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Inside the Power Supply
There are a few vent holes which provide a tiny amount of airflow through convection
currents, (hot air rises) but other than this, there is no airflow at all.
Inside are a pair of heatpipes that take heat from the ICs inside, to the fins
on the back of the power supply.
The power supply is held together with a large number of small screws. Opening
it up proved to be quite a job, as the components are packed in tightly, but
this photo shows how the heat is moved from the ICs to the casing, whilst staying
electrically isolated.
Power Rating
The ST30NF supplies significantly more current than a generic 300W power supply,
and as much as many 400W power supplies.
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ST30NF
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Generic 300W
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+5 VDC
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25 A
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20 A
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+3.3 VDC
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23 A
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20 A
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+12 VDC
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18 A
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10 A
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As you can see, the ST30NF supplies nearly twice as much current on the 12v
line. Although you would expect a passively cooled power supply to be low specification,
the ST30NF is surprisingly powerful.
Testing
For testing, a 3.2 ghz Pentium 4 Northwood was used, coupled with a 9800XT, which
is quite a load for a 300 watt power supply. Looping 3Dmark 2003 to load up
the system, the Silverstone reached a temperature of 50 degrees after three
hours. The most temperature sensitive components of a power supply are the capacitors
and the wiring which are rated at around 80 degrees, so the power supply was
always running within specification, if rather uncomfortable to touch. The temperature
LED on the back changes to red when the temperature exceeds 55 degrees, warning
you not to touch it. As a safety precaution, the power supply will shut down
in the event of overheating, or short circuit.
This means that the Silverstone ST30NF can safely run almost any system. Since
power supplies as quiet as 12dba are reasonably priced and easy to find, the
real question is what advantage is there to a totally silent solution?
Conclusions
The ST30NF is not available yet in the UK, but has an RRP of £89.99. This
is the same price that you would pay for an Antec TruePower 550 watt power supply,
which is one of the highest performance power supplies on the market. The SilverStone
power supply is an extremely high end power supply in its own way, explaining
the price. As the pictures clearly show, the build quality is certainly what
you would expect of such an expensive and exotic chunk of metal.
The ST30NF is the final piece in the silent computing puzzle. If used with
products like the Zalman Heatlane passive CPU cooler, then it is entirely possible
to create a reasonably high performance PC without a single fan.
For purchasing, check out Kustom PCs, X-Case or Special Tech who all stock Silverstone equipment.
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