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 15W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is higher than average. This is roughly the same as a couple of other SilverStone 80 Plus Gold certified power supplies based made by Enhance; namely the Strider Gold Evolution ST75F-G 750W and Strider Gold ST75F-G 750W. However, this is nothing to get too worried about, as independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W delivered very good efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple across the board -- right up to its rated wattage. This includes its 80 Plus Gold certification.
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 2%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 340ms.
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 180W (21%) on the SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W had the power factor at 0.99.
The SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W is a quiet power supply, especially considering its size, and the fact it only has a 120mm fan inside. Under regular loads (Less than 300W), the 850W Strider Gold S is reasonably low noise. Personally, I found the ADDA AD1212HS-A71GL to be pretty smooth running, with minimal sound from the motor. Good placement of internal components contributed to minimal turbulence noise. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise, and the loudest component in my entire system is my Western Digital Caviar Blue hard disk. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W to be at 2.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads. 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 Gold S ST85F-GS 850W is definitely a respectable choice, especially if you are looking for a fully modular unit with big wattage in a compact package.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W is a well built PSU that delivers very good performance according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment. Retailing for about $150 at press time, the Strider Gold S is not only competitively priced among its peers, but it is also one of, if not the, smallest fully modular 850W power supply at press time. In a nutshell, it is competitive in price, small in size, big on power, high in efficiency, low in noise; all being fully modular at the same time. What more can you ask for? I think SilverStone has a real winner in their hands!
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
