Another surprising PSU by Kingwin, it is indeed a good time to be a silent PC builder. What is just as surprising is the pricing on Seasonic's offerings. =)

There seems to be an error in the 240V test table; the AC power draw figures seems to have been swapped between the the two PSUs.

Corrected.

The 96+ % efficiency figure at 230v looks almost surreal, It`s amazing how far we have come. The other thing that caught my attention is the 80+ efficiency at 40 watts, I think it`s the first time we see such a figure in a atx psu.

Thanks for another excellent review.

85% at 40W DC actually. 80 wouldn't be news.
Their older PSU measured >75% at 20W DC (this one seems not to be as good in that respect but the difference hardly matters).

Nice PSU by Kingwin/Superflower. Thanks for the review, Mike!

Does this mean there's no longer any point in having a PSU with fan even though it would only start up at heavy load and spin slowly enough to be almost inaudible? Only if you need more than 500W?

A recommendation list for which PSU is quietest at what wattage would be nice!

Good article,
one correction, on both of the stats tables, you imply "standard" ATX PSU length is 150mm (You meantion the kingwin is 20mm longer than normal at 170mm and the Silverstone 10mm longer at 160mm).

While most modern ATX PSU's are either 150mm or 160mm these days, the actual standard is 140mm long, 150mm wide and 86mm high. You can still see those dimensions in many of the 300 watt psu's and the older fanless psu's such as the Silverstone 300 Nightjar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#Power_supply

I became intimiately familiar with this since my older Revision 1&2 Mcubed HFX fanless pc case had a PSU cage which used to only fit 140mm long psu's. Their Revision 4 case now is resized to fit longer psu's but i imagine some older cases might have smiliar restrictions.

Hi,

I have a correction for you:



Actually, reviewed Nightjar isn't made by Etasis, but by Seventeam (according to JonnyGURU review, available here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=256
)

Also, aforementioned Seventeam unit used to be available for sale for $90, which adds insult to the injury.

I'm a later reader of the article: but I still have to put a question.

Dear MikeC, providing that the Kingwin exhibited a 13dB level at 500W, and the Silverstone a 15dB one at 500W, why this time has SPCR missed to publish the usual comparison chart, at least with the other approved/recommended fanless PSUs? I'd like to see that addendum.

A mistake in Page 4:


0.25V load regulation on +12V translates to ~2% instead of ~5%, so ST50NF's +12V output is actually (a touch) more stable than STR500.

Both power supplies use technologies that are at least "a few years old", and are actually the very popular technology you're seeing on today's most efficient power supplies (ZVS soft switching, synchronous rectification, DC-to-DC VRM and polymer caps). It's not that ST50NF uses an older design, but rather the diversity of design ideas: rely solely on efficiency to make a very efficient standard design fanless, or take a proved-to-be-rugged design (widely used on server/redundant power supplies, quite efficient nevertheless) and tune it to be suitable for fanless operation. Both are not building a fanless unit from scratch, rather modification based on existing designs. I can't say someone's definitely wrong, since long-term reliability is related not only to efficiency and heat, but also to topology and some characteristics outside efficiency.

Perhaps I've misunderstood you, but afayk is there any ATX PSU which actually use more recent technologies?

Is newer better? This KingWin PSU seems pretty awesome to me; be it new or old.

Well, mr. Blanchard, just a note: please, let's have the usual - but updated - comparison tables...

OK, you got it. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1220-page6.html

There will be no recommended fanless PSU models other than Seasonic, Kingwin & Silverstone. The first 2 will get Ed. Choice; the latter, recommd.

Well, forgive for my insistence: I'm grateful for your thoughtfulness.


Uhm... So long mr. Chin, and thanks for all the fish.

I've read several other reviews on the annoyingly-named "Stryker" (why not call it say, the "S500"?), and it's really just an incredible bit of hardware. Your review cements that fact.

Looks great; performs incredibly well; warranty appears to be very solid; price is for the most part reasonable: what's not to like?

It's a quotation from Douglas Noel Adams magnum opus.

I misinterpreted your words "There will be no recommended fanless PSU models other than Seasonic, Kingwin & Silverstone." as "There will be no MORE recommended fanless PSU models other than Seasonic, Kingwin & Silverstone." (so as a sort of farewell).

In January, 2012, I bought the STR-500 on sale (at Newegg) for USD $130 and it's every bit as good as the review says it is. In fact, it's really overkill. Measured with the Seasonic Power Angel, my new high-end graphics workstation only draws 40W at idle and rarely draws 60W under heavy load. It's amazing how much great bang-for-the buck technology is out there today.

Disclaimer: Except as a customer, I have no association with Kingwin or Newegg.