Kingwin Stryker STR-500 Power Supply Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Kingwin Stryker STR-500 Power Supply Review - Kingwin, might not be the first name that comes to mind when looking for a top-shelf PSU, but in our testing Kingwin has been very consistent with quality PSU builds. Today we look at its silent 500 watt computer power supply. We all know what happens to computer component cooling when we go silent. Can Kingwin pull off another big win?
 
I have a question that did not get addressed in the review. With fan cooled PSUs, unit orientation is a moot point usually as long as airflow is allowed for but with this unit, what unit orientations were used in testing? I'm guessing that the outer heatsink which makes the "top" of the unit was on top but some PC cases may reverse this. Wondering how well the unit operated on its side or upside down and in tight quarters like in a home theatre PC.
 
jcollett said:
I have a question that did not get addressed in the review. With fan cooled PSUs, unit orientation is a moot point usually as long as airflow is allowed for but with this unit, what unit orientations were used in testing? I'm guessing that the outer heatsink which makes the "top" of the unit was on top but some PC cases may reverse this. Wondering how well the unit operated on its side or upside down and in tight quarters like in a home theatre PC.
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We lock it in an incubator and turn the ambient heat up to 45C as is documented in the methodology linked multiple times in the review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2007/02/25/hard_look_at_power_supplies/
 
How about "PSU overload test" instead of "overclock test", hah
 
The Seasonic is easy at 400W.

But I'm struggling to think of the sweet spot for this Kingwin unit at 500W. A gaming rig with an SSD and water-cooled video card(s)?

Because any spinning hdd and any enthusiast or above video card is going to make noticeable noise, and likely more noise than a fan PSU, so you would lose the benefit of a fanless PSU anyways.

Maybe an i3 server with a large raid array of SSDs?

500W is overkill for any HTPC.
 
Well, my HTPC has a large CPU heatsink with large quiet fan, and a (what was at the time reasonably high-end - Radeon 4850) video card with large quiet fan, along with a slow-RPM hard drive in a quieting cage, so it's the PSU fan that is the noisiest thing in the system. Yeah, I could get away with 400W when I'm not gaming (which is what's in there now,) but when gaming, the PSU fan *REALLY* cranks up.

I'm seriously considering the switch to this. Powerful enough to handle gaming on the system, and dead silent.

Of course, I could also swap in a new lower-power video card, or even replace the whole guts with a Llano, and give up some gaming performance (I don't play anything truly demanding on the HTPC,) in exchange for not taxing the 400W PSU that's in there now...
 
Does anyone else use this unit? I'm building a "silent but powerful" computer and am wondering the best way to stick this into my Arc Midi case so that the unit has airflow and doesn't roast. Any ideas?
 
FrgMstr said:
Kingwin Stryker STR-500 Power Supply Review - Kingwin, might not be the first name that comes to mind when looking for a top-shelf PSU, but in our testing Kingwin has been very consistent with quality PSU builds. Today we look at its silent 500 watt computer power supply. We all know what happens to computer component cooling when we go silent. Can Kingwin pull off another big win?
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Necro, but I still have this unit. I used it for about a year, the put it in storage. Pulled it out 7 years later and fired up my old X58 with it. lol. Yeah it was a great PSU. Johnny Gury did a review of it way back in the day and gave it really high marks.
 
pendragon1 said:
to point out stupidity.
(28) Thread NECRO-ING is not allowed unless specific to the old thread and necessary. Mods will determine what is necro-ing and what is not.
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Report it then. It's specific, but remains to be seen if it is necessary. Most things in life aren't, except food, clothing, and shelter. Some people, for instance, may still be using this unit. I'm reaffirming that it is a quality PSU stuill running for me. I came upon the thread by doing a search engine search for it for some research I was doing. Had no idea HOCP did a review of it way back in the day.
 
pendragon1 said:
to point out stupidity.
(28) Thread NECRO-ING is not allowed unless specific to the old thread and necessary. Mods will determine what is necro-ing and what is not.
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Where else would a post about a kingwin stryker str-500 go? I hardly think making a new topic about pulling one out of storage is worthy of its own thread. This seems like the best place to say you pulled one out after 7 years and its still working.
 
motqalden said:
Why did you put it in storage if it was so good lol.
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Could have upgraded? I think I have 2 basically new power supplies sitting on a shelf right now. A seasonic 600w bronze unit that I upgraded to a 750w gold, and some cheapo 400w corsair that I replaced in a server with a 450w gold psu because its efficiency was better and I was going to run the server all the time.
 
munkle said:
Where else would a post about a kingwin stryker str-500 go? I hardly think making a new topic about pulling one out of storage is worthy of its own thread. This seems like the best place to say you pulled one out after 7 years and its still working.
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i hardly think its worth mentioning, at all, let alone necroing. continuously running might have been a different story. no need to reply, ive made my point.
 
pendragon1 said:
i hardly think its worth mentioning, at all, let alone necroing. continuously running might have been a different story. no need to reply, ive made my point.
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Capacitors age just sitting on a shelf, its nice to know if it still works after all this time, even better would be an in depth review. I've had inverters and psus that I have used once or twice and then they sat for years and I pulled them out again and they would die with any sort of load on them. They look new but aren't. If you don't think its worth mentioning just report it. There is some value in the post, not a ton but at least we know the psu isn't completely crap after 7 years.
 
munkle said:
Capacitors age just sitting on a shelf, its nice to know if it still works after all this time, even better would be an in depth review. I've had inverters and psus that I have used once or twice and then they sat for years and I pulled them out again and they would die with any sort of load on them. They look new but aren't. If you don't think its worth mentioning just report it. There is some value in the post, not a ton but at least we know the psu isn't completely crap after 7 years.
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I could do that. it would be interesting. What program should I use to get it to run hard? I have an old nVidea GTX295 card that i can stick in there. That sucker needs lots of power--lol. The rig it is in is an old X58 job with a Bloomfield 920 CPU in it. Should generate to load with that 295 card. Should be able to get at least 390 watts from the card wide open then whatever the old 920 takes. that should just about max it.
 
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