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1 2 3 4 5 NextJanuary 15, 2006 by Devon
Cooke
"Strider" is an odd word to name a power supply. It brings to mind
the dour warrior from Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe that's the image
SilverStone is going for: The strong, silent type. With a capacity of 560W,
it should certainly be strong enough. The question is, will it do steadfast
battle without making excessive noise, or will it charge in with its fan screaming
a battlecry?
SilverStone is best known for its high-end cases, such as the Temjin
TJ-06, or the Lascala LC-11, but they
also sell a large range of power supplies. Despite its substantial price and
heavy-duty construction, the Strider 560W belongs to SilverStone's "basic"
line. Other lines include the Zeus, for workstations, and the fanless
Nightjar.
The retail box is simple and classy...
...and the contents are equally Spartan.
FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS
|
|
| FEATURE & BRIEF |
COMMENT |
|
Efficiency over 80%
|
The manual says "Greater
than 80% typical at normal AC main voltage and full load on all output"...
can it do it? |
| Dual +12V rails
for advanced systems |
A standard requirement
of ATX12V |
|
Dual PCI-E connectors
|
Standard for SLI & CrossFire support. |
|
Silent running 120mm fan
|
No running fan is truly
silent... but we'll settle for quiet. |
|
Support for ATX 12V 2.01 & EPS 12V
|
"Support for"
= Compliance? |
OUTPUT SPECIFICATIONS
|
|
|
AC Input
|
90~264 VAC / 47~63 Hz
|
|
AC Input Current
|
10A @ 100VAC / 5A @ 240VAC
|
|
DC Output
|
+3.3V
|
+5V
|
+12V1
|
+12V2
|
-12V
|
+5VSB
|
|
Maximum Output Current
|
30A
|
30A
|
18A
|
18A
|
0.5A
|
2.0A
|
|
Maximum Combined
|
180W
|
432W
|
6.0W
|
10.0W
|
|
560W
|
In addition to the usual marketing blurbs, SilverStone's web site includes
extremely comprehensive technical specifications. In fact, the
manual reads as if it has been adapted from the official ATX12V
spec document. This makes comparing the two side by side quite easy, and
— uh oh — not all of the specs seem to be in compliance. In fact,
the ATX12V and EPS12V standards are not even mentioned in the manual. The only
place these standards are mentioned is under "special features" on
the product page itself, where it reads "Support for ATX 12V 2.01 &
EPS 12V".
The violation of the ATX12V spec is fairly minor: 80 mV ripple on the +3.3V
rail instead of the required 50 mV. In reality, it is very difficult to judge
whether this variation will make any meaningful difference in the operation
of the power supply.
- SilverStone's engineers might just be very conservative. After
all, 80 mV is the listed specification, but this amount of ripple
may only occur under very specific extreme circumstances. This is often
the case; ripple tends to increase when the load across the lines is very unbalanced,
which is an unrealistic scenario.
- Even if it does violate the ATX12V spec, it is unlikely to cause problems
unless it is used with hardware that is particularly sensitive
to ripple on the +3.3V line, or under circumstances (mainly overclocking) where
excess ripple may cause instability.
- Because many manufacturers don't declare ripple, it is hard to know how
common this particular violation is.
When it comes down to it, the high ripple spec is probably only a problem on paper.
It seems reasonable to give SilverStone the benefit of the doubt
and agree that the Strider has "support for" ATX12V even if it doesn't
strictly comply with it. It is worth noting that the Strider does not
show up on any of Intel's
ATX12V Tested Power Supply Lists.
The violation of EPS12V is a little more serious: EPS12V requires tighter (±3%)
voltage regulation and at least three +12V rails. But, as with the first violation,
this is mainly a problem on paper. We often see ±3% regulation even on
units that don't declare it, and the
issue of multiple rails has very little to do with how a power supply actually
performs (in most cases it only affects the over-current protection circuitry).
In addition, there are many, many
other examples of power supplies that support the EPS12V motherboard connectors
without actually complying with the standard.
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