One of the highlight features of this power supply for me is the high energy efficiency. Silverstone rates the DA700 as having an efficiency greater than 80%. What's this mean for you? It means more of the AC power taken in will be turned into DC power used by your computer with less energy costs. This not only keeps electricity usage down but it also keeps down excess heat created by less efficient power supplies. Having less heat means the 120mm fan can run much slower and essentially much quieter. You end up with not only a vastly quieter system but also a lower hydro bill, seems like a good trade off! Having the high energy efficiency and quiet fan will also help put Silverstone in the ranks of many other quiet power supply manufactures who are recommended by silent computer builders.

 
(Click to enlarge)

The included cables were highlighted in the specifications, but I'll also point them out here again for you as well:
1 x 24-pin motherboard connector (550mm)
1 x 8-pin EPS12V connector (550mm)
1 x 4-pin ATX12V connector (550mm)
1 x 8-pin PCI-E connector (550mm)
2 x Dual 6-pin PCI-E connector (550mm)
2 x triple SATA connector (500mm +250mm + 250mm)
2 x triple 4-pin IDE & single floppy power connectors
My only real wish with the cables would be that Silverstone would make the 24-pin ATX lead a hardwired cable instead of modular. Since this is a cable everyone's going to use, why make it modular and more susceptible to damage from being plugged in and out a lot? On the contrary though, Silverstone likes to make their power supplies very easy to mount in smaller form factor cases and even released a shorter cable set for their Strider series of power supplies. I'd imagine they chose to make the Decathlon fully modular in case an accessory like that becomes available for this series.

The included cable pouch is a nice touch to safely store away unused modular cables.

 
(Click to enlarge)

Installation:
Having modular cables always seems to make power supply installations quick and easy for me. I mounted the power supply first, before attaching any cables. After that, I wired up the components using only the cables required for my system. I found the cable lengths to be very good, they fit in my mid-tower case just fine and there was still plenty of length on them that could easily accommodate even those larger cases, like a full tower.

When I was plugging in some of the modular cables, I noticed the modular ends on the power supply seemed slightly wiggly and lose. I'm sure this is just a part of the design and mounting process of these plugs, but I felt it worthy enough to point out because some buyers may think that something is wrong with theirs had they not known.

Testing:
I tested the DA700 the same way I test all power supplies here. Idle voltages were recorded and then load voltages were recorded after the system had been at 100% load for thirty minutes. The results are written and discussed below. In addition to that, I also paid very close attention to the sound levels generated by the power supply while in use.

Testing System:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Socket 939) @ stock speeds
Motherboard: Biostar NF4UL-A9
Memory: 1gb (4x256mb) PC3200 400mhz
HDD: Western Digital 160gb SATA II (WD1600JS), Seagate 250gb SATA II
Video: Asus EN7600GS Silent
Sound: Mark Of The Unicorn 8PRE Firewire Audio Interface
Power Supply: Silverstone DA700
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

As you can see, my system was no match for the Decathlon 700 power supply. This is one mighty power supply, capable of running a system far more powerful than mine. Even after loading my CPU up to 100% for a continuous thirty minutes, none of the voltages would budge.

Next was the noise level comparison, which is something I always look forward to in power supplies because in my silent system they are generally the largest source of noise. The DA700 surprised me, it was much quieter than the Thermaltake Tough Power 850W that I had been running, even though the 120mm fan in the DA700 was smaller than the large 140mm the Thermaltake supply had. Next, I decided to compare it to a Seasonic S12II 500W - a very popular power supply amongst silent PC enthusiasts for it's ultra-low noise levels. Yet again, I was surprised; the Silverstone was louder than the Seasonic, but it wasn't a huge difference!