Introduction

We would like to thank Silverstone for supplying the review sample.



There were 24 PSU models in Silverstone’s portfolio while I was putting together this review. Already a pretty large number to show that they take the PSU market seriously by striving to keep up with user demands and needs, there has lately also been a great interest in high wattage units because of the mining craze. With that said, the interest in budget PSUs is still very high and will remain high as long as the economic crisis continues to belabor all of us, which had Silverstone wisely decide to add two new members to their budget Strider Essential series, the ST60F-ESB and ST70F-ESB, which, as their model numbers show, have respective capacities of 600 W and 700 W. In this review, we will test the smaller of the two in order to figure out what compromises had to be made to lower the production cost and, with it, the final retail price.

The ST60F-ESB is 80 Plus Bronze certified and doesn't feature any modular cables. Silverstone also neglected to sleeve all cables except for the main ATX one to lower the unit's price some more. Offering a PSU with unsleeved cables nowadays is incredibly strange, but Silverstone apparently thought that this product would address users that shop with their wallet instead of such details in mind. The company might be right, but the fact that the competition is a step ahead by offering fully sleeved cables with their units in the same price range can't be denied. This PSU, like most Silverstone units, is also incredibly compact, which will at the very least be of great help during the installation as it makes managing such a large number of native cables easier.