Contents
- 1Introduction
- 1.1Packaging and accessories
- 2Connectors & cabling
- 2.1Casing & cooling
- 3Input filtering
- 4Primary side
- 4.1+5 V stand-by rail
- 5Secondary side
- 5.1Build quality
- 6Load testing
- 6.1Loading +5 V SB
- 6.2Voltage hold-up time
- 6.3Combined loading
- 6.4Combined loading ripple
- 6.5Crossloading, overloading
- 6.6Crossloading, overloading ripple
- 7Conclusion and evaluation
- 7.1Thanks
- 7.2Discussion
Connectors & cabling
All wires in the cabling of the Silverstone Strider Essential Gold 600 W are 18AWG (besides a few trivial ones like PWR On or Power Good) which is also the case with both pairs of 6+2pin PCIe connectors on common 8 wires. All cables are sleeved but there is no extra gold plating on connectors pins nor any unplugging clips or other extra features, just a plain cabling. I would still prefer 16AWG at least for the important connectors.
In total, we have:
- Main ATX (20+4pin): 52 cm
- 1× ATX 12 V (4+4pin): 62 cm
- 4× PCIe (6+2pin): 2× 52 and 2× 66 cm
- 9× SATA: 1× 55 cm, 2× 56 cm, 1× 62 cm, 1× 68 cm, 1× 72 cm, 1× 73 cm, 1× 88 cm and 1× 105 cm (uff)
- 3× peripheral molex: 1× 72 cm, 1× 87 cm and 1× 103 cm (OMG)
- 1× Berg for FDD: 113 cm (jeez)
Casing & cooling
The casing is made from 0.8mm SECC steel (so it is quite tough) and has black lacquering which is quite smooth but not shiny. The fan grille is made from wire so this should also add to overall quietness of this unit.
The backside for exhaust air is made with hexagonal holes which are around the whole AC receptacle as can be seen on the picture in previous chapter so there will be no pockets of hot air inside the unit. However, as with many others Aurum-based units, there are some holes on the front side as well which means you should be prepaired for pockets of hot air in your case, if you have the unit mounted on top with no extra outtake fan. The unit has a plastic grommet for the cables exiting from it. The fan used is a Yate Loon D12SM-12. According to Yate Loon this is a medium speed sleeve-bearing fan with a maximum speed of only 1650 RPM, so I do not understand how it could climb up to 2300 RPM, like the speed diagram on the units box shows. So it should be silent with airflow of 70.5 CFM and noise of only 33 dB.
The ordinary version of this fan has a black sticker while this one is white and under the sticker there is just plastic so it really indicates some better, manufacturing plant-closed bearing pressed into the frame (advanced bearings often are made this way, not user serviceable). From communication with Silverstone I learned the ceramics refer to ceramic additives into the lubricant, that probably explains why the bearing is closed (to keep it clean from dust and drying). There is also no plastic nonsense over the fan – Silverstone is really serious with the silence!