Introduction to Silverstone IceMyst Pro 360 Pro

SilverStone has been busy churning out coolers, power supplies, expansion cards, and other PC equipment since its founding in 2003. The company is perhaps best known for its computer cases, like the retro-inspired PC FLP02.

A few years ago we tested the company’s unique IceMyst 360 AIO with Intel’s Core i7-13700K. Since then, the bar for AIOs has been raised – we’ve seen improvements in affordability and performance of high end AIOs, with the best liquid coolers becoming stronger and more competitive every year.

Today we’re looking at Silverstone’s IceMyst 360 Pro, which, like its predecessor, features the ability to add multiple VRM fans to provide direct cooling to specific motherboard components. This feature will be appreciated best by those who overclock their RAM, as DDR5 is more sensitive to temperature than older DDR4.

Will this liquid cooler make our list of the best CPU coolers? You betcha! But let's take a look at the specifications and features of the cooler, then we’ll go over thermal and noise benchmarks so you can decide if this is the right AIO for your next build.

Cooler specifications

Features of the IceMyst Pro 360 AIO liquid cooler

● Packaging

The outside of the box is brown and blue, highlighting the cooler’s image on the top. As with most AIOs, the inner contents are protected with molded carboard and plastic coverings.

Included with the AIO are the following parts:

● 120mm fans

There’s more to an AIO than just the liquid pump and radiator. The fans included have a direct impact on noise levels and cooling performance. Silverstone includes three model CC12025H12S fans, which are 120mm in size and feature nine fan blades.

To simplify cable management, these fans feature a quick-connect that integrates ARGB and PWM into a single cable.

● 360mm radiator and liquid pump

The radiator is that it includes an accessible refill port, which will come in useful if you ever need to refill the liquid coolant after the unit’s three-year warranty.

This “Pro” version of the IceMyst 360 features a new pump with a three-phase, six-pole motor. Silverstone claims that this pump delivers twice the flow rate of its previous products.

● A small tube of thermal paste

● Hardware ARGB Control Box

Included with the AIO is a hardware ARGB controller that lets you control and power the lighting without needing an available motherboard connection.

● Mounting for modern AMD and Intel platforms, and even ThreadRipper Pro!

Like most other liquid coolers, the Silverstone IceMyst Pro 360 supports modern AMD and Intel consumer platforms. It includes a very large copper CPU contact plate, because the cooler also includes mounting hardware for Threadripper Pro systems.

● The killer feature: (Optional) IMF70 VRM/DDR5 fans

The feature that sets the IceMyst Pro 360 Pro apart from competitors is the ability to mount mulitple IMF70 fans on top of the CPU block.

You can install as many or few fans as your case will fit, and you can move the fans to cover different spots on your motherboard as appropriate. For the purposes of this review, we’ve tested the AIO in multiple fan configurations above our TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem DDR5-7200 RAM. And we’ve run the ultimate RAM stress test, Karhu, to benchmark thermals and determine how effective these fans are.

● AM4/AM5 Installation

The installation of this liquid cooler is simple, but it doesn’t come with the fans pre-installed. So first you’ll want to secure the fans to the radiator, and then mount the radiator to your computer’s case.

Next, you’ll remove the default AM4/AM5 mechanism, and then place studs on the mounting holes.

It’s time to apply the included thermal paste now. If you’re not sure how to do that, we have a handy thermal past guide. Once the paste is applied, simply place the pump block on top of the CPU and secure it with the included parts.

With that step completed, you have the option to install an optional IMF70 VRM/DDR5 fan.

The last step is to connect the PWM and ARGB headers and power on your system.

Real-world testing configuration – AMD AM5 platform

The 9950X3D setup that we were testing coolers with last year has suffered an early death, likely caused by electrically defective equipment. While we were waiting for the CPU to be replaced, we tested coolers with AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X instead and observed some interesting findings.

There are some differences in how the 9950X and 9950X3D CPUs are impacted by thermal events – while the heat output of the CCDs of AMD’s 9950X3D are relatively balanced, the 9950X I use has one CCD that runs much hotter than the other, with a difference of over 10 degrees Celsius in some scenarios, shown below.

The benchmark results shared in these reviews may differ from others because I place an emphasis on having results that are comparable to real-world use.

This means that I generally test CPU coolers inside of a closed desktop case, which increases cooling difficulty compared to other testing method. Many will test CPU coolers outside of a case, on an open test bench. Open benches have lowered ambient temperatures, which in turn makes weak coolers appear stronger than they really are. Some publications have used generic thermal plates to test cooling solutions. I reject both of these methods because they don’t accurately reflect the real-world PC cooler conditions.

Our latest testing setup uses the FLOVA F50 computer case from Tryx.

This case features a unique “crossflow” fan that pulls air from the side, which the company claims is more effective than traditional intake fans.

PBO Performance

We’re going to start our benchmarks section by focusing on traditional thermal tests, and at the end, we’ll cover DDR5 thermal tests with Silverstone’s IMF70 VRM fans.

While some of y’all prefer to run coolers at low noise levels, I know a lot of you just want maximum performance. This first test lets the fans run at their max speeds, to test the full potential of the AIO’s cooling capabilities.

Turning on PBO allows AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D to stretch its legs to an extent. With the Ryzen 9 9950X (non-3D), the CPU will guzzle as much power as possible and hit TJMax no matter what cooler is paired with. However, at least with MSI’s X870E Carbon Wifi motherboard, power consumption averages ~250W with peaks of up to ~265W.

The result shown here of only 84.9 degrees C is one of the best on the market, providing cooler temperatures than the vast majority of competing liquid coolers. There have only been four AIOs I’ve tested capable of such thermal excellence. When I first tested Sudokoo’s Proteus 360 on our last 9950X3D setup and encountered similar thermal performance, I was first worried that there was something wrong with my system, because I had a hard time believing my own results!

I’ve included those results below, but keep in mind we’re using a different case for testing now – so thermals aren’t 100% comparable.

200W thermal benchmarks

For the next thermal test, I leave motherboard settings at their defaults, which results in a power limit of 200W when running Cinebench R23. CPU temperatures averaged 68.4 degrees Celsius, which is again one of the strongest results from any liquid cooler I’ve tested.

150W + GPU thermal results

Our next test runs Cinebench on the CPU with a 150W power limit, while also running Furmark on MSI’s RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3x OC, which causes the GPU to consume ~295W. This test is designed to emulate the thermals of games, which primarily stress the CPU and GPU (but do not stress RAM).

With a CPU temperature of only 58.6 C, Silverstone’s IceMyst Pro 360 continues to demonstrate industry-leading thermal performance. I’ve included the results of this same test on our last 9950X3D testing system below, but please keep in mind they are not 100% comparable, as we’re using a different computer case.

Noise levels

To give you an idea of much noise this cooler creates when running, we’ve measured noise levels at full speed and in a scenario emulating high-intensity gaming.

Looking at this from a dBA perspective alone, you would think that the IceMyst Pro runs very loudly – but this chart doesn’t account for factors like the pitch of the fan noise. And regardless, it runs very effectively even when set to low noise levels, as you’ll see in the next section featuring noise-normalized tests.

In a scenario that emulates the thermal load of a high-intensity game, the noise level only reaches 38.9 dBA (when tied to my motherboard’s default fan curve). This is relatively quiet, and means that in most scenarios the cooler will run whisper-quiet.

Noise-normalized testing

Most testing is performed with the cooler tied to the default fan curve of my MSI X870E Carbon motherboard, but some of y’all prefer to see tests when the noise levels of coolers are equalized. This is especially important to those of you who prefer silent computers.

This next test has the CPU cooler noise-normalized to 38.9 dBA, with PBO enabled for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU.

With a result of only 85C, Silverstone’s IceMyst Pro shows some of the strongest thermal performance possible – despite the fans running at low noise levels. What’s more is that there’s only a 0.1C increase compared to our full speed results, which means there’s no point in letting the cooler run loudly – at least with a consumer CPU. The IceMyst Pro features support for hotter, more powerful Threadripper Pro CPUs – which would likely benefit from the fans working harder.

Karhu DDR5 RAM thermals testing

One of the principles I’ve tried to explain in my reviews is that your CPU cooler does not operate in isolation. It has an impact on not just your CPU’s temperatures, but other components in your build as well, like your RAM and GPU. The optional Silverstone IMF70 fans, which cost about $25 each and can be added to this cooler, are designed to help cool your RAM and VRMs, ideal for users who prefer to overclock their memory to the fastest possible speeds.

To that end, I’ve run the Karhu RAM stress test. This places a load of ~153W on the CPU and ensures system RAM (DDR5 in my case) is fully stable.

In this type of scenario, most AIOs tend to produce poorer results than air coolers. Adding a single fan drops DDR5 temperatures by 9 degrees Celsius, which can significantly improve stability while overclocking. Using more than one fan doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, with temperatures dropping by only 0.1C.

But that’s not all – I’ve also tested Karhu while also running Furmark. This should be similar to a high-intensity gaming scenario that stresses the GPU and RAM, such as e-sports titles.

When you add the heat of a GPU to the mix, air coolers seem to lose the advantages shown in the previous chart. Adding the IMF70 VRM fans drops temperatures almost 9 degrees C here, which is important if you’re considering DDR5 overclocking.

Conclusion

Silverstone’s IceMyst Pro 360 is one of the strongest thermal solutions available for consumer CPUs – and it supports professional processor in the form of Threadripper Pro. It runs very quietly in normal scenarios and has excellent noise-normalized performance.

The optional IMF70 fans provide excellent cooling for VRMs or DDR5 RAM, dropping temperatures by 9 degrees C (21 degrees Fahrenheit) – a capability not offered by most competitors. Just note that you’ll need to pay extra for those IMF70 fans. They’re currently for sale at Amazon for $25 each, and that’s on top of the $189 cost of the cooler itself.

Silverstone launched its retro beige FLP02 desktop PC case in 2025, and Maingear is a line of pre-built PCs that leverage the nostalgia these cases evoke. The custom PC builder calls this lineup Retro98, and it features four different models starting at $2,499. The most affordable option is already quite formidable, sporting an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU paired with an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a 2TB SSD.

• Get the Retro98a at Maingear
• Get the Retro98 | 5090 at Maingear
• Get the Retro98 | 5080 at Maingear
• Get the Retro98 | 5070 at Maingear

But if you want to go all-in on performance and style, the $9,799 Retro98a is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, an Nvidia RTX 5090, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and a 4TB SSD, and features a custom water loop to deliver maximum cooling. The coolant reservoir for the top-end pre-built is located in the 5.25-inch drive bays. At the same time, Maingear also used the classic “ketchup and mustard” color scheme for the braided power cables, reminiscent of old desktop builds from the late ‘90s and early aughts, while still avoiding the cable spaghetti you’ll usually find in them.

Maingear Retro98 Specifications

Just like the desktops of yore, the FLP02 case used in the Retro98 PCs includes a classic rocker switch for power, key lock, reset, and turbo buttons, along with a digital LED display. The power switch, reset button, and key lock still function as before, but according to Silverstone, the digital LED display now shows the PWM fans' duty cycle, while the turbo button sets the fan speed to maximum. The front grille houses two 120mm front intakes, and there is a single 120mm fan for the rear exhaust. More importantly, the 360mm radiator with three 120mm fans sits right at the top of the case.

Maingear is offering a limited run of these classic desktops: it will release 32 units of the Retro98 AIO models and just 6 custom-loop Retro98a systems, for a total of 38 units. So, if you want to bring back the nostalgia of Windows 95 while still getting the performance you’d come to expect from a high-end desktop gaming PC from 2026, you should get one of these units as soon as you can.

SilverStone has taken attendees to its EXPO 2025 in Japan by surprise with an early appearance of the unannounced FLP03. If you are a fan of these cases, cooling and power specialist’s prior tributes to 1980s era PC chassis, then you will be interested in this. It is another tower form factor design, but a little smaller, targeting Micro ATX builds. We have a full comparison below.

Click 'See more' for more images

Reports from various Japanese social media users and tech media indicate that SilverStone had held back availability of its FLP02 to coincide with Saturday’s event in Tokyo. So, it was quite a surprise to see the FLP03 on show, in the flesh, as part of the product exhibit.

In the top picture, you can see the SilverStone FLP02 next to the freshly revealed FLP03 (center). The new case is clearly smaller but retains many of the design cues of its stable mate – for better or worse. It even shares the front panel insert with Power, Lock (with keys), Reset and Turbo button / display.

Above you can see the size difference isn’t really substantial. The new FLP03 at 220 (W) x 456 (H) x 477 (D) is only markedly different in height. It isn’t really going to save much space on or under your desk. However, due to its reduced dimensions, the FLP03 can’t support SSI-CEB or ATX sized motherboards that the FLP02 can. Moreover, the new model has fewer expansion bays, fewer expansion slots, and has had a cooling / radiator rejig.

The FLP03 still offers decent max compatibility settings, though. Users can fit humungous GPUs up to 412mm in length, and CPU coolers up to 171mm tall, as well as standard ATX PSUs.

We’ve looked into foreign media coverage of the FLP03, but we haven’t seen the ‘why’ of this new product addressed. We guess that SilverStone will share its reasoning for this iterative update in subsequent events. There is such a rich heritage of beige PC designs which could have influenced the next in the series, we feel slightly disappointed… But perhaps we will learn more at CES 2026, and be convinced otherwise.

The SilverStone FLP03 is tipped for release not long after the CES. Some say it will be released in Feb or March next year.

09/18/25 update: A few hours after initial publication, a representative from Silverstone reached out to say that the U.S. price for the FLP02 had not yet been set, but that it will likely be around $240. We changed the headline and removed a reference to a $220 U.S. MSRP at the end of the article.

Initially presented at Computex 2025, Silverstone has launched its new FLP02 (SST-FLP02), a retro-inspired PC case designed to house modern hardware components. The FLP02 is the second old-school-looking case introduced by Silverstone, following the successful FLP01.

Silverstone manufactures the FLP02 using steel and plastic, and it is finished with the characteristic beige color reminiscent of the good old days. The case dimensions are 9.13 x 19.45 x 18.58 inches (232 x 494 x 472mm), a moderate size by today's standards. With a weight of 21.6 pounds (9.79 kg), the FLP02 is not overly heavy, allowing it to be conveniently placed on a desk, which is an appropriate location for display purposes.

The FLP02 accommodates mini-ATX, microATX, ATX, and SSI-CEB motherboards. Considering the dimensions of the FLP02, a mini-ATX motherboard may appear disproportionate within the case; however, individual preferences vary. The FLP02 is equipped with a total of seven expansion slots, with an additional two slots available should you choose to install the graphics card in a vertical orientation.

Regarding the dimensions of graphics cards, the maximum length is 15.2 inches (386 mm) when the front 3.5-inch/2.5-inch combo bay drive cage is not installed, and 11 inches (279 mm) when it is installed. In terms of width, the maximum is 7.4 inches (188 mm) without the GPU brace, and 6 inches with it installed. Consequently, even large graphics cards such as the GeForce RTX 5090 are compatible with the FLP02 case. The case accepts power supplies with a length of up to 9.8 inches (250mm), so even monstrous power supplies, such as Corsair's 3,000W unit, can fit easily into the FLP02.

The FLP02 provides a variety of cooling options. The case comes with two front 120mm fan mounts and one rear fan mount accommodating either a 120mm or 140mm fan. Silverstone supplies three black cooling fans with the FLP02. The top fan mounts offer greater flexibility, allowing for configurations of either three 120mm fans, two 140mm fans, or two 160mm fans. Regarding radiator support, 120mm and 140mm radiators are compatible at the front, while the top accommodates radiators ranging from 120mm to 360mm in size.

If you prefer air cooling, the FLP02 has you covered as well. The case measures 9.13 inches wide, with clearance space for CPU air coolers up to a maximum height of 7.2 inches (182mm). You'll have no issues slipping something like a Noctua NH-D15 G2 or a Jiushark JF15K in the FLP02.

New Jersey-based system b uilder Maingear has launched a beige desktop to tempt in fans of retro PCs who, despite themselves, crave modern processing power. The new Maingear Retro95 is what some might call a ready-made ‘sleeper build,’ a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The “limited drop” Retro95 is available today, with prices starting at $1,599.

In Maingear’s words, the new Retro95 is “brings back the unmistakable style of a '90s-era horizontal desktop, now supercharged with cutting-edge hardware.” Some of the hardware you will find in top-end configurations will include the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, up to 96GB DDR5 RAM, and 8TB of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD storage.

In addition to those performance component essentials, Maingear says that the Retro95 is “engineered with modern thermals and whisper-quiet air cooling for high performance with low noise.” That means no liquid or hybrid cooling, but it is good to know that high-end systems will come with Noctua fans and an 850W PSU. These cases also have capacity for an optional optical drive.

The case caught our eye, and we recognized it as SilverStone’s FLP01 horizontal desktop case. A Maingear spokesperson confirmed that this is a "customized iteration of the Silverstone FLP01."

“Honoring the classic era of gaming”

PC cases, power, and cooling specialist SilverStone has introduced a new workstation chassis that goes big on HDD capacity. The new SilverStone Seta H2 can fit up to 15 3.5 and 2.5-inch drives (h/t ComputerBase). To max it out, you would fit eleven 3.5-inch plus four 2.5-inchers. This is a lot of spinning rust capacity in 2025, but the Seta H2 is no shrinking violet at over 70 liters.

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With such a huge number of drives, and its variables of configuration (drive cages, choosing between 3.5 and 2.5-inch installs) we are happy to see SilverStone has provided a handy visual guide (reproduced top, and in the gallery below). Here you can see that there are 11x drive bays which provide an open choice between 3.5 and 2.5 drive installation. There is also a bracket that provides the choice between 1x 3.5 or 2x 2.5-inch drives. Lastly, there are rear motherboard tray positions where you can fix 2x 2.5-inch drives.

Given its size of 244.9mm (9.6-inch) (W), x 528.3mm (20.8-inch) (H), x 543.2mm (21.4-inch) (D) – that’s 70 liters, remember – there are also lots of air and liquid cooling options for Seta H2 buyers. Fans and radiators can be fitted front, rear, or top side – it is up to the PC DIYer. Notably, at both the front and top, you can fit rads up to 420mm. Rear rads and fans max out at 120 / 140mm, but at the side, you can have up to a 240mm rad or twin 120mm fans. No fans are included when you buy the Seta H2.

If you are building a Seta H2 system and will need a beefy modern GPU to complete your dream PC, you shouldn’t have too much difficulty. SilverStone says you can fit up to a 428.9mm length GPU if you only use 25mm thick fans in the front. However, those opting for a side radiator and fans might feel the GPU-pinch with just 330mm becoming the limit.

SilverStone has unveiled the successor to its beige FLP01 retro sleeper desktop PC case, which was launched last year. The new FLP02 we saw at Computex 2025 in Taipei manifests your beige sleeper PC dreams via a tower case akin to those popular in the late 1980s, when Intel's 386 and 486 processors still dominated the computing landscape.

Despite its extremely retro looks, SilverStone’s new FLP02 can fit in some of the most desirable power-user components available in 2025. We are talking about large modern GPUs, up to 360mm AiO CPU coolers, and so on. Moreover, it has functional power, turbo, and locking keys up front, alongside hidden modern features.

In the above gallery, you can peruse the key tech specs of the SilverStone FLP02, but our hands-on time revealed it is even more delightful than the stats might show. For example, SilverStone has thoughtfully secreted modern front I/O such as a USB Type-C, two USB 3.0 Type-A, and a combo audio jack beneath a magnetic flap in the case fascia.

We also noted that any hulking modern GPU you might want to fit can be supported in the FLP02 with the built-in stand. We saw the matching beige stand in the example build used to stop a triple-fan Radeon from sagging.

Clever re-use of old PC furniture

Another example of the canny adaptation of old PC case furniture is the re-use of the Turbo button to toggle through fan speeds. The selected speed mode is indicated by the red segmented display on the FLP02. We also noted that the supplied key locks the power button, as it did on some ancient systems.

From the images, you might suspect that the FLP02 features usable 5.25-inch bays. These are very rare to find on cases in 2025, but they can still be useful for enthusiasts and tinkerers, with the potential to fit optical and removable drives, or for front mounting more I/O. The FLP02 has three such bays. Unused, you can just leave the dummy 5.25-inch floppy fascias in place.

FLP02 coming later in 2025, priced at $220 in the U.S.

Silverstone has released the ECM40, a PCIe 4.0 add-in card that supports up to four M.2 SSDs. The add-in card supports 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 M.2 SSD form factors and features active cooling.

The ECM40 is a single-slot card powered by a PCIe x16 interface. The x16 slot feeds four PCIe lanes to each of the four M.2 slots. Users who want to use this M.2 slot will need to ensure their host machine supports PCIe bifurcation, so the PCIe lanes can be split into 4 x 4 or 4 x 2 configurations.

To keep the drives cool, Silverstone employs a 40 x 40mm dual ball-bearing cooling fan that sits on the edge of the card, attached to a giant heatsink. The heatsink serves as both the cooler and cover for the card, featuring four thermal pads — one for each M.2 slot. The cooling fan can also been switched on and off manually with a switch on the PCIe bracket, allowing for passive operation when necessary.

The add-in card supports USAP and TRIM functionality, however Silverstone confirms that the card does not support hardware RAID functionality. The card measures 7.13 x 5.8 x 0.85 inches (181 x 147.74 x 21.59mm), which is around the size of budget-friendly graphics cards. The heatsink measures 6.61 x 4.3 x 0.56 inches (168 x 109.3 x 14.2mm).

Silverstone benchmarked the ECM40 with a Ryzen 9 5900X test bed featuring an ASRock X570 Pro4 motherboard, 8GB of DDR4-2133 memory, and a single Kingston Fury 2T SSD. The card was tested in CrystalDiskMark and showed a maximum read speed of 7,351.64 MB/s and a write speed of 6,845.57 MB/s.

The ECM40 provides users with a way to easily expand their PC's M.2 storage capacity with its four integrated M.2 slots. A card like this will most likely be advantageous in workstation systems or systems without a graphics card due to the card's PCIe lane requirements. However, the ECM40 can work with just one or two M.2 SSDs installed, which can make it functional in mainstream AM5 or LGA1700 systems that use a graphics card. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

Cases, cooling, and power specialist Silverstone has uploaded the official product pages and manual for the upcoming FLP01 chassis. This beige desktop caught our eye last year as it seems perfect for sneaky sleeper PC builds – facilitating the easy DIYing of outwardly antiquated systems packed cutting edge internals.

Now we have all the official info, we can see that Silverstone's FLP01 beige PC case is rather flexible, with decent max compatibility figures, well-thought-out cooling, and even features USB-C on the front panel (hidden by a faux floppy door).

The FLP01 is quite stout for a desktop of yesteryear, sized roughly similar to three large pizza boxes stacked together. However, this 440 x 362 x 170mm (17.32 x 14.25 x 6.69-inches) and 27.08 liters beige box makes good use of this space to fit up to an SSI CEB or more common ATX standard motherboard, up to a 309mm GPU (and 133mm tall), up to a 170mm ATX standard PSU, up to a 138mm tall CPU cooler, seven expansion slots, and more.

Retro fans might also appreciate that behind the upper faux 5.25-inch floppy door you can fit an optical disk drive, or any other 5.25-inch device. Should you not need such a device, Silverstone's universal drive cage design is compatible with 3.5, and 2.5-inch storage devices, too. While we are on this front-panel topic, Silverstone has placed a USB Type-C, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a combo audio jack behind the lower door.

Older PCs that looked like the FLP01 weren't built for masses of fans and/or radiators. While some may consider the FLP01 to have ample air cooling options, it would be interesting to test some of today's most powerful components in this case. Silverstone has prepared twin 80mm fan spots at the rear, twin 120mm fan spots to the right (one fan included), and the option for a single 120mm or 80mm fan to the left of the desktop.

We checked the Silverstone FLP01 manual and it shows that to gain access to the system internals the top cover slides back and off after the removal of a pair of rear screws. You'd probably then want to take out the flexible ODD and storage bay bracket, the structural crossbar, and pop off the front cover to give you plenty of room to build into.

Previously, Japanese tech media stated that the Silverstone FLP01 would hit retail in Q1 2025 and would be priced at a sum roughly equivalent to US$130.

Interest in this case outside of Japan might have inspired Silverstone to make this a worldwide product, and we are happy to report that the official FLP01 Retrofitted HTPC chassis product pages are in English on the firm's global site.

Cases, cooling, and power specialist SilverStone has announced that a desktop PC case that it previously showed off as an April Fools’ joke is heading to retail. An unashamedly beige SilverStone FLP01 pre-built system was on display earlier in the week at the firm’s Japan Expo. Japanese tech media reports that FLP01 cases will be released sometime in Q1 2025 priced at JPY 19,800 (~$130).

Some of us tech old-timers started on systems that look a lot like SilverStone’s new FLP01. This particular design is said to have been strongly influenced by the NEC PC-9800 series, which was popular in Japan. The desktop form factor doubles as a monitor stand and puts the swapping of essential floppy and CD media within easy reach.

Looking more closely at the not-shiny new FLP01, the front has a couple of faux 5.25-inch floppy drives to the right. Sadly, they look fake, even from a distance, with the filled-in slots and single-color plastics. However, these two artifices flip open to reveal an optical drive (upper slot) and front I/O array including headphones, USB-A, and USB-C ports (lower slot). A power button, plus disk activity and power LEDs appear to be present on the left front side of the desktop case. You can see these details in a series of images shared by ascii.jp.

At the expo, SilverStone had an FLP01 system configured with some powerful modern components, presumably to show its flexibility and capacity. It packed in a full-sized ATX motherboard, full-size PSU, water cooling, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, as well as buckets of storage. Plenty of room seemed to be left for bigger GPUs than the Asus Dual model featured, up to a maximum of 300mm in length. CPU coolers up to 138mm tall can fit in. The demo system was configured with three intake fans (two on the left, one on the right) venting from the back and top.

Other details we gleaned about this case were that it measures 440mm x 362mm, and is 170mm tall. Apparently, some slight cosmetic changes will be made to this prototype, to make it a closer tribute to the aforementioned NEC PC-9800.

Hopefully, this, or a similar beige retro tribute case from SilverStone, will be made available outside of the Japanese market. Features and pricing aren't bad if you are on the lookout for an easy sleeper PC build.

SilverStone’s most powerful PSU, the HELA 2050R, just received a 450-watt upgrade. This new model is called the HELA 2500R and has four 12V-2x6 power connectors and a maximum rated continuous power output of 2,500 watts. This means you’ll need a special 16-amp, 240-volt outlet to run this beast, as the average 110-volt household outlet can only accommodate 1,800 watts.

You can attach up to four RTX 4090s to the power supply with the four native 16-pin connectors, making it easier for you run these high-powered devices without using up all the other eight-pin slots. But even if you use up all the 16-pin slots on Nvidia’s top GPUs, the PSU can comfortably run them all as their 1,800 total TDP (at 450 watts each) will still give you a 700-watt headroom to run the rest of your PC. Aside from these four GPU 12V-2x6 slots, you also get four SATA, seven 8-pin PCIe, and the motherboard connectors.

This is SilverStone’s most potent PSU ever, but it’s not the highest output you can buy today. That’s because Super Flower also launched a 2,800-watt PSU that also has the same number of connectors as the HELA 2500R, but with more SATA / PERIF slots.

These new, high-powered PSUs aren’t made for gamers with deep pockets (although they can certainly use them). Instead, these cater for the needs of institutions and professionals that need multiple high-end GPUs for their computing needs, like AI training.

AI processing requires a lot of specialized hardware which you typically won’t find in CPUs. And even though we recently saw the launch of Snapdragon X processors with onboard NPUs that can hit 45 TOPS, Nvidia says that this is not enough performance to handle advanced AI tasks. The graphics card company claims that its GPUs still perform better when it comes to AI processing, that’s why Nvidia is seeing massive revenues and is quickly becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world.

However, graphics cards are power-hungry, meaning companies that want to use on-device AI processing require these monster PSUs to power their workstations. In fact, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg claims that AI growth will be constrained by power limits. If a business runs this 2,500-watt machine for just 50% of the time, it will consume almost 11,000kWh per year — which is 500kWh more than the average annual U.S. household power consumption.

Of course, any business that invests thousands of dollars in high-powered AI systems will want to get its money’s worth. So, you can expect these PSUs to run 24/7, meaning just one HELA 2500R has the power requirements of two households. And if a company invests in ten of these systems, then we’re looking at 20 houses worth of power consumption going into a premises.

With experts seeing AI technologies and applications consuming a quarter of America’s power production, we might soon see data centers putting up their own nuclear power plants to deliver their electrical needs. Unless the national grid keeps up with the jump in power demand in the near future, the U.S. runs the risk of falling behind other countries in the AI race.

SilverStone is best known for its cases and cooling solutions, and it’s in the final stages of developing the first dual-CPU AIO cooler with the XE360-Dual. This AIO comes with two water blocks, allowing you to use a single liquid cooling solution for both processors. It’s also compatible with Intel and AMD server chips, so you can use this AIO whether you’re Team Blue or Team Red.

The XE360-Dual is based on the XE360-SP5 AIO, which the company released in October 2023 for AMD’s SP5 socket Epyc server CPUs. However, SilverStone also included optional mounting kits for the LGA4189 and LGA4677 sockets, so you can use it with Intel servers as well.

The XE360-SP5 has its water pump located at the radiator instead of the water block, claimed to reduce the heat on the pump and extend its lifespan. SilverStone retained this pump layout with the XE360-Dual, as we can see the two water blocks, which are placed in serial along the loop, do not have any pumps on them.

Of course, SilverStone cannot just reuse the same radiator for an AIO designed with a single CPU in mind. So, the new AIO’s radiator is thicker by 10mm. This additional height gives the radiator more surface area and mass, allowing it to retain the three 120 mm fans found on the single CPU version.

SilverStone has a reputation for innovations in the consumer space, like its IceMyst AIO, which included stackable VRM and RAM fans to cool other motherboard components. Teamgroup has already launched a dual CPU and SSD AIO, but we have yet to see a dual-CPU cooling solution in the wild.

Dual CPU AIO coolers are a niche product, that’s probably why no one has yet made one. But it’s the perfect solution for those building a workstation or server that requires two processors. The XE360-Dual's role may now be especially crucial as chips get hotter every generation. So, instead of running massive tower air coolers or two AIO coolers inside your case, you can instead use this dual-CPU AIO to keep your PC running optimally while saving space.

Unfortunately, you cannot use the XE360-Dual out of the box as a cooling solution for exotic consumer builds, like putting two different computers in the new Obsidian 9000D case from Corsair. That’s because Silverstone doesn’t offer mounting kits for consumer AM4/5 or LGA 1200/1700 sockets. But if you want to use a single AIO for your GPU and CPU, you should watch out for Lynk+’s modular AIO which could theoretically offer this solution.

SilverStone introduces a new SFX-L power supply capable of continuously supplying 1,200W - the Extreme 1200R Platinum. The power supply has enough juice to power the most power-hungry, such as the GeForce RTX 4090, one of the best graphics cards on the market.

The Extreme 1200R Platinum is SilverStone's highest-rated SFX-L power supply, rated for Cybenetics Platinum. To summarize, Cybenetics' Platinum indicates the power supply is between 89% and 91% efficient. This compact PSU promises to supply 1,200W continuous output rated for 24/7 use with 50 degrees Celcius operating temperature and provides 100A through 12V rail. The SFX-L Extreme 1200R Platinum uses Japanese capacitors and all the protection expected from a high-grade power supply.

It complies with the SFX12V 4.1 standard and PCIe CEM 5 specification. SilverStone also includes the 12V-2x6 power connector by default, giving a more reliable connection than the 12VHPWR standard, hence avoiding burnout. This SFX-L power supply has a 120mm silent fan with fluid dynamic bearing.

As expected, such power supplies have all the connectors a user would ever need. The following is the complete specification:

The Extreme 1200R Platinum has a five-year warranty. No pricing or launch date is mentioned, though it will likely be available just in time for the RTX 40 Super series graphics cards. It's not a moment too soon, as some have already started shifting to newer ATX standards while providing 12V-2x6 cable. FSP has been including this connector standard for a few months, and Seasonic has its way of assuring its users that the 12V-2x6 is perfectly fine.

With small form factors becoming more popular, even with flagship graphics cards, the Extreme 1200R Platinum will likely cater to compact but powerful SFF builds.

SilverStone maxed-out one of its best known SFF chassis series at Computex this year. The latest iteration of the SilverStone Sugo chassis comes in a segment busting 23.5 liters, with the firm’s own SFF definition being 23 liters or less. However, for those who don’t mind the extra half liter, there are lots of advantages to the Sugo 17, in terms of its capacity for the most powerful components available in 2023.

One of the major stand-out features of the new Sugo 17, is its GPU support. Regular readers can’t have failed to notice that mid-to high end GPU dimensions have ballooned with the latest generation graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia. Thus, SilverStone’s Sugo 17 getting support for quad-slot GPUs will be very welcome to power-users.

In our images of the SilverStone Sugo from the halls of Computex, you can see that the firm has installed one of the latest and greatest GeForce cards to show it can fit, with room to spare.

Another aspect of the panels-off images you cannot fail to notice is the array of other fans accommodated by the chassis. SilverStone says that the Sugo 17 can fit 360mm radiators top and side, but you could also add in six 120mm case fans. The picture appears to show one radiator at the side for CPU cooling, plus a trio of 120mm case fans up top.

If we look at the other side of the open case, a quartet of 80mm case fans are visible across the upper portion of the case. These fans are meant to speed the evacuation of hot air from your GPU out through the case vents. Thanks to this design, SilverStone reckons that even a GeForce RTX 4090 can run within the confines of the SG17 at full speed.

Another nicety with the new Sugo 17 is buyers can choose and install a full sized ATX power supply. Opening up this option is a smart move with the capacity and cooling here encouraging users to equip the most powerful CPUs and GPUs.

We also noticed that SilverStone claims the Sugo 17 is both Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX compatible. This opens up a lot more motherboard choices with this generation, as the Sugo 16, Sugo 15 and Sugo 14 were all limited to Mini-DTX and Mini-ITX choices, according to the firm’s product pages. You might be thinking that anything is possible if you simply inflate the chassis size / capacity, but 23.5 liters isn’t a lot bigger than the previous generations. Admittedly, the Sugo 16 was comparatively small 13 liters, but the Sugo 15 and Sugo 14 were both over 19 liters.

SilverStone is probably best known for its SFF PC cases, though it also sells a good selection of larger cases, cooling accessories, and power supplies. We highlighted the innovative IceMyst AiO coolers with directional fans during Computex week, and we took a closer look at the interesting Alta F2 premium super tower chassis in the same article.

SilverStone Technologies is best known for its (compact) PC cases, and has several new models on show at Computex 2023. However, the firm is increasingly confident in its development of PC cooling products, and this has precipitated the eye-catching SilverStone IceMyst AiO.

At the time of writing SilverStone’s unusually formed IceMyst hasn’t arrived on its official product pages, but it is promised for a “grand reveal” at the current Computex show. We don’t have a lot of technical details to hand, but SilverStone says the IceMyst 360 is the beginning of a new series of AiOs.

This new cooler is claimed to be a high-performance unit and SilverStone boasts that the new IceMyst offers “the ultimate cooling experience.” Furthermore, it targets high TDP processors.

From the images we have of the IceMyst, it appears to have a set of three LED lit fans attached to the central heatsink column. SilverStone says that these are useful for cooling motherboard components, and we can see one angled so it is partially above the RAM, the others may bring strong airflow to toasty chipsets, VRMs or SSDs. We think the fans can be positioned by the user, to suit system / motherboard and component layouts.

One last detail we have about the SilverStone IceMyst is that it is supposed to be “expandable,” so we might be able to add or remove fans as befits the PC system. Importantly, these fans aren’t replacing the AiO radiator - two liquid feed tubes extend out of shot so we don’t have a view of the radiator used for this design.

Other new products at Computex featured by SilverStone include its Alta F2 premium super tower chassis. The design steps away from the norm by featuring a 90° rotated motherboard layout plus four rear-facing PCI slots at an 11.3° forward tilt. It is claimed this is good for large GPU installations and airflow efficiency. Further testament that this roomy case is ready for your largest ambitions is backed up by the fact that it is ready for multiple ATX PSU installations.

For its compact PC fan base, SilverStone has the new Sugo 17. It isn’t the smallest SFF design, with its 23.5 liter capacity, but this allows the flexibility to use up to micro-ATX motherboards, ATX PSUs, and up to dual 360mm radiators. The Sugo 17 isn’t yet listed on the firm’s product pages, so we can’t compare it to the current Sugo 16.

Lastly, SilverStone has some updated case designs which have updated layouts to accommodate motherboards with cabling connectors on the rear. If you are interested in following this route with your next build, look out for the ATX sized SilverStone C-541 and C-542, as well as the micro-ATX C-341.

SilverStone has been churning out coolers, power supplies, expansion cards, and other PC equipment since its founding in 2003. The company is perhaps best known for its computer cases, like the SFF Sugo 14. But it also often offers niche products, like the SFF-focused Hydrogon H90 ARGB cooler we recently reviewed.

Here we’ll be looking at an SFF Cooler from SilverStone, the VIDA 240 Slim AIO – and giving it quite the challenge by pairing it with Intel’s Core i9-13900K. Will it wither under the heat of a high-TDP CPU, or will it rise to the challenge and possibly even earn a spot on our Best CPU Coolers list? We’ll have to put it through testing to be sure, but first lets look at the specifications from SilverStone.

Cooler Specifications

Packing and Included Contents

SilverStone’s VIDA 240 Slim comes in a somewhat small box, with plastic, foam and cardboard used for protection of the inner contents.

Included with the package are the following:

• Slim 240mm Radiator & CPU Block
• 2x Slim 120mm fans
• Mounts for Intel & AMD platforms
• Hardware ARGB controller
• ARGB & Fan Splitters
• Thermal Paste

Installation

Installing the VIDA 240 Slim was fairly simple. To begin, press the backplate to the motherboard and secure it by screwing in the standoffs. Next, apply the included thermal paste from the syringe to your CPU, then mount the CPU block and secure it with the included screws.

Features of the VIDA 240 Slim

Hardware ARGB Controller

The VIDA 240 Slim includes a hardware ARGB controller, which allows you to change the lighting settings of the fans and CPU block of the cooler with the click of a button - no need to download and install potentially buggy and bloated software!

Slim profile for SFF systems

The VIDA 240 Slim features a 22mm-thick radiator and 16mm-thin 120mm fans, for 38mm total thickness. The cooler is designed to achieve maximum potential cooling performance in space-constrained systems.

Radiator-integrated pump, user-refillable design

Most liquid coolers today are based on Asetek designs which have the pump included in the CPU block. But Silverstone’s AIO features a unique three-phase, six pole pump motor integrated within the radiator. In theory, this design reduces overall noise levels.

Next to the pump, below the radiator tubing, is a refill port. This allows a user to service and refill the AIO without having to send it to the manufacturer for repair. In most cases you shouldn’t have to do this unless you hold onto this cooler for several years over multiple builds, but it’s nice to have the option.

Rotatable ARGB CPU Block

The CPU block can be rotated, so that the orientation can be aligned to the preference of the user, or just to avoid bumping into buly RAM sticks.

VIDA series fans

There’s more to a cooler than just the heatsink and radiator. The bundled fans have a significant impact on both cooling and noise levels. Included are two slim 120mm fans, designed with nine pressure optimized blades for high static pressure and maximum airflow.

Testing Methodology

While it was fairly easy with previous generations of CPUs for coolers to keep the flagship i9 processor well under TJ max (the maximum temperature a CPU can sustain without throttling) in tough workloads, this is no longer realistically possible with the Core i9-13900K without extreme cooling (or enabling power limits).

Modern AMD & Intel CPUs are designed to run fairly hot without any problems– up to 95 degrees C for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, and up to 100 degrees C for Intel’s Core i9-13900K. Similar behavior has been standard in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in cramped chassis.

Furthermore, Intel’s i9-13900K supports Adaptive Boost Technology (ABT), which allows the CPU to dynamically boost to higher all-core frequencies based on available thermal headroom and electrical conditions. This allows multi-core loads to operate at up to 5.5Ghz if the necessary amount of thermal dissipation is there. This feature works in a way that actively seeks high temperatures: If the chip sees that it is running underneath the 100-degree C threshold, it will increase its performance and power consumption until it reaches the safe 100C limit, thus sustaining higher clocks (and providing better performance) for longer periods.

The increased cooling challenges posed by Raptor Lake mean that we’ve had to change some of the ways we test coolers. Some coolers were able to pass Cinebench R23 multicore testing with Intel’s 12th Gen i9-12900K when power limits were removed (although only the strongest models were able to pass that test).

Since the Raptor Lake 13900K seeks its top safe temperature, we’ll compare performance instead by looking at total benchmark scores and clock speeds maintained.

I’ll be testing Intel’s i9-13900K CPU using Asus’ TUF Gaming Z690 Gaming Plus WIFI motherboard and Cooler Master’s HAF 700 Berserker computer case, with case fans limited to 35% speeds. The motherboard’s default fan curve is used for the CPU Cooler’s fans.

In addition to testing Cinebench without power limits enforced, we’ll also be showing results when the CPU’s power consumption is limited to a more reasonable 200W. We’ll also show results at 125W for those who prefer whisper-quiet cooling, at the cost of some performance. For both of these results, we’ll show traditional delta over ambient temperature results.

We’ll additionally provide noise level measurements recorded using a PSPL25 Sound Meter for all three power levels tested, to compare how much noise each cooler makes in different scenarios. We expect most coolers to run effectively silently at 125W.

You’ll notice that our noise level graphs start at 36 dBA - that’s because that is the noise floor in our testing environment. Keep in mind that noise measurements are logarithmic, meaning the differences between the noise levels of the coolers will be bigger than these graphs would suggest.

LGA1700 Socket Bending

Note there are many factors other than the CPU cooler that can influence your cooling performance, including the case you use and the fans installed in it. A system's motherboard can also influence this, especially if it suffers from bending, which results in poor cooler contact with the CPU.

In order to prevent bending from impacting our cooling results, we’ve installed Thermalright’s LGA 1700 contact frame into our testing rig. If your motherboard is affected by bending, your thermal results will be worse than those shown below. Not all motherboards are affected equally by this issue. I tested Raptor Lake CPUs in two motherboards. And while one of them showed significant thermal improvements after installing Thermalright’s LGA1700 contact frame, the other motherboard showed no difference in temperatures whatsoever! Check out our review of this contact frame for more information.

Testing Configuration

• MORE: How to Buy the Right CPU Cooler
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No Power Limits Cinebench Results

With Raptor Lake’s i9-13900K pushing speeds of 5.5Ghz+, even the strongest of coolers hit TJ max while running Cinebench R23 and other demanding scenarios. As the 13900K is designed to aim for its top safe temperature, we’ll be comparing the overall benchmark score and the CPU’s clock speeds instead.

The results below are for a 10-minute testing run. But to be sure that was sufficiently long to tax the cooler, we also retested both Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE and DeepCool’s LT720 with a 30-minute Cinebench test. The results didn’t change much at all with the longer test. The average clock speeds maintained dropped by 29Mhz on DeepCool’s LT720 and 31Mhz on Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE. Looking at this another way, that’s an incredibly small 0.6% difference in clock speeds maintained, a margin of error difference that tells us that the 10 minute tests are indeed long enough to properly test the coolers.

Because of the difficulty of cooling the i9-13900K in this workload, we feel the best way to compare coolers here is to record the average power consumption of the CPU. Looking at this by total watts cooled only, the VIDA 240 Slim is performing better than any air cooler tested, but a bit behind the other AIOs we’ve tested with this CPU so far.

As Cinebench R23’s multi-core benchmark will push coolers to their limits, it’s also a great test for recording the worst-case scenario of fan noise levels. Our noise charts start at 36dB, because this is the noise floor of our testing environment – we’re unable to measure noise levels below this threshold. Keep in mind that noise measurements are logarithmic, meaning the differences between the noise levels of the coolers will be bigger than these graphs would suggest.

The VIDA 240 Slim is designed for SFF cases, and it is quite impressive that a SFF AIO is handling 285W - but it achieves this at the cost of noise. While it isn’t the loudest cooler we’ve tested, it wasn’t quiet either.

Total Cinebench R23 benchmark scores show how little is lost  – or gained – with different cooling solutions. Between the weakest and strongest coolers, we have a total benchmark score variance of roughly 13%. SilverStone’s VIDA 240 Slim does well here, scoring just over 39,000 points in the mult-threaded test, landing in 5th place out of the 12 coolers we’ve tested so far with Raptor Lake.

200W Cinebench Results

When restricting power consumption to a more reasonable 200W, the VIDA 240 Slim leads higher-end air coolers by 2 degrees Celsius and lower-end air coolers by more than 6 degrees C. It falls behind the S36 Prisma and LFII 360, but only by 2 degrees C.

Looking at the noise levels here, the VIDA 240 does alright here. It isn’t the quietest cooler in this scenario, but it’s definitely not what I would consider “loud”.

125W Cinebench Results

The lowest power limit I test at is 125W, mainly because this is also the lowest level where I can reliably measure noise measurements. Lower power consumption causes the noise of the CPU cooler to fall below the noise created by the system fans (even while restricted to 35% speed).

When limited to 125W, the VIDA 240 Slim runs quietly and its fans are just slightly distinguishable from the rest of the system fans. In terms of tested cooling performance, it’s the 4th best result in this limited TDP scenario, beaten only by high end 360mm AIOs.

Conclusion

SilverStone’s VIDA 240 Slim impressed us. We didn’t expect an SFF AIO to have cooling capacity similar to a thicker 360mm unit, but the VIDA handled an average of 285W in our long-term testing when paired with Intel’s i9-13900K. It’s a good pairing for those wanting to use Raptor Lake in a space-constrained case. Just know that there will be some extra fan noise, which is usually a result of shrinking things down while maintaining high performance.

• MORE: How to Buy the Right CPU Cooler
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The FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W is among the few Gold PSUs in this capacity category featuring ATX v3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility. Its performance is decent, but it isn't high enough to allow it to earn a place in our best PSUs article. Competitors like the Corsair RM1000x and the EVGA 1000 G7 achieve notably higher overall performance scores.

The Hydro G Pro with 1000W max power belongs to the new generation of PSUs, featuring ATX v3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility. There aren't many choices with native 12VHPWR connectors in the 1000W Gold category, and FSP was among the first to introduce a related product. 

Significant players, including Corsair, EVGA, and Seasonic, haven't released something on the market, yet. Thermaltake, with the Toughpower GF3 1000W, and Silverstone, with the DA1000R Gold, are two other choices in this category, meeting the ATX v3.0 spec for PSUs with 12VHPWR connectors.

With 150mm depth, the Hydro G Pro 1000 has compact dimensions. Nonetheless, FSP has the smallest, in dimensions, 1000W Gold platform, which is used in the EVGA 1000 G7, with only 130mm depth! Compact PSUs are easier to install, especially in smaller chassis, but the over-populated PCBs don't help airflow, hence noise output is usually increased. 

Moreover, it is not possible to install large enough cooling fans, with 135mm or 140mm diameter, in small PSUs, and smaller fans have to spin at higher speeds to offer the same airflow, producing more noise. The Hydro G Pro uses a 120mm, high-quality, fan, featuring a fluid dynamic bearing. 

Specifications of FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W

Power Specifications of FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W

Cables & Connectors of FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W

The cables are long, and the amount of connectors is satisfactory. The single 12VHPWR connector can deliver up to 600W. According to Intel's test plan, a 1000W ATX v3.0 PSU should be equipped with a 450W 12VHPWR connector, but most brands don't pay attention to this and use 600W connectors to make sure that the NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphics cards can go all the way up to 600W. Not all 4090s have such high maximum power limits, though. 

Component Analysis of FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

The small PCB is equipped with equally small heat sinks. Except for the transient filter, the other circuits have enough space between electronic parts to allow for decent airflow. It is good to see the filtering caps on the secondary side being on the clear, without anything blocking airflow to them. 

Typically, for an FSP platform, we find some potentiometers on a vertical PCB, which might look tempting to adjust, but you should not do it! The build quality is high, and all parts that FSP used are of high quality, too. FSP is among the few OEMs using bulk caps rated for 3,000h @ 105°C. All other brands use 2,000h @ 105°C bulk caps. 

The transient/EMI filter...

The pair of bridge rectifiers can handle up to 50A. 

The APFC converter has two Infineon FETs and a single CREE boost diode. The PFC controller is an Infineon ICE2PCS02G IC. 

The main FETs are by Magnachip and arranged into a half-bridge topology. An LLC resonant converter is also used to boost efficiency. The resonant controller is a Champion CM6901T2X. 

Six Infineon FETs regulate the 12V rail. The same rail feeds two DC-DC converters, which generate the minor rails (5V and 3.3V). 

The filtering caps are provided by Japanese brands and are of good quality. Besides electrolytic caps

The standby PWM controller is an 97CL2N13 IC. 

Many filtering caps are installed on the modular board. 

The main supervisor IC is a Weltrend WT7527RA. 

Soldering quality is good. 

The cooling fan is a Protechnic Electric MGA12012XF-O25. 

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To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

The following charts show the main rails' voltage values recorded between a range of 40W up to the PSU's maximum specified load, along with the deviation (in percent). Tight regulation is an important consideration every time we review a power supply because it facilitates constant voltage levels despite varying loads. 

Tight load regulation also, among other factors, improves the system’s stability, especially under overclocked conditions and, at the same time, it applies less stress to the DC-DC converters that many system components utilize.

Load regulation is not so tight. We want to see it within 1% at 12V and ideally below 0.8%. 

Hold-Up Time

Put simply; hold-up time is the amount of time that the system can continue to run without shutting down or rebooting during a power interruption.

The hold-up time is long and the power ok signal is accurate. 

Inrush Current

Inrush current, or switch-on surge, refers to the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when it is first turned on. A large enough inrush current can cause circuit breakers and fuses to trip. It can also damage switches, relays, and bridge rectifiers. As a result, the lower the inrush current of a PSU right as it is turned on, the better.

Inrush current is high with voltage inputs we tried, 115V and 230V. A larger (higher resistance) NTC thermistor would help here. 

Leakage Current

In layman's terms, leakage current is the unwanted transfer of energy from one circuit to another. In power supplies, it is the current flowing from the primary side to the ground or the chassis, which in the majority of cases is connected to the ground. For measuring leakage current, we use a GW Instek GPT-9904 electrical safety tester instrument.

The leakage current test is conducted at 110% of the DUT's rated voltage input (so for a 230-240V device, we should conduct the test with 253-264V input). The maximum acceptable limit of a leakage current is 3.5 mA and it is defined by the IEC-60950-1 regulation, ensuring that the current is low and will not harm any person coming in contact with the power supply's chassis.

Leakage current is low. 

10-110% Load Tests

These tests reveal the PSU's load regulation and efficiency levels under high ambient temperatures. They also show how the fan speed profile behaves under increased operating temperatures.

The PSU delivers full and 110% load without any issues at high temperatures, but the  fan's noise goes through the roof. 

20-80W Load Tests

In the following tests, we measure the PSU's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10% of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). This is important for representing when a PC is idle with power-saving features turned on.

The fan doesn't spin at low lower than 80W loads, even at high operating temperatures. 

2% or 10W Load Test

From July 2020, the ATX spec requires 70% and higher efficiency with 115V input. The applied load is only 10W for PSUs with 500W and lower capacities, while for stronger units, we dial 2% of their max-rated capacity.

Ideally we want to see above 70% efficiency in this test. 

Efficiency & Power Factor

Next, we plotted a chart showing the PSU's efficiency at low loads and loads from 10 to 110% of its maximum rated capacity. The higher a PSU’s efficiency, the less energy goes wasted, leading to a reduced carbon footprint and lower electricity bills. The same goes for Power Factor.

Efficiency is good with normal loads, but pretty low at light loads. 

5VSB Efficiency

The 5VSB rail is efficient. 

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

Vampire power is low with 115V but much higher than 0.1W with 230V input. 

Fan RPM, Delta Temperature, And Output Noise

All results are obtained between an ambient temperature of 37 to 47 degrees Celsius (98.6 to 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The fan's speed increases linearly to the load and it allows the fan to spin at high speeds, at high operating temperatures, to cope with the thermal loads. 

The following results were obtained at 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit) ambient temperature.       

The PSU's passive mode lasts long enough at normal operating temperatures, close to 30 degrees Celsius. Noise exceeds 30 dBA with more than 770W loads and over 35 dBA with 840W and higher loads. In no case the output noise exceeds 40 dBA under normal operating temperatures. Hence the overall noise output remains low. 

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

The OCP triggering points are correctly set on all rails, and the same goes for OPP. The remaining protection features are present and work well. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

No problems here since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified Fluke Ti480 PRO camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 640x480 (307,200 pixels).

The temperatures inside the PSU are low, with the filtering caps on the secondary side being among the coolest parts, which is highly beneficiary for their health. 

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Advanced Transient Response Tests

For details about our transient response testing, please click here.

In the real world, power supplies are always working with loads that change. It's of immense importance, then, for the PSU to keep its rails within the ATX specification's defined ranges. The smaller the deviations, the more stable your PC will be with less stress applied to its components. 

We should note that the ATX spec requires capacitive loading during the transient rests, but in our methodology, we also choose to apply a worst case scenario with no additional capacitance on the rails. 

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 10ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 1ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 10ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 1ms

Transient response is good enough at 12V but mediocre at 5V and 3.3V. Nevertheless, the 12V rail is the most important. 

ATX 3.0 Transient Response Tests

The following table shows the load that we applied. 

The PSU successfully passed all ATX 3.0 transient response tests for units equipped with 12VHPWR connectors. 

Turn-On Transient Tests

In the next set of tests, we measure the PSU's response in simpler transient load scenarios—during its power-on phase. Ideally, we don't want to see any voltage overshoots or spikes since those put a lot of stress on the DC-DC converters of installed components.

The spike at 5VSB looks nasty but it is below the 5.5V limit allowed by the ATX spec. 

Power Supply Timing Tests

There are several signals generated by the power supply, which need to be within specified, by the ATX spec, ranges. If they are not, there can be compatibility issues with other system parts, especially mainboards. 

From year 2020, the PSU's Power-on time (T1) has to be lower than 150ms and the PWR_OK delay (T3) from 100 to 150ms, to be compatible with the Alternative Sleep Mode.

The PWR_OK delay is within the 100-150ms region, so the PSU supports the alternative sleep mode recommended by the ATX spec.

Ripple Measurements

Ripple represents the AC fluctuations (periodic) and noise (random) found in the PSU's DC rails. This phenomenon significantly decreases the capacitors' lifespan because it causes them to run hotter. A 10-degree Celsius increase can cut into a cap's useful life by 50%. Ripple also plays an important role in overall system stability, especially when overclocking is involved.

The ripple limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V, and 5VSB).

Ripple suppression is good on all rails. 

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110% Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 4

EMC Pre-Compliance Testing – Average & Quasi-Peak EMI Detector Results

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is the ability of a device to operate properly in its environment without disrupting the proper operation of other nearby devices.

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) stands for the electromagnetic energy a device emits, and it can cause problems in other nearby devices if too high. For example, it can cause increased static noise in your headphones or/and speakers.

΅We use TekBox's EMCview to conduct our EMC pre-compliance testing.

Three spurs go over the limit with the average EMI detector, and two with the peak detector. 

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Performance Rating

Overall performance is decent, but not competitive. The difference with the Corsair RM1000x and the EVGA 1000 G7 is large. 

Noise Rating

The graph below depicts the cooling fan's average noise over the PSU's operating range, with an ambient temperature between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Under normal operating temperatures, the average noise output is low. 

Efficiency Rating

The following graph shows the PSU's average efficiency throughout its operating range with an ambient temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius.

The average efficiency would be higher if the platform performed better with light loads. Still, the difference with most similar capacity Gold units is not high. The Seasonic and EVGA units, with the latter using an FSP platform, perform like Platinum units and not Gold ones. 

Power Factor Rating

The following graphs show the PSU's average power factor reading throughout its operating range with an ambient temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius and 115V/230V voltage input. 

The APFC converter performs well.

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The FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W, SilverStone DA1000R, and Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W are among the few Gold units with this capacity, offering ATX v3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility. This will change soon once Corsair, Seasonic, Cooler Master, and other significant brands release their new products. 

You might not need an ATX v3.0 PSU yet, for any of the existing GPUs, and the upcoming AMD GPUs won't even require 12VHPWR connectors. Still, for graphics cards needing 12+4 pin connectors, it is highly preferable to avoid using adapters. Adapters increase resistance. Thus they are not suitable for high-power applications. 

The Hydro G Pro 1000 is a decent offering in the corresponding category. Its primary assets are the native 600W 12VHPWR connector, the ATX v3.0 compatibility, and the low noise output under normal operating temperatures. Nevertheless, its overall performance is not high enough to worry the competition. Units like the Corsair RM1000x, and the EVGA 1000 G7, which uses an FSP platform, perform better. The 1000 G7 is noisy, though, because of its small dimensions. 

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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.

SilverStone has been churning out coolers, power supplies, expansion cards, and other PC equipment since its founding in 2003. The company is perhaps best known for its computer cases, like the SFF Sugo 14, but it also often offers up niche products, like the SFF-focused Hydrogon H90 ARGB cooler we’re looking at here.

I haven’t tested many now-profile, ultra-slim coolers before. In fact, the only truly compact air coolers I’ve used previously came from pre-built PCs – and they weren’t suitable for loads more than about 65W. So when SilverStone sent the Hydrogon H90 for testing, I was a bit skeptical of its ability to deliver serious CPU-chilling abilities. The heatsink is about as thick and long as my index finger with 95m length and 48mm width. 

Can the Hydrogon H90 change my mind about smaller coolers like this, or possibly even earn a spot on our Best CPU Coolers list? We’ll have to test it to find out, but first let’s take a look at the Hydrogon H90 ARGB’s specifications, direct from SilverStone.

Specifications for the SilverStone Hydrogon H90 ARGB

Packing and Included Contents

The Hydrogon H90 comes in a small box, reflective of the cooler’s size, with molded plastic for protection during shipment.

Included with the package are the following:

• SFF heatsink
• One 92mm fan
• Mounts for modern Intel and AMD platforms
• Thermal paste
• Information Leaflet

Cooler Installation

The installation of SilverStone’s Hydrogon H90 ARGB wasn’t hard; the main steps are shown in the images from the user manual below. Much like many AIOs, you have to secure the backplate against the motherboard, then attach standoffs. Once the standoffs have been placed, place the cooler mounting bars and secure them with the screws. Finally, secure the heatsink by screwing it to the mounting bars.

New Testing Configuration

Cooler Features

• Slim form factor

The Hydrogon H90 features a compact heatsink that’s under 1.9 inches tall (or 2.48 inches with the included fan), comprised of aluminum fins. This cooler should fit inside pretty much any case. It will do perfectly in SFF cases and as a replacement for aging compact office PCs with bad coolers.

• Four 6mm copper heat pipes help transfer heat from the CPU

• 1x Slim 15mm fan

There’s more to an air cooler than just the heatsink. The included fan (or fans) have a significant impact on cooling, noise levels, and performance. This cooler includes a slim 92 x 15 x 92mm fan, allowing it to keep a low profile.

• MORE: How to Buy the Right CPU Cooler
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Testing Methodology

Most of the coolers featured in this review wouldn’t be up to the task of cooling Intel’s Core i9-12900K without restrictive power limits enforced, so I’ve paired them with a more appropriate CPU: Intel’s i5-12600K. Since many of the coolers I’m testing below might be considered for use in SFF builds and for those wanting silent performance, I’ve tested Cinebench with three power configurations

1. No Power Limits Enforced: This uses up to 130W of  CPU power consumption

2. 95W

3. 65W

Values shown are for the average CPU package temperature over the course of running the Cinebench benchmark. Peak temperatures will be a few degrees higher than the results shown below.

Core i5-12600K Cinebench Thermal Results (130W, 95W, and 65W)

The SilverStone Hydrogon H90 performed roughly on par with Cooler Master’s i70c, another low-profile cooler. It was slightly cooler in the higher TDP scenarios, but it also ran louder. Note that both the DeepCool and Be Quiet coolers are more traditional, though mid-sized, tower coolers. They have more cooling potential, but won’t fit in nearly as many compact PC cases.

Noise Levels and Acoustics

To test noise levels, I used the SLM25TK Sound Level Meter positioned 18 inches behind the rear of the Cooler Master HAF 700 Berserker, and recorded early in the morning to achieve the lowest noise floor possible. To prevent the system fans from vastly overpowering the sound of the cooler, I limited all of the case fans to 50% speeds. Noise measurements were taken while running Cinebench with no power limits enforced on the CPU.

During this test, the Hydrogon H90 was a bit loud. Ideally, you’d want to limit the power consumption of the CPU you’re pairing this cooler with if noise levels are a concern. With low 65W power limits enforced, this cooler is whisper quiet. But when maxing out its cooling abilities, it’s the loudest of this bunch.

Conclusion

The SilverStone H90 ARGB is a good-quality low-profile cooler that can handle workloads of up to roughly 125W, but its primary problem is price. Unless you have a case where only this cooler will fit, the Hydrogon is a poor value at $60 when competing products like Cooler Master’s i70c are available for around $20.

• MORE: How to Buy the Right CPU Cooler
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Silverstone has introduced a new product that will appeal to those who are M.2 slot rich but SATA port poor, or perhaps anyone who just wants to use more SATA drives. The new Silverstone ECS07 takes up one of your M.2 PCIe NVMe slots to provide five SATA 6Gbps ports, all wrapped up in a neat package with a JMicron controller kept cool under an alloy heatsink.

Silverstone has designed SATA expansion cards previously, typically using designs that plug into a PCIe slot, but this is its first model that relies on the increasingly ubiquitous M.2 port. Potential users will need an M.2 port with PCIe NVMe Gen 3 x2 interface. Doing the math, this port provides just about enough bandwidth to cope with five SATA 6Gbps ports.

The x2 PCIe connection tops out at a theoretical 15.76 Gbps, obviously a lot less than the five SATA ports. However, real-world throughput of SATA SSDs tends to be 550 MB/s at most, and that's only in sustained sequential accesses. Take out the 8b/10b encoding overhead and each SATA port would max out at around 4.4 Gbps, or a combined 22 Gbps. It's a bit odd that Silverstone didn't opt for the full x4 PCIe interface, which would have provided more than enough bandwidth even with a sixth SATA port. In real-world use, however, it's unlikely all five SATA ports will routinely end up fully loaded.

Silverstone says its aluminum alloy heatsink helps with heat dissipation, generated when the controller is working hard, to ensure stability. It seems such a controller wouldn't normally generate a lot of heat, but with the large SATA connectors it's not like the adapter would fit into cramped M.2 slots.

Folks with high-end motherboards bristling with SATA ports probably aren’t going to be interested in this adapter. Rather, it would fit in with someone building a compact NAS system, or a compact HTPC that could use a lot of local storage. Motherboards for such compact builds, often Mini ITX in form factor, don’t normally come with a lot of SATA ports but should have at least one fast M.2 PCIe NVMe slot.

The Silverstone ECS07 is pleasingly small, at 24.8mm (W) x 10.3mm (H) x 80.5mm (D) or 0.97" (W) x 0.41" (H) x 3.17" (D). However, one must remember that M.2 slots may be in places with little vertical clearance, like under a graphics card. While the device itself is only ~10mm tall, some angled cables might be useful to avoid clearance issues. Also purchasers will probably have to do some creative wiring to get power for the five extra SSDs / HDDs using these ports.

The ECS07 is plug and play, with no need for drivers or user-configuration. Storage device features such as sleep and power management are supported as well. With all the drives this little device enables, you might fancy implementing some RAID storage options for extra data security or performance, but the ECS07's controller doesn’t support RAID in hardware.

Silverstone has not yet announced pricing and availability.

Silverstone has launched a new compact desktop case in its Milo family. The Silverstone ML11 isn't yet listed on the firm's official product pages (Milo models only go up to 10 according to the family album), but it is for sale at China's electronics retailer JD.com. In brief, this is a 10-liter Micro ATX low-profile desktop case with slimline optical drive bay. Pictures show the ML11 in both horizontal desktop and tower orientations. In the former setup it looks like an old-school piece of stereo equipment.

If you are not familiar with Silverstone cases, the company offers a wide variety of sizes and styles, but it seems to have something of a penchant for compact home theater PC (HTPC) case designs. Many Silverstone designs will be horizontally orientated desktops, and quite compact. Often they are designed to sit beside Hi-Fi and AV separates, without looking out of place. The Silverstone Milo ML11 follows this unassuming style.

Without an official product page from Silverstone, we don't have an extensive specs list. But the Chinese retailer, and ITHome, have shared some of the essentials. First of all, we have several stats about the size. The measurements of this case are 330 x 110 x 285mm, and the capacity is 10.35 liters. Remember, this is a low-profile design, so any expansion cards (there are four slots at the back) will have to be low-profile cards, or come with a low-profile bracket option.

Inside this case, you can fit a Micro ATX motherboard, which will give you plenty of choice over platform. If you are thinking of adding a graphics card to this build, there's room for GPUs up to 10.6 inches (27cm) long. That should mean it's fine for nearly every low-profile single and twin fan graphics card design available. Not that there have been many gaming-focused low-profile cards in recent years.

Other components you can fit in this ~10 liter machine include: a CPU cooler up to 90mm in height, two 2.5-inch drive and one 3.5-inch storage device, the aforementioned slimline ODD, two case fans (max 80mm) and a Flex-ATX power supply.

The interior of the case looks pretty simple, but there isn't much space for intricate or fussy design here, and it clearly isn't designed to be to be stuffed with high-end components for its low-profile HTPC duties.

Looking at the case from the front, you can see Silverstone has a provision for an upper-central positioned slimline optical disc drive (ODD). This decision fits in with consumers deploying these cases as HTPCs. On the lower-right of the case there are (from left to right) four USB-A ports, a headphone/mic jack, a system power light, and a power/reset button with an activity light beneath.

On the Chinese retail site, this compact Micro ATX PC case is said to be available for 299 Yuan, which is roughly $45. We don't have any details about availability or pricing outside of China at the time of writing.

Borrowing the styling of a Bluetooth speaker or soundbar, Silverstone's GD11 is a  Home Theater PC (HTPC) case which Silverstone describes as compact and "stereo shaped." Despite the lack of verticality this case looks to be a capacious option for HTPC builders, offering room for up to a full ATX sized motherboard, standard ATX PSU, 240mm radiator, and up to 340mm GPU. The front 'speaker mesh' is in fact used for air intake, providing a full width air-flow source.

At the time of writing Silverstone doesn't have any details of the GD11 on its official website. Instead, our source is a Weibo social media post and an Australian retailer, which has kindly shared specs, data sheets and pricing.

With capacity for full sized ATX components and beefy graphics cards, this 'compact' desktop chassis is of course not one of the smallest around. It looks big, even among the Grandia series. However, with it hidden in plain sight as a Bluetooth speaker lookalike, its bulkiness doesn't affront your sensibilities – or that seems to be the theory. It certainly looks more stylish than the similarly sized Silverstone GD10 (from 2014). We've described the size and appearance of this HTPC case, and you can see it in various images in this article, but now it is time to share some cold hard specs.

is worth highlighting here that the 440mm (W) x 176mm (H) x 399mm (D) and 30.9 liter capacity of the GD11 is quite sizable, but it is indeed compact for an ATX case in our reckoning. Those dimensions are probably more in keeping with a Micro-ATX case. The other aspect of this case is that Silverstone uses a horizontal desktop form factor rather than the much more common tower.

If you are considering an HTPC build and find yourself steering towards more sizable and powerful components, the new Silverstone GD11 might be a good choice, if you like the style. Given that, it seems to check the boxes for expandability, accessibility, and cooling. The huge choice of desktop PC components that is open to the GD11 builder is another plus point.

In the Australian listing, the Silverstone GD11 has a price of AUD$205, which is $144 at today's exchange rates. Those that are in the market for a PC case, but don't see the appeal of the GD11, might be advised to have a look over our recently updated Best PC Cases of 2022 guide, with 11 great designs for your consideration.

SilverStone Technology, best known for its PC cases, PSUs and coolers, has launched a new M.2 SSD heatsink for PlayStation 5 users. The new TP06 approaches the issue of SSD heat dissipation from the restricted space inside the PS5, by unifying the M.2 2280 form factor heatsink with the SSD slot cover from Sony. With the SilverStone TP06, the heatsink is also the cover, completely replacing the need for a separate slot cover. It even includes the little screw hole for a neat and secure fit.

Before the SilverStone TP06 came along, PS5 users were steered away from naked M.2 SSDs toward designs that featured particularly crafted heatsinks. According to Sony's specs, a drive must be able to sustain a sequential read speed of 5.5GB/s or better, and to prevent throttling hampering performance a heatsink is recommended (needed). Other strict considerations are imposed by the height and width of the PS5 M.2 slot. In brief, the installed PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD can't be more than 11.25mm thick, and you don't really have any latitude for anything wider than a few mm either side of the standard M.2 width of 22mm.

As you can see in the specifications and photos, the design of the SilverStone TP06 relies on a simple block of ridged aluminum cut to the shape of the PS5 M.2 slot with enough bulk below the slot to make good contact to your naked SSD, cushioned by the included thermal pad. SilverStone says the heatsink is precision designed and it should be to be of best effect, fitting the M.2 cover while providing a nice amount of even pressure over the SSD NAND and controller chips.

This isn't SilverStone's first M.2 cover for PS5. October last year, it launched the TP05 with a ridged rectangular block design and multiple sheet materials to make a comfortable SSD sandwich. However, the new integrated approach is undeniably more elegant, and we hope it works as well or better than the TP05.

We don't have pricing or availability details for the SilverStone TP06 yet. The previous iteration, the TP05, came with an MSRP of $21, but was more complicated. We would expect the TP06 to come with a similar price, perhaps a bit less.

We pondered over the Best 1TB PS5 SSDs a couple of months ago. Since that time a few more have been launched for your consideration, such as the MSI Spatium M480 Play, and the Inland Gaming Performance Plus 2TB SSD for PCs and PS5 was thoroughly reviewed earlier today. With the new SilverStone TP06, a larger range of M.2 choices has opened up.

SSDs are going to get a lot hotter with PCIe 5.0 devices on the way. Phison recently indicated that active cooling is going to be a necessity rather than an option when the next gen NVMe PCIe drives start to emerge. Perhaps even lofty finned passive coolers like the new ThermalTake HR-09 2280 won't cut it when that time comes.

Silverstone has launched a new range of high-performance cooling fans, claiming the new Shark Force addressable RGB fan series offers extreme cooling and spectacular lighting. Interestingly, these fans feature a new blade design, using a texture that mimics the surface of shark skin.

Silverstone claims that its inspired-by-nature fan surface texture design pushes air with enviable hydrodynamic properties because they provide "a drag-reducing mechanism to improve their aerodynamic property."

Breaking down the sharkiness in PC cooling fan terms, Silverstone says that Shark Force series fans passively alter the airflow to improve pressure, resulting in improved overall airflow and reduced noise. These are much sought-after characteristics in all PC systems and component cooling fans.

There are just two Silverstone Shark Force fans available at launch — a 120mm fan and a 160mm fan.

The 120mm design features fans speeds from 0 – 2,500 RPM for static pressure of up to 4.66mm H2O and airflow of 100 CFM, while the 160mm design runs from 0 – 1,600 RPM for static pressure of up to 2.21mm H2O and airflow of 160 CFM. If you wonder why Silverstone has launched a 160mm fan instead of a 140mm to sell alongside the smaller unit, this 160mm fan is designed with 140mm mounts. However, please check this will play nicely in your intended application by checking the full product specs, with particular attention to measurements and clearance.

Both fans use a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) and a three-phase, six-pole motor design for long product life and smooth and low-noise operation. The fan speeds are controlled by PWM and can go down to zero RPM, as long as your system supports it.

These fans are also aRGB LED equipped. They use standard aRGB 4-1 pin cables for compatibility. You will need an aRGB controller or suitable motherboard to get the most from the color combinations and effects these fans can be part of. Silverstone's sharkskin fan blades are translucent, which makes a nice diffuse effect with the LEDs.

The Shark Force series fans have modular cable connectivity. Of course, you'll need a power cable, but you may wish to disable lighting for some reason. The modular cabling should also be handy for replacements and cable management work. Moreover, Silverstone provides four types of cable in the box to suit various common cabling requirements and daisy chaining.

Both the Silverstone Shark Force SF120-ARGB and SF160-ARGB are available now from the usual distributors, worldwide. MSRPs are $27.99 and $34.99, respectively.

The main asset of the Super Flower Leadex V Platinum Pro 1000W is its limited depth of only 130mm, making this PSU ideal for small chassis accommodating powerful systems. Performance-wise, the product hangs with direct competitors, including the EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P6 and the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 1050W. Its major downside is the increased average noise output, which doesn't allow for a place in our best PSUs article. If you need a silent PSU, better look at the Asus Rog Thor II 1000 and the SilverStone Strider Platinum models. 

With the Leadex V P130X, Super Flower wanted to show that it can downsize its PSU to the degree that nobody else has so far, in the ATX12V form factor at least. Besides the super-compact footprint, another notable feature of the Leadex V is the 50-degree Celsius temperature rating. Typically, such a rating means that the PSU can continuously deliver full power at this temperature without breaking. 

Compact PCBs and good airflow don't get along. In a 1000W PSU, thermal loads are increased at full power, so most manufacturers avoid claiming high-temperature ratings, which can easily backfire if the PSUs are used for mining operations. Seasonic also has a 50-degree rating for its Prime PSU products, but a sidenote states that its PSUs can only deliver 80-percent of their capacity at such high temperatures and provide a full load only up to 40 degrees Celsius. 

The Leadex V P130X comes in two colors, black and white. We got the latter, which looks nice! The unit is certified as Platinum by 80 Plus and Cybenetics and has a Standard+ noise rating. Its cables are modular, and the FDB fan doesn't spin at light loads for lower noise output. You can turn off the semi-passive operation if you want through a switch located at the unit's front side. 

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

There are more than enough cables and connectors, including two EPS and eight PCIe, along with twelve SATA and four 4-pin Molex connectors. All cables are long enough, and the distance between the peripheral connectors is ideal. Finally, there are no in-cable caps. One major flaw here is that they used thin, 20AWG gauges for the second PCIe connectors, so you should avoid using them in power-hungry graphics cards. 

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

The PCB is tiny, yet it is not overpopulated with parts since Super Flower uses several vertical boards for various circuits. The design is clean, without any wires running through the board, and there is room for a pair of bulk caps. Build quality is good. Super Flower used good parts everywhere and soldering quality is high. 

The transient/EMI filter has all required parts to do a good job. There is also an MOV for protection against voltage surges, and an NTC thermistor and relay combo suppress high inrush currents. 

A single bridge rectifier is used, and it is cooled down by two heat sinks. 

The APFC converter uses three Infineon FETs and a single CREE boost diode. There is also an SPN5003 FET used to cut-off the APFC converter when the PSU is in standby, to reduce energy consumption. 

The main FETs are by Infineon and are configured in a half-bridge topology. The resonant controller is a propriety Super Flower IC, with model number AA9013.

Six Infineon FETs regulate the 12V rail. The minor rails are generated through a pair of VRMs, using in total eight FETs and two PWM controllers. 

All electrolytic caps are by Chemi-Con and a large number of polymer ones, is also used. 

The standby PWM controller is another propriety Super Flower IC, with model number SF29604. 

Lots of polymer caps are installed on the modular board, along with seven electrolytic caps which belong to Chemi-Con's mainstream KRG line. In this stage the stress is not high, though, so there won't be any issues with the specific electrolytic caps. 

The resonant controller also plays the role of the supervisor IC. It is also supported by an LM324ADG operational amplifier. 

Soldering quality is good. 

The cooling fan uses a fluid dynamic bearing and it is provided by Globe Fan, a respected fan manufacturer. 

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To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

The following charts show the main rails' voltage values recorded between a range of 40W up to the PSU's maximum specified load, along with the deviation (in percent). Tight regulation is an important consideration every time we review a power supply because it facilitates constant voltage levels despite varying loads. Tight load regulation also, among other factors, improves the system’s stability, especially under overclocked conditions and, at the same time, it applies less stress to the DC-DC converters that many system components utilize.

Load regulation is tight on all rails, especially at 12V where it matters the most. 

Hold-Up Time

Put simply; hold-up time is the amount of time that the system can continue to run without shutting down or rebooting during a power interruption.

The hold-up time is long, reaching 22.4ms, and the power ok signal is accurate. 

Inrush Current

Inrush current, or switch-on surge, refers to the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when it is first turned on. A large enough inrush current can cause circuit breakers and fuses to trip. It can also damage switches, relays, and bridge rectifiers. As a result, the lower the inrush current of a PSU right as it is turned on, the better.

Inrush currents are low. 

Leakage Current

In layman's terms, leakage current is the unwanted transfer of energy from one circuit to another. In power supplies, it is the current flowing from the primary side to the ground or the chassis, which in the majority of cases is connected to the ground. For measuring leakage current, we use a GW Instek GPT-9904 electrical safety tester instrument.

The leakage current test is conducted at 110% of the DUT's rated voltage input (so for a 230-240V device, we should conduct the test with 253-264V input). The maximum acceptable limit of a leakage current is 3.5 mA and it is defined by the IEC-60950-1 regulation, ensuring that the current is low and will not harm any person coming in contact with the power supply's chassis.

Leakage current is high, but still below the limit. 

10-110% Load Tests

These tests reveal the PSU's load regulation and efficiency levels under high ambient temperatures. They also show how the fan speed profile behaves under increased operating temperatures.

The PSU doesn't have a problem delivering full power under high operating temperatures, but it couldn't provide 110% of its max-power output, because OPP kicked in. Noise output was increased once we reached the 50% load test. 

20-80W Load Tests

In the following tests, we measure the PSU's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10% of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). This is important for representing when a PC is idle with power-saving features turned on.

We would like to see over 70% efficiency with 20W load and over 80% with 40W load. 

2% or 10W Load Test

From July 2020, the ATX spec requires 70% and higher efficiency with 115V input. The applied load is only 10W for PSUs with 500W and lower capacities, while for stronger units, we dial 2% of their max-rated capacity.

The PSU should exceed 70% efficiency in this test, but this was not the case. Super Flower should increase efficiency at super-light loads in order to meet Intel's specific requirement. 

Efficiency & Power Factor

Next, we plotted a chart showing the PSU's efficiency at low loads and loads from 10 to 110% of its maximum rated capacity. The higher a PSU’s efficiency, the less energy goes wasted, leading to a reduced carbon footprint and lower electricity bills. The same goes for Power Factor.

Average efficiency is at the bottom of the chart with normal loads. The PSU scores way better with light and super-light loads. 

5VSB Efficiency

The 5VSB rail is around the middle of the pack. We would like to see close to 80% efficiency on this rail. 

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

Vampire power is low with 115V input, but exceeds 0.1W with 230V. 

Fan RPM, Delta Temperature, And Output Noise

All results are obtained between an ambient temperature of 37 to 47 degrees Celsius (98.6 to 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The fan's speed increases linearly but due to the increased speed that the 120mm fan can achieve, noise output is high. 

The following results were obtained at 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit) ambient temperature.       

The passive operation doesn't last long at normal operating temperatures, close to 30 degrees Celsius, and the fan's speed profile remains aggressive. The super-compact dimensions don't help keep noise output low. 

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

The OCP triggering point at 12V is set low and the same goes for OPP. Super Flower didn't feel the need to even provide a 110% margin here and this is not ok with us. Moreover, the minor rails have high OCP points, without any reason, especially at 3.3V. Lastly, the over temperature protection is configured correctly. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

No problems here since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified Fluke Ti480 PRO camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 640x480 (307,200 pixels).

Without any active cooling and 500W load for five minutes, the hottest part is the board holding the 12V FETs, followed by the primary heat sink. Given the lack of large heat sinks, especially on the secondary side, this platform requires good airflow to cope with high loads. 

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Advanced Transient Response Tests

For details about our transient response testing, please click here.

In the real world, power supplies are always working with loads that change. It's of immense importance, then, for the PSU to keep its rails within the ATX specification's defined ranges. The smaller the deviations, the more stable your PC will be with less stress applied to its components. 

We should note that the ATX spec requires capacitive loading during the transient rests, but in our methodology, we also choose to apply a worst case scenario with no additional capacitance on the rails. 

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 10ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 1ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 10ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 1ms

Transient response is satisfactory at 12V and mediocre on the other rails. 

Turn-On Transient Tests

In the next set of tests, we measure the PSU's response in simpler transient load scenarios—during its power-on phase. Ideally, we don't want to see any voltage overshoots or spikes since those put a lot of stress on the DC-DC converters of installed components.

We noticed slight voltage overshoot at 5VSB, and a small step at 12V, before the rail's settle down to the nominal voltage, during the last test. 

Power Supply Timing Tests

There are several signals generated by the power supply, which need to be within specified, by the ATX spec, ranges. If they are not, there can be compatibility issues with other system parts, especially mainboards. From year 2020, the PSU's Power-on time (T1) has to be lower than 150ms and the PWR_OK delay (T3) from 100 to 150ms, to be compatible with the Alternative Sleep Mode.

The Power-On time exceeds 100ms. Ideally, it should be below 50-60ms. Moreover, the PWR_OK delay is longer than 150ms, so the PSU doesn't support any alternative sleep mode.

Ripple Measurements

Ripple represents the AC fluctuations (periodic) and noise (random) found in the PSU's DC rails. This phenomenon significantly decreases the capacitors' lifespan because it causes them to run hotter. A 10-degree Celsius increase can cut into a cap's useful life by 50%. Ripple also plays an important role in overall system stability, especially when overclocking is involved.

The ripple limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V, and 5VSB).

Ripple suppression is great. We noticed increased ripple at 5VSB, though, with unbalanced, among the rails, loads, but this is not a significant problem. 

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 4

EMC Pre-Compliance Testing – Average & Quasi-Peak EMI Detector Results

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is the ability of a device to operate properly in its environment without disrupting the proper operation of other nearby devices.

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) stands for the electromagnetic energy a device emits, and it can cause problems in other nearby devices if too high. For example, it can be the cause of increased static noise in your headphones or/and speakers.

We measured two spurs going over the limit with the average EMI detector, but everything was fine with the peak detector. 

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Performance Rating

The average performance is high, meeting the performance of the EVGA 1000 P6, which is based on a modified Seasonic Focus Platinum platform. The Leadex unit has even smaller dimensions, though. 

Noise Rating

The graph below depicts the cooling fan's average noise over the PSU's operating range, with an ambient temperature between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Because the PSU has only 130mm depth and 1000W maximum power, we didn't expect great things in noise output and indeed the Leadex V Pro is noisy. 

Efficiency Rating

The following graph shows the PSU's average efficiency throughout its operating range with an ambient temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius.

The average efficiency is at the lower end of the Platinum category. 

Power Factor Rating

The following graphs show the PSU's average power factor reading throughout its operating range with an ambient temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius and 115V/230V voltage input. 

The APFC converter operates fine with 115V, but needs a little tuning to deliver higher PF readings with 230V input. 

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Super Flower managed to raise some eyebrows with its new Leadex V Pro line by delivering a 1000W ATX12V compatible PSU that's only 130mm in length. If it weren't for the SilverStone SX1000 SFX-L unit that we reviewed a while ago, we would be hugely impressed by the super-compact dimensions of the Leadex V Platinum Pro 1000. 

Nonetheless, such small dimensions require compromises in noise output since a small diameter fan has to be used, and the small PCB needs increased airflow, so the fan has to spin at high speeds under high loads. We prefer a normal-sized PSU with lower noise output. 

The overall performance that the Leadex V Platinum Pro 1000 achieves is on par with competing offerings, and with a better transient response on the minor rails, it would score even higher. We would also like to see over 70% efficiency with a 2% load and lower Power-On and PWR_OK delay timings. 

Moreover, the use of 20AWG gauges for the second PCIe connectors on cables with a pair of them is against the safety standards that the ATX spec sets, and Super Flower should replace them with 18AWG gauges as soon as possible. It would be best not to use these connectors for power-hungry graphics cards. Some notable competitors of this Super Flower model, with lower noise output, are the EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P6, the new Asus Rog Thor II 1000 model, and the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 1050.

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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.

Although numerous companies have announced M.2 SSDs designed specifically for Sony's PlayStation 5 game console, there are enthusiasts who already have unused high-end SSDs and who could use them with their PlayStation 5 consoles. For this audience, SilverStone has launched its TP05 heatsink for M.2-2280 drives that will fit perfectly into a PS5.

SilverStone's TP05 (SST-TP05B) comprises of an aluminum heatsink featuring a 5.6-mm z-height, an aluminum bottom cover, and two types of thermal pads: a 0.5 mm thick for the bottom of the drive (with a 1.8W/mK thermal conductivity) and a 1.75-mm thick for the top of the drive (with a 1.5W/mK thermal conductivity). The cooling system can be used with any M.2-2280 SSD and will ensure decent heat dissipation under high loads from both sides of the drive, reports Hermitage Akihabara.

While the PlayStation 5 can accommodate off-the-shelf SSDs made by third parties, the console has very specific requirements for these devices. First up, it should feature a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and provide sequential read speed of 5500 MB/s or higher. Secondly, thickness of its primary heatsink should not exceed 8 mm, whereas its secondary heatsink should not be thicker than 2.45 mm. 

The whole thing isn't unlike building your own external SSD, just for something you put inside your PS5.

It is certainly not hard to pick an SSD already equipped with a cooling system that is compliant with Sony PS5's requirements (some, like Samsung, are making versions of their SSDs with heatsinks just for this purpose), but for those who already have a drive or plan to purchase an SSD without a heatsink and equip it with one themselves, getting SilverStone's TP05 makes sense. 

SilverStone did not announce pricing of its SST-TP05B heatsink, and we're not sure of its availability. But this should make plenty of more otherwise-compliant SSDs that you have around your house easily fit Sony's recommendations.

Silverstone has released an external USB C SSD enclosure, the Raven RVS03, which features support for NVMe and SATA drives and speeds at up to 10Gbps (NVMe). It can also help reuse some of your older SSDs as external storage devices or used to migrate your install to a better, faster drive.

The Raven RVS03 measures 4.1 x 0.5 x 1.38 inches (105.7 x 13.5 x 35mm) and weighs in at 52.2g. The Raven supports 2230 to 2280 M.2 drives and installation is tool free. Connecting to your machine is via the USB C cable, so make sure that your machine has that connection, or use a USB A to USB C cable.

The Raven's compatibility with both NVMe and SATA Gen 3 drives comes via a Realtek RTL9210B-CG controller, a USB to NVMe / SATA bridge which automatically detects the drive type, with no end user configuration necessary. Supported drives feature the PCIe NVMe "M" key and for SATA both "M" and "B". Owners of Raspberry Pi 4 will be interested to note that there is support for USB attached SCSI (UASP) which provides faster overall transfer speeds via USB 3.

Silverstone's Raven RVS03 has an advertised 10Gbps transfer speed for NVMe drives which Silverstone demonstrates via a CrystalDiskMark test with an X-570 motherboard, a Ryzen 7 3800X and an Samsung 980 Pro NVMe SSD. Silverstone's test results showed that the Samsung 980 Pro produced SEQ1M Q8T1 of 1041.89 Mbps read and 976.01Mbps write.

At this time the release date and price are currently unknown.

The SilverStone SX750 has an extremely high power density, meeting the rival Corsair SF750, but it cannot achieve the same performance levels. In fact, the overall performance difference between the SX750 and the SF750 reaches 13%, favoring the Corsair unit. Therefore, SilverStone needs to make several changes in this PSU to increase its performance and make it competitive enough to be on our list of the best power supplies, replacing the Corsair SF750 in the best SFX PSU category. 

The SilverStone SX750 is among the strongest SFX units, along with the Corsair SF750 and the Cooler Master V850 SFX Gold. However, delivering so much power out of a tiny SFX platform is tough, especially after high performance. There is no room on the small PCB for extra ripple filtering capacitors and the parts are cramped, so airflow isn't exactly optimal. In other words, you should not expect compact and high power density PSUs to be quiet under stressful conditions (e.g., high loads and increased operating temperatures). 

The SX750 Platinum is fully modular, providing loads of cables and connectors to deliver maximum power. The OEM is Enhance Electronics, which has vast experience in making compact and powerful platforms. At the internals, Japanese caps are exclusively used to increase reliability. The cooling fan, measuring 92mm across, uses a double ball bearing that will easily cope under high operating temperatures. Fluid dynamic bearing fans might produce lower noise output, but their life is vastly shortened under high operating temperatures (>40 degrees Celsius), which doesn't affect DBB fans. 

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

There are two cables with EPS connectors, and according to your needs, you will use either of them. Unfortunately, there are only three sockets for the EPS and PCIe cables, so you will have to choose between the single EPS or the double EPS cable unless you use only one PCIe cable. We advise against using the cable with two EPS connectors installed on mainboards with high power consumption. 

All cables are short since this PSU is destined for small chassis, but the distance between the 4-pin Molex connectors is large at 195mm. Silverstone also provided an FDD connector, which is not required by the majority of users. It would be better if they provided an additional 4-pin Molex connector instead. 

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

The large primary heat sink with the long fins is the first indication that Enhance Electronics make this platform. Some OEMs have a distinctive heat sink design. and Enhance is one of them. 

As expected, the platform is densely populated. There are no heat sinks on the secondary side since the FETs that regulate the 12V rail are on the solder side of the PCB. Nevertheless, the design is modern, and Enhance did its best to find space to install all necessary parts (check in the photos above the X caps of the EMI filter, which are on top of the CM chokes).  

The transient/EMI filter has more than the necessary components, including six Y and three X caps. 

The single bridge rectifier is bolted on a dedicated heat sink, and there is no way to identify it without desoldering, which we avoided in this case. 

The APFC converter uses two Toshiba FETs and a single boost diode, which is powerful. However, the bulk cap is by Rubycon, and although it is of top quality, its capacity isn't large enough to allow for close to 17ms hold-up time.

The APFC controller is an ATK AT6101ZS which a CM03X IC supports for lower vampire power. 

The four main FETs are installed in a full-bridge topology, and they are handled by a pair of Silicon Labs driver ICs. 

Six FETs generate the 12V rail. The minor rails, 5V and 3.3V, are regulated by a pair of DC-DC converters.

There are few electrolytic caps provided by Chemi-Con, on the secondary side because there is not much space available. On the other hand, Enhance installed many polymer caps by Unicon and FPCAP. 

The 5VSB rail uses a PFR10V45CT SBR on its secondary side and an ITU02N70A FET on its primary side. The PWM controller is an ATK AT6002H.

At the face of the modular board, Enhance installed several polymer caps to lower ripple. 

There are some solder joints with an excess amount of solder, but soldering quality is satisfactory in general. 

The cooling fan measures 92mm across and uses a double ball bearing. This is a quality fan, which will easily outlive the five-year warranty that supports the SX750. 

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To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

The following charts show the main rails' voltage values recorded between a range of 40W up to the PSU's maximum specified load, along with the deviation (in percent). Tight regulation is an important consideration every time we review a power supply because it facilitates constant voltage levels despite varying loads. Tight load regulation also, among other factors, improves the system’s stability, especially under overclocked conditions and, at the same time, it applies less stress to the DC-DC converters that many system components utilize.

Load regulation is satisfactory at 12V, but we cannot state the same for the minor rails. 

Hold-Up Time

Put simply; hold-up time is the amount of time that the system can continue to run without shutting down or rebooting during a power interruption.

The hold-up time is extremely short. The power ok signal is accurate, at least. 

Inrush Current

Inrush current, or switch-on surge, refers to the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when it is first turned on. A large enough inrush current can cause circuit breakers and fuses to trip. It can also damage switches, relays, and bridge rectifiers. As a result, the lower the inrush current of a PSU right as it is turned on, the better.

The inrush current is on the high side, with 230V input. 

Leakage Current

In layman's terms, leakage current is the unwanted transfer of energy from one circuit to another. In power supplies, it is the current flowing from the primary side to the ground or the chassis, which in the majority of cases is connected to the ground. For measuring leakage current, we use a GW Instek GPT-9904 electrical safety tester instrument.

The leakage current test is conducted at 110% of the DUT's rated voltage input (so for a 230-240V device, we should conduct the test with 253-264V input). The maximum acceptable limit of a leakage current is 3.5 mA and it is defined by the IEC-60950-1 regulation, ensuring that the current is low and will not harm any person coming in contact with the power supply's chassis.

Leakage current is low and at the same level with the SX1000 Platinum. 

10-110% Load Tests

These tests reveal the PSU's load regulation and efficiency levels under high ambient temperatures. They also show how the fan speed profile behaves under increased operating temperatures.

PF readings are extremely high with 115V input. However, we don't frequently see perfect PF scores (1.000). Moreover, the PSU can handle increased operating temperatures, but the output noise is high since the 92mm fan has to spin at high speeds to cope with the thermal load. 

20-80W Load Tests

In the following tests, we measure the PSU's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10% of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). This is important for representing when a PC is idle with power-saving features turned on.

The fan doesn't spin at light loads, even with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius. The efficiency levels are not high, though, in the first two tests. 

2% or 10W Load Test

Intel plans on raising the ante at efficiency levels under ultra-light loads. So from July 2020, the ATX spec will require 70% and higher efficiency with 115V input. The applied load is only 10W for PSUs with 500W and lower capacities, while for stronger units we dial 2% of their max-rated-capacity.