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- Date:
- Wednesday, July 08, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
SilverStone Element 700W Power Supply
SilverStone promises higher efficiencies, lower exhaust temperatures, and silent operation in the difficult 700 watt computer power supply market with its Element 700W PSU. SilverStone has awed us in the past, but does the company known for some of the best quiet PSUs pull it off with this Element.
Build Quality
As we already know the SilverStone Element 700W features a single 135mm fan design that is slightly larger than the 120mm which has come to be the preferred standard for quiet cooling environments due to the ability to move a larger volume of air at slower speeds than a smaller diameter fan. The 135mm fan used here is the second largest fan that users will find in a standard ATX size power supply due to size restrictions. While great for quiet computing environments the key criteria in our evaluation is whether or not the cooling solution is sufficient, rather than its sound level or form factor.
External Build Quality
As we see here the Element 700W follows in other SilverStone units’ footsteps as this unit shares the customary basic black décor. The finish of the unit is once more the very attractive flat black finish we have seen time and again from SilverStone and it is durable enough to survive being tossed in and out of our test setup repeatedly without getting scratched. The top of the unit is dominated by the large single 135mm overhead fan, while the rear of the unit is clear but features an APFC sticker that looks vaguely like the ones used by FSP on their Epsilon units. Let us hope that is all it shares with that particular platform.
The SilverStone Element 700W comes in at 6 ¾ inches while the cables provide a serviceable length of ~18 inches to the first or only connector, which is certainly long enough for most applications. The sheathing on the cables is like we have seen in previous SilverStone units in that it is not exactly complete. The sheathing comes up short of the units housing and then only extends to short of the first or only connector on each cable.
Internal Build Quality
Once we pop the top on the SilverStone Element 700W we are left looking at a new and a very unusual FSP unit. Let us hope that this little revelation means that the Epsilon design is finally dead and buried because that is long overdue and this is certainly a much more interesting design. To begin with, we see that this unit has 4 separate heatsinks that are a mix of straight slabs and "T" shaped finned heatsinks. Moving on we see that split right down the middle of the unit we have the 12v transformer, 5v/3.3v transformer, and +5vsb transformer. So far at least things look normal, after that the primary design becomes really odd and is not a double forward one like FSP has used before on their more efficient designs. Lastly, the fan charged with cooling this unit is a Yate Loon fan rated at 0.70A at 12v.
As we swing over to the primary side we see that the heatsink facing us houses the PFC components but the PFC controller is actually on the underside of the PCB, which had very clean soldering as well. The pair of primary capacitors used here are provided by Hitachi and are each rated at 450v 330uF 85c.
Over on the secondary side we find another very interesting arrangement. Rather than having three coils like on an independently regulated unit would have or two coils like on a group regulated unit would have, the Element 700W unit has one coil. For whatever reason, the lone coil and pi filter pairing are tied to the 3.3v rail while the 12v rail (which uses synchronous rectification) and 5v rail only get pi filters. (This cannot be a good arrangement for filtering the DC output.) Moving on, the capacitor selection here is mixed between OST, Teapo, and a lone polymer Teapo capcitor that is hidden by the coil for the 3.3v rail. The add-in PCB we see here houses the OCP, OVP, fan controller, and other safety circuitry. The wiring that runs behind that PCB is all routed out of the unit’s housing completely unprotected. There is literally nothing protecting the wiring here from rubbing on the housing and it is only secured with a small zip tie. (This too cannot be a good thing.)
Build Quality Summary
Overall the build quality of the Element 700W is novel but not the best it could be overall. The external finish is very much in line with other SilverStone units which is a good thing as SilverStone units have been consistently very nice looking units with a durable finish. The interior of the unit and cabling however is very mixed. The cables are only partially sleeved with the sleeving ending well before the unit housing with no wire guard and ending short of the first or only connector. The interior component selection features a mix of excellent Hitachi capacitors and much lower quality OST/Teapo capacitors which is mixed but expected from FSP. The really big let down with this unit’s build quality is the secondary filtering which has the 3.3v rail being the only rail with a pi filter and a coil. This is not an ideal arrangement and will likely result in a very noisy unit much like the old Epsilon units. Overall, the build quality here is mixed so let us move on to the load testing and see if these concerns about the secondary filtering hold true today.