Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your five year warranty, thanks to the warranty seal SilverStone applied over one of the attachment screws. But for the benefit of you, we cracked ours open so you do not need to, haha. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
Disassembling the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W is quite straightforward, with the removal of four screws. As with many power supplies from the company, the Strider Titanium ST80F-TI's OEM is Enhance, a well regarded manufacturer since 1986. Our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. At first glance, the build quality appears to be excellent, as one would expect from the company. There are three main heatsinks inside. One large one is located on the primary side, while a couple of adjoining small heatsinks reside on the secondary side, all of which are unpainted.
A quick tug on the shell, and we got straight to the internal inspection. The transient filter stage is the first input stage of a computer power supply, so we will take a look at that first. SilverStone has always done a great job in the past to make sure their power supplies met or exceeded the recommended requirements, and the Enhance based ST80F-TI is no exception. The SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W has two ferrite coils, one metal oxide varistor, four metalized polyester X-capacitors, and two ceramic Y-capacitors. This is four times the amount of X capacitors than recommended. Considering how many modern day PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here, as this component is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line. A Sanken A6069H current mode control PWM regulator IC for controlling standby power can be spotted as well.
On the primary side, we can see one Japanese brand Panasonic capacitor. Japanese brand capacitors are usually what we expect from something in this price range, so this is nothing surprising. Our 800W version of SilverStone's Strider Titanium series incorporates one 560µF x 450V capacitor. This unit is rated at 105c; whereas more value oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W uses two Vishay Semicondictor BU1506 bridge rectifiers attached to opposite sides of the larger heatsink. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 15A, so you can theoretically pull up to 3450W (15A * 2 diodes * 115V) from the bridge rectifier at 100% efficiency -- of course, this is limited by the fact that it is not 100% efficient, and also neglects the fact that not every component in the system are able to keep up. Further down the line, in the middle of the same unpainted heatsink, we can see a Cree C3D10060A Silicon Carbide Schottky diode. This rectifier is certified for up to 14.5A at 135c. Four Infineon IPB50R140CP power MOFSET transistors are used on the active PFC circuit on the SilverStone Strider Titanium power supply. Each Infineon IPB50R140CP MOFSET can deliver up to 15A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 0.14 ohm when turned on; with a typical resistance of 0.13 ohm according to the manufacturer's data sheet. This on characteristic is called Static Drain-Source On-Resistance, or commonly abbreviated as RDS(on). The more efficient the component is, the lower the RDS(on) value, since it wastes less power with lower resistance.
On the secondary side, we can see more Japanese brand capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con and Rubycon rated at 105c. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produces the +12V out -- while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC to DC converter within the power supply unit. In the middle are two add-in printed circuit boards, each with one ANPEC APW7073 synchronous buck PWM controller. One Infineon BSC050NE2LS and one BSC018NE2LS MOSFET on each board are responsible for the conversion process. The BSC050NE2LS's rated continuous drain current is 37A at 100c, and a pulsed drain current of 232A. Drain source voltage is rated at 20V, and a RDS(on) value of 0.005 ohm maximum and 0.0042 ohm typical. The BSC018NE2LS's rated continuous drain current is 97A at 100c, and a pulsed drain current of 400A. Drain source voltage is rated at 20V, and a RDS(on) value of an impressive 0.0018 ohm maximum and 0.0015 ohm typical. One chip by PFC Device Corporation labeled PFR10V45LT can be seen near the two add-in PCBs, but I cannot find any information on this specific product online. An educated guess is it is an MOS Schottky rectifier. The datasheets for all components mentioned in this review can be found on their respective manufacturer's websites.
At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the entire rear panel for the modular cable sockets. There is nothing special going on here electrically; all sockets are connected to the main circuit board after the secondary stage by a bundle of wires. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page. Overall, the internal build quality of SilverStone's Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W power supply is excellent -- something we would expect from what we have seen from the company in the past. Components are arranged pretty well for optimal cooling with minimal wires running around inside, and solder points on its green PCB is quite clean in general. I would say the SilverStone branded, Enhance built ST80F-TI is generally very good with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Lastly, we see a 120mm fan that provides cooling to the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W's internal components. It is connected to the mainboard using a 2-pin connector. A 120mm fan is rather small nowadays for a power supply with a bottom mounted fan, but if not a lot of heat is being generated, it should not be much of an issue. Please note the Strider Titanium's cooling system is not semi-passive, because in order to meet this certification grade, the power supply needs to be very efficient at low loads. A 120mm fan is used to keep the enclosure as small as possible, considering the Strider Titanium is only 150mm deep. Ong Hua is the fan OEM, with HA1225H12F-Z as the model number, as shown in our photo above. Further research indicates the HA1225H12F-Z is a fluid dynamic bearing fan specified at 0.58A for a maximum of speed of 2200 rpm. Fans with fluid dynamic bearings generally have much longer lifespans compared to sleeve bearing fans, and is quite suitable for this application.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
