The SilverStone SX700-LPT SFX 700W PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on September 30, 2016 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- SilverStone
- SFX
External Appearance
While the SX700-LPT obviously is very small compared to an ATX PSU, it does not actually adhere to SFX specifications either. It is being labeled as an "SFX-L" design, with its chassis measuring 125 × 63.5 × 125 mm (W×H×D). Essentially, it is 25 mm longer than a standard SFX PSU. The longer chassis allowed SilverStone to fit more components and a 120 mm cooling fan, but it could very easily cause compatibility issues with some cases that do not have any extra space behind the PSU.
The chassis is sprayed with a satin black paint that is fingerprint resistant. Oddly, SilverStone punched their company logo along the top side and placed the sticker with the electrical specifications and certifications on the left side of the chassis. It is likely that the company expects the top of the PSU to be more frequently visible than its side, but such aesthetic improvements are of questionable value on such products, as cases that require SFX PSUs rarely have windowed panels anyway.
The rear of the SX700-LPT is somewhat interesting in its own way. There is only an AC cable receptacle and an on/off switch, yet such a switch is relatively rare on SFX designs. The connectors for the modular cables can the seen at the front side of the unit, with the PCI Express cable connectors being blue and every other connector being black.
Internal Design
Zhen Poweryear is the supplier of the thin 120 mm fan found inside the SX700-LPT. It has a black frame but semi-transparent tinted blades. We could not find specific information on the PY-12015H12S, but it appears to be a sleeve bearing engine fan and has a maximum speed of about 1700 RPM.
Most of SilverStone’s SFX PSU designs come from Enhance, but this is not the case with the SX700-LPT, which is a Sirfa design. Naturally, everything is very densely packed due to the limited space, but the design is actually very clean for a high power SFX unit. The filtering stage begins at the back of the AC receptacle and continues on the main PCB, with four Y capacitors, three X capacitors and two filtering inductors in total.
The heatsink at the far right side of the PCB holds the active PFC components, two transistors and a diode. Rubycon supplies the PFC 420V/390μF capacitor. The main inversion stage is a half-bridge configuration with two MOSFETS, which are found on the heatsink near the center of the design. The secondary side conversion MOSFETs are at the underside of the PCB, while DC to DC conversion circuits can be seen on the vertical daughterboards. Nippon Chemi-Con supplies all of the secondary capacitors, electrolytic and solid-state alike.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
JoeyJoJo123 - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
I don't believe you realize that the FTZ01, ML07, and RVZ01 cases are all designed to have one intake case fan over the CPU and two in the GPU compartment. It's a 13 liter case, half of which is sectioned off to the GPU. The GPU takes up some volume and the fans take up some volume of that 6.5 liters of GPU compartment air. With an open air cooler, it's not unreasonable for it to be suffocating of fresh air when the compartment probably has less than 2 liters of open space.Ej24 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Agreed. Also take in to account increasing efficiencies. My gtx 1080 at 180w demolishes top cards from previous generations that used to be in the 250-300w range. And my cpu is a 65w i7. Going by tdp, while not the best, that's less than 250w at full load. Power supply requirements will only continue to drop.ImSpartacus - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
I think the bigger issue is that a cramped case that demands an sfx psu quite possibly won't have the extra space for this non-standard "sfx-l" design.That starts to defeat the purpose of having a compact psu in the first place...
But I suppose if Silverstone made a case or two that used the sfx-l standard, then it might be worth it to them.
JoeyJoJo123 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
They have plenty of SFX-L compatible cases.ML07: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=503
ML08: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=607
RVZ01: http://www.silverstonetek.com/raven/products/index...
RVZ01-E: www.silverstonetek.com/raven/products/index.php?model=RVZ01-E
RVZ02: http://www.silverstonetek.com/raven/products/index...
FTZ01: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=533
Samus - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Don't forget the legendary FT03-Mini. Liquid cooling, 3 drives, 10.5" videocard, X99 ITX, optical drive, integrated cable management, in less than 18 liters.ImSpartacus - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Really? The FT03 Mini supports it?Ok, that, alone, justifies the existence of this psu.
Honestly, while writing my comment, I was literally thinking, "if it doesn't fit in something like the ft03 mini, then why bother?"
Velocialume - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Hmm. I've always been under the impression that case didn't support SFX-L .. I just got that 600w corsair to power my new 1080.Samus - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
I just checked the clearances, and it will fit only because it's modular. Most of the space behind my PSU in the FT03-mini is taken for cable management of the PSU sources.However, it's going to be hell running the "bottom row" of power from this PSU without losing the DVD cage, something I refuse to do with my case. I mean, there are hacks to get a full ATX PSU to fit if you are willing to sacrifice the DVD tray and the 3.5"\2.5" bay (leaving you a single 2.5" tray at the bottom) and at that point the case is ruined for functionality.
Again, not impossible, but let's just say you will need to install the PSU with cables already installed and routed, there is no way to manage/add/remove them once it's mounted and they are smashed against the DVD tray.
It has never been a user friendly case to work inside. It isn't like my hands get cut up or anything but simple tasks like removing the video card requires removing the PSU, DVD, 2.5" SSD, 3.5" HDD, memory DIMMS and depending on where the PCIe connectors go on the video card (such as out the rear instead of the top) you may even have to remove the radiator. Shorter 10" or less video cards are a cinch in comparison to twist and pull but when you are running an out of spec 10.85" card like I am, you go to hell to make it work.
Wouldn't give the case up for anything else though.
piroroadkill - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
Even the smallest case that can fit decent hardware (Dan Case A4-SFX) can fit an SFX-L PSU.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
There are many SFX class cases that cant take SFX-L.