![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, September 01, 2010
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
SilverStone Strider ST1500 1500W Power Supply Review
SilverStone raises its flagship Strider PSU to what is the near-limit of wattage you can pull out a normal North American wall plug. At 1500 watts continuous and 1600 watts peak this power supply will hopefully get the job done for you. Let's see how it holds up under full load.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the SilverStone Strider 1500W is the packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The SilverStone Strider 1500W packaging fits the general layout of previous SilverStone offerings as it provides us with a lot of basic information about this unit and a bunch of marketing points. However, due to the size of the 1500W unit inside this packaging, it is the largest (and heaviest) packaging we have ever seen from SilverStone. Included for your viewing pleasure are the power table (shown below), connector count (shown below), and a large emphasis on efficiency which includes an 80Plus Silver seal and lastly a "silent running 135mm fan with 19dBA minimum" (I guess we should point out that technically 19dBA as a minimum noise level would by definition not be "silent.") advertising blurb. A quick check of the 80Plus website finds the Strider 1500W listed as being certified for 80Plus Silver which means it has an 85%-88%-85% efficiency range at 20%-50%-100% loading like was indicated on the packaging. Interestingly, the SilverStone ST1500 is one of the few power supplies on the market that not only is SLI certified, but is also certified for GTX480 Tri-SLI. Oh yeah, and by the paper specifications provided below this unit should cover that Tri-SLI range with great ease. Lastly, while not listed on the packaging, but listed on the SilverStone website the warranty for this unit runs 3 years. As we have said before about SilverStone’s 3 year warranty, it is not horrible but 3 years is certainly on the shorter side of the spectrum for what we would ideally like to see in a high end power supply such as this. Is there any chance of ever getting better support on this SilverStone?
The power label, connector count, and rail distribution for the SilverStone ST1500 all add up to be one of the more complicated affairs we have seen to date. To start things off with the ST1500 has eight 12v rails, which has to be some sort of record. Those eight 12v rails are good for 110A or "just" 88% of the unit’s capacity. Part of this unit’s monstrous capacity is composed of a very healthy 5v/3.3v combined rating of 280W which is further emphasized by this units ability to power up to 40A each on these minor rails, up to the 5v/3.3v combined limit. These impressive capacities are paired with a total of 12 PCI-E connectors, and 24 peripheral connectors. That should, roughly, cover almost every high-end build going at the moment, and likely almost all high end builds going forward for some time to come. The eight 12v rails are broken down as indicated in the table above and from this information we see that the biggest benefit in this arrangement is the fact that only 4 PCI-Express connectors can occupy any one rail. This arrangement should eliminate the possibility of overdrawing any of the PCI-Express connector feeding rails if users follow the connection diagram on the unit and connect them such that each rail feeds just two connectors at most. So far we are seeing very intelligent design.
Once we open the unit’s packaging we find that the box includes the unit, power cord, mounting screws, modular cables, pouch, and user manual. This is all fairly standard fair for a modular power supply; however this unit just has a lot more cables than any other modular unit we have seen to date. Now unlike the manual that came with the SilverStone Element 700W, the manual for the Strider 1500W does not include the warranty information. For that you have to go to the SilverStone website here. It would be really nice for SilverStone to consistently have this information provided in their manual along with the pinout guide, power label, and the very complete electrical specifications for the Strider 1500W. I guess that is what happens when the manual was written in February of 2009 and not updated in over a year on the market. Perhaps next time, perhaps next time.