Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester, which applies only a minimal load, the SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W drew just 8W at the wall, indicating the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. This specific model has not been tested in other independent reviews, but it has an 80 Plus Gold rating. The Extreme 650Rz Gold is not Cybenetics-rated.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are within 4%. This power supply is SFX 12V4.1 compliant, so it looks like the PSU tester I used was not fast enough to pick up the true PG signal. The ATX/SFX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it, as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
In terms of noise, the Globe Fan 92mm fluid-dynamic bearing fan for the PSU was an excellent choice. The SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W had a consistently low noise level. The fan ranges from off to barely audible across the load range. On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate this PSU at 0/10 for light loads, because the fan is off, and 2.0/10 under nominal load. Due to the SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W being an SFX PSU, the fan needs to spin very fast to keep the compact area cool. But as the fan spun faster for larger loads, it did a great job at keeping noise to a minimum.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purposes of evaluation.
The SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W is a well-built and thoughtfully designed SFX power supply aimed at compact PCs. Its tiny dimensions, fully modular cable layout, clean internal design, and compliance with current SFXV12 4.1 and PCIe Gen 5 standards make it a practical choice for space-constrained builds. The power supply is also ranges from silent with the fan off to reasonably quiet. Unfortunately, one notable downside is the lack of an included 12V-2x6 cable, even though the connector exists on the power supply. This should have been included, as it is not a good place to cut costs in my opinion. The three-year warranty is also very short. At the time of writing, there are no third-party professional load tests publicly available, so we will have to wait for those results to come out to get a meaningful idea of its performance. Aside from that, the SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W is priced at approximately $180 USD, placing it toward the higher end of the 650W SFX power supply market. For users seeking a compact unit with high power density from a reputable manufacturer, the SilverStone Extreme 650Rz Gold 650W checks many boxes.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
