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Go big or go home – a motto Silverstone is taking to heart with the upcoming release of the Silverstone Strider Series 1500W power supply (Model: SST-ST1500). This mammoth of a power unit, was originally debuted at CeBIT 2009, and is being prepped for launch in the upcoming weeks.
It features 1500W of continuess power and 1600W at peak. It also has the coveted 100% modular cable design, including a 24-pin ATX connector and 4/8 pin motherboard EPS connection. It works for both CrossfireX and SLI, sporting four 6+2 pin and eight 6-pin PCI-E connectors, It is definitely a large PSU, at 15W x 8.6H X 22L (cm). For specs it boasts eight 25A +12V rails power by quality Japanese caps. To top it off, it is surprisingly quiet, cooled only by a 135MM fan that outputs on 19dba. Overall it has the features and quality you would expect from Silverstone.
What really sets this unit apart, is that it is one of the first 1k+ power supplies to offer the 80Plus Silver efficiency rating, and only Silverstone’s second Silver, its first being the Element 700W (SST-ST70EF). The 80 Plus certification standard is determined by ensuring that a power supply is capable of maintaining 80% energy efficiency at 3 different load points, 20%, 50% and 100%. The efficiency is how much electric energy is converted to heat at the load levels; a PSU must not waste more than 20% to be eligible for a certification. The Silver certification denotes that the unit was capable of maintaining, at minimum, 85% efficiency at 20% load, 88% at 50% and 85% at 100%.
The one question that must be asked… what could one possibly be running to require that much power?Well, a quick calculation revealed that a top end overclocked Core i7 running in Tri SLI or CrossfireX all cooled by a modest TEC cooling system would still have plenty of juice left over – for say, a whole second system.
Tags: 80Plus, Power Supply, Silverstone
