SilverStone SX1000 SFX-L Power Supply Review

The SilverStone SX1000 is the strongest small form factor PSU money can get you today.

SilverStone SX1000 SFX-L
(Image: © SilverStone)

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The SX1000 is the strongest small form factor PSU on the market today, and in reality, it is way stronger than its paper specs since we pushed it up 1480W. This is 148% above its nominal capacity! Enhance, the OEM behind this platform delivered a solid unit to SilverStone, with quite good build quality and top-notch parts. 

This is also shown by the provided warranty, which at five years is pretty long, given this unit's insane power density score. In other words, the SX1000 is a small, only in dimensions, power factory, able to support everything you throw at it. With some small improvements, it can be way better. We would like to see a properly working over-temperature protection, better ripple at 12V, lower turn-on voltage at 5VSB, and a lower Power-On time. 

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The competition in this 1000W small form factor category is non-existent since, so far, the SX1000 is the only PSU of its kind. We are not sure if more brands will follow SilverStone's path and release such strong SFX-L units, something that would make Enhance Electronics happy since, so far, it seems to be the only one having such strong small form factor platforms. 

In the SFX-L form factor, the only alternative is the lower-capacity SilverStone SX800-LTI, which has Titanium efficiency and higher overall performance. However, both the SX1000 and SX800-LTI have high price tags, especially in the US market where there are extra fees, so they do not address most users but only those who need such high power density. 

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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.

Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

  • littlechipsbigchips
    Why would anyone need 1000 watts in small itx case ? it will only take one GPU anyways and no one needs 1000 watts for that.
    Reply
  • anonymousdude
    littlechipsbigchips said:
    Why would anyone need 1000 watts in small itx case ? it will only take one GPU anyways and no one needs 1000 watts for that.

    If you want to stay around 50% load for max efficiency then this needed. Especially when people cram like a 3090 and a 5950x/ into an ITX with custom water cooling and stuff just because they can. Alternatively they might be a modder where they need the smaller PSU for some reason. Definitely a niche product though.
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    I have the 700w version of this in a Fractal Design ITX case. It does not ship with the bracket necessary to mount to an ATX PSU location. Just sharing for others to be aware of.

    Nearly silent PSU, by the way.
    Reply
  • junglist724
    littlechipsbigchips said:
    Why would anyone need 1000 watts in small itx case ? it will only take one GPU anyways and no one needs 1000 watts for that.
    My 3090FE trips OCP on my SF750 platinum in several games at 4K. Asus even said they measured up to 940W peak power draw from a 3090 in a recent video showcasing their new Thor PSUs. oy65PZCTIlc:2270View: https://youtu.be/oy65PZCTIlc?t=37m50s
    Reply