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
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The efficiency of the SilverStone SX700-LPT is excellent, meeting and surpassing the 80Plus Platinum guideline with an input voltage of 230V AC. Our instruments measured a maximum efficiency of 94.3% at 50% load and an average efficiency across the entire nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) of 92.5%. The low load efficiency of the PSU is outstanding as well, with a reading of 89.2% and 81.4% under 10% load and 5% load respectively.
The SX700-LPT sports a semi-fanless design, meaning that the fan will start only after the load is higher than 150W. Due to its densely packed design, the internal temperatures of the SX700-LPT rise sharply until the fan starts, but the internal temperatures drop down to reasonable levels once the fan is working. When operating in room temperature, the cooling fan is relatively tolerable with loads only up to 500 Watts. Beyond that point, the thin fan speeds up significantly in order to keep up with the cooling needs of the PSU, reaching above 44 dB(A) at maximum load, an uncomfortable noise level for casual use.
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usernametaken76 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
There's no edit feature, that should have read "one on a 120mm rad and the other on the case."Samus - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
That's true, I never thought of peak/spike draw. That has been an issue on AMD cards recently because their power circuitry cuts corner presumably on capacitance. This surges the PSU.However, I just can't imagine a single CPU system with any video card needs more than 500 watts, but there are obvious exceptions especially when overclocking or running more than a single drive.
usernametaken76 - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
There are 425W BIOS mods for the original TITAN X. I had one. It's definitely needed in some cases.xenol - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
I don't see how that adds up considering the PCIe connectors should only be able to supply (within spec) 300W.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
WITHIN SPEC is the key there. People flashing higher TDP mods to GPUs are running everything out of spec. That's the definition of overclocking.BrokenCrayons - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
At the point where you're using a Titan, overclocking everything, and intentionally raising TDP limits, you're probably not putting your parts into an SFX case and probably not going to need to worry about the wattage limitations of power supplies available for that platform. That situation is at the extreme end of halo computing and represents a very small number of systems. People doing those things presumably understand what they're doing, but we're still talking about a very small portion of actual computer users.gopher1369 - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
"[I'm] seeing max load at the wall peaking at 290w"Assuming your PSU is 85% efficient then 290 x 0.85 = 246.5 Watts consumed.
wolfemane - Saturday, October 1, 2016 - link
Aaaaaaaaand your point being? Not sure I understand the relivence of your post. Maybe to make a minor grammatical correction and show off your math skills? Bravo I guessxenol - Monday, October 3, 2016 - link
And so was I, and the most it spiked up to was 250W.Stuka87 - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Its only rated for 40C?! That is not that hot, its very easy to get the insides of a PC case that high during heavy gaming.