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.

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.

Silverstone’s strength has always been in creative layouts to squeeze lots of hardware into a small package. In that way, the Sugo SG14 ($109) is a clear-cut example of Silverstone’s skills. But the case market has evolved and is starting to demand more premium materials – materials such as aluminum and tempered glass – and the SG14 has neither of those. For that, you’ll have to bump up to the SG15, but it costs $70 more.

But what the SG14 lacks in looks and excitement, it makes up for with versatility and modularity. This is a mini-ITX chassis that can house full triple-slot graphics cards, up to a 240mm radiator, and a full-size, classic 5.25-inch optical drive – when’s the last time you saw that?

Whether it deserves a spot on our Best PC Cases list remains to be seen, but let’s dig into the Silverstone Sugo SG14’s features, design and thermal capabilities to find out. First, here are the full specs.

Specifications

Features

After unboxing the SG14, you’ll want to decide which way to orient the chassis, as it can either be placed horizontally or vertically. My preference is horizontal, as the bottom panel doesn’t have any perforation, and therefore you’ll have the least thermal sacrifice, so I placed the four included feet on this panel.

Of course, that’s already where I made my first mistake: later I found the much-lower spherical rubber feet, which would have the chassis look a little less dorky in this orientation – these tall square feet are for when the chassis is oriented vertically, so to ensure adequate airflow can reach the bottom panel where the GPU would draw its air in through.

Glossing over my mistake and touring around the outside of the chassis, there’s not a lot to be seen here. All the panels are made from painted steel, except the front panel which is made from plastic and has a gold accent strip. If you ask me, the chassis looks a bit uninspired, though oddly reminiscent of Deep Thought – the computer that came up with the answer to the ultimate question of life in Douglas Adams’ classic six-book ‘trilogy.’

Around the back of the chassis, you’ll find the IO cutouts and three expansion slots for up to triple-slot graphics cards, which is a welcome addition in this day and age. The power port connects to a cable on the inside, as the PSU lives at the front of the case.

Front IO consists of two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, and a mic/headphone combo jack. I personally like this combination as I’ve to date never used the Type-C connector that’s present on many cases, and a surprising number of budget motherboards still don’t come with Type-C headers – so then I’d rather you give me a working USB 2.0 port. But your preferences may vary. Power and reset switches are also present, with the power at the front and reset next to the top IO.

Internal Layout

Having decided I wanted to build in the system horizontally, I removed three panels to get a look inside the chassis. The motherboard and GPU mounts are obvious, but things get a little more confusing on the other side.

There’s a bracket on the other side with another bracket installed on it. The first is for mounting either radiators, fans, or up to two 3.5-inch drives. The second bracket that’s installed onto the first is for holding a classic, full-format 5.25-inch drive bay – something I certainly haven’t seen in a while.

The top of the chassis reveals an additional fan mount bracket, along with the spot where the PSU is meant to be installed.

Cooling

For cooling, Silverstone includes one 120mm fan at the rear exhaust. The GPU pulls air in through the side/bottom panel depending on the orientation, and the top of the chassis has another 120mm fan mount. If you’re using an AIO, you can mount either a 120mm, 140mm, or 240mm radiator on the side, according to the spec sheet. However, having installed a 240mm unit, I feel a 280mm radiator might even fit, though it will be a very tight squeeze and you’ll have to be careful about RAM clearances and tall CPU blocks. Even with a standard-width 240mm radiator, the CPU block shouldn’t be too tall, though most coolers should fit.

All air intakes have dedicated fan filters.

CPU coolers can be up to 182mm (7.17 inches) tall, and GPUs up to three slots, 330mm (13 inches) long and 148mm (5.83 inches) wide.

Storage

For storage, you can fit up to three 2.5-inch drives in the case – two at the front and one above the motherboard. Two 3.5-inch drives do fit, but you’ll have to sacrifice the radiator on the right and the optical drive. 

Does it fit an RTX 3080?

Yes.

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We are using the following system for today’s testing

Step 1: Installing the PSU

I decided to start this build by installing the power supply. At first I was a little puzzled about how I was supposed to slide it in, but I hadn’t removed the bottom panel. Here, a slot is present to slide the PSU into for very easy installation.

Our large Corsair HX750i wouldn’t fit in this low-height case, but we have a standard ATX form factor PSU from Phanteks available that we used.

Step 2: Motherboard

The motherboard dropped right into place after this without any fuss.

Step 3: Cable Management

I decided that although the system isn’t done yet, once the AIO and GPU are installed, getting to the ports on the motherboard would become quite a challenge. I therefore installed most of the cables at this point, with only the GPU’s PCIe power connectors and AIO fan connectors left for later.

The SG14 doesn’t really do much in the way of cable management, which with a big ATX PSU is a bit annoying as you end up with a lot of cable slack you need to tuck away, but given that it’s a case that doesn’t have any glass, I don’t really mind.

Step 4: GPU Install

Our Founders Edition RTX 2070 Super dropped right into place without any fuss. As you can see, there is plenty of space remaining for the big RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 GPUs of today, and with access to fresh air straight through the side panel, thermal performance should be decent, too.

Step 5: AIO Installation

I then installed the Corsair H100i Elite Capellix AIO watercooler. This was a bit of a challenge with the tight space, but by installing the CPU block first, and then the radiator it was manageable. The only thing I didn’t like about this step was connecting up the RGB headers and fan controls to the Commander hub. There wasn’t a lot of room for the hib, so I placed it where the internal 2.5-inch drive would have gone.

Step 6: Build Complete

All things considered, this was one of the easiest ITX cases I’ve ever built in. The build process was straight forward, and the ability to build from the inside outwards with all panels removed makes it surprisingly easy to get to everything you need to. Of course, if you need to get to the motherboard, you’ll need to remove the AIO and graphics card first, but this case should be pleasantly easy to service over the course of ownership.

MORE: Best Cases

MORE: All Case Content

Testing

To test the Sugo 14, I subjected the system to Prime95 workload at smallest FFT’s on the CPU for maximum heat generation, and Furmark to get the GPU all nice and toasty. The following results are all at maximum fan speeds, except for the GPU, which ran at a maximum of 75% as it gets extremely loud otherwise, and Nvidia’s drivers never push the GPU above these levels anyway.

Thermally, the Sugo 14 actually jots down quite a good performance. With the panels on, the CPU ran at about 76 degrees Celcius, with the GPU at a slightly cooler 70 degrees C. These are respectable figures, and it’s clear that placing intake of each right next to a meshed side panel is helping. The temperatures drop somewhat when removing the panels, but the difference isn’t all that drastic, which is a good sign.

However, acoustically things get a little loud. Of course, this is an open-mesh case, and therefore we shouldn’t be all too surprised at louder acoustics. But in all honesty, I wouldn’t read into the above numbers all too much. As you can see, matters are perfectly reasonable with the optimized idle scenario (with the included fan running at about 500 RPM), and with the case fan spinning at full speed (1350 RPM) noise levels are good too.

The reason why the other two figures are high is because the Corsair H100i Elite Capellix cooler runs extremely loud with the fans spinning at a mighty 2250 RPM, and the RTX 2070 Super FE is also loud  compared to aftermarket GPUs with bigger coolers.

This means that in practice, with some fan curve optimization, you should be able to get much better acoustics – because clearly the thermal headroom is there to run matters quietly.

Conclusion

When I started working on the Sugo 14, I wasn’t happy with it. It’s made from cheap painted steel with an even cheaper plastic front panel, and it looks like a household appliance more than it does a piece of art. Even after reviewing it, I genuinely find it an off-putting device.

This is a bit of a bummer when you consider that the Phanteks Evolv Shift 2 comes in at the exact same price of $110. That case has two massive tempered glass panels, and on the front and back two beautifully milled aluminum panels – it’s so pretty that I rebuilt my old PC from my student times into it, and put it on display in my living room. I can’t get away with that with the Sugo 14, as even my non-techy partner had an averse reaction to it walking into my office: “what is that?!”

In that sense, the aluminum-clad Sugo 15 with identical internals to the Sugo 14 might be more to our taste, but that chassis comes in at a hefty MSRP of $179.

Then again, ITX cases generally are overpriced compared to their ATX counterparts, because of low production volumes, and for some reason, the Evolv Shift 2 is priced much lower than the vast majority of other ITX cases out there, so maybe it’s not an entirely valid comparison.

However, when I started working with the Sugo 14, that’s when I started to understand its appeal. The internal layout offers an extremely convenient layout. The use of full-size ATX PSUs is something I can appreciate for practicality’s sake, and I like the modular approach to the side bracket that allows you to install either a watercooling radiator, two hard drives, an optical drive, or a mix of those by means of some sacrifices.

I laid the system out for the GPU to draw in from one side, the CPU’s AIO from the other side, and all to be exhausted out the back. This resulted in great thermals, which the Phanteks Evolv Shift 2 isn’t able to match even in its air variant because it only has room for up to a 120mm AIO.

If you value practicality and performance above all else, then the Sugo 14 might just be the ITX case for you. Want looks to go with it, and you could consider dropping more money on the Sugo 15 instead – though that chassis won’t have room for an optical drive.

Practically, the Sugo 14 offers everything you’d likely want from an ITX case with an excellent internal layout and superb thermals. It’s just not as pretty as I’d like for a system that would live full-time on my desk.

MORE: Best Cases

MORE: All Case Content

SFX PSUs are great compact units for small form factor builds and have come in all wattage sizes from 350-450W up to 750-850W configurations, until now. Silverstone has an all-new SST-SX1000-LPT SFX PSU with a whopping 1000W capacity, a world-first for SFX power supplies. Availability is unknown at this time.

The SST-SX1000-LPT SFX is an 80 PLUS Platinum certified 1000W fully modular PSU with an SFX-L form factor, the unit comes with all the necessary cables you'll need for a high-end machine, including one 24 pin, one 4+4 pin CPU connector, dual 6+2 PCI-E connectors, four SATA connectors, three molex, and one 4p floppy connector.

Specs-wise the unit features 25A +3.3V and +5V rails, the +12V is capable of 83.3A, +5VSB 3.0A, and the -12V 0.3A. For efficiency, the unit is capable of around 90% efficiency at 20%-100% load which is very good. For cooling the SST-SX1000-LPT SFX features a 120mm fan with a passive mode that enables under 200W of power consumption. If you maintain 300-700W of power consumption the fan spins at a very low 900RPM, as you go beyond 800W of power consumption, the fan starts to spin much faster around 1400-1750RPM. Keep in mind, this is an impressive amount of power going thru a very tiny PSU, so audible cooling near 1000W of load should be expected.

Overall, the unit looks like a perfect solution for feeding today's power-hungry gaming machines. With the introduction of Nvidia's Ampere GPUs and Intel's 10th Generation of Core CPUs, power consumption has gone up significantly for high-end systems, making 750W power supplies a requirement to power these behemoths. With the SST-SX1000-LPT SFX you'll have extra headroom to spare and high power efficiency if you need a compact PSU in your power-hungry PC.

SilverStone has rolled out the company's new DA1650 power supply that's designed to power Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3090, the current fastest gaming graphics card on the market.

With dimensions of 150 x 86 x 180mm (5.91 x 3.39 x 7.09 inches), the DA1650 comes with a whopping capacity of 1,650W. The GeForce RTX 3090 is the only Ampere-powered graphics card that supports SLI and with a 350W TDP (thermal design power) rating means that the DA1650 can power two GeForce RTX 3090 and still have leftover power capacity to spare.

Initially, SilverStone will offer the DA1650 in a 80Plus Gold flavor, but the manufacturer has assured its more demanding fans that the 80Plus Titanium version is on the way. The DA1650 features a single rail design that delivers 137.5A and Japanese capacitors.

SilverStone DA1650 Specifications

SilverStone designed the DA1650 to work in harsh environments with temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius. A single 135mm fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) cooling fan is responsible for providing the DA1650 with active cooling. It comes with a fanless operation mode for up to a 30% (495W) load. The maximum rotation speed is a tad under the 1,800 RPM mark with a noise up to 36dBA.

The power supply arrives a completely modular design and flat cables to assist you with your cable management. The DA1650 has the typical electrical protections that you would expect from a high-end unit, including OCP, OPP, OVP, SCP, UVP and OTP.

SilverStone backs the DA1650 with a limited five-year warranty. The 80Plus Gold version (SST-DA1650-G) will retails for $330.

Cases for your Raspberry Pi have come a long way since the early hobbyist laser cut cases. As time moved on and the Raspberry Pi became more powerful these cases have adapted and provided cooling in the form of heatsinks and fans. SilverStone, well known for their PC cases and accessories, entered the Raspberry Pi case market with the PI01 and have just released an updated version, the Silverstone PI02 with an MSRP of $25 and specifically designed for the Raspberry Pi 4.

This all aluminium case measures 3.7 x 1.3 x 2.6 inches (94.2 mm x 33.7 mm x 65 mm) and comes in two pieces which slot on top of one another. The two pieces are secured together using four screws but the pieces are not keyed so it is possible to incorrectly put the case together. The lower piece has cutouts for all of the ports, including an “antenna” mount for an optional antenna which is quite odd as the Raspberry Pi 4 does not have an external antenna connection. On the underside of the lower piece are two “plus” shaped cut outs which can be used to mount the case if used with care.

Inside the lower piece are four raised screw points used to secure the Raspberry Pi 4 to the case and prevent the Pi from slipping and shorting on the case.

The top section of the case has a series of stylized fins which aid in the removal of heat and provide a certain “industrial” aesthetic. On the two longest sides, there are large rectangular cutouts. On one side, the cutout provides access to the HDMI, USB-C and composite ports. On the other side, the cutout is for access to the GPIO, but this access is quite poor and requires the use of a breakout board to extend the GPIO pins. As you may have guessed this also prevents the use of HATs.

Assembly is quick and simple, but there is one tiny little snag. In the PDF manual, we noticed that the image for Step 4, applying the heatsinks to the thermal pads on the CPU and USB (PCIe) chips, did not show any thermal pads on top of the heatsinks.

These are necessary to ensure that the heatsinks connect the chips to the case, pulling as much heat as possible into the aluminium case. If these extra thermal pads are not used then the heatsinks are free to move inside the case and could cause a short.

But how well does this cool our Raspberry Pi 4? We tested by first powering up the Pi and leaving it idle for 10 minutes. The idle temperature of our stock Raspberry Pi 4 was 43 Celsius  (109.4F) and the highest temp recorded during the sysbench test workload tests, verifying prime numbers up to 20,000, was 67 Celsius (152.6F). Compare these temps with those recorded using the PI02 case and we see a much lower idle temperature of 34 Celsius (98.6F). The sysbench CPU test saw the CPU temperature rise to a peak of 57 Celsius (134.6F) If you are planning to build a silent server then this case will meet your requirements.

Bottom Line

The SilverStone Pi02 is a case for those that wish to use their Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop computer or as a server. It provides great cooling and while it may not look fancy, it does have a robust, industrial look to it.

There are two downsides to the SilverStone PI02 case. . First are the heatsinks, which are held in place by thermal pads and just feel as if they are an afterthought. There are other all metal cases available which come with a solid “column” directly connected to their case. The Pi02 approach of two thermal pads per heatsink is a little messy. The other issue is GPIO access. Sure there is a breakout hatch which can be used with a breakout board or individual wires routed out from it, but we cannot use HATs with this case and that is one of the key selling points of the Raspberry Pi.

Those points aside, this is a really good case which keeps the Raspberry Pi 4 cool even under a heavy load.

SilverStone, makers of PC cases have made something a little smaller for their latest product. The SST-PI02B is an all aluminium case made for the Raspberry Pi 4. This passively cooled case claims to drop temperatures by around 14 degrees Celsius using two heatsinks, one for the CPU and the other for the RAM. The aluminium case provides additional heat dissipation using a series of fins which maximise the surface area available for cooling.

All of the USB, micro HDMI, Ethernet ports present on the Pi 4 have an appropriate cut out on the case including the GPIO which has a slot on the rear side of the case. This case does not work with Raspberry Pi add on boards, “HATs”, but breakout ribbon cables can be used to provide a connection to the GPIO.

An intriguing addition to this case is a pre-drilled point for a WiFi antenna, which is not included in the box. Why is this intriguing? Well the Raspberry Pi 4 does not have a connection for an external antenna. The antenna on a Raspberry Pi 4 is part of the PCB. 

This is a great looking case and if the claimed heat dissipation is correct then we have an excellent candidate for a passively cooled home server build.

6/2/2020 Update: A Silverstone representative has informed us that the warning sticker affixed to the front of our review unit (which caused us to damage the case while removing it) has been eliminated from production units. Also, the MSRP is lower ($119.99) than the current selling price of around $130, and may come down as issues around the global pandemic ease. Taking this new information into consideration, we have revised the score of the SETA A1 up a half star, from 3 to 3.5. The original review remains below.

Silverstone’s SETA A1 is built around a relatively standard interior platform, covering it with a tempered-glass panel and a new facade that packs two subtle RGB strips behind a huge, bent  brushed-aluminum front. Behind this new face Silverstone has hidden two huge 200mm intake fans.

Looking at  the design, we’re expecting a chassis that runs quietly while maintaining very good temperatures. As we dig deeper, we’ll find out if the $130 SETA A1 delivers on that front, and whether or not it deserves a spot on our  best PC cases list. First though, let’s look at the list of specs from Silverstone. 

Specifications 

Features

Silverstone’s SETA A1 recycles much, but not all of its interior chassis from the company’s older cases, with an update on the front facade to bring it up to speed with the times by adding RGB, USB Type-C, and a beautifully manufactured slab of brushed aluminum. 

The case certainly has a striking understated look, which is undoubtedly what Silverstone was going for. If you’re looking to build a PC that fits well in an office environment, or something for at home that’s modern but doesn’t scream “GAMER”, then this case might just fit your taste.

The tempered glass side panel on the left is built to slide off like a normal panel, attaching with thumbscrews at the back. The same goes for the cable-covering panel on the right, and we would have preferred to see thumbscrews that stay in the panel when loosened (captive screws) instead of coming out entirely. Nevertheless, the lack of thumbscrews on the side of the glass panel works for a very clean appearance, and it’s very easy to use. The glass panel is also tinted, allowing for mismatching of internal components without ruining the overall look. 

At the top of the chassis you’ll find the front I/O, which consists of two USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, and a mic/headphone combo jack. We prefer to see separate jacks for these, but these combo jacks are useful for those using smartphone  headsets. Power and reset switches are also present, along with a mesh top cover to hide the screws of the fan and radiator mounting assembly. 

Internal Layout

Inside, the Silverstone SETA A1 doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The chassis recycles its interior from Silverstone’s older cases, and appears to be similar to, though not quite identical to the $60 PS14-E chassis. This isn’t inherently a bad thing as it allows Silverstone to save money on tooling, but there is a huge price gap between the two cases that needs to be compensated for elsewhere. And in many ways, it’s not. 

There is space for up to an ATX-size motherboard, and below the PSU shroud you can fit two 3.5-inch hard drives in the HDD cage and a power supply up to 180 mm long. You can fit two 2.5-inch drives on trays behind the motherboard. 

GPUs can be up to 350 mm (13.8 inches) long, and the case will fit CPU coolers up to 175 mm (6.9 inches) tall.

However, at this price point the interior of the chassis comes with shortcomings that simply aren’t acceptable. The hard drive cage needed to be removed to fit our large power supply, and the HDD cage also didn’t come with any kind of vibration-damping grommets, which we’ve seen even in budget cases like the $60 Phanteks Eclipse P300A, and are an absolute must in a case that costs more than twice as much. The cable management system also leaves a lot to be desired, as we’ll detail shortly.

Cooling

Silverstone is proud of what they have accomplished for cooling, and our first impression left us smiling too. There is one 120 mm exhaust fan here and two huge 200 mm intake fans hiding behind the front shroud.  

The top of the SETA A1 can house up to two 140 mm fans or up to a 240 mm radiator. Though the rear can only hold a 120 mm fan according to Silverstone, we found that a 140 mm spinner fits just fine. If you were to replace the two huge fans, the front of the chassis can also hold either three 120 mm fans or two 140 mm spinners along with their respective radiators, meaning you can fit up to a 360mm radiator in here.  

The case comes with one air filter at the bottom and one in the front fascia, though the front filter is quite difficult to access. First, you have to rip off the front panel by the bottom, which requires some force but nothing too excessive. Note you’ll have to be careful not to pull too hard or you’ll swing back and rip up the RGB cables – we would have preferred to see metal contacts here rather than cables to prevent that. Once the panel is off, you’ll need to remove two screws, after which you can press two tabs on the front filter to swing it out and remove it. All of this is too much work for a simple filter cleaning and the filter will probably be ignored until you run into thermal issues.  

System Configuration

We are using the following system for our case test bed: 

As you might have noticed in the pictures so far, the case has a ghastly scar at the top of the front panel. This is because of the “be careful when removing the front panel” warning sticker that Silverstone placed here. It was applied with glue so strong that it was very difficult to remove. I first resorted to soapy water, but this didn’t help. Rubbing alcohol also didn’t do the trick, so I turned to sticker remover, which was a huge mistake. Immediately, my sponge became black as I realized that I had just stripped away the matte coating. Of course, it’s my mistake for not testing the sticker remover on a less visible spot, but I’m still upset that the warning sticker was so stubborn to remove. A quick search on the internet revealed that I’m not the only reviewer with this problem. Silverstone has been around for nearly 20 years. The company should know better than to put a hard-to-remove sticker on a surface that isn’t chemically resistant. 

Getting over that and on with it, installation of the motherboard was simple. Six of the nine ATX standoffs came pre-installed, so I installed the remaining three and secured the board in. Two of the pre-installed standoffs also work as anchors, keeping the board in place while I secured the rest of the attachment points.  

Installing the power supply was less straightforward. Our Corsair HX750i that we use in our standard test system did not fit with the modular cables attached, so we had to remove the hard drive cage to get it to fit.  

Cable Management 

The rear of the motherboard only has 18 mm (0.7 inches) of space for cable management, which is not enough for thick cables. So you may have to use a PSU with flat cables to make this work. Thankfully, our power supply has these.

One neat inclusion with the SETA A1 is the RGB controller. Of course, you can attach the addressable-RGB strips directly to your motherboard with a single connector, but the controller takes some of the trouble out of configuring the lighting. It even has a pair of pins labelled “Switch,” which fit the pins for the reset switch at the top of the chassis perfectly. The reset switch is also unlabeled at the top, so now it’s our RGB switch. Despite being a small detail, this is very thoughtful. The RGB lighting is very dim though, and hardly visible in daylight, as you can see by how dark we needed to make the room to be able to capture the RGB lighting on photo. 

However, managing the cables was less pleasant than we would expect from a $130 case. There were no Velcro straps, just some tie-wraps and included zip ties. This technically works, but feels dated and cheap and makes corrections or later hardware changes more tedious than they need to be. We would also have expected a better design for hiding cables coming toward the motherboard, such as a rubber grommet that seals the hole in the motherboard tray or at least a shroud that covers the holes. 

Benchmark Settings

For thermal and acoustic testing, we are using the following software and settings: 

Test Results

The Silverstone SETA A1 comes with three fans, one 120mm exhaust unit and two huge 200mm fans at the front intake. These fans can spin at up to 1200 RPM for the 120 mm unit and 800 RPM for the 200mm fans. We tested their minimum speeds and found that all three fans are happy to spin at about 400 RPM when things need to stay quiet. It is worth noting that the bearings of the fans were quieter after warming up. They added .5 dB of noise during idle when we had just started the system.

Acoustic Results

For our acoustic tests, we run three scenarios: CPU full load, CPU and GPU full load, and an optimized idle. The CPU Full Load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test we add the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super FE at 75% fan speed, because in practice it never runs at 100 percent and is far too loud when it does.

For the optimized idle, we run the GPU fan speed at 40 percent (the 2070 Super FE GPU does not have a Zero-RPM mode), and run the CPU and included case fans at the lowest speed they will spin at.

In the acoustic tests, the SETA A1 didn’t impress. We would have expected the huge 200mm fans to keep the system very quiet. But alas, the single 120mm unit at the rear seems to pour salt onto those hopes. In the optimized idle scenario with all fans running at the lowest speed they can, the SETA A1 put out a slightly higher decibel reading than be quiet!’s open mesh Pure Base 500DX, though still lower than the Phanteks Eclipse P300A.

With the case fans at full speed, we also measured a 1 dB higher noise level than the aforementioned cases, which is very peculiar given the two huge and thus supposedly quiet fans and restrictive front panel. Of course, you can achieve quieter results by limiting the 120mm fan’s maximum speed in the fan curves, but you’ll be sacrificing CPU temperatures.

Thermal Results

For the thermal tests, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100 percent. The i9-9900K is pegged at a 4.6GHz clock at 1.1v on all cores to ensure consistent power consumption across test scenarios, and letting the GPU run at 75 percent fan speed enables it to maintain its power target while maintaining one set reasonable fan speed, so that the temperature is the only variable that can change.

Thermally, the SETA A1 also puts down some interesting results, though they’re not as concerning as its acoustics. The CPU temperature recorded was higher than the other two cases we have tested at this location. The SETA A1 got 1 degree warmer than the Phanteks P300A, which only has a single exhaust fan in its stock configuration compared to this case’s three fans. That said, the GPU temperature was excellent thanks to the fresh supply of cool air.

We removed the front filter and reseated the CPU cooler to see if that would help temperatures, but neither helped.

Standardized Results

To correct for differences in case fans, for the standardized test we remove the standard case fans and replace them with Corsair ML120 or ML140 units. Up to three fans may be installed, preferably one at the default exhaust location and two at the front intake, in the biggest sizes the case supports. The above tests are then repeated, but because the Corsair ML fans have absurdly high maximum speeds, we run those at 1200RPM for the load tests as no case fan should ever need to run above those speeds.

Silverstone’s SETA A1 puts down good numbers in the standardized test, which shows us that the included fans aren’t great performers. Although temperatures are a tiny bit higher than the open-mesh cases we’re comparing it against, the noise levels are a little lower, largely thanks to the solid front.

It’s also worth noting that although Silverstone says the chassis doesn’t, we found that it does, in fact, support a 140mm fan at the rear. A radiator wouldn’t fit, though.

Conclusion

When Silverstone’s SETA A1 landed on our test bench, we had high expectations. It costs $130, and for that money you should expect to get a case that offers high-end features, or at worst upper mid-tier quality with great performance. The SETA A1 does live up to that with a wonderfully manufactured exterior, but this isn’t a case you’ll want to constantly be making build changes in.

The tough-to-remove warning sticker was a bad start, but we can partially excuse that one as there are probably better ways to remove it than my chemical-happy inclinations. However, as soon as the panels came off and we started building in the case, the hard drive cage got in the way and lacked vibration-damping grommets, cable management was lackluster, the front panel came off with difficulty and the front filter required too much work to remove.

These issues could also be forgiven if the case performed very well in testing, but it didn’t do that either. Performance wasn’t terrible, but if you’re paying this much money for a chassis then you’re probably not expecting its large included fans to perform worse than Corsair’s loud ML spinners.

At a price point of $90, or maybe even $100 if you really like the brushed-aluminum slab, the Silverstone SETA A1 might be worth it, but we wouldn’t pay $130 for this case. While it doesn’t fail at anything, it doesn’t excel anywhere, either.

You know what we like? Choice. Choice is good, especially when you’re looking at premium products. This year it seems that Silverstone has really anchored itself onto that mantra with its latest swathe of cases for this year's CES.  

SETA A1 - $120 - 15th Jan 2020 

The SETA A1 is the first in a long list of new chassis from the company and boy is it something special. With a sleek curved aluminum front panel, surrounding a steel shell, and a tempered glass side panel, the SETA A1 is available in potentially five different color skus. On the show floor we spotted three of those five, black and silver, white and copper, and the black and anthracite grey models, however marketing materials suggest that there may also be a black on black version and a white and pink variant as well.

It’s that front panel that’s most striking, and with an ATX interior complete with PSU shroud cover, support for vertical GPUs, and plenty of modern touches it’s a chassis that looks to be capable of even giving Apple a run for its money in the design department, but without costing the earth. 

According to Silverstone it also supports up to 2x 200mm front intake fans, and comes with some impressive ARGB lighting as well, although we’ll have to wait and see for that one.

FARA B1 & R1  - $59 - Q1 2020 

Next up we have Silverstone’s Fara B1 and R1 cases. The R1 (the one on the right) features a honeycomb mesh front panel, to help provide plenty of front intake airflow, whilst the B1 although featuring a similar interior, has a more traditional external front panel, that doesn’t quite provide the same intake access. That said, as we know from our testing, not all mesh is made equally, so we’ll have to wait and see just how this performs in our benchmarks.

According to Silverstone the Fara also has a “precisely designed interior” to provide sufficient space for high-end graphics cards and multiple cooling solutions. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to take a look at the insides but from what we can gather from the specs, it should support up to the ATX motherboard form factor, a standard ATX PSU (160mm max), GPUs up to 325mm in length (with the front case fans installed), and the CPU cooler can reach a height of 165mm.

Cooling support is also a dead giveaway that this follows a more traditional internal orientation, as the front supports up to a 280mm rad, and the roof up to 240mm.

 Alta F1 - $169 - TBD 

Then we have the Alta F1. This is more of a premium chassis, and follows Silverstone’s traditional crazy internal layouts, with a 90 degree rotated motherboard mounting system. It even comes with a vertical GPU mount, so you can have your graphics card fans or waterblock facing the window, but at a 90 degree angle instead, which is something we’ve not seen from a case manufacturer before. 

You also get support for a dual-layer 180mm/160mm fan setup, or you can install up to three 140mm/120mm fans. It’s an all aluminum shell wrapped around a steel-body and interior, and if we’re honest, it looks pretty sweet, if not a bit square.

Sugo SG14 - $70 (w/o PSU) - Q1 2020 

Last but not least we have the Sugo SG14, this is actually quite the interesting case update. Based on the original SG13, the big difference from first glance is the removal of that mesh front panel. The reason for this is that Silverstone has redesigned the interior layout to double the cooling capacity of the case. In fact you can install up to a 280mm AIO radiator on the side of the chassis itself, and then also install a 120mm fan in the rear to act as an exhaust. Compared to last gen where the most you could install was a single 140mm AIO/fan in the front.

It also supports either an ITX or a Mini-DTX motherboard (such as the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Impact), and can house full sized graphics cards up to 320mm in length and 187mm thick. It also supports a single 2.5-inch drive, and up to two 3.5-inch drives if you forsake that 280mm AIO cooler. All that gives it a remarkably small footprint for a case that can house a heck of a lot of processing power.

Anything Else?

Check out this dinky little M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD external dock. Yep you heard that right. The T16 M.2 Docking Station can connect to your PC via USB Type C Gen2, and even has a handy little power button as well. Admittedly, we’re not quite sure who’s going to have a drawer full of M.2 PCIe SSDs to use as storage drives, but still. Maybe SilverStone knows something about the price of NAND flash that we don’t just yet. 

Features and Specifications

Bigger isn't always better when it comes to cases -- especially given that massive three- and four-card  GPU setups have fallen out of favor due to a dwindling game support and hardware limitations from Nvidia. The compact PC case market is booming and Silverstone is hoping to cash in on the craze with its Precision PS15. If nothing else, this case is appealing for its low $60 (£56) price, but can the PS15 beat the competition on more than just price? For those looking for a little more in the way of user-selectable lighting, the Precision PS15 is also available with RGB functionality (PS15B-RGB), but we could only find hat variant for sale on Amazon UK for £77, or about £21 more than the model we’re looking at here.

Specifications

Measuring 15 x 7.56 x 13.82 inches (381 x 192 x 351 mm) and weighing in at just 7.76 lbs (3.52 kg), the Silverstone Precision PS15 is constructed of black steel, plastic, and tempered-glass. As with many cases that mix building materials, the black plastic panels do not visually match the painted metal sections. The result is a glaringly obvious two-tone look.

A perforated metal panel with a large magnetic dust filter covers mounting locations for two 120mm fans or one 140mm spinner up top.

The leading edge of the top panel is home to two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a power button. Directly behind the mesh front fascia you'll find mounts for two 120 / 140mm intake fans.

The removable front panel is made up primarily of dual-layered metal mesh material that also serves as a filter. A back-lit Silverstone logo sits at the bottom of the plastic front frame.

The full-coverage tempered-glass side panel is darkly tinted and held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The opposite side panel is stamped steel and attaches to the case via metal thumbscrews.

Around back, you'll find a standard motherboard I/O area and four expansion slots with punch-out style covers. There’s an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, as well as an exhaust-fan mount outfitted with a 120mm fan. That location features slotted screw holes that lets you slide the fan up or down to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four round plastic feet that elevate the bottom panel approximately half an inch. The Precision PS15 must be turned completely on its side to access the removable power-supply filter for maintenance and cleaning.

The fan filtration system does a good job preventing dirt and dust particles from entering your system. The filter on the top of the case is attached by magnetic seals around its edge. Dual-layer metal mesh built into the front panel acts as a filter for front fans. There, cleaning is best done with the panel removed.

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Hardware Installation and Test Configuration

A small plastic bag contains most of the PS15 case’s accessories: zip ties and a variety of screws, attached to the motherboard tray with a wire twist tie. The simple paper case manual (if you can call it that) can also be found in the bag.

Test Configuration

Drivers and Settings

Interior

A large hole behind the CPU socket area facilitates heat sink changes without removing the motherboard. The Precision PS15 accommodates CPU coolers up to 154mm tall, and GPUs up to 314mm in length and 151mm wide.

Four pass-through holes with rolled-metal edges in the motherboard tray allow cable management. One of the holes at the upper-left edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. The interior of this chassis is very open for a compact PC case.

The overall look is extremely clean but, due to the layout, it's immediately apparent that careful component selection will be required for a successful build.

The front drive cage supports a single 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive internally and a 2.5-inch drive attached to the top. Two additional 2.5-inch drives can be attached to the back of the motherboard tray.

Cooling

There are mounting locations for up to five 120mm fans: two in the front, two in the top and one in the rear. The Precision PS15 can alternatively be outfitted with up to two 140mm fans in the front and one in the top. The chassis ships by default with a single 120mm exhaust fan in the rear. 

As always, we suggest installing at least one intake fan in any chassis that’s equipped with a single 120mm exhaust fan, as one exhaust fan simply cannot provide enough airflow to keep the components in your system cool. Thankfully the case's low MSRP allows you to add a fan or two to your system without getting close to the $100 mark.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can only be mounted in the front and rear of this chassis. The rear mount supports 120mm fans, while the front supports radiators up to 240mm. Although fans can be mounted in the top, due to space limitations, radiators will not fit here with fans attached.

We tested power supplies up to 150mm in length without any issues. That said, we recommend using a modular PSU because of the lack of space between the power supply and the 3.5-inch hard drive rack.

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Benchmark Results and Conclusion

We tested the Silverstone Precision PS15 with our Intel Core i9-7900X test platform. For comparison, we brought in the Bitfenix Enso Mesh, the NZXT H500i, Corsair's Carbide 275R, and the Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L to give you an idea of where this case stacks up against competitors of similar size and feature sets.

Registering 63 degrees Celsius over ambient temperature under load, the thermal performance of the Precision PS15 is about what you can expect from a compact chassis equipped with only a single 120mm exhaust fan. The poor thermal performance can easily be remedied as it is a direct result of the lack of an intake fan (or fans).

As you might expect, GPU temperatures were also higher than in competing cases. The lack of airflow in this chassis as shipped had an overall negative impact on its ability to remove the heat generated by our system components.

We recorded sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. The single 120mm exhaust fan was almost inaudible at idle. Under load, sound output increased to 31.1dBA. The acoustic performance of the Precision PS15 was better than the majority of cases tested against, and dead even with the Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L and the NZXT H500i.

Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value. By being significantly quieter, the Silverstone Precision PS15 scores a better ratio than the Bitfenix Enso Mesh

The overall value of this case is affected when the end user adds one or more intake fans to the system build, effectively adding to the cost of the case. But even though the added fan (or fans) will enhance cooling performance, that would introduce more system noise, negatively impacting its acoustic-efficiency rating. A best-case scenario (pardon the pun) would be reusing a 240mm all-in-one cooler you already own from previous build for better cooling performance without adding to the cost of your system build.

Bottom Line

The Silverstone Precision PS15 is a budget-friendly compact PC case that has all the benefits and drawbacks you'd expect to find in a case of this size and price. If desktop real estate is important, the PS15 is a solid choice. The same goes for price. At $60, this chassis (as well as the Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L) are low-price leaders in this class. The low price should leave room in your budget for an intake fan (or fans), but you may also have a solid spinner or two that you can carry over from a previous build. If that’s an option and your budget is tight, this case is easy to recommend.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Taiwanese case and power supply maker SilverStone brought several new cases to Computex last week, including compact chassis starting at $70, and an E-ATX Alta S1 beast with wrap-around glass look that starts on the front and flows around to its swing-out side panel.

SG14

Starting at the lower-end of the price and size spectrum is the SG14, a silver $70 Mini-ITX case that’s squat but long (11.6x8.7x14 inches), to make room for large graphics cards and full-size power supplies and other beefy components. To show that hardware off, the side panel will be offered in tempered glass. And if you’re lamenting the fact that most modern chassis lack 5.25-inch bays for optical drives, the SG14 hides one here behind its pull-down front panel. The case also has an old-school Shuttle PC-like look, which manages to avoid looking dated thanks in part to the transparent side panel.

Fara B1, Fara V1

Sticking with the same $70 price point, the Fara B1 and Fara B1 are a pair of ATX cases based on similar interior designs. The B1 has a flat front with mesh on either side, with an RGB Silverstone logo up front and a tempered-glass side panel and addressable RGB fans. The Fara V1 has a more aggressive-looking mesh front panel, for even better airflow and an included addressable RGB light strip, but foregoes the glass panel for acrylic.

Seta A1

The $100 Seta A1 has a retro-sci-fi feel with clean, swooping silver lines up front and RGB light coming from behind the angled edges on the top and bottom. There’s support here for a vertically mounted graphics card, and the requisite tempered-glass side panel to show it off, alongside your other components. Radiators can be mounted on the front (360mm), top (240mm) and rear (120mm), and cooling is handled by a couple of large 200mm fans up front behind the aluminum face.

Raven Prototype

Stepping up above the $100 price bracket, Silverstone was showing off a new Raven Prototype case, which isn’t quite finalized, but which Silverstone says will be priced at $189. It sports the same 90-degree motherboard rotation as previous Ravens (and the Fortress line before that), which turns your expansion slots vertical and pulls in cool air at the bottom and lets it rise naturally through the top.

This Raven has a dark translucent front, which lets you see your graphics card from the front. And the space at the back can be used to install a 360mm radiator. Airflow for these kinds of cases tends to be quite good, in general, but Silverstone will be helping out on that front by including two of the company’s 180mm Air Penatrator fans at the bottom. Storage support for this Raven will be a pair of 3.5-inch drives and a pair of 2.5-inch SSDs.

Alta S1

For those with the budget for truly massive builds, the Silverstone Alta S1 supports E-ATX motherboards (up to 14x14 inches), and sports a unique look that sees a partially glass angled front that continues around to the right side panel. The side panel swings out from the front of the case, so you’ll need a lot of clearance to work with this case, but then if you’re building an E-ATX rig, space probably isn’t a primary concern anyway. It also sports the same 90-degree motherboard rotation that puts your ports and slot access up top, where warm air exits after cool air gets sucked in from the bottom.

Priced at $400, the Alta S1 is certainly expensive. But you’ll be spending much, much more on whatever hardware you decide to pack this chassis with, especially if you max out the three 3.5 and seven 2.5-inch drive bays and support for a 140mm radiator up top and up to a 560mm radiator at the bottom. Given the aluminum shell (around a steel frame), glass sides, and massive size of this case, the $400 price point here seems reasonable. In Win’s similarly sized 925 case is expected to sell for up to $100 more, without the snazzy glass front.

Specifications and Part Analysis

The major assets of the SilverStone ST1000-PTS power supply are its compact dimensions (142mm or 5.59 inches depth), low noise output and the highly efficient platform, which meets the 80 PLUS Platinum and Cybenetics ETA-A+ efficiency standards. Is this is enough though to justify the high asking price of $254 (£195)? The fact is that there are better performing products in the same price range, so SilverStone has to either lower this unit's price or release a new version with improved performance, to keep up with the tough competition from Corsair, FSP and Seasonic.  

We have already evaluated the ST1200-PTS, so it was a matter of time before we put its smaller brother on the test bench. The SilverStone ST1000-PTS has the same compact dimensions with the 1200W unit, but because of the smaller capacity it achieves a lower power density score which still looks impressive though, at 554W per liter (it is 664W per liter for the ST1200-PTS). Clearly SilverStone participates in an endless race with one goal in mind, to downsize its power supplies as much as possible. Some years ago, a PSU with only 140mm length had a hard time achieving 750W max power and we see nowadays similar dimension units going up to 1200W, while still keeping the noise output low.

Inside the box, you’ll find several useful accessories. In addition to usual stuff like, fixing bolts and zip ties, it also includes several Velcro straps and a magnetic dust filter, which can be attached at the PSU's fan grille and prevent dust build up at its internals. 

The ST1000-PTS looks like a 600-750W unit rather than a 1kW one, thanks to its small dimensions. Normally 1kW units have a length of 160-180mm, but the ST1000-PTS is 140mm long.

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables and Connectors

All cables are modular and there are two EPS connectors along with eight PCIe ones. Actually the ST1000-PTS uses exactly the same cable configuration as the ST1200-PTS, meaning that it offers a great amount of connectors. The distance between the peripheral connectors is ideal at 140-150mm, but for the PCIe ones, a 100-110mm clearance would be better, since the corresponding sockets on power hungry graphics cards are usually installed side by side.

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 ST1000-PTS uses the same parts with the ST1200-PTS, with the only difference being the addition of a small number of CapXon polymer caps on the secondary side. We expected to see differences in the PFC and the main switching FETs and in the FETs that regulate the +12V rail, but there are all the same. Even the bulk caps are identical, which is weird!

The platform is provided by Enhance Electronics and, on the primary side, a full bridge topology is used along with an LLC resonant converter. On the secondary side, a synchronous rectification scheme is used for the +12V rail, with eight FETs handling this rail, and the minor rails are generated through a pair of DC-DC converters. The electrolytic filtering caps are provided by respectable manufacturers and are of high quality. The majority of polymer caps is provided by Unicon; we also found several CapXon polymer caps.

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Load Regulation, Hold-Up Time, Inrush Current, Efficiency and Noise

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.

The load regulation at +12V might not be super tight, but it is decent. On the minor rails, there is (lots of) room for improvement though.

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.

Something is wrong here. Once the power is cut, the +12V rail's voltage drops almost immediately to a lower level, below 11.4V, and the power ok signal drops too late, so we measure a negative power ok inactive to DC loss delay. SilverStone should fix this the sooner the possible.

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 registered inrush currents are very low, which is a good thing of course.

10-110% Load Tests

These tests reveal the ST1000-PTS’s load regulation and efficiency levels under high ambient temperatures. They also show how the fan speed profile behaves under increased operating temperatures.

Top-notch PF readings and the 80 PLUS Platinum requirements with 20%, 50% and 100% of the unit's max-rated-output are easily met.

20-80W Load Tests

In the following tests, we measure the SST-ST1000-PTS's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10 percent 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.

In the first two tests, the efficiency levels are not high. We would like to see above 70% in the first test, and more than 80% in the second one.

Efficiency

Next, we plotted a chart showing the SST-ST1000-PTS’s efficiency at low loads, and loads from 10 to 110 percent of its maximum-rated capacity. The higher a PSU’s efficiency the less energy goes wasted leading to a reduced carbon footprint, besides lower electricity bills.

With normal loads the unit's efficiency is high, but under light loads it doesn't perform so well.

5VSB Efficiency

The 5VSB rail's efficiency is close to the competition's levels.

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

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 profile could be much more subtle. With higher than 700W loads and at higher than 43 degrees Celsius operating temperatures, the fan's speed goes from 976 to 1480 RPM. This is a huge increase; the fan speed change should be more district.

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

Under normal operating temperatures, the fan profile looks good. It takes more than 850W of load, to enter the 30-35 dB(A) range (comparative noise example: quiet rural area). Given the 1kW capacity and the compact dimensions, which affect the airflow at the internals, the ST1000-PTS performs really well when it comes to noise output.

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Protection Features, DC Power Sequencing, Cross-Load Tests and Infrared Images

Protection Features

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

The over current protection (OCP) at +12V isn't properly set, since it allows this rail to fall below 11.4V, the minimum voltage level that the ATX spec defines. The other rails have way too high OCP triggering points, as well. Lastly, the over power protection (OPP) is not set properly, either.

The over temperature protection has a low triggering point, at 110 degrees Celsius, but we didn't fall into trouble during our high ambient testing. Finally, the power ok signal is inaccurate and this is a great shame for such an expensive PSU.

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.

As you can see in the screenshots above, the 3.3V rail's voltage is always lower than the other two rails (+12V and 5V).

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 Chart

Ripple Charts

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will be also 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 FLIR E4 camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 320x240 (76,800 pixels).

The temperatures of the PSU's internals are at normal levels, despite the 500W load that we applied for a ten-minute period.

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Transient Response Tests, Ripple Measurements and EMC Pre-Compliance Testing

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 extra capacitance on the rails. 

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 1ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 1ms

The transient response is mediocre on all rails, but 5VSB.

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.

There is a high spike at 5VSB, at 5.575V, which exceeds the 5.5V upper limit that the ATX spec sets. The +12V rail performs better in these tests, but still it registers a voltage overshoot during the last test.

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°C increase can cut into a cap's useful life by 50 percent. 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).

The +12V rail has satisfactory ripple suppression, although we are used to see below 30mV in high-end units, under worst case scenario. The 5V rail is the best performer here, while the 3.3V rail's ripple ideally should remain below 30mV.

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110% Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 2

EMC Pre-Compliance Testing – Average & 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 close-by devices.

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

There are some spurs at low frequencies (<1MHz), but none of them goes over the limits.

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Performance, Noise & Efficiency

Performance Rating

The overall performance that the SilverStone ST1000-PTS achieves is low; clearly this unit cannot meet the competition in the 1000W capacity.

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).

Despite its compact dimensions, the high power density and the 120mm fan, the ST1000-PTS manages to keep its overall noise output 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.

This is a highly efficient platform, but as it seems Enhance Electronics had to sacrifice performance in other areas, to achieve this.

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Bottom Line

I find it really strange that the SilverStone ST1000-PTS has exactly the same internals as its 1200W sibling (ST1200-PTS) and naturally I expected high performance, since all of its parts are overrated, but clearly this is not the case. The unit managed to perform really well only in the efficiency section, with its performance being mediocre in almost all the rest areas. Apparently shrinking the dimensions to such a degree, brought trouble to Enhance Electronics' engineers and indeed the higher a platform's power density, the tougher it is to keep the performance at sufficient levels.

The major advantages of the ST1000-PTS, besides its small dimensions and the high overall efficiency, are its tolerance to increased operating temperatures, the tight enough load regulation at +12V and the very low inrush currents. I pushed the unit hard to get higher inrush current numbers, but all of my attempts failed. As a reminder, high inrush currents can cause trouble to your home's electrical infrastructure, so good PSU platforms should keep inrush currents as low as possible.

Some of the main problems of the ST1000-PTS are the improperly set over current and over power protection features. When it comes to PSU protections, I am super picky since those can affect the system's health, in addition to the power supply itself. Moreover, an inaccurate power ok signal is something that I didn't expect to encounter in such an expensive unit. Although it has the same bulk caps with the ST1200-PTS, so naturally its hold-up time should be long enough, somehow it drops the +12V rail too early at below 11.4V, so the hold-up time is short (less than 10ms). To add insult to injury, the power ok signal is completely out of phase, dropping late, thus for a quite large period it provides fake information to the system's circuits. SilverStone should push Enhance to fix this issue the sooner the possible!

As you have probably figured so far, the ST1000-PTS failed to impress me. Given today's standards, the compact dimensions and high efficiency levels are not enough to allow a power supply to effectively meet the competition. For the $254 (£195) that SilverStone asks, there are better alternatives. Some of them include the Corsair HX1000 and AX1000, the EVGA 1000 G3 and the Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 1000.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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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 is well known for its compact, yet powerful, power supplies and it constantly tries to set the power density bar higher. During Computex 2019, it revealed an SFX unit with 750W max power and an SFX-L unit with 1kW capacity. Both units are made by High Power and while there is already an 750W SFX unit available on the market, the Corsair SF750, there is no other SFX-L unit able to deliver 1000W of power.

The SX1000-LTP has an impressive power density score of 969W per liter, while it is 80 PLUS Platinum certified. There is no word yet about the Cybenetics ratings and we are anxious to see the noise (LAMBDA) rating of this unit. The same goes for the SX750-PT model.

The stronger power supply in SilverStone's portfolio will be the DA2000 which belongs to the Decathlon line. As its model number implies, it has 2000W max power and its single +12V rail can deliver up to 166A. Its power density is 861W per liter while its 80 PLUS rating is Platinum. The Decathlon line will also include a 1550W Titanium certified unit with model number DA1550-TI and the Gold-rated DA850-G. The OEM of the two stronger Decathlon units is Enhance Electronics.

For those of you in need of a super-strong TFX power supply, SilverStone will offer the TX700-G with 700W capacity and 80 PLUS Gold rating (there are no Cybenetics ETA and LAMBDA ratings available yet for this model).

There will also be a new addition to SilverStone's passive power supply offerings, the NJ500-PT, which most likely will replace the older NJ520. This unit will use a Seasonic platform so we expect good performance and increased reliability.