The Element

The external box of the ST50EF is the same design as all of the other Silverstone products; it’s subtle and has an air of quality. The box is quite small for a power supply; however, on the inside there are the standard bits and pieces.

You’ll find the power supply itself, a 24 to 20 pin converter, 4 black mounting screws, a detailed manual and a kettle plug. The 24 to 20 pin converter was a bit of a surprise, most manufactures simply have a 20+4 pin configuration that lowers cost and cable clutter in your case. Why Silverstone have chosen this method is beyond me, but it does show their commitment to quality.

The unit is covered in a lead-free matt black spray paint which is a nice change from the ultra shiny excessive finish that are seen on today’s power supplies. It’s subtle in its appearance, and this shows in the label on the side of the PSU. The whole supply is completely black and is designed to sit in the background as opposed to stand out. There is nothing, bar the small label, that marks this unit as Silverstone. I personally thing that it works for this unit. I hope that the results speak louder than any fancy logo would.

Poking out the tail-end of the unit are cables that connect the mains to your PC. You’ll find the main ATX 24 pin plug, 6 standard molex connectors, 2 FDD plugs, 4 SATA power cables, 2 PCI-e power cables and the extra P4 4 pin cable. The ATX cable, the 2 PCI-e cables and the P4 plug are sleeved. This puts this PSU in the gamer category; with its 500w, enough power cables for multiple HDDs and case fans while retaining the ability to power two GPUs. The connections options are more than adequate for most people’s setups.

The power supply uses the honeycomb method of venting the case. Previously, manufactures would use circular holes to allow air to escape, then changed to vertical slots, and then started using honeycomb mesh’s. The honeycomb method is the closest that you can get to nothing being in the way of the airflow. Obviously the best would be an open rear, but there are obvious problems with this (people sticking their fingers in etc.). Using a honeycomb pattern means the air can flow easier, meaning less noise and a less powerful fan is needed.

Looking inside the unit, we see that there are large aluminium heatsinks that take the heat away from the high performance capacitors and other electrical wizardry. The quiet 120mm fan sucks air from beneath the unit and forces it out the back of the unit where it is vented into the room. The fan is shown below. By using the ADDA model number sheet, the fan is: a brushless DC fan, running at 12v, its 120mm big, high speed, with sleeve bearings, 25mm thick, it has 7 blades and its a low noise version. Essentially, all this translates into a well-rounded quiet fan :).

Included in the box is a short manual explaining all the technical information about the ST50EF. Things like the overshoot and hold up time. The manual is in excessive detail and if you wanted to know anything about the PSU, then this is the place to look. Whilst the information is likely to be too much for even the most seasoned PC user, it does show the amount of testing and care that Silverstone have gone to in the R+D department for this unit. The manual reads more like a textbook than actually how to install etc.

From reading the manual and the Silverstone website, the power supply always achieved greater than 80% efficiency no matter what the load put on it. It reaches higher efficiencies depending on the load put on it. This means that it’s essentially on par with the Coolermaster iGreen 430w that I reviewed earlier this month. It should be interesting to see what results the product gets in the testing…