Date:
Tuesday , January 22, 2008
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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SilverStone Strider ST400 400w Power Supply

SilverStone updates its mainstream Strider ST400 computer power supply. Last time SilverStone failed our low voltage test, critical in the USA. We find out whether or not this new version is up to our quality standards.

Introduction

SilverStoneTek is a company best known for their high quality cases but their product lines extend into other components such as cooling, power, fans, storage, and so on. As a company Silverstone has built up this impressive product repertoire in a very short time having been founded in 2003. Today, however we are interested in their power supplies which are comprised of the Strider, Decathlon, Element, Nightjar, Zeus, Gemini, and Olympia model lines that range from 350w to 1200w DC output. Today we will be looking at one of their lower end models, the 400w SilverStone Strider (ST400) that is the replacement product for the ST405 we reviewed a while ago in our $50 Roundup. While the ST405 was produced in conjunction with Enhance the ST400 is produced in conjunction with FSP.

FSP Group is one of the few actual power supply manufacturers and can be found providing OEM services for a number of other brands FSP at various times including OCZ (GameXStream and ProXStream), Zalman, AOpen, Antec (Basiq) and many more. This wide distribution of power supplies by FSP is not surprising given that they have been in business since 1993 and are one of the top 10 producers of power supplies (currently number 6) coupled with being widely regarded as a manufacturer of basic workhorse type power supplies that just get the job done though some of their more recent high powered members of certain platforms have been plagued by power quality issues.

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Out with the Old and In with the New....

As SilverStone replaces the ST405 with the ST400 as their 400w offering in the Strider line of power supplies. What makes this unit an upgrade as opposed to a simple substitution? The ST405 was almost a winner when we recently reviewed it as part of our $50 Roundup, only falling short of full load at 100v input. Beyond that issue how has SilverStone improved on this product position with the ST400?

The ST400, takes on the task of being one of the most popular power supplies of the Strider family, it is a power supply with ideal balance of quietness and improved performance. This is made possible thanks to the use of a single 120mm fan that varies speed automatically to keep up with system’s every demand. With improved amperage on both of its +12V rails than its predecessors, ST400 will sure take on the full task of satisfying systems of today with increased number of hard wares.

From the information provided by SilverStone it seems the key difference here is that the ST400 has boosted the 12v output capacity over its predecessor the ST405. With modern systems growing more and more "12v heavy" in the way in which they draw power this change is certainly a good change for this product.

Moving on let’s see what we can expect when a user purchases the SilverStone Strider ST400 supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.