Page 2 - Physical Look - Outside
As a power supply product, the exterior design of the SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 comes with little surprises. In fact, I could not tell if there is any difference compared to the SilverStone Nightjar NJ600 600W, which was previously reviewed by our editor Aaron Lai, other than the model inscription on the side at the first glance. The NJ700 looks like my favorite food, tofu. This is because not only does it have a cuboid shape like what tofu would look like, but also the white-ish silver color. I think silver is a very unique color for a PSU, as most PSUs I have seen are black. The challenge of designing a good looking power supply unit is really about how to place things like the power plug, switch, grille, ventilation holes, output sockets, and stickers. When it comes to measurements, the Nightjar is 17.0cm in length, 15.0cm in width, and 8.6cm in height. This is about as small as it can get for a fanless modular ATX PSU. For most ATX or EATX chassis, length should not be much of a problem, if at all. However, if you have a mATX or mITX case that takes standard power supplies, you will want the PSU to be as short as possible, especially considering the fact the NJ700 is fully modular.
The above photo shows three sides of the SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W; namely the top, back, and left sides. As a fanless PSU, there are five out of six sides that have a mesh grille; particularly the front, back, left, right, and top sides. This is a because the passive cooling solution requires the PSU to have as much ventilation as possible. The only side that does not have a mesh grille is the bottom. Instead, it has some ventilation slots. There is no internal fan to blow cool air from the bottom side, so it makes sense to only have some ventilation slots at the bottom instead of using full mesh-style grille. The bottom side of the power supply unit is not shown in the photo, but there is a voltage specification label there, as we will see soon enough. You can see from the left side of the PSU, there is a SilverStone logo. I would say it is a nice touch to add some flavor to a rather unexciting PSU design, but I am not sure if this logo will be visible when it is installed in your system.
Now, let us move on to the back of the power supply unit. In the photo, we can see the power input and switch. The power input plug is standard. Therefore, the user can just reuse a power cord from other equipment if necessary. The rest of this side panel features a grille for cooling. Heat generated inside of the PSU can be ventilated through the openings all around the enclosure. To install the power supply unit in a computer case, there are eight screw holes at the back of the PSU. Of course, you do not need to use all eight holes. There are eight to accommodate different mounting orientations, but you will only need four. Below the power switch, there is a "Nightjar" badge, and it also shows the input voltage is from 100 to 240V AC.
The SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W is a fully modular power supply unit. The good thing is only the cables that need to be used will be connected and thus the computer case will have a cleaner internal look. However, the downside is users have to connect all the cables themselves. It is worth noting the ATX 24-pin connector needs to be used in almost all desktop computers with very few exceptions. Overall, I think it is a good thing to have a fully modular power supply unit, since cable kits can be swapped in and out. Furthermore, SilverStone allows RMA without cables, so you do not need to rewire your system should anything go wrong.
The sockets here are easy to identify thanks to the labels on the panel. It comes in a two-row pattern. On the first row, we have the larger part of the motherboard ATX 24-pin set. Next to the ATX 24-pin set are five sets of peripheral power outputs, used for the SATA or Molex. At the second row, we have the smaller part of the motherboard ATX 24-pin set and the PCIe/CPU connections. It is worth pointing out that all six 6-pin connectors for PCIe/CPU are identical in terms of pinout, which means each power connector can be used for either PCIe or CPU power. I think this kind of design allows the user to have more freedom when building their system.
The SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W features excellent exterior build quality. The surface of the power supply unit is pleasant to touch, but it is not likely to display any fingerprint marks on it. The gaps between panel connections are small and even. Most importantly, there are no sharp edges around the product. The external build quality boosts my confidence and hopefully this product will also have good internal build quality, which we will look at shortly.
The voltage specification label for the SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W can be found on the bottom panel. There are two main virtual rails. Up to 20A can be delivered via the +3.3V rail for a total of 66W. The +5V rail can also deliver 20A, which is 100 W. The total combined output for the +3.3V and +5V rail is 100W. In other words, your power allocation combination must fall within the limits of the listed specifications. Meanwhile, a single powerful +12V rail delivers up to 58A or 696W to maximize power delivery compared to multiple +12V rails. Overall, the combined power output for the whole NJ700 is 700W. Normally, users will not need to worry about those configurations, since most of the use cases have already been considered by the engineers of SilverStone. The power distribution of this product is acceptable for a 700W power supply unit, although the +3.3V and +5V rails are definitely on the lower end.
The SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W is 80 Plus Titanium certified, which means it is certified to be at least 90%, 92%, 94%, 90% efficient at 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100% load, respectively.
Out of box, we have twelve modular cables and one power cable with the SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W. That is why the cable bag is heavy. In terms of color, all the cables are black. The modular cables are generally easy to bend at normal room temperature. The flat cables are flexible enough to allow easy cable management in a desktop computer. It is worth mentioning the motherboard cable is nylon-sleeved for a better appearance. As for current handling, all of the wires are 18 AWG, which are good enough for a 700W PSU. Usually, manufacturers will fatten them up to 16 AWG, but SilverStone's engineers believed it would not be necessary for this PSU.
The following modular cables are included out of the box:
- 1x ATX 20/24 pin, 61.0cm
- 2x ATX/EPS 4+4 pin, 65.0cm
- 4x PCIe 6+2 pin, 75.0cm
- 3x SATA, 4 connectors each, 45.0cm to first connector, 12.0cm spacing thereafter
- 2x Molex, 3 connectors each, 45.0cm to first connector, 12.0cm spacing thereafter
These are measurements from the manufacturer. A 10cm long Molex to Floppy adapter is provided for those who may need to use it. Most users should have no problems with installing SilverStone Nightjar NJ700 700W even if your case has a bottom power supply mount. 50cm is the general standard for an ATX PSU, and most of these cables have exceeded it. The shorter peripheral cables could be useful for close-reach devices, but I would still prefer them to be longer for more flexibility.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
