Silverstone ST52F 520W
Supplied by: Silverstone
Products details: Manufactures' website

Silverstone has a reputation for some of the best crafted cases around, and I was eager to review one of their power supplies when the opportunity was offered. Upon arrival the Silverstone ST52F promptly made its way into one of my Athlon64 nForce 4 testing platforms for a couple of weeks until I had time to do this review. The unit was a true gem to work with and I never experienced any power related issues when using this supply. That might not sound that impressive, but when running several hard drives and optical drives in combination with vapor-phase cooled Athlon64's at 3.0+GHz, power demands need to be met or else stability is compromised. When moved over to our testing platform for this review, the ST52F didn't miss a beat and kept right on plugging away. Again, running a P4 Prescott at 3.93GHz air-cooled with several hard drives and optical drives is not something I would trust to a no name power supply unless you feel lucky. Well do you punk? Do you feel lucky? Ok Dirty Harry commentary aside, as seen in the pictures below the exterior of the unit appears to be a blackened chrome finish. Overall fit and finish was above reproach and carries on with the tradition Silverstone has become known for with their excellent cases and case designs.





The Silverstone unit does not disappoint! Heavier gauge wire, 6 Molex power connectors, 4 SATA power connectors, 2 Floppy power connectors, a 24 pin ATX header, 6 pin PCI Express plug, 4 pin Aux power cable adapter that converts the 8 Pin EPS header for 4 pin 12v auxiliary motherboard use (read not server). The unit is a standard sized ATX unit and weighs in at a hefty 5.5lbs (2.49kg), which is inline with the Zippy HP2 6460P. Included are adapters such as a 24 pin to 20 pin ATX header adapter allowing this Power supply to power older 20 pin ATX header motherboards. Specifications are very stout and their website promises Workstation level components and active PFC.