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The SilverStone Strider Titanium 1100W retails for $299 in the US while in the UK market is sold for £269.99, and its headline feature is certainly the fact that it is one of very few power supplies able to meet the 80 PLUS Titanium and the Cybenetics ETA-A+ efficiency requirements. Its platform is among the most efficient that I have ever encountered but is this enough to justify its stiff price?
Unfortunately, for SilverStone, I don't think so. Enhance Electronics, the maker of this platform, apparently had to make several compromises in order to offer such high efficiency levels, and while in terms of efficiency it achieved its goal, the overall performance cannot quite match the other high-end offerings in this price range. The ripple suppression is great, though, and the load regulation at +12V is tight enough, however the rest of the rails do not have as tight voltage deviations. In my opinion, though, the biggest problems with this unit are the low hold-up time and the inaccurate power ok signal.
The APFC converter's bulk caps, aside from being expensive, can greatly affect the overall efficiency, so Enhance chose to use caps with lower than optimal capacity here and this leads to a very low hold-up time. This is not acceptable of course for any power supply that claims to meet the ATX spec's standards.
Another thing that bothered me was the very small headroom on the +12V rail. Once I loaded it a little beyond the official specs, its load regulation and ripple suppression went completely out of control. I did stress it at a very high ambient temperature and most likely this played an important role here, however this is still one of the few Enhance platforms that can deliver full load continuously at 50°C, so I wanted to test its limits.
I have seen some great and innovative designs from Enhance, for example the passively cooled Nightjar NJ450-SXL which proved very impressive, however I cannot say the same for today's review sample. Although it is very efficient, its fan profile is poorly tuned so the overall noise exceeds 40 dB(A). Moreover, it lacks a power switch which is still essential for any power supply, while it should also provide a way to turn off the semi-passive operation.
On the positive side, this unit has eight PCIe connectors, hosted on dedicated cables, and there are more plenty of peripheral connectors. The dimensions are small enough, but not that impressive when we take into account the fact that the 1500W model shares the same exactly chassis as this unit. Finally, the use of a double ball bearing fan means that – besides high noise – this PSU won't have a problem with high ambient temperatures, as long as you don't exceed its nominal capacity.
Overall, with a lower price tag the ST-1100TI would be more appealing, but I would like to see several improvements made:
- Find the issue that causes so much trouble at +12V with a little higher than the nominal load, even with a steady voltage input.
- Longer hold-up time.
- Accurate power-ok signal.
- Better fan profile for quieter operation.
- A power switch.
- A way to deselect the semi-passive operation.
- Better transient response at 3.3V.
- Lower OCP at 3.3V.
You can get the SilverStone Strider Titanium 1100W from Overclockers UK for £269.99 inc VAT HERE.
Pros:
- Full power at 48°C.
- 1100W of power.
- Highly efficient.
- Good ripple suppression.
- Tight enough load regulation at +12V and good transient response on the same rail.
- DBB fan.
- Dedicated cables for the PCIe connectors.
- Loads of cables and connectors including 8x PCIe and 2x EPS.
- Fully modular.
- Compact dimensions.
- Semi-passive operation (which cannot be deactivated though).
Cons:
- Stiff price.
- The +12V rail's performance deteriorates with >95A load.
- Inaccurate power-ok signal.
- Very low hold-up time.
- Lacks a power switch.
- Noticed a glitch in the transient response tests in the “PSU Off to Full +12V” scenario.
- Transient response at 3.3V.
- Very high OCP at 3.3V.
- The competition provides longer warranty periods (though five years is perfectly fine with us).
KitGuru says: The SilverStone ST1100-TI is among the most efficient power supplies that we have ever tested, however it needs some improvements to truly rival the best options in this price range. The most significant issues that we spotted testing this product are the loose load regulation and the ripple problem at +12V.
