Silverstone Strider ST85F Power Supply Review

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The Cables (continued):

This power supply features the following modular cables:

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

-A 4-pin CPU ATX Power Connector

-An 8-pin EPS +12v Power Connector

-A 6-pin AUX connector

-2x 6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors for a total of 4 6-Pin PCI-Express connectors.  Note that this cable features label which states that it is taking power from the 12v1 rail.  The other 6-pin PCI-e cable says it is taking power from the +12v2 rail.

-2x 8-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors.

-2x Molex only and 2x Molex + Floppy connectors, for a total of 6 Molex and 2 Floppy Connectors.

-1x Serial ATA connector for a total of 6 S-ATA power connectors.

Cooling:

The ST85F features a single large 135mm fan on the bottom of the PSU.  This fan features eleven blades, which is unusual for a power supply fan.   During testing, the fan starts at full speed during the first few seconds of booting, but quickly goes to idle speeds.  At idle speeds, it is fairly quiet, but whiny.  I did not like the whining of the fan, as it could be heard even when the test computer's case was closed.  When a CPU / GPU intensive load was put on the power supply, the fan quickly switched to medium speed and rarely a high speed.  At that point, a lot of exhaust air resistance noise can be heard; though it is not loud enough to be annoying.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty.

Inside the power supply, there is an extra large copper ferrite coil that is seen on the bottom center of the image.  The main transformer and primary capacitor is also very large.  All are significantly larger than ones found in other power supplies.  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 upside down PCB.

The 135mm fan is manufactured by Young Lin (Model #: DFB132512H).  It can operate at a maximum of 3 Watts.  It has the potential to become very loud.

Testing:

The test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Case

-AMD Opteron 165 Dual Core Socket 939 CPU @ 2.9 GHz (1.55v)

-ThermalTake Blue Orb II Heat Sink

-DFI LANParty nF4 Ultra-D

-2GB of Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200 Memory

-320GB x 3 Western Digital 16MB Cache Hard Drives

-nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS Video Card @ 625MHz Core / 920MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card

-Sony 16x DVD-RAM / 18x Samsung DVD-RAM Drives

-3x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

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

The black screws are a nice addition to this power supply. 

(Multimeter Results)

The results are good for this power supply.  I would have liked to see less deviation on the 12v lines, but it is still acceptable.  Everything ran fine during testing; the system was stable and performed the tests well.  During the tests, the fan made slightly loud exhaust sounds, but it was bearable.  It stayed mostly in the medium speed range, occasionally going to full speed.  After the tests, cooling down to low / idle speeds was quick, about two minutes.

Overall, at around ~$200, this power supply is an excellent value for what it offers.  It offers four 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for the latest graphics cards and two 8-pin PCI-Express power cables for future PCI-Express graphics cards or other add on cards.  Basically, this power supply will not become obsolete for a long while. The ST85F also offers fully modularized cables, which allows for a choice in which cables to use.

*For additional / larger pictures of this power supply, Click Here

*UPDATE - Due to interest in how loud the fan sounds, I am introducing a MP3 sound recording of the power supply at idle speeds.  It was recorded from about eight inches away from the fan.

Click Here to Listen

Pros +

-Good Power Delivery and Stability

-Professional Black Color

-Fully Modularized Cables

-Strong Dual +12v rails

-Lots of connectors

Cons -

-Paint scratches way too easily

-Whiny fan

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply a 9 (7*) out of 10 rating and the 'Recommended' Award for its value and next generation features. 

*Update 3/1/2007, the SilverStone ST85F Power Supply has been giving BSOD's (Blue Screen of Death's - nvdisp) when using my system for everyday gaming.  The nVIDIA System Sentinel also notifies me that my GPU is not receiving adequate power.  I've tried to recreate these problems with another power supply, but the system remained stable.  Score has been updated to reflect this issue.  I suspect that it is not supplying clean or adequate power to the GeForce 8800.  Other users of the ST85F have also complained about this issue, along with other issues (motherboard, etc.)

*Award Removed*

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