SilverStone DA1650-G Power Supply Review

The SilverStone DA1650-G offers tremendous power levels at a good price. For users who don't have the money to get a Corsair AX1600i, an EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2, or a be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500W, SilverStone's offering looks like a good bargain. Besides high wattage, its build quality is good, and the overall performance is at strong enough levels, allowing for good performance per dollar. The SilverStone DA1650-G is one of the best power supplies you can buy in its class.

Strong PSUs are coming to the front scene again, thanks to Nvidia's new Ampere GPUs, which are quite power-hungry. If you have the money to buy a pair of RTX 3090s, which need an equally strong CPU to be fully utilized, you will soon realize that even a 1000W PSU will struggle under full load. This is where some monstrous capacity PSUs like the new SilverStone DA1650-G come to play, offering enough power to support several power-hungry GPUs.

Image 1 of 11

Product Photos

The SilverStone DA1650-G is 80 PLUS Gold certified, while in the Cybenetics scale, it achieves ETA-A (88-91% average efficiency) and LAMBDA-Standard+ (35- 40 dBA average noise output). Given the LAMBDA rating, this is not a quiet PSU, but you cannot expect silence when a power supply outputs more than 1500W of power.

With a quick look at the specifications, you can easily spot a difference with other high-end offerings from Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, and others. The provided warranty is restricted to three years, which is not so small period given the huge power levels that this PSU can deliver. It is just the other brands that went on a "warranty" competition, and in the end, they had to provide ridiculously long periods, which are unrealistic when it comes to power supplies. One of the reasons this product is offered at a lower price than other units in this category is the provided warranty period. It totally makes sense, to cover the cost of possible problems due to prolonged warranty periods, you have to apply a different pricing policy. 

Image 1 of 6

Product Photos

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

You get a vast number of cables and connectors with this unit, which can easily handle the 1650W max power output. All cables are long and it is nice to see dedicated PCIe cables, hosting one connector each. Moreover, the distance between peripheral connectors is adequate at 150mm. 

Image 1 of 8

Cable Photos

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.

Image 1 of 4

Overall Photos

High Power provides this platform, and although it doesn't use cutting-edge technology, it has high build quality and uses quality components. We usually meet full-bridge topologies in high capacity PSUs, but the DA1650-G uses a half-bridge topology. They went with an interleaved PFC, at least. On the secondary side, the filtering capacitors are of good quality. We also spotted an MCU on the secondary side, for which we don't have any information on what it exactly does. 

Image 1 of 6

Transient filter

The transient filter has all the necessary components to filter EMI effectively. There is also an MOV to protect against voltage surges. Inrush current protection is handled by an NTC thermistor, which is supported by a bypass relay. 

Image 1 of 2

Bridge rectifiers

The pair of bridge rectifiers can handle up to 100A of current! This is insanely high, even for a 1650W PSU. 

Image 1 of 6

APFC converter

The interleaved PFC offers higher efficiency levels and minimizes input/output current ripple. The bulk caps' capacity is low, so the PSU cannot reach 17ms hold-up time, as the ATX spec requires. These caps cost a lot, so larger capacity ones would notably affect the product's price.

Image 1 of 4

Main FETs and primary transformer

Infineon provides the two main switching FETs, and they are powerful, with low Rds (on), which plays a huge role in energy losses. An LLC resonant converter is also utilized for higher efficiency. The resonant controller is a Champion CM6901X IC. 

Image 1 of 5

12V FETs and VRMs

Ten Toshiba FETs regulate the 12V rail. All are installed on the solder side of the main PCB. The 12V rail also feeds two DC-DC converters, which generate the minor rails. 

Image 1 of 3

Filtering caps

All filtering caps are by Japanese manufacturers and of good quality. Besides electrolytics, a large number of polymer caps is also used. 

Image 1 of 3

Modular board front

The modular board hosts many polymer caps, for lower ripple on all rails. 

Image 1 of 7

Soldering quality

We don't have any complaints to make when it comes to soldering quality. High Power did a good job in this section. 

Image 1 of 4

5VSB Circuit

The 5VSB circuit uses an SBR and two FETs along with an Excelliance MOS PWM controller. 

Image 1 of 2

SuperVisor & MCU

The supervisor IC is a SITI PS232S. We also found an MCU on the secondary side, for which we don't have a clue what it is used for. 

Image 1 of 2

Cooling fan

The cooling fan is by Globe Fan, and according to the official specs, it uses a fluid dynamic bearing. 

MORE: Best Power Supplies

MORE: How We Test Power Supplies

MORE: All Power Supply Content