MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Reviews - SilverStone SST-ST30NF Aluminum Power Supply Review

The top portion of the SilverStone SST-ST30NF Aluminum Power Supply is held in place by a series of mounting screws. Once the top aluminum shell has been removed you get a good look at the PSU interior. All the components including the PCB are manufactured from components that you would normally find in a high-end server and are organized in order to provide optimum air circulation inside the unit. The SST-ST30NF uses a combination of two tower sized silver heatsinks connected to a pair of heat pipes. Heat Pipe Technology has been used in a wide variety of fields ranging from aerospace to industrial applications. The technology provides some excellent benefits in terms of improving thermal transfer properties for passive cooling.

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The SilverStone SST-ST30NF Aluminum Power Supply is equipped with the standard ATX motherboard configuration and is both AMD and P4 certified. The overall cable layout includes a 20-pin ATX connector, P4 12v connector, 6-pin AUX P4 connector, 6 x 4-pin Molex connectors, and 2 x floppy connectors. The main 20-pin ATX connector has been shielded with braided tubing and black heat shrink wrap. It would have been nice if this feature was extended to the rest of the wires to keep cable management to a minimum.

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The SilverStone SST-ST30NF Aluminum Power Supply also includes two Serial ATA 5-pin connectors for those consumers who prefer to use SATA based hard drives instead of IDE. In order to get the best configuration for silent performance, I'll also be testing this unit with a pair of 60mm and 80mm SilenX fans. The 60mm SilenX fan is capable of pushing 18 CRM at 2500 RPM with a noise level of 12 dBA while the 80mm fan is capable of pushing 28 CFM at 2400 RPM with a noise level of 14 dBA.