Silverstone SX500-LG 500W Gold SFX-L

I have a good experience with the Sharkoon version, which is available in the EU. If you're in Asia, the Scythe seems like a good alternative. For the US I don't know who has the Sirfa unit besides Silverstone.
 
Slightly highjacking the thread here, but I'm trying to figure out which 500w SFX(-L) to go with as well. I wouldn't want to risk it with a possibly clicking SilverStone unit either, and as Phuncz has pointed out a few times I can't see a reason why not to go with a Sharkoon unit for example. It doesn't have Japanese caps (I think? But why would I want/need those?), but then again the Chieftec unit "should" have those. There's a review comparing all three here (that needs a Google translator though :D), but as far as I can make out they're pretty much the same. If SilverStone is the only that has a better fan quality-wise, what's so bad (quality or bearing wise) I should avoid the others?
 
lapingultah said:
Slightly highjacking the thread here, but I'm trying to figure out which 500w SFX(-L) to go with as well. I wouldn't want to risk it with a possibly clicking SilverStone unit either, and as Phuncz has pointed out a few times I can't see a reason why not to go with a Sharkoon unit for example. It doesn't have Japanese caps (I think? But why would I want/need those?), but then again the Chieftec unit "should" have those. There's a review comparing all three here (that needs a Google translator though :D), but as far as I can make out they're pretty much the same. If SilverStone is the only that has a better fan quality-wise, what's so bad (quality or bearing wise) I should avoid the others?
Click to expand...

Indeed. I was gonna go for Sharkoon, but according to this review, it also has a loud fan. So, now we're at square one.
 
According to the review, all have bad fan noise, chieftec has worse cables and sharkoon has cheaper caps. Since they are all the same price, I'd go with the Silverstone unit.

edit: silverstone is also the only unit with semi-fanless operation, compensating the fan clicking noise
 
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The problem with the Silverstone unit is not the fan noise related to airflow, but the strange noises the fan makes because of the fan controller and the semi-passive feature. To me the Sharkoon is quiet, rarely it makes more noise than the NF-F12 fans at 500-600rpm.
 
Then thats good, maybe the computerbase.de-team had a bad sample. It also seems like different models of the same type perform differently, so maybe it's not aedequate to judge a PSU model just by one review, however it gives an overview how the unit you buy could perform
 
If you look at the graphs from that website, you'll see the Sharkoon and Chieftec are only 0,8dBA louder than no PSU running at all. At max load (480W) they are between 5,6 and 7,8dBA louder then passive. But more realistically their 3rd scenario is more realistic, between 1,2 and 2,7dBA louder than passively.
dBA readings should be interpreted relative and not absolute, so it's good they provided a base reading without a PSU.

Still, not much explaination about their test setup.
 
Phuncz said:
I have a good experience with the Sharkoon version, which is available in the EU. If you're in Asia, the Scythe seems like a good alternative. For the US I don't know who has the Sirfa unit besides Silverstone.
Click to expand...

If you had good experience with theirs, then you'll likely find the SilverStone version to be even better. They reused the fan that took us three months to find/test and certify. Had we not delayed the SX500-LG to go through all of that, their PSU wouldn't be as quiet as it is today.
 
Yes I know, I was going to buy the SX500-LG (reminder 1, 2, 3) but the sound issues caused by the not-so-perfect semi-fanless feature just put me off.

The fan is indeed an excellent choice and the SFF community is thankful, although maybe not as vocally. If the Silverstone was the only 500W SFX-L with that specific fan, it would have been the better choice, but people would have modded-out the semi-fanless feature to avoid the strange noises.

Just like the SFF community massively bought the ST45SF-G, with many replacing the fan or learn to live with the noise. So I hope the next PSU doesn't just fix the semi-fanless issues but also looks for other issues before releasing it as a V1.0 with other issues. Some people won't mind paying a lot more just to have a PSU that's really really really good with a 99,999% guarantee of no (obnoxious) noises. Why do you think people buy Noctua products ? Because they are a sure thing. Do they cost a lot more ? Yes. But worth every penny for my Western-European lazy ass.

Silverstone needs to learn from this in a positive way, that fixing one problem is moot if it causes another one. But Silverstone has another chance with the SX700-LPT. If Silverstone can't follow through this time, I'm seriously considering learning enough about electronics to fix the issue and sell upgraded PSUs on eBay.
 
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Don't want to go OT too much, but have the Sharkoon now and a sleeved ATX cable by Silverstone doesn't work on it, even though it fits fine. Know what 50cm one would?

Unable to comment on noise for now as testing another component that shrouds it.
 
I can't tell from your post, but I hope you compared the pin-out before testing that. If certain wires were crossed, you could have destroyed your motherboard.
 
Yes clearly that wasn't a good idea. Luckily no harm done. I would like to buy a 50CM sleeved cable that would work with this PSU if there is one though.
 
Tony Ou -

Is this the standard Silverstone ST45SF SFX power supply ?
OR is this a revision (ST45SF-G) with a quieter / changed fan?
=
My NCASE M1 power requirements are easily in the 400-500W category,
BUT -- QUIET/Smart Fan operation desired.
=
For example for the HP s5000 Slimline cases (using TFX size PS) retrofits,
using Gigabyte or Asus mobo with a 65W CPU (i7-4770S/i4-4790S),
I have had great results with Seasonic SS-350TGM power supplies,
the fan coming on at ~ 200/225 W usage.

greg
 
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Phuncz said:
Yes I know, I was going to buy the SX500-LG (reminder 1, 2, 3) but the sound issues caused by the not-so-perfect semi-fanless feature just put me off.

The fan is indeed an excellent choice and the SFF community is thankful, although maybe not as vocally. If the Silverstone was the only 500W SFX-L with that specific fan, it would have been the better choice, but people would have modded-out the semi-fanless feature to avoid the strange noises.

Silverstone needs to learn from this in a positive way, that fixing one problem is moot if it causes another one. But Silverstone has another chance with the SX700-LPT. If Silverstone can't follow through this time, I'm seriously considering learning enough about electronics to fix the issue and sell upgraded PSUs on eBay.
Click to expand...

Seeing people scared off of purchasing SX500-LG without actually trying it then buying and recommending another brand that did almost no work was quite discouraging. I was part of the team that gave OK to SX500-LG so for me personally the semi-fanless feature was acceptable. You really have to listen for the faint switching noise with your ears literally right next to it to notice. At normal distance (more than 30cm away) with the PSU installed in the case, it should be hard or impossible to hear for most users. Those who have tried both ours and their PSUs (typically reviewers) have all deemed SX500-LG to be the quieter one.

And no disrespect to those who did purchase SX500-LG and weren't completely satisfied, but I do think the noise concern was blown a bit out of proportion here. It's also made people who've never tried SFX second guessing when planning their build even if they'll likely never notice these faint noises. So while we welcome that the criticisms helped us to push further in making better future SFX PSUs (again as a reminder, we already have the quietest SFX PSUs presently available on the market), I feel they are also hurting us and the SFX reputation somewhat.

SX700-LPT will have a primary load based sensor for controlling PSU fan start/stop so it will have much faster changeover. This means it should literally have no faint hiss noise associated with PSU fan on the edge of starting. And if you were wondering why we didn't just add this function to the SX500-LG and release an updated version, this isn't something we can add immediately to the existing platform unfortunately. However as proof that we intend to make our PSU the best possible on the market and taking feedbacks here, we did update the SX500-LG to all Japanese capacitors for a small price increase since V1.1. (Sharkoon, to our knowledge has mostly non-Japanese capacitors in theirs).


2Entropy said:
Yes clearly that wasn't a good idea. Luckily no harm done. I would like to buy a 50CM sleeved cable that would work with this PSU if there is one though.
Click to expand...

Sharkoon likely used High Power's standard pinout, so you'll probably have to get High Power's ATX PSUs to get the longer cables. Or you could just buy those sleeved extension cables, which we offer as well.
 
w9gb said:
Tony Ou -

Is this the standard Silverstone ST45SF SFX power supply ?
OR is this a revision (ST45SF-G) with a quieter / changed fan?
=
My NCASE M1 power requirements are easily in the 400-500W category,
BUT -- QUIET/Smart Fan operation desired.
=
For example for the HP s5000 Slimline cases (using TFX size PS) retrofits,
using Gigabyte or Asus mobo with a 65W CPU (i7-4770S/i4-4790S),
I have had great results with Seasonic SS-350TGM power supplies,
the fan coming on at ~ 200/225 W usage.

greg
Click to expand...

Hi Greg, the SX500-LG is a completely different PSU from the ST45SF and ST45SF-G. It's larger (deeper by 30mm) than both and compared to the former, has a more modern, higher efficiency platform. It'll be a tighter fit in your case so you may want to double check your case version and/or graphics card before switching to this PSU.
 
Amazon gets only good reviews for the SFX-L 500W.
I heard some occasional rattling during the first two weeks of use, but now my unit is seriously quiet.
The sound profile of the fan may be a bit rough if I put my ear next to it, but the actual db is really low. I sleep less than two meters away from my PC in a closed room with no problem.
Just to clarify, I have observed my unit's fan hover at the point of activation, spinning on and turning off repeatedly, but there wasn't any strange noise.
I appreciate Silverstone's effort to push SFX-L and will buy the 700W version when I do an X99E-ITX build. But Tony sounds a bit too defensive :D
 
Thanks cowsgomoo. You are right that I got a little carried away here. Since we've invested quite a lot into the SFX form factor, if we didn't protect it, then who will? We even went as far as to encourage Corsair to join us as evidenced in a post from two years ago.
 
Tony Ou said:
Sharkoon likely used High Power's standard pinout, so you'll probably have to get High Power's ATX PSUs to get the longer cables. Or you could just buy those sleeved extension cables, which we offer as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. So the Silverstone 50cm 24 pin sleeved (which I have) will not work, but an extension will?

Edit:

I get the idea now, I'd have to use the PSU supplied cable then extend it. A bit more messy but guess it would do the job.
 
Tony Ou said:
Seeing people scared off of purchasing SX500-LG without actually trying it then buying
Click to expand...
The problem here is that I don't want to buy different PSUs to find out which one is the better one and return the rest. Those shipping costs are on me and my free time is valuable to me.
In my opinion it's not the right way to do, I like to research my purchases before I buy and I've never had the need to return something because it didn't live up to my expectations. And I don't know of any way to try before I buy. It's not like a store will take me seriously if I ask them to hook it up to a PC to test it for noise.

I only went with the Sharkoon because it didn't have the semi-fanless feature which made the SX600-G thread into a lair of complain, which I often defended may be too harsh, like you also said. But in the end the problem of the SX600-G was real and the people that bought it had no other way of getting it fixed unless their store was willing to exchange it for another one that could have exactly the same problem.

Tony Ou said:
and recommending another brand that did almost no work was quite discouraging.
Click to expand...
Don't take this the wrong way, but this is Silverstone's problem and it shouldn't be our problem. I would feel very discouraged too but couldn't this have been avoided somehow ? Why didn't Silverstone put the fan in an exclusivity contract ? How did the other manufacturers find out ?
I regret it went this way but this shouldn't be put on us as consumers, since we didn't have any involvement in the production or design process.

Tony Ou said:
SX700-LPT will have a primary load based sensor for controlling PSU fan start/stop so it will have much faster changeover. This means it should literally have no faint hiss noise associated with PSU fan on the edge of starting.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping it's the best out there and it doesn't have any quirky noises, because it's on my wish list, just like the SX600-G and SX500-LG were.
 
Tony Ou said:
You really have to listen for the faint switching noise with your ears literally right next to it to notice. At normal distance (more than 30cm away) with the PSU installed in the case, it should be hard or impossible to hear for most users. .
Click to expand...

I can send you my unit, when i find a replacement. The clicking sound is clearly audiable from 10x that distance...
 
Blk said:
I can send you my unit, when i find a replacement. The clicking sound is clearly audiable from 10x that distance...
Click to expand...

Unless your unit is much worse than mine, it's highly dependent on ambient noise. I take my rig back and forth from home to work, at work with the AC running I can barely make out the ticking with my ear against the case.

But at home late at night I can hear it easily across the room.
 
Ambient noise is a MASSIVE factor in perceived loudness. What sounds fine in an air-conditioned test-lab may be highly objectionable at home. Anechoic testing will give an absolute noise value but not a perceptual one (standing in the chamber with the PSU will make ANYTHING sound way too noisy).

The 'much faster changeover' doesn't sound good for avoiding fan hysteresis though. Hopefully the PSU will actually have a dedicated fan controller that can manage fan spinup/down to avoid bursty behaviour (particular with a load-governed design, as modern CPUs and GPUs are VERY bursty in their power consumption).
 
not dismissing any of the noise complaints here but FWIW just ordered 2 of these for gaming kiosk builds in SG05s and was impressed. Got V1.1s and they were near silent and felt solid and well made. So it seems really hit or miss.
 
Have heard Sharkoon fan by itself now, and it has a more normal "quiet" character at low load. My issue with the Silverstone was how the fan made an unpleasant noise while spinning, which I could hear over the CPU cooler quite often.

One more question for Phuncz. I can't get WC pump working with the 4 pin molex on the Sharkoon. Is this because they don't supply 5v to the end plug and I need to supply it from the sata power instead, i.e. get an adaptor?
 
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I couldn't tell you, I don't have experience with powering a pump through a 4-pin Molex.
 
Tony Ou said:
Seeing people scared off of purchasing SX500-LG without actually trying it then buying and recommending another brand that did almost no work was quite discouraging. I was part of the team that gave OK to SX500-LG so for me personally the semi-fanless feature was acceptable. You really have to listen for the faint switching noise with your ears literally right next to it to notice. At normal distance (more than 30cm away) with the PSU installed in the case, it should be hard or impossible to hear for most users. Those who have tried both ours and their PSUs (typically reviewers) have all deemed SX500-LG to be the quieter one.

And no disrespect to those who did purchase SX500-LG and weren't completely satisfied, but I do think the noise concern was blown a bit out of proportion here. It's also made people who've never tried SFX second guessing when planning their build even if they'll likely never notice these faint noises. So while we welcome that the criticisms helped us to push further in making better future SFX PSUs (again as a reminder, we already have the quietest SFX PSUs presently available on the market), I feel they are also hurting us and the SFX reputation somewhat.

SX700-LPT will have a primary load based sensor for controlling PSU fan start/stop so it will have much faster changeover. This means it should literally have no faint hiss noise associated with PSU fan on the edge of starting. And if you were wondering why we didn't just add this function to the SX500-LG and release an updated version, this isn't something we can add immediately to the existing platform unfortunately. However as proof that we intend to make our PSU the best possible on the market and taking feedbacks here, we did update the SX500-LG to all Japanese capacitors for a small price increase since V1.1. (Sharkoon, to our knowledge has mostly non-Japanese capacitors in theirs).
Click to expand...

Tony, I know you already subsequently mentioned you were a bit out of line, but many people can't simply purchase a product and then return it - we get charged 15% restocking fees at a minimum. Because of this, we must do as much research as possible to determine what may be the best possible product BEFORE the purchase is made.
 
2Entropy said:
Have heard Sharkoon fan by itself now, and it has a more normal "quiet" character at low load. My issue with the Silverstone was how the fan made an unpleasant noise while spinning, which I could hear over the CPU cooler quite often.
Click to expand...

They use the same fan model as we do, so they should sound exactly the same when running at the same speed. If ours is clearly louder than theirs running with the same power draw and environment/temperature, something must be wrong!


Vittra said:
Tony, I know you already subsequently mentioned you were a bit out of line, but many people can't simply purchase a product and then return it - we get charged 15% restocking fees at a minimum. Because of this, we must do as much research as possible to determine what may be the best possible product BEFORE the purchase is made.
Click to expand...

Totally understand! That's why I had to say something because I believe we offer the better product. Those who were initially scared off and bought variants from other brands will mostly likely going to be happy with the SX500-LG anyways. If the purchasing decision was made based on price, then I'd have no problem with that since SX500-LG now come with all Japanese capacitors and is a little more expensive. But if the price is the same and the purchasing decision was made based on what they read in Hardforum, then I would be doing everyone a disservice here by not speaking up.
 
Tony Ou said:
They use the same fan model as we do, so they should sound exactly the same when running at the same speed. If ours is clearly louder than theirs running with the same power draw and environment/temperature, something must be wrong!
Click to expand...

It's possible I had a bad fan. This was my second PSU, but the other is in a build where the surrounding components are too loud to hear the fan (also in a cabinet so noise isn't as much of a concern). If your 700w was on the market I would have tried that, but didn't want to lose the gamble of the replacement model having the same characteristics. Sharkoon was actually quite a bit more money as had to be shipped from another country, so not ideal.
 
For some reason I can get pump working fine on other PSU but no joy on Sharkoon. This is a dealbreaker and looking at returning it now. Looks like I might have no choice but to go for this model again?

EDIT:

Reading back through this thread, its clear that the noise is inherent to the design and any unit I buy will have it. I cannot see a consensus as to a silent replacement for the fan though, looks like the silverstone fan can make a chattering noise and the only bearing fan I've seen is by Gelid and is 15.8mm high.

My system only needs 3-350watt at peak and spends most of the time at 100w or below. Would the 600w SFX deliver a better experience noise wise? Quite stuck here.
 
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I currently have a SX500-LG and ordered the Silverstone SFX 600w. I'll let you know what I find. The 500w definitely has some odd random crackling noises.
 
My rev 1.1 SX500-LG that I received a week ago certainly is the most noticeable sound in my case when the pc is at idle. I'm disappointed as well.
 
Just built an ml08 using the sx500-lg psu (v1.1), and I have noticed the strange (clicking) sound and the psu fan isnt spinning correctly: it wobbles, the fan is not parallel with the psu.
Happened with anyone else? Is it normal?
 
500 SFX Model looks great on paper but concerned about the noise issues. Aren't those issues being addressed by Silverstone?
 
Can a Silverstone SX500-LG handle the following setup

1. 4790K @4.5GHz (1.20V)
2. GTX 980 Ti close to 1500MHz core (won't be overvolting though.)
3. 8GB x 2 DDR3-2400 1.65V
4. 500GB Samsung 850 Evo (will add a couple more drives later, but they will all be SSDs)
5. Asus Z97I Plus motherboard

I currently have a GTX 970 and am wondering if I can replace it with a reference GTX 980 Ti without altering anything else in the rig.
 
It would run that setup fine. I am using the SX500 to run

4790K @ 4.7 @ 1.19v
Titan X
16GB DDR @ 1.5V
1x SM951 SSD and 3x SATA SSD
Asus Impact VII

Not impressed with the noise when the fan starts spinning though. All the money I invested in silent fans totally wasted once it spins up. I will be looking for quieter alternatives once they are available next year.
 
manny27 said:
It would run that setup fine. I am using the SX500 to run

4790K @ 4.7 @ 1.19v
Titan X
16GB DDR @ 1.5V
1x SM951 SSD and 3x SATA SSD
Asus Impact VII

Not impressed with the noise when the fan starts spinning though. All the money I invested in silent fans totally wasted once it spins up. I will be looking for quieter alternatives once they are available next year.
Click to expand...
Awesome. Thank you very much.
 
Tony Ou said:
I agree and that's why I am here on the forum. Hope you enjoyed that Sharkoon unit, without SilverStone's involvement (spurred on by the feedbacks received here and elsewhere after SX600-G's release) while developing the SX500-LG, Sharkoon wouldn't have had that quieter fan in their PSU now.
...
Click to expand...

So the High Power SFX-L500GD stock fan was louder and Silverstone involvement resulted in a quieter fan which Sirfa than decided to offer to other partners? Was the ribbon cable Silverstone input as well?

By the way, why not add an Eco mode akin to EVGA's G2 in a future revision? Could you guys add a high density sleeve to the main ribbon cable for your next projects?
 
My NCASE M1 target build has always been for HTPC/Quiet operation.

I have sucessfully accomplished this objective with a variety of Builds:
HP Pavilion Slimline s5000 series mITX/FlexATX/mDTX cases; Seasonic TFX-350; and Noctua fans.
HP a300 (Panther) and a1000 (Mojave) series mATX cases; Corsair 450/500w supply; and Noctua fans.
===
Due to feedback of this forum, I have scratched Silverstone SX-500-LG from further consideration.
That leads me back to the Silverstone ST45SF-G SFX power supply (version 2.0), now a 3-year old design.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=342

Too bad I can't convince Seasonic to offer their TFX-350 design with its Smart and Silent Fan Control [S3FC]
in the SFX form factor at 400-450 watt class. I used the OEM/bulk version, until the Retail version release.
http://www.seasonicusa.com/TFX-350.htm
 
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