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 have to 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're not going to try to BS you 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 exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 9W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. It is better than other power supplies with the same wattage rating; do keep in mind the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W's internal fan is off at this stage. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W delivered excellent efficiency and average to very good voltage regulation and ripple depending on the rail. This is a 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 within 4%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 290ms.
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/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of only 70W (9.3%) on the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W had the power factor at 0.96. This is excellent, considering many PSUs do not hit 0.99 until at least 25% to 30% load.
The SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W is silent to fairly quiet power supply, depending on the amount of power being drawn. Under idle level loads (Less than approximately 100W), the ST75F-PT is inaudible, because the fan is shut off completely. Under regular loads (Above 100W but below 300W), the 750W Strider Platinum is reasonably low noise. Personally, I found the Globe S1202512L to be pretty good, except you can definitely hear some coarseness in the motor noise at higher speeds. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W to be at 0.0/10 when the fan is off, because, well, the fan is off. Above that, I would peg it at 2.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads, because the fan spins really slowly. The fan is out of the way to approximately 70% of its maximum speed, but it will become exponentially more audible when it kicks in. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W is a respectable choice, especially when the fan is off, but the motor smoothness may bother the pickiest.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W is a generally well-built PSU that delivers reasonably good performance according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment. It is a Strider Gold S ST75F-GS V2.0 with a few crucial updates, including the venerable 80 Plus Platinum certification, fluid dynamic bearing fan, and hybrid semi-fanless operation. Impressively, this fully modular power supply still retains the same compact form factor of only 14cm in depth. A higher fanless operation threshold, smoother running fan, and longer warranty would be my recommendations for improvement. Beyond that, for about $145 at press time, the ST75F-PT is reasonably priced for what you get.
Do you have any comments or questions about the SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W? Drop by our Forums. Registration is free, and it only takes a minute!
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
