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, 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 websites with professional load testing equipment was not available at press time, but good performance results were shown from other power supplies built on the same platform from Enhance. This is an 80 Plus Titanium 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 320ms.
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 these components all measure power, they are not the same as each other. 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. Under nominal loads, the power factor value of the SilverStone SX800-LTI 800W was at 0.94, indicating that the active PFC function is working well.
This power supply unit comes blessed with the semi-passive fan operation, and for the most part, it definitely stays pretty quiet. Even when the fans are on, according to our APH Networks scale, where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the SX800-LTI 800W at 3.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads. I never really found the noise from the power supply to be distracting, and the semi-fanless operation works exactly as intended.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The SilverStone SX800-LTI 800W is another excellent SFX-L unit from SilverStone and Enhance Electronics, though there were some interesting decisions made when building the SX800-LTI. With 85c hold-up capacitors on a unit as powerful and expensive as this one, life expectancy for this unit may not be as long as some other power supplies. However, this platform has shown to be capable in the performance side of things, with low voltage ripple and certified with the 80 Plus Titanium rating according to our third-party sources. Retailing for about $180 at press time, the SX800-LTI 800W is definitely an expensive option. However, if power at a small size is what you need, the SilverStone SX800-LTI is an excellent, albeit pricey choice.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
