Silverstone ST60F Power Supply
Review by: Steve
Edited by: Ji4m
Provided by: Silverstone
Price: $190 Canadian

Introduction:
In the past we have looked at a couple of cases from Silverstone. These cases have done nothing but impress us from end to end. Today we are taking a look at their new modular design power supply, the ST60F. Packing 600 watts of power, will this power supply continue on the Silverstone tradition of awesome products?

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In The Box:
(1) ST60F power supply with all modular cables attached
(4) Black mounting screws
(1) Manual

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Specs:

Features:
One of the more advertised features of the ST60F power supply would be the modular cable design. This is becoming the next big thing in terms of power supply features. Many manufacturers are slowly starting to built more supplies with this feature and more and more consumers are making it a big point they look for when purchasing. I was quite impressed with Silverstone's modular cable layout on this power supply. I'll give you a quick run down of all the cables and connectors this supply features:

• 1 ATX 24/20 pin power lead
• 1 AUX 6 pin connector
• 1 - 8 pin connector
• 1 ATX 4 pin
• 2 PCI Express (supports SLI)
• 1 - ten pin SATA lead, the cable branches off to 4 SATA power leads
• 4 - four pin connectors, two cables that go into two of these have 2 molex connectors, the other 2 cables have 2 molex and 1 floppy power lead on each.

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In terms of covering all the major power connectors, Silverstone has done it. They have even covered some less-common plugs such as AUX 6 pin and 8 pin connectors. I was very satisfied with the modular layout. The only thing I would have liked to have seen different is that the SATA connector be divided into two cables. It is currently one 10 pin lead that plugs into the power supply and branches off into 4 SATA power connectors at the end. For those running only one or two SATA drives, having all the extra leads will just leave more clutter in the case. Instead, two cables with two SATA leads each would be more logical.

The ST60F is cooled by one large and fairly quiet 120mm fan. Silverstone discloses the fan's noise level as 24dB, a minimum which is exceptionally quiet, however that can change as the speed is controlled depending on the internal temperature/power supply load. Overtop of the fan is a 120mm fan grill which is a flat black colour to follow the colour scheme of the rest of the exterior. The 120mm fan is vented out the rear of the power supply which is one large mesh with only a power switch and plug for the power cable back there.

The entire exterior of the power supply is painted a flat black colour which I personally think looks quite awesome. There are a handful of stickers found on the exterior of the supply, unfortunately 3 are on the side which would face out of a case which might have a window. As I've said with power supplies in the past, it would be great it those stickers could really be on the opposite side or top of the power supply where they can be read when needed but not be always visible through a window.

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A lot of power supplies these days are starting to go to a dual +12V rail design. This allows for a more stable current to be supplied to the increasing number of devices being run off power supplies. Silverstone wanted to take that one step further and actually double it, the ST60F power supply features 4 +12V rails! To ensure all your devices are kept safe, the power supply has PFC (Power Fault Correction) and the internals are all industrial class components. There are also a bunch of industry-leading protection features on this supply as well. These are, over current protection, under voltage protection, over voltage protection, short circuit protection and no load operation.

The ST60F is a class above what many may call a “600W Power Supply” on the market now. The ST60F is rated at 600W continuous in 0 ~ 50°C. Silverstone is actually being conservative here due to the modular design. It uses the same core as their ST65ZF. Many high wattage power supplies need to de-rate if they have to run at 50°C. The ST60F is fully able to take the high-load requirements of many SLI and dual CPU systems.