A Detailed Look
The SilverStone Platinum Series 850W power supply enclosure is painted with a satin black finish and trimmed with white logo and nameplate. The compact chassis measures 140mm (5.5”) deep. The back panel includes an AC receptacle, master power On-Off switch and an open honey-comb grill.
The power supply uses a Globe Fan 120mm fan for cooling. The fan (S1202512L) is rated for 0.18A at 12 VDC and features a fluid dynamic bearing bearing for long life and quiet operation. The ST85F-PT power supply features an intelligent fan controller that allows semi-fanless operation. The fan does not start spinning until the power supply reaches at least a 20% load.
The front panel on the 850W PSU incorporates twelve modular cable connectors, all nicely labelled and color coded. The power supply comes with little covers over most of the connectors. During installation, you can just uncover the connectors you need and leave any unused connectors covered for a clean look.
All of the modular cables are flat ribbon-style to assist with neat cable routing and to help maximize airflow.
SilverStone uses remote voltage sensing on the ST85-PT to help insure tight load regulation. You can see the remote sense wires attached to the main 24-pin ATX cable in the photo below.
Under the Hood
Here are a few pictures showing the layout and components inside Platinum Series 850W power supply. SilverStone is using High Power as the OEM for the Platinum Series. The overall layout, soldering, and build quality all look very good.
The power supply features a modern circuit design to deliver high efficiency and uses DC-to-DC converters to produce the +3.3V and +5V rails from the +12V output. Lots of AC line filtering going on up front for a good start.
All of capacitors used inside the PSU are Japanese made with a good mix of electrolytic and solid polymer caps used throughout. The main primary capacitor is made by Nippon Chemi-Con and rated for 680uF, 400V and 105°C.
Did SilverStone send you the
Did SilverStone send you the PSU for review, or did you request it? If the latter, I’d say you missed an opportunity by going for the highest capacity one of the lineup. The 550W is far more interesting, as it’s one of the lowest capacity Platinum units out there, and a perfect fit for today’s high end GPUs.
The 850W model was sent to us
The 850W model was sent to us for review as SilverStone wanted to showcase the highest power in the smallest package. However, we may follow up with a review of the 550W unit. Its always nice to have the opportunity to check out more than one unit in a new series.
That would be great, hope you
That would be great, hope you are able to get one in for review.
Of course I see SilverStone’s point (850W Platinum in a smaller package than most 5-600W units is not bad at all), but high powered PSUs are less and less relevant in today’s PC builds. 3,5″ HDDs are slowly dying, multi-GPU was never really a big thing, and is quickly falling to the wayside, and >95W CPUs with actual performance to match are reserved for those with too much money to spend (although Zen might change that).
SilverStone should be lauded as one of the first PSU makers to make <700W Platinum units, but we still had a long way to go. I'm still waiting for something compact, modular and high efficiency in the 3-400W range. You can barely get 80+ Gold below 500W today.
It’s *possible* DX12 may
It’s *possible* DX12 may cause a resurgence in multi-GPU setups.. But agreed we need more gold/platinum small units.
My home (VM) server is running well with a Seasonic 360W 80plus Gold..
Sure, it’s possible, but
Sure, it’s possible, but still highly unlikely. After all, DX12 multi-GPU support is as reliant on developer support as DX11 ever was, just easier to implement (just not as reliant on driver profiles). And as always, it works on a game-to-game basis, with many lacking support. Not to mention that most PC gamers buy a single ~$200 GPU, and can’t afford multiple. Sure, the potential for improved scaling and efficiency is definitely there. I just don’t see multi-GPU having a significant resurgence.
Plus, you can easily run two GTX 1070s or RX 480s off a 600W PSU. Probably even less.
Also, there is no lack of 800W+ (heck, even 1200W+) PSUs with good efficiency today. That market is well provided for already. It’s time to provide better efficiency to the mass market.