Silverstone Element ST75EF 750 Watt Power Supply

SilverStone is well known for their extremely stylish cases and enclosures.  Their power supplies are also considered to be high quality and very reliable.  Today, we are going to take another look at the Element series of power supplies. The ST75EF, has the same 'ST' in the beginning of the model number as the Strider series, so it may be a little confusing.  The Element series offers a multitude of wattages ranging from 400 watts to 850 watts.  We are going to be taking a look at the 750 Watt version.  This power supply is 80Plus Bronze certified and features a 3 year warranty.

Upon opening the box, you will find the users manual, power cable, screws, and a few velcro and zip ties.

Here are some of the main features and specifications from SilverStone's Website:

The Power Supply:

The power supply features a traditional matte black colored housing and fan grill.  It seems like this series features a paint job that easily scratches.  This was also apparent in the Strider series.

Looking at the side of the power supply, there is a SilverStone label with their logo on it, the model number and a condensed specification list.  Note that there are two +12v rails, with the +12v1 rail supplying up to 25 Amps and the +12v2 rail supplying up to 35 Amps.  The +12v2 rail is strong for a multi-rail power supply.   The 3.3v supplies up to 25 Amps and the +5v supplies up to 30 Amps. The efficiency is 80 percent or greater at 20%, 50% and 100% loads.  According to the 80Plus website, this power supply has an average efficiency of 87% at typical loads (50%) and an overall average efficiency of 85%.  Great!

There is an large grill on the back which allows the 135 mm fan to exhaust hot air, an on/off switch and AC Power Input.  This power supply does feature Active PFC, so there is no need for a  switch to select the input voltage.

This power supply features the following cables:

-A 24-pin ATX power connector

-A 4/8-pin +12v CPU/EPS Power Connector

-1x  6+2-Pin PCI-Express Power Connector and 4x 6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors

-6x Molex Power Connectors

-6x Serial ATA Power Connectors

-2x Floppy Power Connectors

Cooling:

There is a 135mm fan on the bottom of this power supply.  During testing, at idle loads, this fan is somewhat quiet, but a lot more whiny than what I've seen in similar Silver Stone power supplies. With loads, the fan sped up a bit, making a small whirring sound.  The noise was acceptable.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty.

Inside the power supply,  there are three large silver finned heat sinks, to cool down the voltage rectifiers.  The main transformer is near the middle of image, while the smaller transformer is to the left it.  The primary capacitor is Panasonic branded 105c, while the secondary capacitors are SamXon branded.

The primary capacitor is Panasonic branded.

The secondary capacitors are SamXon branded.

The fan inside is a Young Lin branded fan. It has the model number DFS132512M with a maximum draw of 2.4 Watts.  This is the same fan found in the Cooler Master Silent Pro M, so they are equally whiny.

Testing:

For this power supply, the test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Two Case

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor @ 3.4 GHz (1.40v)

-ZeroTherm Nirvana 120 Heatsink

-eVGA nForce 680i SLi Motherboard

-4GB (2GB x 2) of OCZ Platinum DDRII-1066 Memory

-320GB x 4 Western Digital 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drives

-2x nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) Video Cards @ 715MHz Core / 1000 MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card

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

-4x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

(Multimeter Results)

*For additional / larger pictures of the SilverStone ST75EF, Click Here

*Voltages are at a 'Max Load' for a typical gaming computer, running Orthos, Sisoft Sandra Hard Drive benchmark and 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

Capacitor Brands:

Primary: Excellent

Secondary: Good

Primary: Panasonic

Secondary: SamXon

Voltage Results:

+The results were excellent for this power supply, the results being well within range.  All rails remained quite strong.  The voltages barely budged when transitioning from an idle state to a load state. Great!

Stability Results:

+Everything ran fine during testing, the system was stable and performed the tests as expected. 

Fan Speed Impressions:

+During the tests, the fan speed did not vary much, being quiet but whiny in idle mode and only producing a slight whirr with loads.

Installation:

+Installation of this power supply went well.  There were no issues fitting it inside the test system's case.  Since this power supply is not modular, there where a few wires in the way.  SilverStone's included zip ties and velcro straps helped a lot.

Conclusion:

This power supply would be ideal for anyone looking to build multi core gaming / workstation system with two or more video cards.  It doesn't seem to feature SLi Readiness or Crossfire support, but I'm sure that this power supply can handle multiple GPU's.  There are an adequate amount of power connectors, as well.  It is also 80Plus Bronze certified.  At around $100 (after a rebate), this power supply is priced perfectly for a high performing 750 Watt power supply.  Overall, this is a really good power supply and should be purchased by anyone looking for great efficiency, great output performance, and great build quality.

Pros +

-Excellent power output

-Three Year Warranty

-Good Price

-80Plus Bronze

Cons -

-Fan makes whiny noises at idle loads

-Not modular

-Paint can scratch easily

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply a Great rating!

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