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 -- of which certain criteria consists 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 that exerts minimal load on the power supply, initial consumption was 6W as measured by our wall meter -- indicating the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. Independent reviews from our affiliates with professional load testing equipment showed the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST1000-PTS 1000W was able to deliver excellent energy efficiency, acceptable voltage regulation, and decent ripple performance for all rails. Keep in mind that this is an 80 Plus Platinum certified power supply unit.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation, all are well within 4%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard at 290ms.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it since 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 these are all power measurements, they cannot be considered as one thing. 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 now be easily calculated as P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. Under nominal loads with approximately 60W of power consumption, the power factor value of the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST1000-PTS 1000W was at 0.91, which is excellent for such low load.
The cooling fan in the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST1000-PTS 1000W power supply unit will stay on as long as it is running. Using the APH Networks noise scale that defines 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would like to rate this power supply unit as 2.0/10 acoustically under normal loads. Although I would prefer an ATX power supply unit to have a silent mode when the workload is not high, there is really nothing I can complain about, since the overall noise level is rather low and it comes with a good quality Yate Loon D12SH-12 enhanced sleeve bearing fan.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
Developing the worlds' smallest kilowatt power supply unit is by no means simple task. I cannot imagine how much work SilverStone and Enhance has to put into to get the Strider Platinum ST1000-PTS 1000W to the market, but here it we are. It is quiet, it is efficient, and it is supremely compact for those who want the smallest and most powerful power supply ever made. It even comes with a five-year warranty. Overall speaking, the ST1000-PTS 1000W PSU has great selection of internal components, although according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment, in the pursuit of form factor, there were some sacrifices made in its overall performance. The retail price of this power supply is about $210 USD at press time. It is far from being economical, but this is not an economical product and it was never meant to be one. If you want big power and small size, the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST1000-PTS 1000W is the only power supply in the market that achieves both -- and a decent one at that.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
