Silver Power SP-SS500 500W PSU Review

Page 3 - Testing methods and results

The computer we tested Silver Power SP-SS500 500W with was the best we had at the time, while at same time being one of the most powerful machines you could obtain nowadays.

• Motherboard: DFI LanParty DARK 790FXB-M2RSH
• CPU: AMD Phenom II (Deneb core) 940 Black Edition 3GHz
• Video cards: Sapphire HD4870X2 2GB
• Memory: 2 x 2GB A-Data DDR800
• Hard drive 1: Western Digital Velocity Raptor 10 000 RPM 150GB
• Hard drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 7200RPM 300GB
• Optical drive: ASUS DVD+/-RW LightScribe 20x
• Cooler: 2 x 200mm fans, 2 x 120mm fans, 1 x 140mm fan

• Corsair TX750W
• NOX APEX 700W
• Raptoxx Exxtreme Series RT-EBAD1200 1200W

Tests for PSU voltages in idle and under load modes were made with the above mentioned configuration. Later we decided to run tests for energy efficiency with few more PSU's, in which test we would measure the amount of power consumed from the system while performing the exactly same operations with the exactly same hardware but with different PSU. That would show with great preciseness the difference in effectiveness of the few "80+" models that were in the ModReactor lab.

For the tests we used a good multimeter. We measured the power consumed with a plain home Power Meter, that can be obtained anywhere for about 12$ - 20$ and has accuracy of +/- 1W, which is quite acceptable. The tests for Raptoxx RT-EBAD1200 were concluded with the above mentioned machine, but the tests for all other PSU's were concluded with ONLY ONE Sapphire HD4870X2, which lowers the power consumption of the system with up to 200W.

We were very disappointed from the Silver Power SP-SS500 voltages. On one hand the PSU is on the edge of its capabilities, on the other it is advertised by the manufacturer to have "stable voltages under any load". The voltage under load on the 12V line is 11.65V, and that while not out of ATX standard specifications (+/- 5%) does not inspire confidence, nor assures longevity for your hardware. Unless you manage to limit the time under load to less than 5 minutes (a gaming session often lasts hours, at times for the whole night even) you'll be hearing a lot from the noisy fan of the PSU when components heat up.

Looking at the energy efficiency tests we find something positive about Silver Power SP-SS500 after all - it consumes very reasonable amount of power compared to rival products. The best energy efficiency PSU's display usually between 50% and 75% of their declared maximum, while only Silver Power 500W was loaded at 100% and still was more effective that another 700W 80+ model.