Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
After removing the four standard Phillips-head screws, the innards of the SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 750W are revealed. However, I must again warn users planning to crack open the power supply will inevitably void your warranty. There is a three year warranty on this power supply, and I suggest that if you were to open it up, it would be at least after the warranty is expired.
As far as size is concerned, the external dimensions allow the inside to be quite spacious up top. Most of the space across the bottom is taken up by the PCB and its components, which we will take a more specific look in just a short moment. Normally, tightly spaced components will make it hard to dissipate heat effectively due to heat congestion, but with large heatsinks and the included 139mm fan, it should be more than enough to remove the heat generated by the components inside. Since this is an 80 Plus Gold certified unit, higher efficiency also translates to lower heat production. As mentioned on the previous page, while its length does seem a bit higher for a 750W power supply, the 850W, 1000W, and 1200W variants all utilize the same housing. In essence, it is more cost effective to use the exact same housing for all three power supplies in the same line; the savings can then be passed to the consumer, or make more money for the manufacturer.
One things I would like to point out before moving further is the way the fan is connected to the mainboard -- it is actually similar to how the fan is powered in the previous generation SilverStone Strider Gold ST75F-G 750W. The stock fan obtains power via a 2-pin non-soldered connector; if you ever feel the need to replace the stock fan, it should not be much of a challenge. Of course, replacing the fan means the warranty will be voided.
From this angle here, we can clearly see that the cables are cleanly soldered onto the modular cable connector printed circuit board. The wires connecting to them also seem to be in the proper place, and are not all over the power supply. Overall, cables and components are quite neatly organized in the SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 750W. The Enhance design appears to be a good build overall, and it should be safe to assert that all power supplies in this series should be intrinsically similar, other than components that contribute to the other model's higher combined output, obviously. As aforementioned, I am almost entirely sure that this power supply is of Enhance origin, due to significant amounts of evidence pointing in this direction, such as the components used and overall design pattern (That missing power switch as usual eh?).
As aforementioned, one thing that is noticeably missing from the back of the SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 750W is the power switch. Nonetheless, the rest of the usual components are here, including the male power connector, as well as the automatic full range (100V-240V) AC line voltage selector. The first input stage into any standard computer power supply unit, the AC transient filter stage, starts at the AC input. The AC input is found where the honeycomb mesh is located, and moves through the various X and Y capacitors. This model as with the previous generation model also uses only two X capacitors and two Y capacitors at the AC input. There are also two more additional Y caps, and two more X caps on the main PCB. In addition there are two ferrite coils and a MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) as well.
As with the previous generation of the SilverStone Strider Gold, the heatsinks are pretty massive, and literally take up a large percentage of the power supply. Due to these heatsinks being large and long, heat dissipation should be of no problem, thanks in part to the large surface area given and also the overall size of the PSU helps to remove heat. Similar to most modern day power supplies, the Strider Gold Evolution is blocked by the huge 'finger tip' heatsinks which made it a challenge to examine the individual parts of the power supply for this report. (The good thing here is that it is very similar to the previous generation SilverStone Strider Gold)
Included beneath the large heatsink arrays are various copper ferrite coils, bridge rectifiers, X and Y capacitors, miscellaneous capacitors, and fan control thermistor. Unlike some lower end Thermaltake designs I have seen in the past, there are no random globs of plastic over components, or at the very least, they have been hidden well by the overshadowing heatsinks.
Two filtering capacitors are used on this design, but direct view is blocked by the heatsinks, as I have mentioned previously. So this time, I took a slightly different approach, and pulled back the white plastic cover on the side to get a better angle of the internal components. Both filter capacitors are rated at 105c, and are made by Matsushita, which is better known as Panasonic in most parts of the world. This fulfills the Japanese brand capacitors as advertised, and knowing Panasonic, they make pretty reliable products and are popular with many OEMs. Unlike the previous incarnation of the power supply, 105c capacitors are used instead of ones rated at 85c. Even so, chance are other parts will be defective at even 85c or 105c before this starts degrading significantly. Surprisingly, the secondary capacitors are also Japanese brand by Nippon Chemi-Con, which as mentioned in report after report, makes great capacitors, and is used widely by almost every OEM when advertising Japanese brand capacitors.
I was unable to examine the entire PCB in detail to find specific information that may point to its original equipment manufacturer. From my observations and research, it is most likely an Enhance OEM power supply unit. The large heatsinks are said to be a staple of Enhance, and SilverStone has also had a long record of using Enhance as their OEM for their previous generation SilverStone Strider Plus and SilverStone Strider Gold ST75F-G 750W, which are nearly identical to this one as well. Enhance is also the only OEM I know of that does not includes a rear power switch in most of their power supplies.
Four Infineon IPP023N04N MOSFETs were used for the rectification process. 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. The IPP023N04N's rated continuous drain current is 90A at 100c, and a pulsed drain current of 400A. Drain source voltage is rated at 40V. Meanwhile, the DC-to-DC converter as well as Active PFC circuit has array of ST Electronics STW20NM50FD MOSFETs for each of the +3.3V and +5V outputs. The STW20NM50FD MOFSETs' maximum drain current is rated 20A at 25c and 14A at 100c, with an RDS(on) value of less than 0.25 ohm (Vgs @ 10V, Ids @ 10A).
Finally, the 139mm fan found on the SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 750W is manufactured by Honghua Electronic Technological Co., Ltd exclusively for SilverStone. Honghua Electronic Technological is a cooling fan manufacturer based in mainland China; this fan is relatively new to be used by SilverStone for this power supply. The model number for this is written 'HA1425L', which is basically a variation of the SilverStone Air Penetrator AP141. It sizes in at 139mm, and has an airflow of 64.34 CFM at 12V and a noise level of 30.1 dB(A) at 12V. The fan speeds have been lowered to a maximum of 1500 RPM due to improvements in directing the airflow, which is exclusive to this SilverStone designed fan. Any other fans produced by Honghua will not have the exclusive Air Penetrator fan grille pattern. I was left wondering for a while why they specifically use a 139mm fan instead of 140mm, which seems easier to put on paper. After getting an email back from SilverStone, I finally understood. Superflower has a patent for all PSUs that use a 140mm fan, so to get around that, 139mm is the actual spec.
At the end of the day, this design is almost identical to the SilverStone Strider Gold 750W with minor difference in its internals. These small changes such as the full suite of Japanese brand capacitors gives it slight boost over the Strider Gold. Think of the SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 750W as a 'Strider Gold Plus'.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
