Silverstone SST-SX600-G 600w Gold SFX

[AFD]

I'd like to hear if it's the UPS, direct mains should give a smoother AC frequency.

Still haven't tried tried swapping to AC yet, though I did spend half the night getting out of bed to periodically unplug an insane amount of electrical devices around the house. Most were fine, but I did find a few others with the same high-pitched whine (from internal PSU or external power adapters), which would lead me to believe the issue isn't directly related to the UPS. EDIT: Accidentally fell asleep running stress tests.. woke up, and the whine was drastically quieter (still perceptible, but noticeably less so - especially when listening at off angles away from the intake/exhaust. Weird.)

If possible, test at another house to make sure this isn't caused by something in your house.

That's a very smart idea. I'm still waiting on my Char/Liz M1 carrying bag, but I'd like to take my rig to work and try that out (there's an equally insane amount of electronics everywhere, but I never hear whine from any of their power supplies).

As to the coil whine, they didn't mention any of it that I saw, which lends some credence to it being something specific to AFD's electrical environment.

There was a passing mention of whine and buzz, but they seemed fine with it..

Even from virtually inches away, only a trace amount of buzz could be reliably heard.

There's very little or no electronic noise (such as buzz, hum or whine) to be perceived.

It's such an oddly high frequency, that I'm certain many folks simply can't hear it at all depending on their hearing and age. My oscilloscope app on my phone is picking it up as ~15kHz (SPCR only measured to 11kHz, so I can't see a peak there), which is very close to the "mosquito noise" (LINK). So if nothing else, I shouldn't be able to hear it at all in a few years

It's important to note, however, that the semi-passive fan, which is tied to an internal temperature of 45°C in a sensor somewhere inside the unit, started at just 40W load after about 15 minutes, when the exhaust temperature read only 26°C.

I wonder if it would be possible to find and reposition the temp sensor to a slightly cooler location, so that the semi-passive feature might actually work as intended?

 

[Phuncz]

It's such an oddly high frequency, that I'm certain many folks simply can't hear it at all depending on their hearing and age. My oscilloscope app on my phone is picking it up as ~15kHz (SPCR only measured to 11kHz, so I can't see a peak there), which is very close to the "mosquito noise" (LINK). So if nothing else, I shouldn't be able to hear it at all in a few years

It might be a hidden feature, keeping the kids away

 

[Zangmonkey]

Frankly the SPCR review alleviates my concerns regarding noise. Now, the [H] review brought up excellent points about the choice of caps, but ultimately also gave the unit a good recommendation.

It seems to me like people are picking up on certain critical word choices rather than the conclusions of the review.
From all the reports so far this seems like a solid, quiet unit. The first of its kind in the form factor and Silverstone should be commended for paving the way and doing the entire industry a favor here.

Remember that this wattage, in gold, in SFX was an absolute pipe dream last year.
I'm not building until November or so, so I anxiously await the SFX-L release but I will have absolutely no reservations about buying this if there aren't better options by November.

 

[AFD]

Just wanted to update again.. still on my UPS, but after booting up today I had the usual brief coil whine - but after it disappeared within the usual minute or 2, I now have almost no perceivable high-pitched frequency afterwards (if it's still there, it's super quiet now). Yay!

For now, I'm chalking it up to some random anomaly in the household wiring or power delivery from the street (though it could also be recent changes in the temperature/humidity/geomagnetic force-field exacerbating the coil whine in my various power supplies ).

 

[vortaku]

Still trying to find a 600w now and cant, its no available on amazon anymore. I fear I am overheating my spu with my machione(780 ti, 4770k, msata ssd, asrock z87e-itx and the h100i) my machine keeps just randomly crashing without a bsod, it will immediately come back on tho

 

[Siba]

Someone mentioned in the M1 thread that it should be back in stock on amazon now

 

[Ranma13]

Frankly the SPCR review alleviates my concerns regarding noise.

I wouldn't put too much stock into SPCR nowadays. They haven't updated their recommended guides in a long time, their forums are stagnant, and their recent bar for silence has dropped so much that I would only consider them to be good for 'somewhat quiet, but definitely audible' reviews.

 

[AFD]

Someone mentioned in the M1 thread that it should be back in stock on amazon now

It's showing "temporarily out of stock" right now, but they must have either had some, or are expecting some, because the SX600-G was effectively de-listed at Amazon over a week ago (still had a page saying "sign up to be notified when this product becomes available", but it was hidden from their internal search results).

 

[Tony Ou]

I wouldn't put too much stock into SPCR nowadays. They haven't updated their recommended guides in a long time, their forums are stagnant, and their recent bar for silence has dropped so much that I would only consider them to be good for 'somewhat quiet, but definitely audible' reviews.

May I ask who you think is better than SPCR nowadays when it comes to noise testing? I'd be interested in sending one to him/her.

By the way, from our limited first stock of SX600-G back in July, we sent what we had left to HardOCP, SPCR, Linus Tech Tips, and jonnyGURU for review. So there should be more reviews coming. We are planning to send to more sites such as Techpowerup, PCPer, etc... once they give us the OK.

It's showing "temporarily out of stock" right now, but they must have either had some, or are expecting some, because the SX600-G was effectively de-listed at Amazon over a week ago (still had a page saying "sign up to be notified when this product becomes available", but it was hidden from their internal search results).

Our US office just received their third shipment of SX600-G so they should have more soon.

 

[Phuncz]

TonyOU: don't forget Anandtech, they have a nice new setup for testing PSU's, they did the Nightjar 520W not that long ago to give you an indication on their level of testing. While that test doesn't have noise tests (because it's passive ), this one does.

Oh yes, and SX500-LG. Please confirm this is still being made or atleast being developed.

 

[mazzy80]

May I ask who you think is better than SPCR nowadays when it comes to noise testing? I'd be interested in sending one to him/her.

By the way, from our limited first stock of SX600-G back in July, we sent what we had left to HardOCP, SPCR, Linus Tech Tips, and jonnyGURU for review. So there should be more reviews coming. We are planning to send to more sites such as Techpowerup, PCPer, etc... once they give us the OK.



Our US office just received their third shipment of SX600-G so they should have more soon.

I wish that you don't cherry picked the PSU to send to reviewer. The bad news spread only as fast btw, no reason to tarnish you reputation, $10-20 don't make the difference for nearly everyone looking for the top unit.
I'm worried about the story about coil whine, rattle fans that a lot of people seem to agree at different level but no on the reviewed unit.
The SX600 is the king of hill, let's do it to perform like that too.

 

[EdZ]

I wish that you don't cherry picked the PSU to send to reviewer.

That's a heck of an accusation. Do you have any evidence to back it up?

 

[Tony Ou]

TonyOU: don't forget Anandtech, they have a nice new setup for testing PSU's, they did the Nightjar 520W not that long ago to give you an indication on their level of testing. While that test doesn't have noise tests (because it's passive ), this one does.

Oh yes, and SX500-LG. Please confirm this is still being made or atleast being developed.

Yes, of course, we were also in contact with Anandtech (I didn't list out all the reviewers we were in contact with). Once they give us the OK to send, we will of course send one over to them.

We also spent quite a bit of time fine tuning noise on the SX500-LG, hence the delay. After spending time earlier this year making sure SX600-G is quieter than ST45SF-G, we are doing the same with making sure SX500-LG can be quieter yet again than the 80mm fan cooled SX600-G. For those of you in Japan, check out the latest October issue of "DOS/V" in which they did a comparison of three highest wattage SFX PSUs including SX600-G. In their test, the SX600-G was equally as quiet as Scythe's 500W with 120mm fan at both idle and load. So don't assume that the bigger SFX-L will automatically be quieter without some work!

 

[D4rkn3ss]

That's a heck of an accusation. Do you have any evidence to back it up?

it has precedent. when the ST45SF came out, the only unit that hadnt trouble with high loads was the one sent to JonnyGURU. it took almost a year of complaints, with the Tony Ou's standard useless marketing blabbering here that all was fine, for them (Silverstone) recognize and solve the issue.

 

[Phuncz]

We also spent quite a bit of time fine tuning noise on the SX500-LG, hence the delay. After spending time earlier this year making sure SX600-G is quieter than ST45SF-G, we are doing the same with making sure SX500-LG can be quieter yet again than the 80mm fan cooled SX600-G. For those of you in Japan, check out the latest October issue of "DOS/V" in which they did a comparison of three highest wattage SFX PSUs including SX600-G. In their test, the SX600-G was equally as quiet as Scythe's 500W with 120mm fan at both idle and load. So don't assume that the bigger SFX-L will automatically be quieter without some work!

Nice, thanks for the info ! Hopefully the SX500-LG will materialize this year, really looking forward to it.

 

[Tony Ou]

I wish that you don't cherry picked the PSU to send to reviewer. The bad news spread only as fast btw, no reason to tarnish you reputation, $10-20 don't make the difference for nearly everyone looking for the top unit.
I'm worried about the story about coil whine, rattle fans that a lot of people seem to agree at different level but no on the reviewed unit.
The SX600 is the king of hill, let's do it to perform like that too.

As of today (September 10, 2014) there are only two English language review on the SX600-G so please wait for more to come out and make your own judgment. So far only the review on HardOCP has mentioned "plastic rubbing on fan" noise, so we are in the process of organizing a second sample from our US office to send to him for verification (from inventory).

As to stories of coil whine from early adopters here at Hardforum sharing experiences with their SX600-G. We certainly appreciate the attention and feedbacks given, but please remember to read into how they noticed the noise and how sensitive they are to high pitch frequency. I personally can attest that faint coil whine is indeed present on the SX600-G if I put my ear next to it, but it is within our standard and should be nearly inaudible in normal usage (installed in a case, more than 30cm/12" away from your ears). As to fan rattle, so far there is no evidence of this happening from what we can see. We tested many fans available to us and chose one that can start without typical loud clicking noise when voltage nears fan starting point. It was also fast enough to cool SX600-G at higher temperatures without fail.

All in all, we are confident that the SX600-G will be a noticeably quieter PSU overall than its predecessor, the ST45SF-G, in all usage scenario. So if your experience is any different, then there is probably something wrong and you should definitely return it for another one!

 

[Tony Ou]

it has precedent. when the ST45SF came out, the only unit that hadnt trouble with high loads was the one sent to JonnyGURU. it took almost a year of complaints, with the Tony Ou's standard useless marketing blabbering here that all was fine, for them (Silverstone) recognize and solve the issue.

Hi D4rkn3ss, I am not sure why you are holding a grudge against SilverStone or me personally, but from what I remember, ST45SF easily did full power in all the reviews. It also could overload to a degree that some users were able to utilize it beyond spec. The main complaint that surfaced was regarding high pitch noise generated when used on newer generation hardware and overclocked, which we worked on to solve in later revision. I am sorry if you felt that being candid with everyone here on the forum is marketing blabbering, I am just trying to do the best job I can!

 

[D4rkn3ss]

Hi D4rkn3ss, I am not sure why you are holding a grudge against SilverStone or me personally, but from what I remember, ST45SF easily did full power in all the reviews. It also could overload to a degree that some users were able to utilize it beyond spec. The main complaint that surfaced was regarding high pitch noise generated when used on newer generation hardware and overclocked, which we worked on to solve in later revision. I am sorry if you felt that being candid with everyone here on the forum is marketing blabbering, I am just trying to do the best job I can!

what grudge? everybody knows im a Silverstone SG05 fanboy for years.. anyway, my memory is not short and its quite laughable you basic 12 year old marketing 101 attempt to twist that shit, but cool, nevermind, theres plenty around the web from those days if one wants to dig.

 

[Avro]

Tony Ou, where's the EU/UK stock? Only one UK retailer has it listed on their site and they've just put back their ETA for stock.

 

[backfeed]

Tony Ou, where's the EU/UK stock? Only one UK retailer has it listed on their site and they've just put back their ETA for stock.

At least in Sweden, it has since long (July) been estimated to the 16th of September, or later.

 

[Avro]

At least in Sweden, it has since long (July) been estimated to the 16th of September, or later.

That's what OverclockersUK are now showing, strange that it's 6 days away and still only one retailer listing it though.

 

[AFD]

It's now back in-stock at Newegg again!

 

[WiSK]

That's what OverclockersUK are now showing, strange that it's 6 days away and still only one retailer listing it though.

Not strange. It's a niche product, it's not listed in IceCat yet, and there is no distributor for Silverstone in the UK.

But still ... Scan and LambdaTek do list it as well...

Tony wrote this a month ago:

Barring any custom delays, ... European retailers should be getting theirs sometimes in the second week of September.

It comes in first in Hamburg to Silverstone EU. Then German distributors Wave will have it first, but they are saying "delivery time unknown" which means I guess that it's stuck in customs.

 

[Avro]

Not strange. It's a niche product, it's not listed in IceCat yet, and there is no distributor for Silverstone in the UK.

But still ... Scan and LambdaTek do list it as well...

Tony wrote this a month ago:



It comes in first in Hamburg to Silverstone EU. Then German distributors Wave will have it first, but they are saying "delivery time unknown" which means I guess that it's stuck in customs.

Ahh, thanks for explaining that, I didn't realise there was no Silverstone distributor in the UK and I'm sure Scan only just listed that, I did a search on all the big retailers before I posted that and it didn't come up. xD

 

[Ranma13]

May I ask who you think is better than SPCR nowadays when it comes to noise testing? I'd be interested in sending one to him/her.

Therein lies the problem: there really isn't any other site that's focused on silence. But being the only one doesn't automatically make you the best either (look at Comast, it's the sole ISP in several cities, but it sure as hell isn't the best).

My gripe with SPCR stems from two points:

1. Their content is stale. Their recommended fans guide hasn't been updated since 2012; same with their case recommendations. Recommended PSU's was last updated in 2013, and heatsinks was last updated in 2010. Their forum activity is low, and you get better responses and discussions regarding silent components both here and on overclock.net.

2. Their standards for silence have dropped significantly. For example, from their SX600-G review:

We've looked (in Silverstone case reviews) at their 300W and 450W SFX models, both quite useful and quiet enough, especially at lower power loads.

"Quiet enough"? There's no debating that the PSU's are useful (I'm using the 450W one myself), but there's a number of people on [H] have commented on the loudness of the 450W fan, and there's even a thread on how to replace it with a quieter one. For the common user that uses a blower GPU, the PSU may be inaudible over the sound of something much louder, but I'd expect a site called silentpcreview.com to hold silence as the ideal, and only make concessions due to limitations of tech/physics/practicality.

Another example from their NoFan CR-95C heatsink review, a completely passive heatsink:

NoFan has created in the CR-95C an effective solution to what is obviously a bit of a niche problem. That niche being the extreme edge of silent computing, we can't help but commend them.

It seems ironic that a site focused on silent computing, a niche in and of itself, is calling a completely silent passive cooler as 'the extreme edge of silent computing'.

I may be too knee-jerky towards SPCR, but I feel that their reviews are no longer in line with what I would consider to be an acceptable standard for the level of silence I expect.

 

[Skott]

Looking forward to a JohnnyGuru review of the 500w and 600w units. I hope he gets them soon.

 

[tetrismaster]

Hi D4rkn3ss, I am not sure why you are holding a grudge against SilverStone or me personally, but from what I remember, ST45SF easily did full power in all the reviews. It also could overload to a degree that some users were able to utilize it beyond spec. The main complaint that surfaced was regarding high pitch noise generated when used on newer generation hardware and overclocked, which we worked on to solve in later revision. I am sorry if you felt that being candid with everyone here on the forum is marketing blabbering, I am just trying to do the best job I can!

I for one, appreciate any response from you. Please continue to give us updates on SilverStone products, you're one of the few guys that will post on forums. I think I speak for the majority that we want to hear updates from you!

 

[[Spectre]]

I wish that you don't cherry picked the PSU to send to reviewer. The bad news spread only as fast btw, no reason to tarnish you reputation, $10-20 don't make the difference for nearly everyone looking for the top unit.
I'm worried about the story about coil whine, rattle fans that a lot of people seem to agree at different level but no on the reviewed unit.
The SX600 is the king of hill, let's do it to perform like that too.

I have been doing this far longer than you have and of the manufacturers/brands I have dealt with SilverStone has never been an issue with cherry picking units. Indeed, their units have had their fair share of lumps that would have been picked up if they were trying to cherry pick things and they have performed like the retail units I have purchased. There are certainly a number of brands that DO cherry pick their power supplies for reviews but to date SilverStone has not been one that has been with units I have gotten.


Well, unless they really suck at it

 

[lazimutha]

I have been doing this far longer than you have and of the manufacturers/brands I have dealt with SilverStone has never been an issue with cherry picking units. Indeed, their units have had their fair share of lumps that would have been picked up if they were trying to cherry pick things and they have performed like the retail units I have purchased. There are certainly a number of brands that DO cherry pick their power supplies for reviews but to date SilverStone has not been one that has been with units I have gotten.


Well, unless they really suck at it

Hahahahaha

 

[MrJerico]

No longer "temporarily out of stock" on Amazon

 

[captainzombie]

No longer "temporarily out of stock" on Amazon

Amazon has shipping in 2-4 weeks listed when I looked this morning.

 

[AFD]

Amazon has shipping in 2-4 weeks listed when I looked this morning.

Yes. It switched from "temporarily unavailable" to "2-4 weeks for delivery" (and occasionally "3-4 weeks") a few days ago.

It'll probably stay like this until they get a decent backstock available.. though I'm guessing if you'd order today, you'd probably still get one in under 2 weeks. Newegg's had theirs in-stock without selling out for several days, so I'm guessing the immediate demand has died down a bit.

 

[WiSK]

Which reminded me to check European situation. Alternate Germany received their stock today and are starting sending out pre-orders tomorrow.

Edit: now it says next delivery is from 1st October...

 

[captainzombie]

Yes. It switched from "temporarily unavailable" to "2-4 weeks for delivery" (and occasionally "3-4 weeks") a few days ago.

It'll probably stay like this until they get a decent backstock available.. though I'm guessing if you'd order today, you'd probably still get one in under 2 weeks. Newegg's had theirs in-stock without selling out for several days, so I'm guessing the immediate demand has died down a bit.

Yeah, I bet until they build up their inventory. I am just amazed that Silverstone was able to squeeze 600W in such a small PSU. The 450W Gold was a great advancement and would of hoped maybe they would of gone with a 92mm fan instead of the 80mm.

 

[AFD]

..would of hoped maybe they would of gone with a 92mm fan instead of the 80mm.

Same here. Would love it if I could squish an A9x14 Noc fan inside there, but I just don't think it's possible.

 

[XcPNehVYlE4A3C]

still patiently waiting for that 500w SFX-L. Was very tempted to get the 600 but holding out.
I'm one of the sensitive ears crowd and a 120mm fan on an SFX should be wonderful if it ever comes out

 

[backfeed]

Which reminded me to check European situation. Alternate Germany received their stock today and are starting sending out pre-orders tomorrow.

Edit: now it says next delivery is from 1st October...

Aw, crap. I was without doubt the first to pre-order in Sweden (Inet), and the 16th of September has been the ETA for a very long time. Now it has changed to "delayed". 1st of October in Germany likely means 6th of October in Sweden, if there'll be anything left of that batch, that is. Hating the waiting.

 

[WiSK]

Aw, crap. I was without doubt the first to pre-order in Sweden (Inet), and the 16th of September has been the ETA for a very long time. Now it has changed to "delayed". 1st of October in Germany likely means 6th of October in Sweden, if there'll be anything left of that batch, that is. Hating the waiting.

I always fall into this trap. At the time when I ordered, it seemed very important to save 15 euros on the price. But I should know very well that Wave distributes all it's stock to Alternate first, and only when there's something left they send to the competing resellers.

Since Sweden has no branch of Alternate, you can still hope that Inet isn't seen as a competitor.

 

[tetrismaster]

still patiently waiting for that 500w SFX-L. Was very tempted to get the 600 but holding out.
I'm one of the sensitive ears crowd and a 120mm fan on an SFX should be wonderful if it ever comes out

Same. I resorted to doing the noiseblocker fan mod instead of jumping in on the SX600.

 

[silent mike]

Therein lies the problem: there really isn't any other site that's focused on silence. But being the only one doesn't automatically make you the best either (look at Comast, it's the sole ISP in several cities, but it sure as hell isn't the best).

My gripe with SPCR stems from two points:

1. Their content is stale. Their recommended fans guide hasn't been updated since 2012; same with their case recommendations. Recommended PSU's was last updated in 2013, and heatsinks was last updated in 2010. Their forum activity is low, and you get better responses and discussions regarding silent components both here and on overclock.net.

2. Their standards for silence have dropped significantly. For example, from their SX600-G review:

"Quiet enough"? There's no debating that the PSU's are useful (I'm using the 450W one myself), but there's a number of people on [H] have commented on the loudness of the 450W fan, and there's even a thread on how to replace it with a quieter one. For the common user that uses a blower GPU, the PSU may be inaudible over the sound of something much louder, but I'd expect a site called silentpcreview.com to hold silence as the ideal, and only make concessions due to limitations of tech/physics/practicality.

Another example from their NoFan CR-95C heatsink review, a completely passive heatsink:

It seems ironic that a site focused on silent computing, a niche in and of itself, is calling a completely silent passive cooler as 'the extreme edge of silent computing'.

I may be too knee-jerky towards SPCR, but I feel that their reviews are no longer in line with what I would consider to be an acceptable standard for the level of silence I expect.

Tony Ou pointed out this thread -- and your posts -- and naturally, I have some comments.

1) Your comparison of Comcast with SPCR is way off. There are many other ISPs in the world; there are no other computer hardware web sites that have acoustics as their core focus. No one even tries to measure SPL at 1m.

2) Our standards have not changed one iota since SPCR was started more than 12 years ago; if anything, our standards are higher than ever. We have the ability to measure/analyze accurately down to 10 dBA, even from 1m distance -- and we routinely do so; no one on the public web can offer anything even remotely close.

3) We have on average, a couple of indepth reviews/articles each week. For a special interest site, that's plenty of fresh content. Recommended pages were always time hogs & yeah, they've been neglected in part because every component review we do has a huge ranked table summarizing all key performance aspects of all previously reviewed comparables. This is better than the recommended pages for the thinking reader.

4) Then there's opinions, like "Quiet enough". Quiet enough for most users who might want to buy this thing. That's my opinion of the SS 600W SFX, based on all the measurements in our anechoic chamber, the extended listening, 12+ years of experience testing PC components for noise, the context of "what else is out there that can do what this component does?"

At under ~150W, our sample was below 15~16 dBA @1m. That's inaudible in the vast majority of cases, and 150W is high enough to cover idle & modest use for any small system in which a 600W PSU is appropriate. No, it isn't inaudible at 300W, unlike some ATX PSUs of the same rating, but no SFX PSU is inaudible at 300W. One only needs to look at the density of any SFX PSU to understand how difficult it is to cool w/o some concentrated airflow.

Of course a completely silent passive cooler is the extreme edge of silent computing. Passive cooling has always been, for desktop computing, and will continue to be until power envelopes drop to small laptop levels. You seem have no understanding the masking effect of ambient noise & its effect on aural perception: There is no audible difference between quieter than ambient and completely silent. It is in this realm, between ambient & 0 dB that silent computing can thrive w/o overheating, w/o 40 lb heatsink cases. If only passively cooled parts with zero SPL can be called silent computing, then there'd be no need for any acoustic measurements, no need for massively detailed roundups of fans, no need for all the work SPCR has done for 12+ years. The 2,325,124 reads of our stale not updated Recommended Cases articles suggests otherwise.