stress the two minor rails (5V & 3.3V) with the maximum load that our tester can apply to these rails, while the load at +12V is only 2A and in the second test we dial the maximum load that +12V can handle while load at minor rails is minimum.


Since the PSU has no fan, "in" temperature is measured at the rear exhaust grill and "out" is measured at the top exhaust grill of the unit. Since hot air rises, the temperature at the top exhaust is the higher one.
Except at 20%, efficiency is really high. At six out of eight tests it is above 90% and two of these six readings exceeded 91%. Impressive to say the least! Voltage regulation at +12V is tight enough with 1.6% deviation, 5V registered 2.12% deviation and 3.3V barely exceeded 3% with 3.1% deviation. So Seasonic's claims for 3% voltage regulation on all rails proved to be true even inside our hot box with extremely high temperatures. Finally as you can see even with close to 50°C ambient the PSU delivered its full power flawlessly. We were very delighted to see the X-460FL working without any problems even under such high temperatures.

Efficiency at Low Loads

In the next tests, we measure the efficiency of X-460FL at loads much lower than 20% of its maximum rated load (the lowest load that the 80 Plus Standard measures). The loads that we dial are (approximately) 40, 65 and 90W. This is important for scenarios in which a typical office PC is in idle with power saving turned on.


As we expected, efficiency at low loads is pretty high. Even with 41W load it is close to 80% and with 66W and 90W is way above it. Surely this is the PSU for systems that idle at low loads.

Power Consumption in Idle & Standby

In the table below you will find the power consumption and the voltage values of all rails (except -12V), when the PSU is in idle mode (On but without any load at its rails) and the power consumption when the PSU is in standby (without any load at 5VSB).


Although X-460FL has no fan it has 7.27W power consumption when running at idle. A state however in which it will never operate in your system. In standby, vampire power is only 0.13W so the PSU passes the ErP Lot 6 requirements with flying colors.