Now let's do an autopsy. An autopsy of a living specemin! How creepy! It's almost Halloween, right? Perfect!
Overhead shot screams "I'm a Seasonic!!!"
Here (above) is a shot of part of the primary side.
The primary cap is a single 470uF 400VDC Hitachi. I believe the heatsink is bent down to touch the top of the cap for a reason.
Just an observation, but the cap is only an 85°C rated component. This is actually very common, but the Seasonic built Corsair uses a 105°C rated primary cap. I say it's just an observation because on the primary side, cap failures are very rare in even the cheapest PSU's. Typically, when I've seen primary cap failure, it wouldn't matter if the cap was wrapped in asbestos, it was still going to blow.
The secondary side is loaded with Nippon-Chemicon.
There is one Rubycon in place (the one black cap.)
Here's the modular interface removed from the PSU housing. Note there are two 12V landing spots, but all of the 12V pins are fed by the same traces.
On the PSU's main PCB, we can only see two points where 12V terminates. That kind of makes it difficult for this PSU to be "quad 12V rail."
Here's a shot of the bottom of the PCB showing that there are only two separate 12V rails.
Following the 12V traces leads me to this HY-510N chip. Supposedly this manages over-voltage.
I asked Seasonic about this "descrepency" and it was stated that the "deception" is really quite innocent. Apparently the initial design was for quad rails, and if rails did need to be split up into three or four rails, it would be easy to implement without completely redesigning the platform. Multiple rails can be split up with a separate OCP circuit board, typically screwed to the top of a heatsink.
What Seasonic tells me is that there was an issue with high end video cards overloading a single 12V rail. So with Intel's blessing, Seasonic removed the OCP. Technically, Intel has removed the 240VA rail limit from the ATX12V specfication (although I've yet to see this published on FormFactors.org), and the UL simply considers devices with single output leads with output capability greater than 240VA (12V @ 20A) a different product class (level 6 instead of level 3.)
Although I have little issue with a single 12V rail as it does allow almost any load to be put on almost any connection, I do wish a correction to the label was done. Single 12V rails work well for high end machines with video cards with GPU's that can easily overload your typical rail, but you do miss the advantages of split 12V rails, such as separation of "noise" between rails and the protection provided by the separation so a potential short on one rail doesn't harm a device loation on another.
Now for a look at the 60MM fan in the back....
Vibration is dampened by rubber grommets in the screw holes.
Both fans are powered by the same connector by use of a splitter, so obviously the RPM control of the 60MM fan is within the fan itself.
So now that that's all done, let's take a look at the scoring....
Performance (weight of 40%) gets a 9.5. Efficiency is great, voltage regulation is decent, especially for a modular PSU, it has active PFC and it's very quiet at loads that are most typical for any PSU. It doesn't have the quad rails that are promised, but certainly I'm not going to find much fault on it having two at the most with no OCP. And certainly the hot box was no match for the M12. My only concern is making sure there's ample cooling in the case so your other components can keep cool, because certainly we can't count on the M12 to exhaust all of the heat.
Aesthetics (weight of 10%) is 7.5. The basic black isn't too bad. But it's really rather plain. It looks a lot like the Silverstone Element right down to the sleeved cables. The M12 gets an extra half point because it's modular, since modular cables and the fact that you do not have to "hide" unused cables does improve the PC's over all aesthetics.
Value (weight of 30%) score is an 7. The price of the M12-700 is just over $200. That makes it more than the Seasonic built PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W and considerably more than the Seasonic built Corsair HX620W. So although it is tempting to say that this performance is worth any price, it's hard to call it "a good value."
For functionality (weight of 20%,) I'm giving this power supply an 9.5. We've got all of the cables we need, they're modular, and plenty long enough.
Performance
9.5
Aesthetics
7.5
Value
7
Functionality
9.5
Total Score
8.5
So there you have it. A very high 8.5 as the final score. With the high price and mediocre appearance really being the M12 700W's only potential downfalls, it's easy to say that if the M12 is within your budget this PSU may be your perfect 10!
SUMMARY:
The Seasonic M-12 performed with excellent voltage regulation, potentially minimal thermal de-rate, excellent efficiency and has active power factor correction.
The modular connectors will keep things looking clean inside your case while the slow turning fans will keep things quiet, if not a little bit on the warm side.
