Aw, yeah, way better.
Modular power supplies
are certainly nothing new,
but Seasonic has put
a bit of a different spin on it.
This is the Seasonic CONNECT
"one clean solution,"
and unlike other
modular power supplies,
which have the PSU itself
and then a bunch
of connectors on it,
this one...
(groaning)
...comes out of the foam
like that.
What?
This video
checking out the CONNECT
is brought to you guys
by Seasonic.
♪
On the surface,
everything looks normal.
This is a 750-watt power supply.
It's 80 Plus Gold certified
just like Seasonic's PRIME GX.
It's got their hybrid mode
for the fans,
so the fan will actually
stop turning under low load,
and it's got
a 140-millimeter fin,
but that's actually
where things get interesting.
That 140-millimeter fan is
taking up the entire surface.
You see, look how short
this thing is.
Also how short this cable is.
So just like older
non-modular power supplies,
the cable is hardwired
into the unit,
but that's all you've got.
Not even a full 24-pin
ATX power connector
and then whatever this is.
You know this looks just like
the old 20-pin
motherboard power connector,
but if you plugged this
into one of those boards,
it would definitely kill it.
Let's have a look
at what else is in the box.
So there's those funky magnets
I found before.
Ah!
Wow, those are
super strong magnets.
These have got to be
rare-earth magnets.
♪
Ooh, yeah,
and that's how they crack.
And I did say this was
a modular power supply,
so here's our bag
of modular cables.
Nothing unusual about
a bunch of modular cables
in a modular power supply,
except look at this!
So here's our 24-pin
power connector,
but it's a little baby one,
and it doesn't go in
anywhere here.
Ah-ha!
That is where this comes in.
So what Seasonic has done here
is they have included
most of the usual things
you would find
in a power supply,
except instead of doing
the DC-to-DC conversion
that is already
industry standard
where your power supply
will take the AC mains power
and just convert it
to 12-volt DC power
and then derive
any other voltages--
5-volt, 3.3-volt--
from that.
Now, older power supplies
used to actually
take mains power
and convert it separately
for each voltage,
but this way ended up
being more efficient
and with cleaner output.
So what they're doing then
is they're doing basically that,
but they're doing the 12-volt
to other voltages conversion
elsewhere.
Basically here's
how it goes down:
Your power supply goes in.
This weirdo 20-pin
goes into the bottom
of the CONNECT here,
and then there's also
this little doodad,
and that goes in
a little something like that.
All down this side,
we've got our motherboard power,
couple PCI Express for graphics,
and a handful of IDE
or SATA plugs,
and then over here
we've got these two plugs,
which would go right up
to your CPU power
and then one more
peripheral one.
So basically, the idea is
you're taking that conversion,
and then you're running
much smaller wires
for a much cleaner look
at the back of your case.
That all sounds
fine and good in theory,
but is this even gonna fit
in anything?
We can do this, right, Andy?
Just cure my OCD, please!
Yeah, I know, right?
So Seasonic
has validated cases,
but we're all about
making things interesting,
so instead, we grabbed
Taran's old editing workstation
that he's been having
some trouble with
and we're gonna try and cure
the cable clutter on the back
of a tempered glass case.
This system was originally built
about three years ago
before the concept
of RGB light daisy chaining
had really been introduced,
and back when power supplies
still all had their cables
plugged in at the bottom
like, you know, like cavemen.
So let's see what we can do.
There honestly
might not be much we can do
about the RGB wiring,
but I'm gonna be curious
to see how much cleaner,
if at all,
this looks without
so much power supply wiring.
So I'm gonna unplug
everything from this side,
feed it back through.
♪
A 24-pin for the motherboard.
Oh, you've gotta be kidding me.
I did not think
that one through.
The 4-pin and the 8-pin
for the motherboard
are covered by
this AIO water cooler.
Guess we're taking
the whole thing apart.
And of course, these builds
were the one time
that we put all eight screws
in a radiator.
Out with the old power supply...
and maybe a little bit
of dusting is in order.
♪
We didn't specifically
pick this case
because it's listed
as compatible.
In fact, as far as I know,
it's not,
but we did pick something
that we thought
would have a chance
of being compatible.
Because the cable
comes out on this side,
you can see, obviously,
if we had to mount
our power supply
with the fan side up,
it wouldn't be able to reach
and you could run
into similar issues
if you had a case with
a top mounted power supply,
for example.
I really got to wonder
what this design costs them
in added materials.
Does it gain them back
in shorter runs
at lower voltages?
Maybe the whole point
really just is
it's tidier looking.
I'll be the judge of that.
That is pretty clean!
There's like nothing there.
Of course, we do still need
to put this in here.
So compatibility-wise,
it's about
two centimeters thick,
so as long as you have
that much room
on the back
of your motherboard tray
and enough uninterrupted space
to mount it,
you should be good to go.
Now this one has a bit
of a fold-out lip
around the back
of the CPU cutout,
but I still think we should
be able to make it work.
That's where
our magnets come in.
A little bit of feedback
for the boys back at Seasonic,
if these pads
could be pre-applied.
Doesn't take that long,
but it's gonna be
a little bit faster to install.
That is really tight,
but we did manage
to get it in there,
so I'm gonna pop this off.
Let's finish the install.
You know what
I'm kind of tempted to do
is just nibble this
a little bit.
Normally, I wouldn't
recommend this
to install a power supply,
but, hey,
we gotta have our fun.
(hammering)
♪
Aw, yeah, way better.
Starting with the 24-pin,
everything plugs in
the way you would
normally expect
on a modular power supply.
This bad boy is gonna go here.
Okay, this one right here.
And then this goes
straight over to the other side.
Now, our CPU connectors
go right here,
and then over to the other side.
Actually working
exactly as intended so far.
That's good.
Plenty of time for this
to go south later, though.
What else we got?
So our RGB controller
needs a SATA power,
and then there's another
LED thing down in the bottom
that needs SATA power.
And, wow, that's--
that's about it, ain't it?
This has actually been
pretty painless.
I'm already putting
the AIO back in.
Now we just need to deal
with all these fan cables.
Now that's not actually bad
if we can get
everything contained like that.
I do like the magnetic mounting,
'cause it means if you need
to route something under it,
you just pick it up
and then put it back down.
That's pretty cool.
There's one
of our RGB connectors.
Here's another RGB connector.
So many RGB connectors,
that's fine, I think.
So much for
two and a half inch drives.
See ya, it was nice knowing ya.
I'm just trying
to get my cable tie back
through the loop.
Come on.
I see it, just need
the right tool for the job.
That's me.
Now for the big test:
Does it close
without mashing it shut?
♪
Awesome.
Got it!
Obviously, I knew
what we were getting into
going into the video,
but I'm still surprised
at how much cleaner that looks.
We did this whole thing
start to finish
in just about an hour,
didn't we, Andy?
Yeah!
That's not bad
for a component swap
like that in cable management.
Even though we don't have
the cover anymore,
I actually think
it looks cleaner without it.
See, this cover
used to be there,
so it's actually
kind of similar-looking.
Theoretically,
that's plugged in.
Ah, damnit.
♪
Oh, hey, it's got lighting, too!
Look at that. Not bad!
Did somebody pre-configure
this system for me
so the lighting would match?
Apparently, this isn't RGB,
so that is something
to watch out for.
However, if you happen to be
super into
the blue color scheme,
that's gonna look
pretty darn sharp, isn't it?
Now, of course, the one
remaining question is:
But at what cost?
Well, believe it or not,
compared to other
750-watt modular power supplies,
it's not outlandishly priced,
so it kind of comes down
to whether you want
your modular interface
on the back of your power supply
the conventional way
or whether you want it
running up the back
of your motherboard
so that you can
run off the cables
wherever the heck you want.
So thanks again to Seasonic
for sponsoring today's video.
If you guys are looking
for another video to watch,
they also sponsored
the Compensator PC 2020!
It was supposed to be 2019,
but it took us until 2020
to build it.
Anyway, we're gonna add
that link below.
