Power Supply SilverStone SX650-G and SX500-G review

3lfk1ng

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Huge thanks to @SilverStone for sending us these units.

First showcased in 2016 and again at CES 2017, the impressively specc'd SX650-G reaches as high as 819 watts per liter in power density - besting even the 775 watts per liter figure offered by SilverStone's flagship SX800-LTI, which James reviewed here. In this combined review, we are going to put both the SX650-G and SX500-G units to the test, side-by-side.

Read more here.
 

Phuncz

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Dear god, look at the size of that scroll bar ! Amazing review: clear pictures, well written, relevant topics addressed. I can't wait to see more !
 

TheHig

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Oct 13, 2016
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Thanks for the review and going above and beyond with the details. Looks like a worthy competitor for the Corsair units indeed.

Definitely adding to my “quality parts” list for build consideration.
 

Arboreal

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Oct 11, 2015
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I'll be looking for something better than my Silverstone 450W SFX later his year, and it will need to be 92mm fan.
So, as @Flyingpepper said, how do you decide?
The SF600 has a great track record, but those stiff cables don't do it many favours. SX650-G is new, and although i has no zero fan option, it seems to be quiet, and had slightly more accommodating cables.
Good luck deciding, neither will be a bad choice as far as I can see.
 

smitty2k1

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Dec 3, 2016
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I'll be looking for something better than my Silverstone 450W SFX later his year, and it will need to be 92mm fan.
So, as @Flyingpepper said, how do you decide?
The SF600 has a great track record, but those stiff cables don't do it many favours. SX650-G is new, and although i has no zero fan option, it seems to be quiet, and had slightly more accommodating cables.
Good luck deciding, neither will be a bad choice as far as I can see.

The fact that all Silverstone PSU cables are inter-compatible may be a factor for you to consider. I know I have several Silverstone PSUs, and although it has only come up once, I was glad I had a spare SATA cable laying around :)
 

Arboreal

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Oct 11, 2015
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Thanks smitty, that's a good point.
In my case both options are still equally open to me, as my Silverstone SFX 450 is non modular!
 

3lfk1ng

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I just wanted to add that SilverStone has made a “silent” update to the SX650-G a few months ago. They have bumped the OCP up to 140% (from 130%) to help with stability when using a high-end GPUs such as the GTX 1080ti, Titan X, and Titan Z. Apparently these GPUs can hit very high peak draws that last for milliseconds at a time (far exceeding even 650watts) so Sirfa's update was pushed to help improve PSU stability for all you power hungry SFF enthusiasts. This means that this new unit can handle up to ~910watt spikes when it could only handle smaller spikes ~845watts before.

This new revision should also be fine for anyone planning to get their hands on the RTX 2080ti and since the silent update took place months ago, most commonly used retailers will already be sitting on the new stock.

I bring this up because recently I've been running through an exhaustive suite of benchmarks and during that time I experienced an issue that caused the system to shutdown entirely. It was extremely easy to reproduce and the issue went away when I used a different, more capable, ATX-sized PSU. After presenting this anomaly, the team at SIlverStone was quick to inform me that the issue I experienced has been resolved.

A replacement SX650-G is being sent our way to confirm that the issue has been resolved and the review will be updated accordingly.
 
Last edited:

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Dec 3, 2016
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I just wanted to add that SilverStone has made a “silent” update to the SX650-G a few months ago. They have bumped the OCP up to 140% (from 130%) to help with stability when using a high-end GPUs such as the GTX 1080ti, Titan X, and Titan Z. Apparently these GPUs can hit very high peak draws that last for milliseconds at a time (far exceeding even 650watts) so Sirfa's update was pushed to help improve PSU stability for all you power hungry SFF enthusiasts. This means that this new unit can handle up to ~910watt spikes when it could only handle smaller spikes ~845watts before.

This new revision should also be fine for anyone planning to get their hands on the RTX 2080ti and since the silent update took place months ago, most commonly used retailers will already be sitting on the new stock.

I bring this up because recently I've been running through an exhaustive suite of benchmarks and during that time I experienced an issue that caused the system to shutdown entirely. It was extremely easy to reproduce and the issue went away when I used a different, more capable, ATX-sized PSU. After presenting this anomaly, the team at SIlverStone was quick to inform me that the issue I experienced has been resolved.

A replacement SX650-G is being sent our way to confirm that the issue has been resolved and the review will be updated accordingly.

This is very interesting. I was running the older Silverstone 450W SFX Gold PSU on my 4770k and 780GTX. When I upgraded my 780GTX to a Vega56 I would randomly get complete system shutdowns during games unless the Vega56 was set to power saver mode. I figured 450W may be pushing the limit of what the system needed so I upgraded to the SX650-G. Well lo and behold I kept getting the same crashes.

Did some research and it seemed that ASUS (my mobo) had an OCP built into the board. I disabled that and have been happily playing games all along. Made me wonder if the 450W was enough for 4770k and Vega56, but I had sold it so I can't try it out. Now this makes me wonder if I got one of the newer 650W units if I could re-enable OCP on my motherboard. However, you don't seem to make it sound like this issue extends to Vega cards.

Still very happy with my SX650-G and I think it will serve me well for years to come.
 

wovie

Trash Compacter
Aug 18, 2015
48
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I just wanted to add that SilverStone has made a “silent” update to the SX650-G a few months ago. They have bumped the OCP up to 140% (from 130%) to help with stability when using a high-end GPUs such as the GTX 1080ti, Titan X, and Titan Z. Apparently these GPUs can hit very high peak draws that last for milliseconds at a time (far exceeding even 650watts) so Sirfa's update was pushed to help improve PSU stability for all you power hungry SFF enthusiasts. This means that this new unit can handle up to ~910watt spikes when it could only handle smaller spikes ~845watts before.

This new revision should also be fine for anyone planning to get their hands on the RTX 2080ti and since the silent update took place months ago, most commonly used retailers will already be sitting on the new stock.

I bring this up because recently I've been running through an exhaustive suite of benchmarks and during that time I experienced an issue that caused the system to shutdown entirely. It was extremely easy to reproduce and the issue went away when I used a different, more capable, ATX-sized PSU. After presenting this anomaly, the team at SIlverStone was quick to inform me that the issue I experienced has been resolved.

A replacement SX650-G is being sent our way to confirm that the issue has been resolved and the review will be updated accordingly.

Thanks for this update. Seeing as the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti recommend a 650W power supply, I'm either going to pick up a SX650-G or maybe hold out for the 700W Platinum.
 

Thehack

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Mar 6, 2016
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Thanks for this update. Seeing as the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti recommend a 650W power supply, I'm either going to pick up a SX650-G or maybe hold out for the 700W Platinum.

"recommend." Many people run a 1080 Ti with SF450 with no issues. More power available never hurts, but spec recommended is kinda exaggerated.
 

jaagdijot

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Jan 29, 2018
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This explains the issues that jayztwocents was having in one of his videos with the silverstone unit.

It just seems like corsair and their oem engineered the SF series much better from the get go than silverstone has.
 

wovie

Trash Compacter
Aug 18, 2015
48
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"recommend." Many people run a 1080 Ti with SF450 with no issues. More power available never hurts, but spec recommended is kinda exaggerated.

Wow I actually haven't seen that, I've only seen 1080 Ti with 600W. Good to know!

But still, it seems like TDP requirements for CPU + GPU will just continue to increase..
 

Thehack

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Wow I actually haven't seen that, I've only seen 1080 Ti with 600W. Good to know!

But still, it seems like TDP requirements for CPU + GPU will just continue to increase..

TDP hasn't really changed. The 780 Ti was 250W. The more important metric is performance per watt, which has made some very good gains.

The cpu have not changed much since they're all rehash of skylake. Performance per watt has mostly stayed the same, slightly more efficient in multi threads since 6 slow cores more efficient than 4 fast cores.
 

Midiamp

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Mar 15, 2017
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Wow I actually haven't seen that, I've only seen 1080 Ti with 600W. Good to know!

But still, it seems like TDP requirements for CPU + GPU will just continue to increase..
I ran 1080Ti FE + 4790k and MSI B85i with Corsair SF450. Most PSU recommendation was given at worst case peak power scenario, and we only encounters peak power scenario on synthetic benchmarks. In real world end user scenario there's no such thing as computers running at 100% capacity except for production or industrial purpose
 
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tinyitx

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I ran 1080Ti FE + 4790k and MSI B85i with Corsair SF450. Most PSU recommendation was given at worst case peak power scenario, and we only encounters peak power scenario on synthetic benchmarks. In real world end user scenario there's no such thing as computers running at 100% capacity except for production or industrial purpose
Just curious. What monitor resolution are you using? Is your 4790k overclocked?
I am wondering, if a 4790K is bottlenecking an 1080Ti, if any and to what extent, during gaming?
In general, what % is the 4790k loaded?
 

Midiamp

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Mar 15, 2017
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Just curious. What monitor resolution are you using? Is your 4790k overclocked?
I am wondering, if a 4790K is bottlenecking an 1080Ti, if any and to what extent, during gaming?
In general, what % is the 4790k loaded?
I use two LG 22" (1080p), so total is 3840 x 1080 pixel. I don't see the 4790K bottlenecking the 1080Ti, I use the same GPU but with 2700X now, performance upgrade is lateral at best. On my old intel build I was using Silverstone RVZ02B, with low profile cooler, so no overclock for me.
 

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Dec 3, 2016
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Just curious. What monitor resolution are you using? Is your 4790k overclocked?
I am wondering, if a 4790K is bottlenecking an 1080Ti, if any and to what extent, during gaming?
In general, what % is the 4790k loaded?
The 4790k is one of the most beast CPUs ever made, it would definitely not be bottlenecking the 1080ti