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SilverStone Olympia 1000W


Date
: 05/10/07 – 04:57:23 AM

Author
:

Category
: Power Supplies

Page 1 : Introduction

SilverStone's enormous success can be traced back to its roots; an elite team of engineers coupled with a quest to provide products which sparked innovation. Since their founding in 2003, SilverStone has expanded their reach all around the world. SilverStone prides itself in providing the highest level of quality in design and manufacturing. Their cases, enclosures, heatsinks, fans and of course power supplies are regarded as among the best in the market.

SilverStone provides an massive range of power supplies to target different types of computer systems. Today we will be looking at a unit belonging to the Olympia series, the OP1000. The OP1000 is capable of holding its ground against unheard-of amounts of load while juggling strenuous amounts of heat from the modern server environment.

Page 2 : Features and Specifications

Here is what SilverStone has to say about the Olympia 1000W:

One distinct difference between this power supply and almost every other power supply we have seen is that the Olympia 1000W does not have multiple 12V rails, instead it has one enormous 12V rail rated at 80A and can provide a massive 960W peak.

1000W is a lot of power, and one would need a lot of connectors in order to make use of it! Among the numerous power connectors, the Olympia 1000W comes with six SATA power connectors, four standard 6-pin PCI express power connectors, two 8-pin PCI express power connectors, and for those running servers, two 8-pin EPS12V power connectors for running servers.

Page 3 : Package and Contents

Like all things SiverStone, the Olympia 1000W comes in an elegant black box.

On the bottom panel, key specifications including output are shown.

On the two side panels, silverstone outlines features.

Opening the box up, the power supply and a box are securly packed away.

We have taken a look at quite a few power supplys here at Overclockers Online, including a few 1000W units, but this one truly takes the crown in terms of size!

The Olympia 1000W measures 15cm x 8.6cm x 22 cm and weighs in at 3.6 kg!

Fitting to its massive size, the unit is finished in a textured flat black coat with partially black sleeved wires.

Similarly to OCZ's ProXStream 1000W, because of the sheer amount of components inside, there is little room left for cooling so instead of using a single large fan, SilverStone has chosen to use a single 80mm fan. This of course means the unit will not be silent.

Back on the specifications page we briefly discussed the 8-pin PCI express connector, in order to cater to the power requirements of up coming video cards. The new 8-pin PCI express connector is far more than a connector change, it also allows the card to draw more power from the power supply. Of course, not all cards will need the new 8-pin PCI express connector, so SilverStone has also included four standard 6-pin PCI express connectors.

The Olympia series is targeted at not only servers, but enthusiasts as well. To do so, SilverStone blends the best of both worlds; a sophisticated exterior housing server-like internals, including two 8-pin EPS12V power connectors along with the standard 20+4 pin and 4 pin motherboard connectors.

Lastly, the Olympia 1000W has six SATA power connectors, four 4-pin molex connectors, and a single floppy connectors, for those who still use floppy drives!

Now, we could go on and on about the exteriors, but what really matters is what is inside!

As the massive transformer suggests, this is a SevenTeam built unit!

SilverStone uses two large Panasonic capacitors in the primary stage and various CapXon capacitors in the secondary stage.

Overall, the interior design is unlike anything we have ever seen here at Overclockers Online, but before we take a look at how unit performs, lets briefly discuss potential issues regarding size.

Page 4 : Performance and Installation

In order to simulate system load, we will be using peltiers. The reason for this is because when using an actual computer system there is no way we could accurately measure how much load we are putting on the power supply without some very expensive equipment.

The total load on the 12V rails is approximately 780W while the 3.3V and 5V rails will be loaded with approximately 132W. This totals to 912W which is 91.2% of this power supply's 1000W continuous output capacity.

Prior to any official tests, the unit will run with no load for two weeks or approximately 336 hours at an operation temperature of 21°C (room temperature will vary throughout this period) as a burn-in period. We will be running two sets of tests, a cold and a hot test, but both under loaded conditions. This is to reflect different conditions the power supply could potentially encounter within an enclosed system. Cold tests will run with an exhaust temperature of 21°C and hot tests will be run with an exhaust temperature of 45°C. All temperature and voltage readings will be recorded with two separate digital multimeters.

Throughout both tests, the SilverStone Olympia 1000W held extraordinarily well, especially considering the conditions and its single 80mm fan exhaust. Although on each rail, the voltages measured were above their intended outputs, they were still well within specifications.

Because this power supply uses a single 80mm fan, this unit will be anything but quiet, however unlike OCZ ProXStream 1000W, the Olympia 1000W is fairly large which will allow for better airflow. During cold tests, the noise level was measured at less than 40 dB which our instrument cannot pick up, but once the heat was applied, the fan speed cranked up and our Extech 407730 measured 55 dB, which isn't bad at all considering how OCZ's ProXStream hit a screeching 66 dB! While 55 dB is far from silent, it is definitely bearable. Now, lets briefly take a look at installation.

Due to the large size of this unit it will not fit into most cases, especially those with top exhaust cooling fans or shorter cases.

Ideally, the Olympia 1000W should be used in a full tower style case.

Page 5 : Conclusion

Following our review of the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000W review, Silverstone's Olympia 1000W is our third 1000W unit we have taken a look at, and the same question applies here: do you really need that much power?. For the vast majority of modern day computer systems, 500w is more sufficient. Unless one is running a system with the latest and greatest hardware available and is planning future upgrades, a lesser power supply would be a far more sensible option.

This unit is not for the faint of heart besides its larger size, it carries a mid $300 dollar price tag as well. Needless to day, for those who truly need such a power supply, the Olympia 1000W's rock solid rails, rugged design and massive size truly communicate that this is no ordinary power supply.

Advantages

Excellent performance
Lots of power from single rail
Sleeved wires

Disadvantages

Expensive
Large size may be an issue
Single 80mm fan is noisy

Overclockers Online would like to thank Cooler Master for making this review possible.