The SilverStone Strider Gold S 1500W PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on April 7, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- SilverStone
- 1500W
Conclusion
The Strider Gold S 1500W may not be the most advanced but it is the most powerful PSU SilverStone currently offers. SilverStone is a company that designs and produces many non-standard cases for HTPC and SFF systems, therefore having a PSU with massive external proportions in their product ranks would not offer the correct synergy. The ST1500-GS is "only" 180mm long - longer than a standard ATX PSU but much more compact than the majority of equally powerful units. However, compactness alone is not enough to win in this segment of the market. Such power is unnecessary for typical HTPC, living room gaming and SFF systems. Virtually no enthusiast would purchase a 1.5kW unit for its external proportions alone and an extremely small number of users would even attempt to compress a system that requires this level of power inside a small chassis.
Regardless of its proportions, the ST1500-GS does match the competition in both quality and performance. The designer of this unit did an outstanding job with the layout, creating a compact and yet a very clean and powerful platform. Despite its relatively small size, they do not cut corners by removing filtering components or using smaller heatsinks. The only exception is the lack of an on/off switch, which would be of considerable size in order to hold such a large input current and apparently the designer decided not to install one at all. SilverStone is using high quality components as well, all coming from very reputable manufacturers. Albeit crude, the assembly quality certainly has room for improvement but it does not cause reliability concerns. Strangely, the warranty period of this unit is, at the very least, unclear. There is no mention of the warranty length on the box or in the web page of the PSU. Only the manual mentions, "Most SilverStone PSUs are covered by a 3 year warranty. For some models the warranty may vary from 1 to 5 years (North America) or 2 to 5 years (EU)". The warranty period should be clearly mentioned on the packaging and online.
In terms of performance, the ST1500-GS does not break any records but does very good overall. It is strange that SilverStone rates this unit for operation at 40°C, as it proved capable of delivering its promised power and performance at much higher temperatures without issues. Most likely, SilverStone is playing it safe, as the power output of this PSU is massive, its proportions are compact and some people may actually install it inside a case not exactly suitable for such monstrous systems. The energy conversion efficiency is good and resists high temperatures well, while the power quality remains excellent even when the internal temperatures of the PSU are very high. As the company promises, the ST1500-GS is also fairly quiet - at least while it is not heavily loaded. This should please the majority of the users, as everyone want their systems to be comfortable when performing casual tasks, such as web browsing or watching a movie, but few would even notice the noise of the system while gaming.
In conclusion, the SilverStone Strider Gold S 1500W is not only compact but also is a high quality PSU that performs very well overall. The ST1500-GS has only one true enemy - its own price tag. With a retail price of $350 including shipping at the time of this review, it is one of the most expensive consumer PSUs in existence. There are several other high performance 1500W PSUs that are considerably cheaper and excellent 1200W PSUs may be purchased for nearly half the price. Even though it truly is a very good product, the price tag of the Strider Gold S 1500W PSU is unquestionably going to limit its sales.
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Gigaplex - Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - link
reininop: "the efficiency of these usually peaks at about 50 - 70% of rated power"DanNeely: "You obviously didn't read much if any of the article: You're way off..[snip].. and peaked at 92% efficient at a 50% load."
I'd say reininop was spot on. They were stating that efficiency is at its best at 50%-70% load, not that the PSU is 50%-70% efficient.
reininop - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
You know, I typically read the intro and the final words and then if I find it interesting I go back and read the rest. In this case, I read some of the comments first as well. I have since went back and saw your power efficiency graph. I felt the comment was meant to be taking as a bit of a joke as I was pointing out a user case that almost certainly doesn't exist. For some reason, you seemed to take personal offense to it.As for the rest of you comment, I am well aware of what the 80+ gold means. I never said anything about the conversion efficiency, only the peak rate of efficiency as a function of the output power. Hence, when I said tech enthusiast, I was attempting to imply someone who actually has components that require 750 W to operate. I assume the confusion arose from my use of the word "pull" when discussing the actual system power requirements and you assumed I meant the outlet power.
KAlmquist - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
The problem for the eco-conscious tech enthusiast is that the efficiency of this power supply drops significantly when power consumption falls below 300 watts. So it may be efficient during heavy gaming, but not so much when you take a break to post comments on anandtech.com.wbwb - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
On the other hand, at idle load, an improvement in efficiency can make a difference of only a few watts, so it's understandable that the focus of 80plus has been on efficiency at higher loads where a little improvement can make a big difference. That was the low-hanging fruit. With that taken care of, they should now be improving the low end.Poik - Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - link
I'd just like to point out that anything above a 1440W PSU (assuming that's what they're pulling off the "mains") should really be on a 20A breaker/circuit. I know that 20A circuits are very common in the US - but they're far less common in Canada.The reason for this is that in both Canada and the US (and Europe too?) the normal household breakers are only rated to sustain 80% of their rated capacity. Ergo a 15A breaker will only hold 12A and a 20A breaker will hold 16A. Respectively those are good for 1440W and 1920W.
It's good to see the C19 plug being used here as that should force people to use a 20A T-slot plug (15/20A Hybrid) that should be common in the US. It seems very few people are aware of this but it's an important consideration - especially if you plan on using this PSU to its full potential.
Gigaplex - Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - link
Or, like the bulk of the rest of the world, it should run at ~240V.Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
Hmm really puts in perspective how lucky we are to have 240v in rest of worldex_User - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
Consumer-grade 1500W PSU in year 2015? Buying one should be a freaking criminal offense -- together with multi-GPU setups and such. Really, people, wake the frack up!Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 9, 2015 - link
Criminal offense? How about asking people who just dropped 800 or more dollars on monitors (which you can still buy today) to replace them because the manufacturer isn't going to bother updating its firmware to support Freesync?ZeliaS - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
Throwing this out there, I've owned a SilverStone Zeus 850W PSU for more than 8 years now... Switched 4 PC configurations on it. There were periods of more than 2 years without cleaning it. About an year ago I measured it extensively, I literally had to bend down in an efford to hear the fan, and all I have to say about my (first) experience with the brand is rounded up in one word - immaculate.