5-way High-End 1KW+ PSU Round-Up
Silverstone Zeus 1200w
The Silverstone Zeus range of PSU’s is certainly one that we’ve had plenty of prior experience with here at Overclock3D. Having reviewed almost every one of their units ranging from 560w up to 1kw, the Zeus has never disappointed in the stability department mainly thanks to its server-class components. However, the Zeus series has been around for quite some time now and despite the output figures now being ramped up to 1200w, it’s going to take more than rock solid voltages for this greek god to score any major points in today’s tests.
Presented in a black double walled cardboard box, the Zeus 1200w follows the same packaging style as all of its predecessors. At the front of the box we can see that Silverstone have printed a feature list along with some reassuring stickers that state that the unit can be used to power triple-GPU configurations including NVIDIA’s power hungry GTX280 series. Around the back is an image of the innards of the Zeus along with fairly detailed information about each component.
Disappointingly Silverstone have placed the Zeus loose inside the box. Unlike most of the other PSU’s in this round-up that use some form of Styrofoam padding inside the box to prevent the PSU from moving around and protect it from damage, the Zeus is only protected by a collection of accessories and cables all wedged inside the box.
Measuring 215mm in length, the Zeus is actually the longest of all the PSU’s in this test by around 10mm. This unfortunately isn’t helped by the fully modular connector system which adds a further 30mm+ to the PSU’s length making it only suitable for the most spacious of PC cases.
In terms of appearance, the Zeus is the most plain of the bunch with a matt black finish adorn with specification stickers on most sides. However, due to the use of an 80mm fan at the rear of the unit and a modular connector system at the front, Silverstone have been forced to add ventilation holes to the top and sides of the casing, giving the PSU a rather hardcore look.
Taking a closer look at the modular connector system we can see that Silverstone have opted for PCI-E style plugs for all of the PSU-side connections. This is a vast improvement on the Molex style plugs used for some of the connectors on the Strider series; and should provide trouble free operation.
As required by most Tri-SLI configurations, the Zeus is equipped with a total of six PCI-E connectors. Rather than placing these on six separate modular cables, Silverstone have adopted a cable-clutter saving idea of piggy-backing two of the plugs off existing cables to reduce the total cable count to four.
Just when we thought that the internal layout of the Corsair HX1000 unit would be as crazy as things could get, the Zeus comes and surprises us with a dual-PCB layout. As we can see from the images above, the Zeus is comprised of two fully loaded circuit boards separated by four large PC motherboard style spacers and a large black plastic sheet to prevent anything on either of the PCB’s accidentally shorting.
This is by far the most jam packed layout out of any of the PSU’s on test today (maybe ever), and despite Silverstone’s attempts to keep things tidy by using zip ties on all of the cables, the 80mm fan installed in the unit is going to have a hard time keeping everything cool.
However, despite the lack of breathing space a quick look at the components used inside the unit reveals that Silverstone haven’t cut any corners. Located on the upper-PCB are two primary 105c 450v Japanese capacitors along with a series of Infinion MOSFET’s attached to a rather chunky aluminium heatsink. The lower half of the unit is fitted with a single full-bridge transformer, two large copper chokes and a pair of D/D modules with aluminium heatsinks for voltage regulation on the +3.3v and +5v rails.
