SFF Network’s COMPUTEX 2018 coverage is sponsored by SilverStone, who’s celebrating 15 years of innovation in SFF and beyond. Click here to check out their website and to learn more about their latest products.
Silverstone, the ever present producers of SFF wares, is celebrating their 15th birthday this year. With new, updated and well designed products on display at Computex, what a way to celebrate. From a new Sugo, to new USB devices, new power supplies, all the way to server hardware and hotswap bays.
Let’s see what the birthday kid has to show!
Walking into the Silverstone booth, we immediately noticed a familiar chassis family had made a resurgence, albeit in a larger guise. Yes folks, a new Sugo has arrived, and it has a new, albeit larger core. I present, the SG14.
Weighing in at a hefty 21 litres, this does violate the official (so says SFFn) edict of 20 litres maximum. However, the Sugo SG14 does offer significantly better cooling courtesy of a clear air path front to back, with support for 120mm fan mounts front and rear – the front doubling as a radiator mount, of course.
The SG14 has come about due to a showcase product that Silverstone is looking to produce, one which we will show later. We do applaud Silverstone for continuing to use the marketing that leads them to hold a special place in the SFF community’s heart – the inclusion of a litre volume specification in their technical specs!
The crown jewel of today’s showing – Silverstone’s new 700 watt, Platinum rated, SFX (Not SFX-L) power supply. Through various tweaks, the existing platform that Silverstone has been basing their high end power supplies on has reached Platinum efficiency. Whilst ever so slightly larger than the new Platinum Corsair 600W SFX power supply also recently launched, the extra 100 watts does trump the performance density charts.
The SX550 has also moved up to Platinum rating, which is awesome to see!
An old favourite, the Gold rated SX650-G is on show for all to see.
We were the first to preview this beauty last year at Computex, but the completely passively cooled NJ450-SXL is finally here, and boy are we excited to try it out. Silverstone’s rep mentioned that this particular product was heavily influenced by the SFF community, an in particular, ex-SFFn staffer James Schell, aka Aibohphobia.
Of course, the full length SX700-LPT was present, also with a fresh Platinum badge adorning the label.
And finally from the SFX based line, the Platinum rated SX800-LTI
Silverstone’s new (ish) Flex-ATX 350W unit was also on display. Great to see some changes in the traditionally dormant Flex-ATX space.
An aesthetically pleasing, Gold rated TFX power supply has been hard to come by, but Silverstone offers this 300W unit for your TFX system!
We spotted these last year, but Silverstone’s very SFF 60W and 120W power bricks were on display again. This 60W model features a USB type-C connector, enabling the powering of any various devices.
The slim, “universal” (albeit locked to 19v), 120w power supply was present. This is a much more aesthetically pleasing version of the traditional universal power bricks for laptops and other devices.
This one caught my eye. The 1000VA/900W Silverstone UPS was displayed behind the power supplies. This UPS will only be available on the Asian market, however, which is a shame! My personal 1000VA UPS units (I have 3 in use!) are much larger than this svelte unit.
Silverstone has partnered with ASUS on this TUF branded 120mm tower cooler – the AR01-V3.
This is a continuation of Silverstone’s Argon cooling line.
Back to the power supplies, because we couldn’t resist a second look. Spec labels inbound!
Silverstone’s shorter depth ST750-PTS power supply was also on show, offering a Platinum rated, more value orientated alternative to the higher priced SFX(-L) power supplies in chassis that can also support the ATX standard PSU.
This, Silverstone’s smaller showpiece chassis, aka the LD03, is part of the reason the SG14 Sugo exists. Sharing a chassis, this (unfortunately) 26 litre chassis is designed for putting your components on show, with 3, yes count them, three, tempered glass panels.
The top section is removeable, and hides the cables from this sideways laid out chassis (think Silverstone FT3 (mini) and the Chimera Mach One).
Specs!
This rather angled photo shows off the internal layout of the LD03 – which, when laid on one side, becomes the SG14’s core chassis.
The top features the system’s IO, a 120mm fan as well as an extra 80mm fan to help extract air from the case. We note that this fan does block some of the GPU’s ports though.
RVZ03B, because RGB. The new, updated front fascia includes individually addressable RGB LEDs.
The effect of the individually addressable RGB LEDs is one of smooth animation, for those who desire such an effect.
Speaking of RGB, Silverstone has produced the world’s first slim 120mm RGB fan. If you can’t beat em, join em.
On display, a large range of Silverstone’s USB solutions, these particular units being SATA USB3 M.2 drive caddies.
USB3 not fast enough? Silverstone is working on a NVMe to USB3 enclosure, handily modeled by our Silverstone rep, Tony. Keep an eye out for this one!
Apart from Silverstone’s M.2 heatsink, two 5.25″ bay devices were on show in this section. The uppermost is a simple SATA to M.2 SATA “drive” with 4 drive slots. The new release this week is the other variant to this product line, which has a pair of SATA M.2 slots, as well as a lone NVMe compatible slot powered by a U.2 connector. Finally a use for that U.2 connector that languishes rejected on some motherboards.
Right up my alley is this expansion slot to 2.5″ hotswap drive bay. A great way to use up space in M-ATX cases!
This unit, modeled by yours truly, is a dual drive, M.2 NVMe Thunderbolt enclosure with hub. Expansion includes a Thunderbolt output for daisy chaining, as well as DisplayPort. A 12V power input is also present.
Pretty understated if you ask me.
Finally caving to customer requests, Silverstone has created a chassis, the PI01, for the insanely successful Raspberry Pi board.
Need to mount dual NUCs, or other hardware behind your monitor? Look no further – Silverstone will be offering a triple VESA mount plate as pictured.
A huge selection of dongles and hubs are on display here, too many to mention.
Did you spot the extra product in these photos? Yep, Silverstone will be selling a VESA monitor arm, which is rated for monitors up to 10kg. With tilt, rotation and height adjustment with damping, this monitor bracket is a premium offering compared to the units I’m used to!
Another look at the two 5.25″ drive bay products.
SAS drive enclosures! Silverstone offers various SAS drive enclosures, and even bundles appropriate adapter cards, meaning those extra SATA ports on your motherboard needn’t go to waste.
On to the hotswap bays and boy are these high quality units. I’m used to cheap plastic or stamped steel hotswap bays, these are on another level. All of the hotswap bays offered by Silverstone are made from machined or extruded aluminium, aiding in heat dissipation from those 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives.
2.5″ drives means storage density. We approve.
The dual bay version of the triple version above.
And a single. My server needs one of these… Hint hint, Silverstone?
And a 3.5″ to dual slim 2.5″ hotswap bay Nice.
Next, for those who like it all, a blended 3.5″ and 2.5″ bay that slots into a 5.25″ bay. Bonus USB3 ports if you motherboard has a spare header!
Lastly, a drive bay device that has an inbuilt RAID controller. RAID 0 or 1 is available via the in built control panel.
Risers! Silverstone has been hard at work testing new types, and have decided on these two types. The bottom is the unit we saw at Compute last year, but the top is a new, super flexible, unit. Silverstone claims the top unit has a near zero bend radius.
Want to use that spare PCIe slot for something useful?
How about the above, but a cooler version?
How about this variant?
Dual cards? No problem, assuming they aren’t both NVMe.
RAID controllers. *drool*
Networking…
And this beast. This is the adapter card for the above external SAS drive enclosures, allowing the use of an adapter cable from your motherboard’s SATA port to be routed via SAS to the drives.
And of course, a singular unit.
Because why not?
Thoughts? Leave em over here in the forum!
