Seasonic experiments with PSU hub to improve cable management

[Shawn Knight]

Something to look forward to: Cable management sticklers could soon have a new tool in their arsenal to help keep their cases as tidy as possible. The SSR-750FA Connect power supply from Seasonic relocates the modular connections found on a typical PSU from the unit itself to a hub designed to be nestled in an inconspicuous location, like behind the motherboard tray.

The SSR-750FA Connect is a 750W unit carrying an 80-Plus Gold certification and an impressive 10-year warranty. It utilizes what Seasonic calls its premium hybrid fan control system meaning the cooling fan remains inactive (and silent) until the PSU load surpasses 40 percent.

The main brick measures 140 mm (L) x 150 mm (W) x 86 mm (H) but it’s the Connect hub that you’ll likely be most concerned with. At 330 mm (L) x 64 mm (W) x 21 mm (H), it’s not exactly small, so you’ll want to make sure it’ll work with your intended application before purchase.

The kit comes with everything you’ll need for installation including a full complement of modular cables with gold-plated connectors, Velcro and zip ties, magnets to attach the hub to your case and even a PSU tester.

Those who prefer hardwired PSUs due to reliability concerns aren’t likely to be interested in this offering but for builders with more lax requirements, it could be a viable option to help with cable management.

Seasonic hasn’t yet shared a release date or pricing details on the SSR-750FA Connect. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to check out Seasonic’s product page.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84299-seasonic-experiments-psu-hub-improve-cable-management.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Looks good.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

It's a neat idea, but I would want one that works with any PSU, not because of a dislike of seasonic, but because that proprietary secondary connection to the PSU is going to make support a pain if it is ever changed. I wouldnt want to step down to a 80 plus gold just to get the backplane attatchment.I already have a 1K platinum PSU, but would love to use the backplane to clean up wiring.

 

[Reallyhow]

Though this idea is all well and good, there are three big problems to this approach.

PSU shrouds exist. Who cares what the cables going into the supply look like.

Extension cables exist. More players in that market can bring the price down, so could cables sold separately from supplies. This would also solve the hideous +2 pins or jumper 6+2s that there's just no great way to hide them.

Perhaps we could rethink power delivery for consumer supplies. It's silly to have separate cables and connectors for EPS and PEG. It's 12 volts people. It'll be fine. Second, can we really not engineer around a need for 3.3, 5, 5VSB and -12V?

We could likely power the board adequately with 2-3 8-Pin 12V PCI-E Leads. Uniform, easy to manage, and route.

We still need 3.3/5 for drives, fine. But that's 2 chains of connectors.

 

[GreenNova343]

I would also add that, at least IMHO, the main problem behind cable management is that a) you have 1 end of the cables going into a single source, & b) the other end of the cables are going to every single corner of the interior of your case: front/bottom for SSDs & HDDs, front/top for CD/DVD drives, middle/top to rear/top for CPU, middle or middle/bottom for GPUs, rear to middle/rear for other PCIe cards, etc.

This invention of Seasonic solves neither "a" nor "b". In fact, it looks to me like it adds the additional of issue of finding space for an additional piece of hardware inside your case -- maybe not a problem if you're using a super-sized full-tower or EATX case, but an issue if you realized you really didn't need anything larger than a mid-tower (& forget using it in a mATX case, let alone anything smaller).

And speaking of cases... it didn't seem like Seasonic was entirely clear as to how this would be secured inside a case, when (with this being a brand-new thing) it's probably safe to say there are 0 cases on the market designed to use this setup. And their website didn't have the manual easily available, either.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

Can we just get braided cables with the PSU, that would be a leap forward itstead of a secondary market gouging people.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Though this idea is all well and good, there are three big problems to this approach.

PSU shrouds exist. Who cares what the cables going into the supply look like.

Extension cables exist. More players in that market can bring the price down, so could cables sold separately from supplies. This would also solve the hideous +2 pins or jumper 6+2s that there's just no great way to hide them.

Perhaps we could rethink power delivery for consumer supplies. It's silly to have separate cables and connectors for EPS and PEG. It's 12 volts people. It'll be fine. Second, can we really not engineer around a need for 3.3, 5, 5VSB and -12V?

We could likely power the board adequately with 2-3 8-Pin 12V PCI-E Leads. Uniform, easy to manage, and route.

We still need 3.3/5 for drives, fine. But that's 2 chains of connectors.

Legacy is the reason for so many odd PC requirements in hardware and software. Everything from the bios to USB spec. In this case all these power plugs.

I guess you give up some small modernising conveniences to preserve backwards compatibility. It really wouldn't be that hard to just have one power port for everything on a motherboard these days, no matter what CPU you put on it. It'll take a brave board manufacturer with a brave PSU designer to try and pioneer standards like that.

 

[Freddie159]

Legacy is the reason for so many odd PC requirements in hardware and software. Everything from the bios to USB spec. In this case all these power plugs.

I guess you give up some small modernising conveniences to preserve backwards compatibility. It really wouldn't be that hard to just have one power port for everything on a motherboard these days, no matter what CPU you put on it. It'll take a brave board manufacturer with a brave PSU designer to try and pioneer standards like that.

I think it would be easier for a motherboard maker to just install plugs so everything from the psu plugs into it in one spot then supplies short jumper cables and plugs near where they are needed. THEN let the psu makers make their own stuff. There is NO reason why cables need to be run from one end of the case to the other in todays way of designing and building things. YES mini and micro boards would be harder but 3d printing was hard in the beginning too and now they are building houses with them!!

 

[mattferg]

It's a neat idea, but I would want one that works with any PSU, not because of a dislike of seasonic, but because that proprietary secondary connection to the PSU is going to make support a pain if it is ever changed. I wouldnt want to step down to a 80 plus gold just to get the backplane attatchment.I already have a 1K platinum PSU, but would love to use the backplane to clean up wiring.

Unless you're running a higher-end enthusiast-platform CPU and two high end CPUs, having a PSU with this high a wattage is a big waste of money and is less efficient.

Also, not sure any case in the past 4 years would look neater with this fix from Seasonic either, when they all have basements, which I'd take any day over this with no basement.

 

[mattferg]

Legacy is the reason for so many odd PC requirements in hardware and software. Everything from the bios to USB spec. In this case all these power plugs.

I guess you give up some small modernising conveniences to preserve backwards compatibility. It really wouldn't be that hard to just have one power port for everything on a motherboard these days, no matter what CPU you put on it. It'll take a brave board manufacturer with a brave PSU designer to try and pioneer standards like that.

One connection to the motherboard has one big problem - traces. Copper costs money and takes up space - you'd either need to say "This B450 motherboard can only have up to a 2070" on it, or massively increase the prices for motherboards on every level. Not viable. Only reason Apple can do it is because in the Mac Pro the price doesn't matter and no one is likely to have a low end card in there.

 

[mattferg]

Though this idea is all well and good, there are three big problems to this approach.

PSU shrouds exist. Who cares what the cables going into the supply look like.

Extension cables exist. More players in that market can bring the price down, so could cables sold separately from supplies. This would also solve the hideous +2 pins or jumper 6+2s that there's just no great way to hide them.

Perhaps we could rethink power delivery for consumer supplies. It's silly to have separate cables and connectors for EPS and PEG. It's 12 volts people. It'll be fine. Second, can we really not engineer around a need for 3.3, 5, 5VSB and -12V?

We could likely power the board adequately with 2-3 8-Pin 12V PCI-E Leads. Uniform, easy to manage, and route.

We still need 3.3/5 for drives, fine. But that's 2 chains of connectors.

It's not about the voltage - it's about the wattage. PCIe power is likely to carry a lot more than the CPU 8 pin. At least, I assume you're talking about 8 pin. If you mean SATA/Molex, I haven't needed the latter in years and if anything the former is even more true regarding wattage.

With regards to 12/3.3/5v, this is about cost. A single source for all 3 in the motherboard reduces costs across the board. If everything accepted 12v, 5v and 3.3v devices would need to step this down. This means every single device/chip/section has to have a step-down voltage converter in it to take the 12v and convert, or the motherboard has to have a section to convert each one (adding a source of heat to the motherboard and cost of a component which is likely to be replaced 3-4x as often as your PSU).

Having one centralised source makes sense - it's why most enterprise CAT6 equipment (like WiFi APs) runs off PoE. It's cheaper to run and convert the power from the switch for each AP rather than have a wall wart transformer at every AP.