Performance (40% of the final score) - I have to admit, this unit is very impressive. Absolutely astounding efficiency combined with some very stable voltage regulation is a real tough combo to beat already. Adding in that amazing ripple and noise suppression, it's tough to find stuff to hate about it. But find stuff I did, for that soldering job needs to be cleaned up. And guess what - Seasonic's already working on that. But all the same, I need to pull half a point for that. 9.5.
Functionality (20% of the final score) - the story even better for this part of the score, because... well, the "M" in the M12D stands for Mary. As in, a certain nanny famously played by Julie Andrews. As in, practically perfect in every way. First there's a fan that can't be heard over the duration of my load testing process. Then, you have the fact that they not only threw in a bunch of perfectly sleeved modular cables, the SATA and PATA cables are of different lengths so you can plan out cable management better. Finally, you have four PCI-E cables, all of which have 6+2 pin modular connectors. I mean, the only way things could get better would be to add another couple hundred watts and a couple more PCI-E connectors. 10.
Value (30% of the final score) - Newegg is listing the M12D right now for $299.99. Ow, ow, ow. This puts it into solid competition with the Antec Signature 850W. I hate to say it, but... it's good, but not quite that good. Not with the soldering not quite as good, anyway. 8.
Aesthetics (10% of the final score) - nothing at all to complain about here. It looks awesome, the sleeving is well done, and the whole thing just screams quality while that SanAce fan spins slowly around and doesn't scream anything. A second 10 goes here.
Performance
9.5
Functionality
10
Value
8
Aesthetics
10
Total Score
9
Summary
The Seasonic M12D came promising the moon, the stars, and even the Starship Enterprise with which to explore them by, and for the most part the voyage is a successful one. Excellent stability combined with extremely high efficiency on top of outstanding ripple and noise suppression makes this unit one to watch.
The Good:
extremely efficient
good voltage regulation
very quiet fan
nice sleeving job
The Bad:
low frequency boogie woogie ripple on the 12V rails (if you can really call 40mV bad)
