Striding out ahead

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The Strider comes in the standard SilverStone styled box with black and blue being the primary colours. The front of the box has a picture of the top corner of the power supply, with ‘100% modular’ curved around it. The key product specs are given prime real-estate on the front including dual 70A combined continuous output on the 12v line, 100% module, six PCI connectors (two being 8 pin), a 13.5cm fan and efficiency greater than 80%.

The unit, while the box says that it has efficiency greater than 80%, it isn’t certified as 80+. This is because 80+ certification takes time, and 80+ themselves have to test the unit before it gains the certification. I’m sure in time you’ll see a sticker on the box.

Click to enlarge

Out of the box you get a whole bunch of goodies, included four black case screws, a kettle lead, the power supply itself, a cable bag, the manual, six PCI-e cables, an 8 EPS connector, a 4+4 EPS connector, a 20+4 pin connector, two 6 molex + 1 FDD cables, and two 3 SATA cables.

Click to enlarge

The most interesting part of this bundle are the 8 pin PCI-e connectors which SilverStone were the first to introduce which 2900XT’s apparently require for overclocking although this is debatable. In fact, the power supply is CrossFire Certified. You can only actually connect four of the six PCI-e cables at one time, which means that two will always find their home in the cable bag. The cable bag is nothing special, but means that you can keep all of the cables in one place.

There are actually two EPS connectors, with one being a solid 8 pin style, while the second one is the more normal 4+4 pin style allowing for back compatibility with older motherboards; both of which can be connected to the Strider at once. The power supply appears to be targeted at server owners as it complies with Intel’s SSI plan which standardises server motherboard connections.

Click to enlarge

To cool the 1000W under the hood, you’ll find that SilverStone have equipped the Strider with a large 13.5cm fan which forgoes any frills such as LED’s and is matt black with a SilverStone logo on the hub. To stop your fingers being sliced by it, there is a matching black grill over it. This fits the usual matt black paint job that the Strider is dressed in. It’s quietly confident in its looks and hopefully the rails will make it stand out rather than bright lights.

Click to enlarge

The rear of the unit has the standard honeycomb with a kettle lead input, an on/off switch and a indicator LED which tells you if you’ve done something wrong (overloaded, shorted etc.) the power supply or if its off/on.

The 1000W is spread over the 3.3, 5 and 12v rails, with the 12’s getting the lions share with 35A apiece on the twin rails. The reasoning behind multiple rails and their downsides are explained in detail in our glossary here. Compared to say, a Kingwin 520W PSU, the 12v rails are very powerful and are almost double. The 3.3v rail gets 25A and the 5v gets 30A to play with.

Click to enlarge

To connect all of your supplied modular cables to this beast, you’ll have to look at the other side of the PSU and you’ll find the labelled sockets. All of these are shaped in a similar manner to your motherboard or graphics card meaning that plugging anything into the wrong socket is difficult.

Amusingly, as the Strider is 1000W capable and 80% efficient, it could pull up to 1200W from your mains; on the SilverStone site, under the Strider questions and answers people have asked how to stop their PC tripping their house circuit breakers. In all seriousness, this power supply would be equal to a small heater and could very well trip your house into a blackout.