SilverStone Strider Titanium ST60F-TI PSU Review

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SilverStone released its first Titanium PSU series, which is made by Enhance Electronics. The smallest Strider Titanium unit will be under our scope today. Besides high efficiency it also offers compact dimensions and a fully modular cable design.

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the ST60F-TI's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test 12V 5V 3.3V 5VSB Pass/Fail
10% Load 21.5mV 8.0mV 14.5mV 5.0mV Pass
20% Load 23.1mV 8.6mV 16.0mV 5.0mV Pass
30% Load 29.9mV 9.6mV 20.9mV 5.9mV Pass
40% Load 36.9mV 10.6mV 18.8mV 7.0mV Pass
50% Load 42.7mV 11.2mV 20.1mV 7.9mV Pass
60% Load 51.0mV 14.1mV 23.2mV 8.9mV Pass
70% Load 58.4mV 23.0mV 38.6mV 17.1mV Pass
80% Load 64.6mV 24.6mV 43.6mV 17.6mV Pass
90% Load 69.0mV 18.7mV 36.9mV 10.4mV Pass
100% Load 74.7mV 19.7mV 30.0mV 11.2mV Pass
110% Load 81.5mV 21.2mV 30.2mV 12.2mV Pass
Cross-Load 1 24.3mV 9.2mV 16.6mV 5.0mV Pass
Cross-Load 2 73.7mV 19.6mV 28.1mV 10.7mV Pass

The secondary side could use more filtering caps, though that'd result in higher energy losses. This is why ripple suppression on the +12V rail is mediocre. The same goes for the 3.3V rail, where strangely enough ripple peaks during the 80% load test. On the contrary, ripple suppression on the 5V and 5VSB rails is pretty good. 

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Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). The bigger the fluctuations on the screen, the bigger the ripple/noise. We set 0.01V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V) as the standard for all measurements.

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110-Percent Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 2

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JamesSneed
    So essentially this is a overpriced PSU with to much ripple. This left me wondering why the EVGA SuperNova 850 T2 was not in the charts. You mentioned the SuperNova towards the end and it just seems like the proper competitor since its another TI rated PSU.
    Reply
  • Jack_565
    Nice to see a review on at least one of the Strider Titanium units.
    I recently purchased a 800w Version(these are the only Titanium PSUs in the Australian Market under 1000w) and its been everything i've wanted, running at almost 50% load it gives me its peak efficiency which is exactly why i paid the premium to get a Titanium PSU.
    I can see the 600w version being a more commonly purchased unit with the way power consumption has dropped, Skylake Rigs only use around 300w(give or take variables) which would be the Striders peak efficiency.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    Jonnyguru also did a review on the same unit here, so the "high" ripple is consistent among these units. Probably due to a lack of filter capacitors, either to increase efficiency or conserve space. I'd like to see how the efficiency would be improved if they used a relay.

    What I don't understand is the small transformer. Aris, you mentioned that this unit, to have higher efficiency, switches to not-as-high of a frequency (which also affects transient response negatively). Since transformer size is inversely proportional to the AC frequency, wouldn't the transformer have to be larger? Is there any downside to a smaller transformer?

    Yet again, more PWR_OK cheaters. It seems like at least one in two PSUs are like this. I agree that no power switch on this unit seems very silly to me.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    The switching frequency probably isn't as high in order to achieve the higher possible efficiency, but this doesn't necessary means that it isn't high enough to allow for a small main transformer. In addition the design of the transformer plays a key role also in this.
    Reply