Introduction

We would like to thank Super Flower for supplying the review sample.

As it seems the R&D department of Super Flower was very busy and productive the last year(s) since they managed to catch the competition in their sleep and released three Platinum efficiency units before anyone else. Their first Platinum unit was the Golden King SF-550P14PE with 550W capacity. This was the first Platinum PSU that hit the market and amazed us with its performance and most of all with its efficiency. Recently Super Flower made two additions to their product lineup, the Golden King SF-1000P14PE which is the first 1000W Platinum efficiency PSU and the second is the SF-500P14FG: the first Platinum fanless unit.
Recently we tested the Kingwin Stryker 500W, which is based on the same platform as the SF-500P14FG.

The SF-500P14FG has 500W capacity but it can be overpowered if needed to 600W, dropping only by one level in efficiency to 80PLUS Gold. It uses a semi modular cabling system and is equipped with four PCIe connectors, so it can easily power a middle range system with two VGAs. Besides the Platinum efficiency its strongest asset is the completely inaudible operation since it doesn’t use a cooling fan. In the location where the fan usually resides we find a huge heatsink that deals with the heat output of the PSU.

Specifications

Platinum efficiency and fanless design are the most crucial characteristics of this unit. In addition it weighs way too much for a 500W unit, because of the extra large heatsink that sits on top of it, where the cooling fan typically resides. The warranty is long enough especially for a fanless PSU which naturally has much higher internal temperatures, compared to PSUs that are actively cooled. Also we were quite surprised to not find Over Temperature Protection included in the PSU's characteristics. Either Super Flower is very sure that the PSU will efficiently dissipate heat under all circumstances or they were quite confident that due to low energy dissipation the internal temperature will never reach critical limits. Nevertheless we think that OTP should be included.
Finally, the price is high, but unfortunately low noise PC components come at a price premium.


Not much to comment here. One +12V rail which can deliver almost the full power of the PSU, common for units that utilize DC-DC converters for the minor rails generation. Speaking of the minor rails, these are a bit weak since their max combined power is restricted to 100W. Nevertheless you won't need more than 100W in a contemporary system that is covered by a 500-600W PSU.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

For its capacity the Golden Silent 500 W features a satisfactory number of connectors, especially PCIe ones. Regarding cable length we would like to see a little longer ATX cable (at least 600 mm) and the same goes for the PCIe ones. Also the distance between all modular connectors is way to small at only 105-110 mm, while the ATX spec recommends 150 mm. Finally the main ATX connector along with the EPS one use 16 AWG wires while all others use 18 AWG.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail we do not have anything to comment about its power distribution.