Silverstone SX500-LG 500W Gold SFX-L

A

Aibohphobia

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 16, 2013
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Figured it was time to give this its own thread instead of constantly spamming the SX600-G thread with news about this unit :D

Product page: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=527&area=en

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Specs:

500W with 40A on the 12V rail

SFX-L form factor: 125 mm (W) × 63.5 mm (H) × 130 mm (D)

Slim 120mm fan, specs here from the man himself

Edit 12/03: Fan appears to be based on Cooler Master XtraFlo 120 Slim (Akasa has a similar fan so I suspect the real OEM is an unidentified third party)

[12/08 edit] Great analysis of the possible fan OEM by veryrarium

Voltage/RPM curve of stock fan: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041441547&postcount=463

Semi-fanless to 41°C with starting speed of 920RPM (officially, in practice it starts around 300 RPM) and max fan speed of 1480RPM.

Fully modular and comes with short flexible cable kit

Gold-rated efficiency

OEM is High Power/Sirfa

Price: $97 on Amazon


Reviews:

Mini-review from yours truly

Sweclockers review


[10/6 edit] Thanks to veryrarium (our man in Japan) for snapping some great pics of the unit at an event in Akihabara:

Gallery


I think that's all the relevant information. If I've overlooked anything let me know and I'll update this post.
 
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I really hope this PSU can fit in the M1 v2, with an ROG Impact VII and GTX 980 reference style blower design GPU
 
I think it will. Necere said the main concern is if the connectors will clear the back of the card and the PP05-e cable kit it'll ship with is very flexible. You can bend them at sharp right angles. Getting everything installed may be tricky though.
 
With Silverstone making more SFX power supplies, I wonder if they'll make 80+ Bronze versions of their 500W/600W power supplies.
 
MertArm said:
With Silverstone making more SFX power supplies, I wonder if they'll make 80+ Bronze versions of their 500W/600W power supplies.
Click to expand...

They're already 80+ Gold, so why would you want Bronze??
 
MertArm said:
With Silverstone making more SFX power supplies, I wonder if they'll make 80+ Bronze versions of their 500W/600W power supplies.
Click to expand...

Bronze is 82% efficiency at 100% load which for 600W would be ~131W of waste heat to deal with compared to the ~74W waste heat of the SX600-G.

I suppose it's doable but it'll probably scream like a banshee.

AFD said:
Needs a live pic or two in the first post..
Click to expand...

Knew I was forgetting something :p
 
Nivaku said:
I really hope this PSU can fit in the M1 v2, with an ROG Impact VII and GTX 980 reference style blower design GPU
Click to expand...

Aibohphobia said:
I think it will. Necere said the main concern is if the connectors will clear the back of the card and the PP05-e cable kit it'll ship with is very flexible. You can bend them at sharp right angles. Getting everything installed may be tricky though.
Click to expand...

Also, if necessary it may be possible to sink the plugs further into the psu case:

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040833435&postcount=305
 
Same, I can use it in a mod-project anyway if it doesn't fit, so it's either this one or the 450W one I have now that is getting chopped up :) But hopefully it'll just slide in like in was meant to be.
 
With the way that technology is going This seems like the better/fuller psu if it does allow for an over-sized card to fit perfectly fine. I get the feeling that if this fits with a gtx 980 with little to no problems the this will be the new go to psu, with the 600w being the go to for higher powered/extreme overclocked computers or for dual gpu maxwell cards like maybe a gtx 990? or something along those lines. I'm glad im not 100% ready to build my new computer yet xD
 
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I did some quick research, if you consider the following two forum posted pictures,
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040592512&postcount=10309
&
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040777639&postcount=11216

the power supply is a bit recessed(2nd picture shows it sits behind the front mounted ssd), and if you route the cables going back it should not cause a fitment issue, you can see the difference in cable routing. The first link has them coming forward while the second has them going back(under the gpu). Taking this into consideration and the lengths of the regular SFX and the SFX-L differ by 30mm or 1.18in it should(by the pictures linked above) clear the gpu by a smidgen.

Also can someone with a Modular SFX look and see if the Modular plugins sit below the gpu? if so then there is/should be no worries aslong as there is about 1.2-1.3in clearance from the psu to the back of the gpu.
 
I am also really looking forward this PSU for my M1 case. I just got my V2 and assembled everything on it. Right now I am using a Seasonic M12D bronze modular ATX PSU that is outside the M1 case to power up my system, since my GPU card is about 10.5".

I want a quiet computer, this is why I prefer this SFX-L than the SX600-G, because my system should use about 300W when overclocked, the SX600-G will be too loud for me since it is sitting on the desk.

Like Icer Jo said, I really think this PSU will fit without much hassle in the M1.

However, looking at the pictures of the OEM version on the chinese forums, it looks like the mounting holes on this SFX-L PSU are not the same as what we have in the M1. If I remember correctly, the M1 requires 4 screws, 1 per corner. The SFL-X chown on the pictures have only 3 mouting screw holes, 2 on one side (1 per corner), and one in the middle of the other side. I do not remember have seen this middle hole on the mounting bracket of the M1.
 
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GuizmoPhil said:
However, looking at the pictures of the OEM version on the chinese forums, it looks like the mounting holes on this SFX-L PSU are not the same as what we have in the M1. If I remember correctly, the M1 requires 4 screws, 1 per corner. The SFL-X chown on the pictures have only 3 mouting screw holes, 2 on one side (1 per corner), and one in the middle of the other side. I do not remember have seen this middle hole on the mounting bracket of the M1.
Click to expand...

That's strage. But I am certain silverstone will make sure mounting holes for this is the same as for the other SFX PSUs.

Edit:
WiSK said:
Have a closer look :)
http://www.ncases.com/v2/img/m1/v2renders/M1-v2-14-3000x1500.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh. Nevermind:)
 
GuizmoPhil said:
I want a quiet computer, this is why I prefer this SFX-L than the SX600-G, because my system should use about 300W when overclocked, the SX600-G will be too loud for me since it is sitting on the desk.
Click to expand...

I don't think the SX600-G is too loud at 300W load. I have one in my M1 sitting on the desk, and at 300W load I can't hear the psu fan (though that may be because my GTX 980 reference cooler drowns it out, so I can't say for sure). :)

But yes, this SFX-L is still most likely a better choice for the lowest possible noise.
 
The SFX-L is a really nice thought.
Hopefully cooler and quieter than the true SFX versions.

Tony Ou:
Will you please send this one to SPCR aswell (as the 600W)?!
 
backfeed said:
(though that may be because my GTX 980 reference cooler drowns it out, so I can't say for sure). :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's definately the case. Any blower type GPU cooler is louder than your SX600-G at 300W.

I'm used to use ASUS DC2 (DirectCool 2) graphic cards, those are very quiet, it's one of the best stock heatsinks on the GPU market.Usualy the loudest components in my computers are the HDDs (in my NAS) or the case fans(well, all of them together).
 
GuizmoPhil said:
Then this is day 1 buy for me, now all we have to do is wait after Tony to get some release date calendar. Let's hope this unit does not have the high pitched coil-whine noise that the SX600-G has.
Click to expand...

High pitch coil whine is always present in PSUs, and since PSUs are analog devices, the frequency and loudness could vary from one to the other even for the same model. How sensitive each individual user's ears are to high frequency along with the power draw pattern from the connected system all could make a difference. What we always try to do is to fine-tune and reduce noise to acceptable levels on our validation unit using available test platforms at time of development and base our production unit off of it. If you look around user feedbacks from within the last few years, most of our ATX PSUs are doing well in terms of keeping down coil whine noise compared to others.

However, seeing that our SX600-G is getting scrutinized to very high levels (putting ear next to PSU to listen for the noise) despite our fine-tuning efforts that resulted in two months delay for the launch of SX600-G, we decided to spend even more time on the SX500-LG. Our goal is to make it noticeably quieter than SX600-G, but this has proven to be quite difficult as I've shown in the SX600-G thread, the current SFX-L platform with 120mm fan (Scythe) is not noticeably quieter than SX600-G.

Had we launched the SX500-LG without any changes like the Scythe unit, I think 95% of users would probably be very happy anyways since most including SPCR found SX600-G's noise level to be quiet enough (which is a noticeable improvement over the ST45SF-G btw). So I want to apologize to everyone here that SX500-LG will not be delivered until around late November to December time frame. It won't be perfect, but we'll do the best we can given the deadline and the price point that we want to hit.
 
Thanks for the information Tony Ou !

November-December, I can live with that. I am curious if you ever would be able to create a PSU that would be quiet enough for some people in this forum, where people scrutinize SPCR for not having an even higher bar :D

The main issue with the SX600-G that people are feeling is a "chatty" fan, which seem to happen at low fan voltage. I guess this might be an issue with many OEM fans, have you considered MagLev fans to counter this ?
 
Thanks for chiming in Tony :)

For what it's worth I get no coil whine at all from my SX600-G even when powering a 5820K and 2 x GTX 980s.

The fan on mine does chatter slightly but I really don't see a way to avoid that without using a much higher-end fan with FDB or MagLev bearings.
 
Tony Ou said:
High pitch coil whine is always present in PSUs, and since PSUs are analog devices, the frequency and loudness could vary from one to the other even for the same model. How sensitive each individual user's ears are to high frequency along with the power draw pattern from the connected system all could make a difference. What we always try to do is to fine-tune and reduce noise to acceptable levels on our validation unit using available test platforms at time of development and base our production unit off of it. If you look around user feedbacks from within the last few years, most of our ATX PSUs are doing well in terms of keeping down coil whine noise compared to others.
Click to expand...
It's definitely possible to reduce coil whine (Corsair had major success with RM series, for instance), so glad that you are trying your best, too. :)
Tony Ou said:
However, seeing that our SX600-G is getting scrutinized to very high levels (putting ear next to PSU to listen for the noise) despite our fine-tuning efforts that resulted in two months delay for the launch of SX600-G, we decided to spend even more time on the SX500-LG. Our goal is to make it noticeably quieter than SX600-G, but this has proven to be quite difficult as I've shown in the SX600-G thread, the current SFX-L platform with 120mm fan (Scythe) is not noticeably quieter than SX600-G.
Click to expand...
Just curious, why couldn't you install a 120x25mm fan? Is capacitor height the limit? And do you see the possibility of using 25mm-deep fans in future models? Thanks! :)
 
zalbard said:
Just curious, why couldn't you install a 120x25mm fan? Is capacitor height the limit? And do you see the possibility of using 25mm-deep fans in future models? Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's component height. SFX-L is 1.03L. If we subtract the volume of a slim 120mm and standard 120mm fan we end up with 0.82L and 0.67L respectively.

You can see in this pic that the insides are already crammed full of stuff as it is, I just don't see any way of fitting a standard thickness fan in there.
 
Aibohphobia said:
I'm sure it's component height. SFX-L is 1.03L. If we subtract the volume of a slim 120mm and standard 120mm fan we end up with 0.82L and 0.67L respectively.

You can see in this pic that the insides are already crammed full of stuff as it is, I just don't see any way of fitting a standard thickness fan in there.
Click to expand...

Is it supposed to have stuff glued like that? Like in the lower left corner.
 
The white goop you see (all over the PSU) is to fix components in place but it's also meant to reduce coil whine. It's non-conductive.
 
Black5Lion said:
Is it supposed to have stuff glued like that? Like in the lower left corner.
Click to expand...

Yes, lots of PSUs are like that. If I remember correctly it's used to hold parts together, electrically insulate them, dampen vibration/noise, etc.

Edit: Phuncz beat me to it
 
MertArm said:
With Silverstone making more SFX power supplies, I wonder if they'll make 80+ Bronze versions of their 500W/600W power supplies.
Click to expand...

Probably not. Main reasons being... that a bronze unit will dump much, much more heat than the gold ones, which means you have to engineer the thing to withstand more heat, which not only means more powerful funs, but better heatsinks and other stuff.

So, all in all... you would have a lower quality product.. and it wouldn't be much more different price wise, but it indeed would be noisy as hell.


Tony Ou said:
High pitch coil whine is always present in PSUs, and since PSUs are analog devices, the frequency and loudness could vary from one to the other even for the same model. How sensitive each individual user's ears are to high frequency along with the power draw pattern from the connected system all could make a difference. What we always try to do is to fine-tune and reduce noise to acceptable levels on our validation unit using available test platforms at time of development and base our production unit off of it. If you look around user feedbacks from within the last few years, most of our ATX PSUs are doing well in terms of keeping down coil whine noise compared to others.

However, seeing that our SX600-G is getting scrutinized to very high levels (putting ear next to PSU to listen for the noise) despite our fine-tuning efforts that resulted in two months delay for the launch of SX600-G, we decided to spend even more time on the SX500-LG. Our goal is to make it noticeably quieter than SX600-G, but this has proven to be quite difficult as I've shown in the SX600-G thread, the current SFX-L platform with 120mm fan (Scythe) is not noticeably quieter than SX600-G.

Had we launched the SX500-LG without any changes like the Scythe unit, I think 95% of users would probably be very happy anyways since most including SPCR found SX600-G's noise level to be quiet enough (which is a noticeable improvement over the ST45SF-G btw). So I want to apologize to everyone here that SX500-LG will not be delivered until around late November to December time frame. It won't be perfect, but we'll do the best we can given the deadline and the price point that we want to hit.
Click to expand...

Yup. Coil whine is a damn bitch. Its just almost impossible to correlate to a single component (although its the psu producing it) as I've experienced. Same psu (Corsair HX620) with several different systems (like 6 motherboards from different platforms, and 10 different gpu's) across the years and... some had a lot of coil whine, some had less.... and some, had none.

So, I can only imagine how hard it must be for you guys trying everything and breaking your brains in the process of making something "perfect" only to find out that its not perfect because you can't predict every single component selection.

Oh well, at least you are trying, and kudos for you :D

Yes, we are that 5% pain in the ass :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Tony Ou said:
However, seeing that our SX600-G is getting scrutinized to very high levels.
Click to expand...

there would be less to scrutinize if higher quality parts were used in its construction, such as the capacitors

sure it would cost more but i'd gladly pay the difference

if the same lack of quality returns to the upcoming sx500-lg i'm sure the same complaint train will ride once again :(
 
royce321 said:
there would be less to scrutinize if higher quality parts were used in its construction, such as the capacitors

sure it would cost more but i'd gladly pay the difference

if the same lack of quality returns to the upcoming sx500-lg i'm sure the same complaint train will ride once again :(
Click to expand...

The capacitors are not causing the coil whine. In fact it's most likely that "dirty" residential power providers are the real culprit.

Nonetheless, people hang on the caps as though they're some sort of fatal flaw in an otherwise stellar product (with nothing even conceivably similar in the market place).

Haters gonna hate.

Paul Johnson from [H] gave the unit a recommendation.
Jonny Guru gave the unit a recommendation.
SPCR gave the unit a recommendation.

Honestly now...

Would I have been happier with a tier-1 choice of all components? Sure. I'd pay that premium even though the benchmarks would likely have not been impacted by this.

But let's not pretend that design choice makes this a bad component. None of the reviewers have come to a conclusion like that at all. So far they have all come away quite impressed with it.
 
not trying to hate just my reaction to the johnnyguru review :)

just hoping the complaints don't transfer over to the 500 as i'm in need of a sfx psu for my silverstone sg10
 
royce321 said:
just hoping the complaints don't transfer over to the 500 as i'm in need of a sfx psu for my silverstone sg10
Click to expand...

Maybe somebody who knows their caps can take a look at the teardown of the High Power unit here: http://tu.pcpop.com/all-1039590.htm

If you don't speak Chinese I highly suggest checking out the Google Translate version, it's hilarious :p

From what I could gather from the translation, the caps are mostly NCC and I saw mention of Rubycon. I know NCC is good don't know where Rubycon is in the capacitor quality hierarchy.
 
royce321 said:
not trying to hate just my reaction to the johnnyguru review :)

just hoping the complaints don't transfer over to the 500 as i'm in need of a sfx psu for my silverstone sg10
Click to expand...

Any particular reason to put an SFX PSU into the SG10?
 
vipz said:
Any particular reason to put an SFX PSU into the SG10?
Click to expand...

WY2lwyj.jpg

HmavTGX.jpg


ignore the dust :D but i'm looking for more breathing room in the case....at the moment out of laziness i keep the top off and the long corsair psu wires hanging out the back......it does the job but its just too long for me :(

also at this orientation i am unable to fit a 120mm fan on the front due to the cursed cable hangoff from the extension that travels from the 90 degree plug towards the rear of the case

would be interesting to get a sfx psu and install a green led fan or at least mod one for the proper effect as the blue coming out the front is nice to see ;)
 
For the amount of money it seems like you'd be better off with a good modular ATX unit with the plug facing the right direction. Even if you assume the SX500-LG will cost no more than the existing ST450SF-G you're probably still looking at a 50% premium for not much gain.
 
vipz said:
For the amount of money it seems like you'd be better off with a good modular ATX unit with the plug facing the right direction. Even if you assume the SX500-LG will cost no more than the existing ST450SF-G you're probably still looking at a 50% premium for not much gain.
Click to expand...

i'd anticipate that there would be an extra charge for custom shorted cables as modular cables are usually full sized therefore my interest in the sx600 with the built in short cable set, and the modular system being an added bonus

theres little interest in the 450 as a higher wattage gives room for expansion
 
Most people interested in the SX500-LG seem to be the people that are using the ST45SF-G in something like the Ncase M1 and want something quieter and/or a smidge more capacity.
If you have enough room for an ATX PSU, you are indeed beter off with one.
 
Tony Ou said:
High pitch coil whine is always present in PSUs, and since PSUs are analog devices, the frequency and loudness could vary from one to the other even for the same model. How sensitive each individual user's ears are to high frequency along with the power draw pattern from the connected system all could make a difference. What we always try to do is to fine-tune and reduce noise to acceptable levels on our validation unit using available test platforms at time of development and base our production unit off of it. If you look around user feedbacks from within the last few years, most of our ATX PSUs are doing well in terms of keeping down coil whine noise compared to others.

However, seeing that our SX600-G is getting scrutinized to very high levels (putting ear next to PSU to listen for the noise) despite our fine-tuning efforts that resulted in two months delay for the launch of SX600-G, we decided to spend even more time on the SX500-LG. Our goal is to make it noticeably quieter than SX600-G, but this has proven to be quite difficult as I've shown in the SX600-G thread, the current SFX-L platform with 120mm fan (Scythe) is not noticeably quieter than SX600-G.

Had we launched the SX500-LG without any changes like the Scythe unit, I think 95% of users would probably be very happy anyways since most including SPCR found SX600-G's noise level to be quiet enough (which is a noticeable improvement over the ST45SF-G btw). So I want to apologize to everyone here that SX500-LG will not be delivered until around late November to December time frame. It won't be perfect, but we'll do the best we can given the deadline and the price point that we want to hit.
Click to expand...


Thanks for keeping us updated. I appreciate what you're doing.
I have a ST45SF-G and the 300W FSP included in the SG05, and this is just my opinion.
I don't expect complete silence. I think the fan noise with the 300W FSP is acceptable (although I wouldn't complain if it is quieter). I have to place my ear less than a feet away to hear it. The ST45SF not so much. My case is around 3 feet away on my desk. The fan noise was unbearable. At first the psu was mounted with the fan facing the top of the SG05. When I flipped it, it was slightly less unbearable. Now I have it it a different room.
There was also coil wine when I paired the ST45SF-G with a 460gtx, but the noise went away after a week.

So now I'm waiting for the SX500LG, or are there plans for lower wattage SFX-L models after Dec? Or just simply place the ST45SF-G in a SFX-L casing?
 
NFSxperts said:
So now I'm waiting for the SX500LG, or are there plans for lower wattage SFX-L models after Dec? Or just simply place the ST45SF-G in a SFX-L casing?
Click to expand...

High Power (the OEM) makes a 400W version so conceivably SilverStone could release their own version of that too.
 
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