Introduction

SilverStone Technology are a new manufacturer on the scene. Their debut is the Strider series of PSUs. It comes in 350 watt and 400 watt flavours, and I have the 400 watt model for this review.

The Strider 400 is a quality bit of kit, packaged in a nice silvery grey cardboard box, which advertises the fact that this PSU is "lowest acoustic". It comes with a short information leaflet, printed on very expensive paper, and written in clumsy English that is definitely good for a few giggles. Here is the product overview from the leaflet.

"The Strider series use high efficiency component to minimize heat generation of the power supply and using the auto thermal sense to satisfy low acoustic needs that don't rely on any manual judgement. This power supply can also support serial ATA connector. Because the high performance of this power supply, it increases PC stability and thermal solution with the repetitive stress injury design, high quality components and craftsmanship. At the same time, the 120mm Fan motor with better airflow and lower fan speed can play important role in this performance."

First Impressions

SilverStone certainly seem to know about build quality, even if their English grammar is a little lacking. The Strider 400 has a nice solid feel, and is finished in a high gloss metallic black, which gleams when the light catches it.

However, the most striking feature of this power supply is the 120mm fan. Upon opening up the casing, this proved to be a very high quality ADDA fan. This fan is very quiet even running at full speed, but if that wasn't enough, it is thermally controlled as well. This PSU really is "lowest acoustic". I could only hear the tiniest whisper of moving air from it, which was drowned out in even the quietest systems. Silverstone claim 26 dBA for this model, but it seems even less, as there is no high frequency noise at all, thanks to the larger fan.

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