SilverStone SX550 SFX PSU Review

[Guest]

SilverStone continues to enrich its SFX PSU portfolio. One of the most recent additions is the SX550, a budget-oriented unit featuring Gold-class efficiency and fixed cables instead of modular ones. As you can tell, it's intended to bring prices down.

SilverStone SX550 SFX PSU Review : Read more

 

[turkey3_scratch]

It doesn't seem like Silverstone can get anything right these days. I don't see how they can't include a rubber grommet where the wires leave the cage. When people are bending those wires around the case, they can easily rub up against a sharp edge like that and cut through the insulation or even damage the wires and increase the resistance. For $95 this is a rip off, I think it should be priced at $75. It's pretty loud, too.

Also, according to your thing the PS113 doesn't support OTP, even though this unit seems to. It also seems to support UVP. Doesn't quite make sense to me. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supplies-101,4193-22.html

 

[Aris_Mp]

Most supervisor ICs don't support OTP, so this protection is implemented through other circuits in PSUs that actually have OTP.

 

[Clamyboy74]

Having few cables is the point of an sfx psu. Sfx cases don't have much driver space, and short wires are good for small cases. Who in their right mind would but an sfx psu for use in a mod tower case, especially with a $95 price tag? When you review sfx psu's please bear into consideration that these are made for use in small cases, where short cables, few connectors are deal breakers for consumers. Thank you.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The thing that hurts this unit is that there is no common hardware configuration that will fit into an SFX case and require more than a 400W power supply like the Corsair SF which is much better. Most high-end AMD GPUs like the R9 390 are just way too large to even fit into an SFX case. If you think of cards that can actually fit into an SFX case, they are going to be small form factor cards, which are almost always under 200W, or these days even quite less. CPU overclocking to extremes can't be done in SFX cases with limited cooler sizes and due to airflow restrictions, so, really, I don't see a position in the market where this unit can be competitive over the Corsair SF400. And since this unit does not come with an SFX to ATX bracket, it is implied that nobody will probably install it into a case that takes an ATX PS2 power supply.

 

[AlistairAB]

I have the corsaif sf450 and can confirm it blows the silverstone out of the water (silverstone never fixed their fan problems with their sfx psus)

 

[Samer1970]

The thing that hurts this unit is that there is no common hardware configuration that will fit into an SFX case and require more than a 400W power supply like the Corsair SF which is much better. Most high-end AMD GPUs like the R9 390 are just way too large to even fit into an SFX case. If you think of cards that can actually fit into an SFX case, they are going to be small form factor cards, which are almost always under 200W, or these days even quite less. CPU overclocking to extremes can't be done in SFX cases with limited cooler sizes and due to airflow restrictions, so, really, I don't see a position in the market where this unit can be competitive over the Corsair SF400. And since this unit does not come with an SFX to ATX bracket, it is implied that nobody will probably install it into a case that takes an ATX PS2 power supply.

how about Titan X Pascal cards / 1080 ti? They consume 435Watt total System power.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Not quite samer and not cards that would fit in an SFX case.

Also, my bad guys, I meant SF450 not 400.

 

[Samer1970]

Not quite samer and not cards that would fit in an SFX case.

Also, my bad guys, I meant SF450 not 400.

maybe you should check the following cases :

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-202

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=533

http://www.silverstonetek.com/raven/products/index.php?model=RVZ02

https://www.ncases.com/

https://www.dan-cases.com/

 

[turkey3_scratch]

If you own a 1080Ti why would you get a mediocre PSU like this anyway? Once again, it doesn't seem to have a purpose at all. Once power requirements get anywhere past 300W you probably have high-end hardware in which case a unit like this is a poor choice over the SF600.

Budget power supplies over 500W really have no place in this world. People purchase budget power supplies over 500W for three reasons:

1) They have high end hardware and underestimate the need for a quality PSU
2) They are uninformed and think "more watts" is better.
3) They overestimate their power requirements.

I suppose you could argue if they have 225W of hardware a 550W unit like this is perfect in terms of efficiency. Okay, maybe so. But that depends on how much you value efficiency, I suppose.

The unit still performs poorly compared to Corsair. It's true, Corsair SF dominate the SFX market with the best units.

 

[Samer1970]

If you own a 1080Ti why would you get a mediocre PSU like this anyway? Once again, it doesn't seem to have a purpose at all. Once power requirements get anywhere past 300W you probably have high-end hardware in which case a unit like this is a poor choice over the SF600.

Budget power supplies over 500W really have no place in this world. People purchase budget power supplies over 500W for three reasons:

1) They have high end hardware and underestimate the need for a quality PSU
2) They are uninformed and think "more watts" is better.
3) They overestimate their power requirements.

I suppose you could argue if they have 225W of hardware a 550W unit like this is perfect in terms of efficiency. Okay, maybe so. But that depends on how much you value efficiency, I suppose.

The unit still performs poorly compared to Corsair. It's true, Corsair SF dominate the SFX market with the best units.

Does not need to be 1080 ti , any 250 watt GPU card ... from 390 , 390x to others .. there are people on budget and use such cards in compact systems .

I just mentioned gtx 1080 ti as a modern example ..

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Well you may have a point. The unit is still underwhelming for the price, though. I don't think an R9 390 is a wise choice for a compact case anyway, seeing it can get quite hot. But to be honest a Corsair SF 450 can handle an R9 390 with a locked Intel CPU. Yeah, it'll push it hard but it'll still be quieter than this unit. I could never use this loud of a PSU on a system of mine. Should be very reliable from the fan RPM but still super loud.

 

[Samer1970]

Well you may have a point. The unit is still underwhelming for the price, though. I don't think an R9 390 is a wise choice for a compact case anyway, seeing it can get quite hot. But to be honest a Corsair SF 450 can handle an R9 390 with a locked Intel CPU. Yeah, it'll push it hard but it'll still be quieter than this unit. I could never use this loud of a PSU on a system of mine. Should be very reliable from the fan RPM but still super loud.

Have you seen the NCASE M1 ? it is very popular and it can run any card inside cool...

I do agree that better power supply is the way to go (if you are rich) , but this power supply is good and does have a market .

One more thing to add , Short cables are huge problem and hard to find ... and sadly they only come with SFX power supply for free .. many compact Micro ATX cases with full ATX power supply have a huge problem fitting the long cables , alot of people buy the SFX with ATX bracket for this reason (Corsair does not include it ) ...

and a set of short cable are minimum $30 , and only Silverstone sell those for their ATX power supplies ... If you do it yourself it will cost you $5 per cable ...

I wish for an important thing in Modular power supplies : PUT 2 SETS of CABLES PLEASE , SHORT and LONG .

 

[turkey3_scratch]

2 sets of cables costs a lot more money than you think. You can order custom length cables from websites for certain PSUs.

For most people, it really doesn't matter if the cables are a little too long since what's important to them is more their computer and that it works.

 

[JQB45]

If I were to rank this 1 being best 5 being horrible I'd give it a 3.5.

 

[Su]

It's noisy, so I won't buy it.