SilverStone Strider Platinum 1000W (ST1000-PTS) Power Supply Review

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Conclusion

The SilverStone ST1000-PTS is the first truly large capacity power supply we have seen here at TheFPSReview. However, it is by no means the first 1000W unit on the market or the first 1000W unit from SilverStone on the market. It is, however, the smallest ATX12v formfactor 1000W unit from SilverStone we have seen and, probably, the smallest currently marketed in general. When one is both a large capacity unit and small package there are, obviously, competing interests that could certainly cause problems with your product. However, SilverStone is not exactly new to this sort of thing. So, the question then becomes; will that pedigree shine through today or not? Let’s see.

Build Quality

Today’s SilverStone ST1000-PTS starts things off with a build quality that seems excellent especially in light of the fact that SilverStone is trying to go small inside of the ATX12v formfactor. Externally, the finish that this unit has is very much like what we typically find these days being black and slightly textured. We also see that the unit is equipped with flat FlexForce style cables.

When we move to the interior of the unit, we see a cramped by ATX12v formfactor standards, but new design, power supply. The topology is very modern and the component selection is generally very high quality. Among these components, we find Nippon Chemi-con and Suncon standard capacitors coupled with Unicon and CapXon solid capacitors. The fan is a sleeve bearing type, however, which may not tickle everyone’s fancy. The actual integration is very good, though cramped, and the soldering is excellent. Moving on to the support side of things, we know that this unit is covered by a 5 year warranty and very good documentation.

Load Testing

Today’s SilverStone ST1000-PTS provides us with some passing results overall. One thing we run into here today is that this unit is being packed in tighter than other 1000W units so there are compromises that have to be made. Indeed, we saw voltage regulation of up to 0.19v on the 12v rail, 0.06v on the 5v rail, and 0.06v on the 3.3v rail. This voltage regulation is certainly very good in absolute terms and is well within the ATX12v specification limits as well as what SilverStone advertises for the unit. However, among just “normal” sized ATX12v power supplies this unit is not going to be the front runner in this regard today.

Given this units size, however, you can see where this unit may earn a bit of a padding to this aspect when it comes to the relative performance today. Moving on to the unit’s efficiency, we see that it ranged from 88.96% to 92.35% at 120v and of 87.06% to 91.62% at 100v. When we look at the 80 Plus tests, we see that the ST1000-PTS posted efficiency values of 91.26%-91.88%-88.99% using 80 Plus’s load testing parameters. This put the unit just under the 80 Plus Platinum standards at 50% load (0.12%). Lastly, this unit passed our Torture Test in fine shape which is good to see from this unit given the extra constraints placed on it.

When we look at the Transient Load Tests results for the SilverStone ST1000-PTS today, we see results that look a lot like what we saw above. When directly loaded, the 12v rail showed a peak change of ~520mV and the 5v rail had a peak change of ~120mV. During the 12v load, the unloaded 5v rail saw a peak change of ~110mV. In absolute terms, these results are passing. In relative terms, we have not seen any other 1000W units here at TheFPSReview yet. However, among others on the market this unit is not the most competitive in this regard. So, passing is where we will leave this aspect of this units performance at as a judgment today.

DC Output Quality

The DC Output Quality results for the SilverStone ST1000-PTS were passing and, overall, good. Indeed, we saw peak values of just ~35mV of ripple/noise on the 12v rail, ~20mV on the 5v rail, and ~15mV on the 3.3v rail. When it comes to absolute values, these values are well within specification limits with the 5v rail being the worst overall. When it comes to relative values, there are other 1000W units out there that will do better than this and some that will do worse. However, none of them are this small and when a unit is this small space for the filtering stage is limited. So, these are nice results in that relative sense for sure.

Noise

Today’s SilverStone ST1000-PTS is a small ATX12v unit which means space for a large fan will be limited. On top of that, this unit is a 1000W unit. These two factors make noise output potentially problematic. On the flipside, this unit does have very high efficiency and a fan type that is known for its quiet operation. So, what was the noise like? In our testing, this unit was very well behaved. It was not until the Torture Test and the full load tests that we could discern the fan adding noise to our load testing environment. Given the circumstances that we used to reach that noise output, this unit seems to be very nicely behaved and should work out well for most users who need a 1000W unit like this.

Final Points

The SilverStone ST1000-PTS is an interesting unit today as SilverStone is once more taking the road less traveled with this pint sized ATX12v power supply. Today, the ST1000-PTS gave us excellent build quality, good voltage regulation, and good DC Output Quality while also being relatively quiet. The one big area that this unit suffered was the Transient Load Tests. However, it must be noted that it was in specification in this aspect. So, overall, this unit was certainly passing and above average overall.

That leaves us with the question of price. Today, we found that the availability is very limited on these units so far and the pricing is rather skewed because of this at $189.74. That price makes this a rather expensive option at the moment. However, as inventory becomes available, we would expect to see that price come down into the range of other, similar, products from SilverStone somewhere around the $175 price point. At that price, this unit is a better deal for those users who need a lot of power in small ATX12v package. Other users who can afford a longer ATX12v size power supply will likely be able to find a bit better performance and price out there on other units.

Discussion

Paul Johnson
Paul is a long time PC hobbyist and tech enthusiast having gotten his start when he broke his first C64 quickly followed by breaking his first IBM XT. Most notably however, for 12 years, he served as the Power Supply Editor for one of the truly early, groundbreaking, and INDPENDENT PC enthusiast sites ([H]ardOCP) until its mothballing in April of 2019. Paul now brings the same flair and style of his power supply reviews to The FPS Review.

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