We start each article where we present a power supply with a disclaimer that we can’t call this a full review since we don’t own a load tester.
Since NVIDIA has released a new PCI-E power cable standard, in the form of the 12VHPWR, which is basically a proprietary 12-pin plug, there have been numerous reporting of ports and cables melting. Considering these cables are rated to offer up to 600W of power, it shouldn’t come as a surprise of how easily these might melt when powering something like an RTX 4090. Alas, the common issue seems to be that the connectors aren’t fully seated in the graphics card and NVIDIA recommends ensuring this is done before attaching the GPU to the motherboard.
Then PSU vendors had to release a new ATX standard, which hasn’t changed in decades, to this new ATX 3.0. This was done in order to include this new 12VHPWR connector, along side other new features. They bottom line is that this new 12+4-pin 12VHPWR connector can supply 150W, 300W, 450W, or 600W of power.
Furthermore, it also has four pins to communicate the power limit a PSU can stream to any PCIe 5.0-compliant component. So, here we are today with SilverStone‘s DA1000R Gold 1000W ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 fully modular PSU. It ticks on paper everything you might need from a modern standard sized PSU, at just 150mm long (only 10mm over the regular ones) from loads of power, all Japanese caps, semi-passive 135mm fan and 10 years warranty.
SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd is a company based in Taiwan, founded in 2003 that makes computer cases, power supplies, and other peripheral for personal computers. Their goal was to provide products that create inspirations and customers a wide selection of choices.
With distribution centres in different areas of the globe, SilverStone products can be seen all over the world, not just for computer users but also for home entertainment use. Thus providing leisure with integration of advanced technologies that is functional and making them enjoyable to use.
Prices and Availability
The price shouldn’t surprise you, considering its specs, however there is no word on the exact MSRP but expect this to be at least 200 Dollars, Euros or Pounds.
Highlights and Specification
*Courtesy of their website.
* Equipped with Gen5 12VHPWR PCIe connector, meeting Intel ATX 3.0 specification standard
* Cybenetics Gold efficiency certification
* 24/7 continuous power output with 50℃operating temperature
* Fully Modular design
* All Japanese electrolytic capacitors
* Ultra silent 135mm FDB fan with semi-fanless function
* Power density: 517W per litre
* Efficiency ≥87% & <89% overall efficiency
* Weight: 2.88 kg
Visual Inspection
We have the classic SilverStone livery and packaging design with excellent branding.
All the main highlights, including the new Gen 5.0 PCIe connector, are mentioned on all sides of the box. Considering its 1000W output, rest assured you have plenty of connectivity as well, like six 6+2 pin regular PCI-E plugs, two 4+4 CPU and twelve SATA.
There is plenty of protection for the PSU unit from this foam padding while the cables reside in a separate chamber. Accessory wise, you get the standard deal, the four Phillips installation screws and some quick user’s manuals.
As mentioned before, this is a fully modular power supply. The lengths vary from 550 to 1050mm, while the Floppy 4pin adapter is the exception at 100mm.
Only the new 550mm long 12VHPWR PCI-E power cable is sleeved to differentiate it further from the regular PCI-E cables.
Let’s start with it since it’s one of the main highlights here. This is rated to the full 600W of possible power thanks to the extra 4 mini-pins that adhere to the ATX 3.0 and Gen 5.0 PCI-E standards.
Next we have the 20+4 motherboard connector, at 550mm long.
You get 2x 4+4pin CPU EPS cables, which are 750mm long.
The regular 3x PCI-E cables are 700mm long and doubled at each end by the 6+2pin ports. Thus you have in total up to six connectors.
Then we have three 4 port SATA cables at 1050mm long, so that’s up to 12 available ports.
They also include a 900mm long triple Molex cable. Next to it we have the mains power cord.
Finally, as a redundancy, they even include a floppy adapter.
Now here is the DA1000R Gold power supply which measures 150mm (W) × 86mm (H) × 150mm (D). This is just 10mm above the standard sized ATX 140mm units, thus this packs a lot of density for its size at 517W per litre.
The intake area has big cut-outs for the 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan. It’s rated up to 1500 RPM and even features a semi-passive mode (fanless up to 300W), which is user activated if needed as well.
Then the exhaust area houses the previously mentioned semi-passive mode switch, alongside the main ON/OFF PSU button and the port for the power plug.
This is the I/O section and the 12VHPWR port is located in the middle and it’s very hard to miss it anyway because the pin size is way different from the rest.
Lastly the main specs and rail information are on this sticker. You have up to 83.5A on the +12V rails which is plenty of power even for a rig around the RTX 4090 (as per Nvidia’s recommendations).
Testing methodology
- The SilverStone DA1000R Gold rated will be tested at idle, then in a gaming scenario and finally at full system load in stress test
- The CPU & GPU will be set at stock
- In order to verify the efficiency of the PSU, the power draw of the system was measured at the wall socket then the voltages were taken on the +12v, +5v, +5VSB and +3.3v rails using a multimeter
- As the main torture test, we will employ a CPU & GPU 2-minute run in AIDA64
- Room temperature was recorded at ~20°C
- For the noise test, it was hard to isolate just the PSU since this PC was borrowed and considering the testing specs, the PSU will be the last item to worry about noise
- All of the side panels will be attached
Testing platform:
– CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5600x
– CPU Cooler: SilverStone IceGem 360 AIO RGB
– Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus ATX
– RAM: 32GB Silicon Power Turbine RGB 3600 MHz CL18
– Boot SSD: Silicon Power 1TB XS70 M.2 Gen4x4 TLC PCIe NVMe 1.4
– Storage SSD: TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta MAX 2.5″ SATA SSD
– Video card: ASUS ROG LC AMD Radeon RX6900XT 16GB OC
– Case: be quiet! Silent Base 802
Software:
– OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 Version 22H2
– AMD Radeon Drivers – Adrenalin 23.4.1
– Core Temp v1.18 – To see the temperatures in real time
– AIDA64 Extreme v6.60 – Memory analysis and Benchmark suite
– MSI Afterburner v4.62 – To record the FPS and load/temperatures
– 3D/Game(s) – Cyberpunk 2077 v1.61, with everything at ULTRA quality Settings at 4K, no V-Sync, no DSLL
Installation, Testing, Results and Analysis
As mentioned, the PSU unit will be tested in 3 different scenarios, idle, gaming scenario to simulate a real life usage and finally a torture test with the GPU & CPU at max load, in stock settings. The testing system peaked at around 648W, which is roughly 65% load from the total 1000W available and thus we proceeded to measured the efficiency ratings and voltage oscillation.
As you can see the SilverStone DA1000R Gold unit even at 9% load is still very close to the advertised 80 Plus Gold certification. Usually the 50-60% load mark is the sweet spot when it comes to PSU maximum efficiency, which it ticks perfectly as well.
When it comes to rail voltage tolerance levels, Intel has stated the load regulation limits for the +12V rail in between +5 to -8% on the PCIe connectors and +5 to -7% for the other connectors. It’s easy to see that the DA1000R is within excellent spec. Unfortunately we didn’t have on hand an RTX GPU that features the 12VHPWR port to test out that cable but we will revise in the future if the situation changes.
Conclusion
We are at another checkpoint per say in the power supply industry since these new ATX 3.0 & PCI-E 5.0 are imposed by Intel and Nvidia. When AMD will adopt these new 12VHPWR PCIe connectors as well, then these new generation of PSUs will dominate the market. Of course, you can extend the life of your older power supplies with adapters, but that aspect has a limit, especially when it comes to high-power applications. Thus this DA1000R from SilverStone ticks all the boxes if you are looking for a unit that will last you many years and many PC upgrades.
The good:
+ Plenty of output for high end builds
+ ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 ready
+ The full 600W rated 12VHPWR power cable
+ Compact 150mm design
+ All Japanese caps
+ Fully Modular
+ Silent 135mm FDB fan
+ Epic 10 Years Warranty
The bad:
– At least at the moment of writing, out of stock on Amazon
– A lot of competition at this price point from units with higher efficiency ratings
Glob3trotters “High Performance” Award – 5 out of 5
Many thanks to SilverStone for supplying us with this big boy!
