For reference, here's a link to my first harvest with the Mars 1200 and Iced Grapefruit.
First Grow - 3x3' Tent - Soil - Mars 1200W LED
Used the same soil, same nutes, same pot sizes, similar training styles. Not an exact comparison tho because of 3x3 vs 4x4 and the strain difference.
Amare in 4x4, Mars in 3x3
450w with Amare SE, 550w with Mars 1200.
376g with Amare, 420g with Mars.
.94 GPW with Amare, .75 GPW with Mars.
25w per sq. ft. with Amare, 61w per sq. ft. with Mars.
Airy, frosty buds with Amare, Dense fat colas with Mars.
Amare hung at 24", Mars hung at 18" high.
I honestly do not like this strain, I need to find different genetics badly. But all of the strains I've grown are in a similar tier from the same breeder, so they're somewhat comparable. Appearance and smoke wise, I think I enjoyed my Mars grown buds better. I think it is because there was more watts of light on them. I cannot go back and measure the lux or par with tools I don't have, but these are the results I got and my observations so far.
I think it's a stretch to say the SE450 can flower a 4x4 independently. At least not at the density standards I'm used to. I feel like it was the largest single panel Amare had to offer 6 months ago and they wanted to say it can flower a 4x4, and clearly it has. But so could my Mars 1200 if I hung it 6" higher. The Mars may even be able to compete with a higher GPW if I was using it in a 4x4 space with 6 extra plants like I was using the Amare.
I think to flower a 4x4 denser I would need to hang my Amare as close as the Mars was; at 18-20 inches, and accept a smaller footprint. Or add more lighting to increase the watts per sq. ft. "25w per sq. ft. with Amare, 61w per sq. ft. with Mars." The Amare is using less than half the watts per foot than my Mars grow. I know CREE and CoB are good, but they're not 200% better.
So I feel a little misled, like Amare has focused too much on the center umol number to say it's intense enough to cover a 4x4. I would like to see par charts at different heights across the entire recommended 4x4 space. I so badly want a PAR meter. I suspect that 18" is kind of the dropoff height for 5w LED's peak par. The CoB's seem pretty far intensity; but since the panel is only 22" wide, it needs to be 24" above to 'evenly' cover a 4x4 canopy.
The last difference I've noticed between these two fine LED's is the price.
$1,145 for the Amare SE450, $435 for the Mars 1200.
$2.5 per watt of Amare light, 80 cents per watt of Mars light.
SE450 draws 100w less than the 1200 and yields probably about the same 1GPW in a 4x4. So from what I can tell, you're really just saving 100w with the Amare. But the cost difference of the 450 and 1200 is $710. So it would take you 61,000 hours of use to make back the cost in electric efficiency. 14 years of flowering 12/12 lol. Where did the deal go? The only way I could really justify the luxury option is if you have a limited space and limited electricity usage and need to maximize your efficiency of both.
To summarize, the Amare SE450 pros are more efficient power use, fuller spectrum, I believe slightly faster growth and slightly more frosting. Cons are that it's hella expensive and over-rated for a 4x4 so I still need to spend more $$ on more lighting. I'm having a hard time re-justifying the expense when I could buy two Mars 1200's for less and yield twice as much for just $25 extra on the electric bill per month.
I plan to continue with this light in the same space with other strains. Could be that the strain is just bunk, or I'm messing something up, or perhaps just the day temps of 86 degrees F have created more airy buds. I'm like 99% sure I want more watts in a 4x4 tho.
Anyone else's thoughts?
I think 600w-800w is recommended in 4x4 when using MH/HPS.
thats always a plus 
