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Silverstone Zeus ST56ZF 560W


Date
: 12/18/05 – 08:18:05 AM

Author
:

Category
: Power Supplies

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
SilverStone Technology

Price:
$129

It has been just over a month since our last look at a Silverstone product when we discussed the LC17 enclosure here on the pages of Overclockers Online. Silverstone was once a small, young, energetic player in the hardware game that has now developed and matured into a large veteran with quality products in many different areas of the aftermarket computer industry.

Laying claim to an exhaustive play list of enclosures and cooling products, SilverStone has also started to amass quite an impressive list of power supplies between their Strider, Nightjar, Gemini and Zeus series'. SilverStone offers a power supply for almost every computer owner, from the quiet 360W ST360 for the average home user with a basic system, to the amazing ST46GF dual-460W 100% redundant PS2 enclosed power supply for mission critical environments. In-between those two ends of the spectrum is something for everyone including the powerful 560W ST56ZF that I will be evaluating today.

This 560W behemoth proudly demonstrates that a single 12v rail can still put down the power needed by todays most demanding systems. Offering up a rawkus 38A on that single rail, this superb amount of power comes equipped with dual PCI-E 6-pin connectors for SLI or Crossfire setups along with 4 SATA power connections and a bouquet of standard connections for an astounding amount of devices that can drink from this trough. I will certainly be throwing everything I have at it to see how it stands up to the stress, so if you are looking for a 'tough as nails' power supply for your case then read on.

Page 2 : Package

Power supply packages seem to be the one component that doesn't try to sell the product with advertising. For the most part, power supply packages come loaded with information and photos and not extravagant marketing. This SilverStone package is no different with maturity being the one word that comes to mind when summing up this package.

Wrapped in plastic, the package is protected from being opened prior to your purchase. There isn't really anything that could be pulled from this package if it wasn't wrapped in plastic, but I always like getting a box that is sealed when I buy something.

The entire package is written in English but this one side does have a brief description in six different languages for an international flavor.

The opposite end is used to show the cable connections that come with the power supply and some of the other features that SilverStone wants to show off including the OCP, OVP, SCP and NLO protection that is incorporated in the Zeus line of power supplies.

Moving around to the front edge of the package we see the standard specifications that most people look for when making a power supply purchase. The specifications and amperage chart are listed on the left hand side providing all the necessary information to potential buyers.

The top, like every other package I have received in the last month or so, has a carrying handle built into it. A nice touch but again, with the package being wrapped in plastic it doesn't really serve any purpose until you get the power supply home and at that point you really won't be carrying the box around that much. Perhaps a lunchbox for the kids once you have installed the power supply?

I will state it again, the classy look of this package really speaks volumes about SilverStone as a company. The cases they provide are stunning and this power supply looks to be just as fashionable. Next up will be a look at the specifications that Zeus ST56ZF offers.

Page 3 : Specifications

The specification sheets on power supplies can be quite overwhelming to most so we will start out with the basic info that almost anyone looking for a power supply will want to see from prospective candidates.

This chart is an expansion from the basic info we found on the exterior of the package above. It almost seems odd to see a single 12v rail but when there is 38A on that single rail any un-easiness melts away like snow in the spring. If that isn't enough specifications for you, you will want to download the detailed specifications sheet in PDF format from the SilverStone web site.

In the package section I mentioned the various protective features that SilverStone offers with this power supply, here is a breakdown of those features that can be ultimately found in the PDF file linked above.

OCP
– Over Current Protection
This is a safety feature that will prevent the +3.3v, +5v, and +12v rails from producing a set value that could damage your components by shutting the power supply down. Simply power cycling the unit will allow for the power supply to function again.

OVP
– Over Voltage Protection
Again, any over voltage on any of the rails will cause the power supply to shut down at a preset value.

SCP
– Short Circuit Protection
If the output voltage is short circuited then the power supply will automatically shut itself down.

NLP
– No Load Protection
This just allows the power supply to run without causing damage with no load being placed on it. This feature will allow for me to test the voltages of the various rails without any load in the performance section.

This is what SilverStone has to say about their own power supply:

The last of the specifications we will look at is the cable connections. I mentioned earlier, in the introduction of this review, that there is a plethora of connections stemming from this power supply and this list borrowed from SilverStones web site will confirm that.

That is definitely an impressive list of available connections in the wiring loom. Note the 8-pin ATX12V connector near the top of the list. Some new enthusiast and server motherboards are coming out with an 8-pin power connection and SilverStone has ensured that this power supply is future proofed by going with the 8-pin connector with an adapter to hook up with the normal 4-pin ATX power connection on 939 and P4 boards. As a consumer, this is appreciated so that a necessary upgrade may be avoided down the road with a new motherboard purchase.

Page 4 : Package Contents

At some point the package has to be opened and that time is now.

We are initially greeted with the ST56ZF manual placed on top. The manual is more of an information booklet explaining all the features and in-depth specifications of the power supply laying in wait under the protective top cardboard piece.

With that top cardboard flap lifted, we can see that there is Styrofoam secured to the underside to protect the power supply. The box of accessories is tucked in-between the power supply and one sidewall with more styrofoam underneath the power supply holding it tightly in place. A package cannot get much neater or more secure than this one.

Since the power supply is not a modular one, there really isn't a lot of pieces inside the box. There is just the power supply and bundle of wires, the manual, and the box that contains some goodies.

Inside the little white box is a power cord, the 8-pin to 4-pin adapter along with a small bag of mounting screws, a bracket, and something that is often overlooked by lesser power supplies; some cable ties to aid in cable management.

There are no real surprises when we pull the power supply out of the box. The exterior is a nice flat black with nothing on it other than the sticker shown here. The grill at the front houses an 80mm fan behind it and the cables come out the rear all bundled together.

Silverstone takes care where the cables release from the power supply by incorporating a cable tie to keep the bundle in place. The 24-pin, 8-pin, and both 6-pin cables come sleeved in the mesh netting while the rest of the cables are kept together with periodical cable ties that are all neatly trimmed.

The entire front of the power supply is grilled and we can see inside by looking through it. Two very large heatsinks are hard to miss as we peak inside. It does not look like there is a second fan anywhere, so the one that we saw at the rear appears to be the only active cooling for this power supply. That might lead to some unwanted noise and I will be checking for that during testing.

As mentioned, there is no bottom fan like so many power supplies have these days. We will see how that plays out during testing.

Removing the bubble wrap lets the cables run free. There is a large number of connections and it shows. Meshing the 24-pin, 6-pin, and 8-pin cables will definitely help keep the interior of cases that this power supply is mounted in look clean. Again, even those cables that are not wrapped in netting are cable tied at two different spots to keep them from flailing about wildly.

Going in a clockwise rotation starting in the top left is the 24-pin ATX power connection, the 8-pin motherboard connection, our 4 SATA power connections and the pair of 6-pin PCI-E connections. The finish on the meshing around the cables is very clean and tidy. Both ends, at the connectors and the power supply, are heatshrinked and very professional looking. We will now be going inside to see what SilverStone has used for components inside this guy.

The first order of business was to take the 80mm fan out. We can see those two huge heatsinks on top that we saw through front grill in an earlier photo. They pretty much cover the entire interior of the power supply.

This is the fan that I removed. It is made by Sanyo Denki and I could not find the exact part number on their web site. 9A0812G406 is the model number on the fan but the closest model on the web site I could find is 9A0812G4
02
, here are the specifications on that model.

All the power connections connect to the circuit board and most of the protection features are housed on this circuit board. The quality of the solders and care taken in the tying of cables is quite impressive. This is a very neat and well put together power supply.

Anywhere heat is being generated, there seems to be an aluminum heatsink near by as is the case above, with a small heatsink providing cooling to hot components in this area.

The small heatsinks continue throughout the power supply with two more seen here aiding in keeping warm components cool.

Finding the large capacitors that we are use to seeing in a power supply took a little bit of time, but I found them tucked in here behind another circuit board on the opposite side of the cable connections. There are three in total but due to their location I was unable to determine their brand or model number.

Here is one more shot of the three large capacitors seen through the front grill. Again, the Zeus ST56ZF seems very solid and well made by SilverStone. We will now move on to the performance section where we can see how it performs.

Page 5 : Performance

As with all other power supplies we review here at Overclockers Online, the SilverStone ST56ZF will run under three different load situations and the voltages from the various connections will be recorded with a digital 2 decimal multimeter. Here is the list of components that the ST56ZF will be powering during the testing period.

Here is a quick photo I took during the testing period. I didn't realize just how many hard drives I had until they were all lined up like that.

For the testing I ran the system for 4 hours under load using Prime95 on torture test blend, at idle with nothing more than background services running, and in a power-on state with nothing plugged into the power supply. I took 3 random readings throughout the 4 hour period in each state and averaged out the results for the charts below. Let's take a look at the numbers:

There is a noticeable pattern on all connectors, which makes sense as they are all on the single rail. The voltage drops ever so slightly from power-on to idle and again under load. The largest drop was on the 4-pin auxiliary connection to the motherboard that went from 12.15v at power-on to 12.00v under load. This is only a drop of 1.25% which is quite acceptable considering how much voltage was being used by the CPU and RAM, all on the same rail. SiSoft Sandra estimates that the CPU is using almost a full 100W by itself.

SilverStone also has the power supply putting out exactly what it should be on the +3.3v, +5v, and +12v lines with every connector supplying no more than 1.25% voltage over what it should be. The margin for error in power supplies is generally accepted at 5%-6% so SilverStone is well within those limits.

Page 6 : Conclusion

When it is all said and done, the SilverStone Zeus ST56ZF is a very solid offering. The package is top notch with very little chance of damage being done to the unit during any amount of transport and the power supply inside is just as good. In addition, the quality of the cables is excellent, with clean heatshrinking and artistic cable tying. Another nice feature of this power supply is that the length of the cables should allow this power supply to be used inside of any case no matter how big. If you noticed in the testing photo I have the power supply a good 6 inches lower than the desk that the motherboard is sitting on and the cables reach to all connections on it quite easily. The cables are also quite easy to maneuver, twist, and bend in order to go where you want.

My DFI LanParty motherboard did not pick up the temperature of the power supply but during the entire testing period the exterior of the unit did not really get warm at all. I know my hands are not a temperature probe but all sides of the outer shell seemed to be room temperature throughout the extensive testing period. The fan does run fairly fast at all times but doesnt make a lot of noise. I did notice a slight vibration type rattle when I had just the power supply on for the voltage testing and it didn't seem to disappear once the power supply was hooked up to the motherboard. You could only hear the high-pitch sound when you have your ear pointed at the unit and within a short distance but the noise is still there. Despite only having a single fan the power supply did seem to remain quite cool but a large 120mm fan in the bottom would have been nice to help the rear fan and allow it to run at a lower RPM.

Over the past three weeks I have had this power supply running pretty much 24/7 under 100% load with the same system as in testing just without all the hard drives. I have been working on a memory review where the RAM is sucking on 3.5v at times for the last week and not once has the SilverStone Zeus ST56ZF rebooted, shutdown, or acted unruly in any way. Don't let the single rail turn you off in this multi-rail world as the SilverStone Zeus ST56ZF is a worthy competitor to power your next high-end system.

Advantages

• Plenty of Amps to spare
• Cable length and selection is excellent
• SLI & Crossfire ready
• 8-pin MB connection for future technologies

  Disadvantages

• High pitch buzzing noise noticeable at times
• Voltages do drop slightly when under load (1.25%)

  Added note: We have just been told that the Silverstone ST56ZF has now been certified by nVidia as an
  SLI Certified Power Supply!

  For a list of all certified products, please visit SLI Zone

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Silverstone for providing the sample