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Power of Attorneys the PSU
I already tried to make you aware of the importance of power consumption these days. Manufacturers really need to take a good look at this problem as it is a growing concern. Let's do a little math with an average to high-end PC okay? Take a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz Prescott based PC armed with the now mid-range Radeon X800 XT PE, three HDs, a DVD-writer and CD Writer. When Windows boots it'll use up no more than like 120-130 Watts.
The minute you overclock your processor and graphics card, and use the HDs and optical drives, your wattage will rise to about 350-380 Watts and can, at very stressful points, peak even higher. That still leaves plenty of room to play around. However, for every additional HD or optical drive you need to add 10 Watts and that's where the problem nowadays is.
Do you choose the never ending Guru path of upgrades in the form of SLI or Crossfire graphics cards? Add another 75-100 Watts to the margin we just set. Do you have a dual CPU based rig or Dual Core processor? That'll cost you about an extra 80 Watts and then there is additional cooling to ventilate all these "hot" gadgets. Therefore always choose a PSU with plenty of 'breathing' space for future upgrades and devices.
At this time I suggest you get at least a 400 Watt PSU for any mediocre PC, where that number was 300 Watts two years ago. With a lot of HD's and extras like active fans and case-mods such as lights, or if simply powering a high-end gaming rig, go for something even higher than 400 Watts. Starting with a 520 Watt PSU today is not really that bad of a specification for today's high-end computers.
By now I think I have been able to make you aware of the point I'm trying to make. We need a good PSU these days and in the near future probably diesel backed up generators in our gardens!
Right, let's talk about the Strider.
Features:
- Fully modular, sleeved cables
- 600W continuous power output (up to 50?C)
- NVIDIA certified SLI Ready
- Quad +12V outputs and Dual PCI-e 6-pin connectors
- Single 120mm cooling fan for quiet operation
- Active Power Factor Correction (PFC)
- Premium, industrial grade components
- Supports ATX 12V 2.01 and EPS 12V
What immediately strikes the eye is the fact that there are four (quad) 12 volts rails, I mean it's fantastic that there are four of them if you decide to do some SLI/Crossfire gaming yet they are 13, 18, 16 and 8 Amps each and that as we'll show later is an issue.
Let me explain this first: Usual ATX12V power supplies have two 12 Volts rails. Classically, the whole lot is on 12V1 (the "first" 12V rail) and the CPU is on 12V2 (the "second" 12V rail.) A lot of companies then will place the SATA on 12V2 with the CPU or maybe PCI-e or maybe one PCI-e on each of the 12V rails.
As you understand by now the Silverstone ST60F has four of these 12V rails. 12V1 powers the CPU. If your motherboard has dual CPU's and utilized the 8-pin EPS power connector, the 12V1 power just the CPU in socket 1. 12V2 supplies power to the CPU in socket 2, as well as the 12V required for the SATA drive. This is why 12V2 has 5 more Amps at hand than 12V1. 12V2 also powers the 6-pin AUX connector.
If we understood correctly 12V3 supplies juice to the ATX motherboard connector and the two PCI-e connectors. At 8A, 12V4 is the smallest of the four 12V rails and powers any of the drives using the old standard 4-pin Molex, and of course the floppy power connector.
A single GeForce 7900 GTX or Radeon X1900 XTX graphics card can peak upwards 22-25 AMPs.
Oh and my goodness, this PSU is heavy at 2.9 kg!
Power Factor Correction - PFC
The Silverstone PSU we has a very nice feature called active PFC. To put it in simple terms, Active PFC PSUs are more expensive and from a power consumption point of view more efficient. Power Factor Correction (PFC) allows power distribution to operate at its highest efficiency.
There are two types of PFC, Active PFC and Passive PFC. This PSU has active PFC. Active PFC uses a circuit to correct power factor, Active PFC is able to generate a theoretical power factor of over 95%. Active Power Factor Correction also markedly diminishes total harmonics, automatically corrects for AC input voltage, and is capable of a full range of input voltage. Since Active PFC is the more complex method of Power Factor Correction, it is definitely more expensive to produce an active PFC power supply.
Right, allow me to commence with both the beginning and the end results straight away. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to start the the sexy photo shoot.
