Introduction

We would like to thank Silverstone for supplying the review sample.

We tested the Silverstone ST60F-PS belonging to the Strider Plus series a while ago, but the time has come for a member of the higher Strider Gold series to be tortured by our Chroma loads. The aforementioned series, as its name implies, only lists 80 Plus Gold certified members with capacities ranging from 550 W to 1000 W. Only 100 W seperate the two smaller units, but the gap between the middle- and flagship model of the series is quite large. However, the Strider Gold Evolution series in Silverstone’s portfolio contains Gold-certified PSUs with capacities to bridge this gap.

In this review, we will take a good look at the Silverstone Strider Gold ST65F-G. The strongest advantage of this PSU is, without a doubt, its small footprint, since it is only 14 cm long—rendering this unit compatible with almost any ATX chassis available on the market. The 650 W of power that this PSU can deliver and the four PCIe connectors that can feed up to two strong VGAs also make it ideal for a small gaming PC. Since such small but powerful systems are highly preferred by a significant portion of users, many companies try to shrink the dimensions of their PSU products by as much as possible in order to offer high output power in a small form factor. Considering Silverstone is a highly respected chassis maker, it comes as no surprise to us that their portfolio includes many PSUs with a length of only 14 cm. Another key feature of most Strider units is the fully modular cabling design, which makes the installation process a breeze. The ST65F-G does of course include this feature and can also take the optional PP06 cabling kits that consist of high-quality cables with individual sleeving.

Specifications

Efficiency is Gold. As we are used to see in Enhance units, all protection features are present—including Over Temperature Protection (aka OTP). It is one of the most essential protection features, yet many manufacturers choose to not incorporate into their implementations. Unfortunately, Enhance insists on keeping the low 40°C maximum operating temperature threshold for the delivery of maximum continues power, while the ATX spec recommends 50°C. We are, nevertheless, going to conduct our tests at 40-45°C and expect the worst case to cause the shutdown of the PSU after OTP triggers.

The fan that cools down the unit only has a 120 mm diameter because a larger unit wouldn't fit. It doesn't use ball bearings, but is, at least, made by a reliable manufacturer: ADDA Corporation. Moving on to the strongest point of this unit: Its ultra-small form factor due to a length of only 14 cm makes the PSU's installation process into a case, any case, a piece of cake. You, most important of all, won't have to worry about compatibility issues with an ATX-compatible chassis since the standard length for ATX PSUs is also 14 cm. Finally, the warranty of this PSU is set at three years and the price is quite stiff, which will make things tough for the ST65F-G because there are many worthy competitors in its price range.


There is a single +12V rail that can output up to 54 A of current, which means that two middle/high-end VGAs and all accompanying components can be supported by this PSU. The minor rails are pretty strong too, although their individual maximum current outputs aren't so high (they are, usually, 25 A each with such combined maximum power output). Finally, the 5VSB rail has enough power to feed a contemporary middle-end system. Another 0.5 A would be ideal, though.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The number of available connectors is good; however, a second EPS connector would be very welcome. Also, two cables hold two 6+2 pin PCIe- and two 6 pin PCIe connectors. The PSU could, in our opinion, easily handle four 8 pin PCIe connectors in total.

The length of ATX-, EPS-, and PCIe connectors should, ideally, be 50-100 mm longer, but such a small PSU is unlikely to be installed into a full tower chassis, and long cables are harder to manage in a smaller case. Thankfully, the distance among all connectors that hold more than one connector is adequate. The 24 pin ATX-, 6+2 pin PCIe-, and EPS connector use 16AWG wires for lower voltage drops, while all the other connectors utilize the standard 18AWG gauges.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on about its power distribution.

Packaging

The small box features a nice design with vivid colors. The front has a photo of the PSU with the fan grill and the modular panel in clear view, and the capacity- and model descriptions. In the bottom-left corner is an over-sized 80 Plus Gold badge and above that is a list with the unit's most important features. Strangely enough, Silverstone mentions the fan's noise outputs of only 18 dBA minimum while they would, normally, refer to the fan's maximum output noise instead, but we will inform you of that.


There is nothing worth mentioning on both sides, but the top has a list of all available connectors. Unfortunately, there is no mention of cable length.


The bottom of the box has all the technical features of the PSU and the power specifications table. As you can see, the paint is lead free. The unit weights 2.35 kg according to Silverstone; however, our scale had a different opinion. The ST65F-G apparently lost some weight during its way to our lab—or they weighed it with all of the modular cables attached.


The rear has some illustrations referring to the PSU's 80 Plus Gold efficiency, the single +12V rail, its fully modular design, the within 3% voltage regulation on all rails, and, of course, the PSU's small footprint. There is also a graph that shows the fan's speed throughout the entire operating range of the PSU.