SilverStone Strider Essential 500W

System Setup:

The low-cost SilverStone Strider Essential 500W was installed into one of our test systems boasting an Intel Core 2 Duo E8000 clocked to 4.00GHz, an ASRock P45 motherboard, Western Digital 160GB SATA 2.0 hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 system memory, and dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards. The chassis was a Lian Li PC-A05N ATX enclosure, which handled this SilverStone power supply quite well and the cables were all of adequate length. The system powered up without any issues and the power supply was impeccably quiet.

As can be gathered from the graphic below, the voltages were spot on and we had not monitored much fluctuation at all with the lines.

Conclusion:

SilverStone generally does not venture into the area of making low-cost products as they have had much success in just producing the best, high-end power supplies and computer enclosures for enthusiasts and gamers. However, they have dabbled with lower-priced ATX enclosures in the past like the Precision PS02 and have shown they can make good products at a more attractive price. With the launch of the SilverStone Strider Essential series, they have shown they too can produce a good power supply for those on a limited budget.

The SST-ST50F-ES is not a power supply you'd want for a new high-end build, but if you're short on cash and looking for a 500 Watt power supply that provides a strong +12V rail, a quiet fan, and sports Active PFC with 80 PLUS certification, the Strider Essential 500W is worth considering. The ST50F-ES can be found at Internet retailers like Amazon for just over $50 USD.