Final Thoughts and Conclusions
SilverStone’s new 700W SFX-L Series PSU brings 700 watts of combined DC output to the small form factor market in an extended chassis. Its most obvious feature is its small size, but the PSU also incorporates many of the features found in enthusiast-grade ATX power supplies (very good voltage regulation, excellent efficiency, relatively low AC ripple, quiet operation, and modular flat ribbon style cables).
The obvious advantage of the SFX small form factor power supply is its small size, especially when compared to a full size ATX PSU. However, the small size can also be a disadvantage as it only leaves room for an 80mm cooling fan, not to mention a cramped space for component layout. SilverStone has addressed this issue once again by creating the SFX-L Series power supply, which features a chassis that is 30mm (1.2”) longer; just enough room to spread out components for better airflow and to mount a 120mm cooling fan.
The SX700-LPT power supply delivered 700W of combined DC load with very good voltage regulation and excellent efficiency (meeting the 80 Platinum requirements) during our tests. AC ripple and noise suppression was also good. The power supply features an “intelligent semi-fanless” fan speed control circuit, which turns the fan off at low power for silent operation. At low power the SX700-LPT is silent and at mid-power it remains very quiet.
SilverStone’s 700W SFX-L power supply is fully modular and comes with eight relatively short ribbon style cables intended for use in small form factor cases. If you find one or more cables are too short for your particular build (especially if you are installing the SX700-LPT in a larger enclosure) SilverStone offers a complete line of full-size modular cables that can be purchased separately. All of the sleeved cables in the PP06 and PP07 Series will work with the SX700-LPT power supply.
The main thing we found not to like about the 700W SFX-L power supply is a 3-year warranty. SilverStone offers a 5-year warranty on some of their other premium PSUs but unfortunately the SX700-LPT is only backed by a 3-year warranty. The MSRP for the SilverStone SX700-LPT power supply is $149.99 USD.
Strengths:
• 700W Continuous DC output in the extended SFX-L form factor
• Quiet 120mm cooling fan with semi-fanless operation
• 80Plus Platinum efficiency
• Very good voltage regulation (±2% on the three main outputs)
• All modular cables, flat ribbon style
• Single +12V output can deliver up to 58.4A/700W
• Four PCI-E connectors (6+2 pin)
• SFX to ATX adapter bracket available
• Compatible with SilverStone custom PP06 and PP07 sleeved cables
Weaknesses:
• 3-Year warranty
SilverStone SX700-LPT SFX-L Series Power Supply
Our thanks to SilverStone for sending us the SX700-LPT PSU to review!
SFX-L seems like such a
SFX-L seems like such a pointless standard, you can get SFX PSUs at 600W, no small system is gonna pull more power than that.
First off, they clearly laid
First off, they clearly laid out the advantages of having a 120mm fan for lower noise.
You also lack imagination. SFX and SFX-L now make ATX sized units seem ridiculously big and unnecessary. Silverstone is coming out with a 800W 80+ Titanium rated SFX-L unit later on this year that could power an overclocked HEDT processor and dual Titan X rig easily (a lot of people over estimate the power needs for a system by a lot).
I have an R9 Nano in an SFF
I have an R9 Nano in an SFF build which has a recommended PSU of 750W.
I bought this PSU for that build. It does just fine, even when the GPU and CPU (which is a 6600K) are both overclocked.
The 450W PSU which I had with the case originally wasn’t enough for the GPU at peak load, let alone with a 95W TDP CPU + overclock. It had two 12V rails. This has one 12V rail with 58A. More than enough.
There’s nothing wrong with meeting the recommended specs *and* having some additional headroom.
i will be running 2x gtx 1080
i will be running 2x gtx 1080 hybrids off one of these with a i7-6700k all overclocked using every drop of power this thing has to offer
A gem of a review once again.
A gem of a review once again. Why did Silverstone only put a 3 year warranty on this? That makes no sense. It should indeed have at least an 5 year warranty.
I would advise caution when
I would advise caution when buying this PSU do to quality control. I bought one off Amazon for my ITX build, but the PSU would randomly shut off as if the power cord was unplugged. This would happen at random times like while installing Windows, watching Youtube, or just idling. I would have to unplug the power cord from the PSU to be able to restart my PC.
I returned it and bought the SX500-LG and so far it has worked perfectly.
I’m not saying you’re wrong.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that one faulty OCP circuit does not indicate a QC problem, it indicates one faulty OCP circuit.
There’s a lot of that
There’s a lot of that happening, people are complaining on forums and reviews on neweeg.ca points that same issue, which is very sad. To be fair my corsair sf600 is having the same issues,It has to do with power surges.
There is a bug with the
There is a bug with the semi-fanless mode on the SX700-LPT: The fanless mode is triggered by dropping below a certain power draw only, rather than by power and/or temperature. But the unit still has overtemp protection. This means if the unit is heated up while under low-load conditions, it can become warm enough to trigger overtemp shutdown without the fan ever kicking in!
Whether this is an issue depends on PSU orientation (opening-down = bad), inlet restriction (e.g. fan filters), case airflow (if any), and ambient temperature.