Are Silverstone PSUs worth a punt?

General rule of thumb for PSUs I follow is to buy those with at least 5yrs warranty, or highest warranty in a given budget. Silverstone's PSUs often have lower warranty than the competition at the same price range, hence I avoid them, altho some of their stuff is actually pretty good - the Decathlon and SFX Gold series are well reviewed and have long warranties.

Its better to go with Coolermaster MWE V2 Bronze PSUs as they have a better design. If you cant get the CM PSUs, silverstone should work just as well.

I've only used two of these, but I'm very pleased with them. I briefly tested the 650W one alongside a Corsair CX450 and CV450 and a Seasonic Prime 850W Gold and at full CPU load, the Silverstone drew the least amount of power from the socket, making it the most efficient of all four. The quality and gauge of cables is way better than Corsair, about on par with the Seasonic. I like this series, they're my new favourite for budget conscious non-gpu builds.

I have never used any Cooler Master power supplies though, so I can't speak about them. My experience with looking for quality power supplies started around the time when FSP and Seasonic were the only brands making Active PFC models in the early 2000's, and brands like Cooler Master were not yet established. Silverstone was more accessible in the Indian market back then so most enthusiasts at the time viewed them as a budget (but still 10x more expensive than the local stuff) alternative to Lian Li. From their cases, we gravitated towards other components and peripherals. They do so much unique stuff that I view them as a boutique brand, compared to the more mainstream Corsair & Cooler Master. I love their 180mm Air Penetrator fans.

But I do not have long term testing data on these, I got a 650W one back in March for 3475 and I have it inside a X299 system and is on 24/7 since then without any issues. The 550W at that time was 2900 and is powering a 5900x system. They both have 5 years warranty.

A vietnamese site did some standardized testing: https://www.f14lab.org/2021/04/review-silverstone-viva-550-550w.html

SunnyBoi said:

Its better to go with Coolermaster MWE V2 Bronze PSUs as they have a better design. If you cant get the CM PSUs, silverstone should work just as well.

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now that jonnyguru site is gone,is there any other site to check reviews of cm psu's that are indepth. after seasonics disappearance from the indian market,even i am psu hunting. but my previous experience with cm and acro has been bad.

fastapifastdisks said:

now that jonnyguru site is gone,is there any other site to check reviews of cm psu's that are indepth. after seasonics disappearance from the indian market,even i am psu hunting. but my previous experience with cm and acro has been bad.

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He was the first guy who reported Gigabyte exploding PSUs in October 2020, his reviews are pretty extensive.

He has also reviewed some SilverStone PSUs you can search in his channel.

They are Tier C low priority and Tier D, so I personally wouldn't get them. Maybe try to find something from Tier B (or C) that's in your budget. But rsaeon, as said above, is using it with 5900x without issues

jonnyguru is active on LTT and even Tom's (I think?)

roofrider said:

But rsaeon, as said above, is using it with 5900x without issues

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I have to clarify though, it's without a GPU. I wouldn't want to use the VIVA Bronze power supplies with any GPU that requires additional power. Both of the 5900x and X299 systems have GT710's since they're headless but still require a GPU to boot. It looks like the VIVA Gold power supplies are Tier B.

rsaeon said:

I'm very pleased with them.

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Two of three have now died. A Viva 550 Bronze purchased in March of 2021 died last month, and a Viva 750 Bronze purchased in December of 2021 died today. They just shut off and refuse to power on. They were both used in non-GPU systems that never drew more than 100w.

I'll report back after I figure out the RMA situation. In any case, they're no longer recommendable.