The SilverStone SX700-LPT SFX 700W PSU Review

Conclusion

SilverStone is a company that is strongly focused on the design and marketing of SFF cases and related parts; therefore, it was only natural that they would strive to have the most powerful SFX PSU on the market. It is true that they might have “cheated” a little by extending the chassis by 25 mm and marketing it as an “SFX-L” unit, but it still is the most powerful 80Plus Platinum certified SFX PSU in existence up to this date.

The quality of the SX700-LPT is excellent, with Sirfa outdoing themselves building this model. The design is very clean and there were no manufacturing/assembling errors that we could notice. SilverStone is using top quality components, which is of critical importance in a design that it is expected to operate with relatively high internal temperatures. Poor quality products would cause a massive performance degradation in a very hot environment, but the SX700-LPT kept delivering a good quality output regardless of the very high ambient temperatures.

Meanwhile, the overall performance of the SX700-LPT is a slightly complicated matter. Compared to common ATX PSUs, the SX700-LPT's power quality is admittedly uninteresting and the noise output is too high. However by SFX standards, these are actually by far the best performance figures that we have ever recorded from a SFX PSU. Simply put, no other SFX PSU that we've tested has matched what SilverStone has done with the SX700-LPT. Further adding to the PSU's impressiveness, the SX700-LPT easily meets its 80Plus Platinum efficiency certification and works very well in room temperature. The only drawback to the design that we can find is that it will get stressed and end up being very loud inside a very hot environment; yet the PSU would be the least of one’s worries if an SFF gaming PC is this poorly cooled.

Interesting as it may be, it is clear that the SilverStone SX700-LPT SFX-L PSU is a very narrowly focused product. It has been designed for a very specific group of users, requiring a very high power output inside an SFF case while, at the same time, they own one of the few SFF cases that can support the extra length of the SX700-LPT. The retail price of $150 is high, but not unreasonable considering that this is the only SFX PSU that combines an output of 700 Watts with an 80Plus Platinum certification. This makes it a very niche product – gamers who want a high-performance SLI/CrossFire setup inside of a SFF case – which limits its market potential. But at least within that market, the SX700-LPT should easily excel.