SilverStone Technology 450W SFX Form Factor 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply with +12V Single Rail

I got this PSU for my shoe-box sized Thermaltake Power Supply Mini Case Mini ITX 200 VL52021N2U to replace the included ThermalTake 220 watt power supply unit, and they both seem to be the exact same size. However, the SilverStone is much beefier and the build quality is very impressive. With a Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge CPU and a Radeon HD 6850, the 450 watts should be more than enough.It was really nice of SilverStone to include four black case thumbscrews and four black mounting screws since the ThermalTake ones were pretty crummy. 6-pin AND an 8-pin PCIe power connectors really simplify things if you get a powerful video card. The 80 Plus Bronze rating shows you're getting a thoroughly modern and efficient PSU in a SFX form factor, although you do pay the price for it. I also considered a SeaSonic 350w (less power, too plain) and an Athena Apollo 470w (never heard of them, no 80 Plus).I did a quick check of the voltages and all three rails, 3.3v, 5v and 12v, were slightly over while idle, which I think is good. In practice, it has been absolutely rock stable and amazingly quiet even under load. If you are building a mini-ITX PC, you don't have many choices, so I would highly recommend spending a little extra and getting the SilverStone ST45SF. The power supply is the foundation for the stability of your entire system and this one makes very few compromises for its SFX form factor. Lastly, it's also very quiet, easily drowned out by my video card and CPU fan even at idle.UPDATE: So mine failed (Aug 7, 2011). When I turn on the PC, the fans would spin a few seconds, then turn off, and repeat this forever. I RMA'd it with SilverStone and they sent a new replacement unit within a few days! So even though America is crumbling around us, SilverStone came through with awesomeness and they deserve a beer. Fingers crossed this one lasts longer.UPDATE (Mar 29, 2012): It's still going strong, surviving many torturous 4+ hour gaming marathons and it has the brutal job of exhausting the heat from the CPU as well as its own heat (the GPU is off in its own thermal world). It's brutal because of how tiny the case is and how much power I tried to stuff in it, but my PC has been absolutely stable with not a single crash or unexpected shutdown. *No need to knock on wood*

SO cute and little, quiet, and works well. I had it for almost no time, because it didn't seem strong enough to run my AMD 7950 GPU, but I wanted to find out. It really isn't supposed to; AMD states a minimum of 500 watts and some amount of amps on the 12v rail that I thought this had, but whatever. Live and learn. I do wish the cables were modular on this model at no extra cost, but whatever. This product is truly a marvel; it really hits you how small this is when it's in your hand.

1. PSU is heavy in hand. It means Silverstone has used good materials on this product.2. Black finish looks and feels excellent.3. VERY quiet in the case. Fan noise is barely noticeable.4. Enough power for an AMD A8 CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Blu-ray drive, and Radeon 5870.5. I paid for FULL price (now it's $10 cheaper on Amazon) for this PSU and expected to receive a PSU with ALL cables sleeved. This is nearly a standard practice for today's high-end PSU manufacturers. But Silverstone is SO STINGY on sleeving PSU cables. PSU has cables sleeves on 24 pin power wire and a few other wire, but leaves SATA cables, Molex Cables, and the Floppy cable all exposed. I have to pay extra $15 to buy cable sleeves.I should have deducted TWO stars for you, Silverstone. The cable sleeve is something should be done correctly the first time, not on Version 2.0 or 3.0!!

It makes a bit too much noise for my taste. I'm most likely pulling too many watts from the thing with my system, making the fan spin at Max. I suggest choosing a higher Watt and higher efficiency if you are going to be pulling close to the maximum 450 Watt like me. That way the power supply will be less stressed and the fan can spin slower.