For higher or worse, the quantity of energy required by prime tier PC gaming methods has been on the rise over the previous couple of years. Lead largely by a leap in video card energy consumption – gone are the times the place a flagship video card would draw simply 250 Watts – the required and really useful wattages for high-end methods have began encroaching on the sort of energy that twin GPU methods required barely half a decade in the past. So though twin GPU configurations themselves have all however died, their excessive energy necessities have been changed with much more energy-hungry video playing cards and CPUs.
All the whereas this has been occurring, it is created one thing of an traditional aspect advantage of twin GPU gaming methods going the best way of the dodo: you may get true flagship-level efficiency in an impressively small system. Small type issue PCs are in fact hardly new, however beforehand there was at all times some trade-off within the complete quantity of stuff you can, nicely, stuff in such a system. A second video card, one other 2.5-inch SSD, and so on. The demise of twin GPU methods has achieved away with that challenge, however now it is created one other challenge: powering a contemporary dense, excessive wattage system.
For a typical ATX system this is not an issue, as there are myriads of merchandise accessible and customers can simply discover very highly effective and dependable PSUs at cheap costs. However, this rapidly turns into a problem with small type issue methods, the place the supply of excessive output PSUs is comparatively low. And this brings us into the realm of extra specialty type elements.
Over the previous couple of years, a number of of the bigger PSU producers launched compact SFX and SFX-L PSUs that have been designed to match the ability necessities of highly effective gaming methods. With energy output scores reaching 700 Watts or extra, a few of them may even energy flagship-level PC gaming methods. This was fairly the feat contemplating that discovering a high quality SFX PSU even for a mainstream gaming system was a really troublesome activity till a number of years in the past.
But, for some prospects, even 700 Watts is not going to be sufficient. Especially as you begin mixing over into the high-end workstation house – assume a number of Radeon Pro workstation playing cards right here – much more energy is required. So to fill that function SilverStone has rolled out a 1000 Watt SFX-L type issue PSU, the SX1000.
Already well-known for merchandise like their SFX design-pushing SX800-LTI 800W PSU, the corporate has gone again to the drafting board in an effort do one higher. We didn’t anticipate that the corporate would simply handle to squeeze much more energy out of an SFX PSU, and but practically three years after the discharge of the SX800, right here we’re: SilverStone has an SFX-L PSU with the scary output of 1 kW. This at the moment is probably the most highly effective SFX-L PSU available on the market, so in fact we want to check out it to see the way it stacks up.
| Power specs ( Rated @ 40 °C ) | |||||
| AC INPUT | 100 – 240 VAC, 50 – 60 Hz | ||||
| RAIL | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | +5Vsb | -12V |
| MAX OUTPUT | 25A | 25A | 83.3A | 3A | 0.3A |
| 125W | 999.6W | 15W | 3.6W | ||
| TOTAL | 1000W | ||||
Packaging and Bundle
SilverStone provides the SX1000 into a pretty big cardboard field that would simply match a daily ATX unit in it. The field may be very sturdy and we discovered the PSU sandwiched between thick polystyrene foam items inside, offering ample delivery safety. The paintings is comparatively easy, with a blue and gold visible theme, and principally restricted to footage of the unit itself.
Inside the field, we discovered a good bundle for a very good PSU. Aside from the guide and datasheet, there’s a typical AC energy cable, a number of cable ties, a number of plain cable straps, 4 black thumbscrews, and 4 black M3.5 mounting screws. Strangely, SilverStone doesn’t provide an SFX-to-ATX adapter with the…
