Techaddicts.net - Silverstone DA750 Decathlon 750 Watt Power Supply

Review by: Daniel

Date: March 20, 2007

Provided by: Silverstone

Review updated: March 27, 2007

Silverstone is well known for creating power supplies that are both great in performance and offer the latest technology in power supplies. Today, we are looking at the DA750 Decathlon from Silverstone. The Decathlon series of power supplies are basically the modularized versions of their Olympia series of power supplies. The DA750 offers up to 750 Watts of continuous power and features fully modularized cables. There is a single +12v rail featured in this power supply, for a total output of 60 Amps, which is great for today's high powered computer components. Although it was not found on the box, this power supply features a three year warranty.

Upon opening the box, you will find the manual, which features detailed test graphs and product descriptions; a PCI-Express 8-pin extender, a power cable, zip ties , and black colored screws. It was great to see SilverStone finally protecting their products with pieces of styrofoam. Previously, their power supplies just sat in the box with no protection.

The power supply features a flat matte black color, which looks professional. It is slightly longer than most power supplies, at around 7".

Looking at the side of the power supply, there is SilverStone label which features the SilverStone logo and a condensed specification list. Note that there is only a single +12v rail, offering up to 60 Amps of power, which is great for peripherals requiring lots of power. It also offers 80%+ efficiency, to help you conserve power. It is also RoHS compliant.

The rear (outside of case) features honeycomb style vents to allow for quiet, but efficient cooling. There is also the power input and on/off switch. The DA750 supports the full range of input voltages, so there is no need for a switch.

The top of the power supply features an embossed SilverStone logo. The paint on this power supply has improved over the Strider ST85F. It does not scratch as easily. In fact, it does not have any scratch marks, even after rotating it to take pictures. A great improvement.

Silverstone's DA750 comes with all the modular cables pre-attached to the power supply. Unfortunately, this model of power supply does not come with a pouch to hold unused cables. The ST85F features a pouch to hold unused cables. I was disappointed that the PCI-Express and Molex cables were not fully sleeved (look at the about picture), about half of the cable isn't sleeved. This nullifies the point of the mesh cable sleeving, and I am not sure why SilverStone has done this.

The great thing about this power supply is that all of the cables are modularized. Usually, the 24-pin ATX and the 4 Pin/8 Pin ATX/EPS cables are permanently attached in other modular power supplies.

-A 24-pin ATX power connector with removable 4 pin for backwards 20-pin compatibility.

-2x 6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors for a total of 4 6-Pin PCI-Express connectors.

-1x 8-Pin PCI-Express Power Connector. An adapter is included to allow for a proper 8-pin PCI-e connection.

The DA750 features a single 120mm fan on the bottom of the PSU. This fan features nine blades, which is unusual for a power supply fan. At idle speeds, it is quiet. This was a great improvement over SilverStone's ST85F fan, which was too noisy for my tastes at both idle and load speeds. When a CPU / GPU intensive load was put on the power supply, the fan slowly switched to medium speed (about 5 minutes into the tests) and occasionally a high speed. The high speed never lasted for more than five seconds. At that point, a lot of exhaust air resistance noise can be heard; though it is not loud enough to be annoying. Overall, the cooling fan in this power supply is quieter than the previously reviewed Strider ST85F.

Inside the power supply, there is an extra large copper ferrite coil that is seen on the top left of the image. The main transformers are of average size, there are three of them. There are also three average sized capacitors, which is interesting. Perhaps this helps with power stability, delivery and performance. The large black colored heat sink fins help keep the multiple voltage rectifiers cool. The APFC components are on the bottom left.

There is what appears to be a fan controller board in this power supply. Perhaps the pontimeter on the left of the image changes the threshold of when the fan goes to higher speeds. I'm not sure what the on/off switch does at the right of the image.

*Update: SilverStone tells me that the pontimeter on the left adjusts / fine tunes the +12v voltage to optimize overclocking and system stability. The on/off switch on the right splits the +12v rail from a single rail to quad +12v rails. Although this obviously voids the warranty, it gives overclockers and computer enthusiasts a chance to tweak this power supply.

It is also interesting that these controls can be accessible outside of the power supply's case, after removing the warranty void stickers.

There are also two pontimeters on the power supply's main board. It is suggested that these control and adjust the over current protection level (VR1 and VR2).

The 120mm cooling fan is manufactured by Everflow (Model #: R121225BU). It can operate at a maximum of .40 AMPS.

Installation was easy and the modularized power cables make the insides of the case neater.

Voltages are at 'Max Load', running 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

The results are great for this power supply. Everything ran fine during testing; the system was stable and performed the tests well. During the tests, the fan stayed mostly in the medium speed range, occasionally going to full speed, but stayed at full speed for no longer than 5 seconds. The noise never became an annoyance. After the tests, cooling down to low / idle speeds was quick, about a minute. I was satisfied with the noise characteristics during the testing.

Overall, the DA750 at around ~$180, is an excellent value for what it offers. It offers four 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for the latest graphics cards and a single 8-pin PCI-Express power cable for a future PCI-Express graphics card or possibly other add on cards. Basically, this power supply will not become obsolete for a long while. The DA750 also offers fully modularized cables, which allows for a full choice in which cables to use.

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply a 8.5 out of 10 rating and the 'Recommended' Award for its value and next generation features.