SilverStone Decathlon 700 W Power Supply Review

Introduction

Decathlon 700 W (a.k.a. DA700) from SilverStone features a full modular cabling system, where even the main motherboard cable is connected through it, a very uncommon configuration (usually on power supplies with modular cabling system the main motherboard cable comes from inside the unit). This unit also features active PFC and a 120 mm fan, with the manufacturer saying it can deliver its labeled power at 50° C. Let’s see if this is true and if this unit is a good option.

Figure 1: SilverStone Decathlon 700 W.

This power supply is a bigger than other products on the same power range, being 7 3/32” (180 mm) deep instead of 6 19/64” (160 mm) or even 5 ½” (140 mm), and also having a slight ¼” (6.35 mm) projection for the modular cabling system, making it to have a total depth of 7 11/32” (18.6 cm).

As mentioned, this product has a 120 mm on its bottom side, which is our preferred configuration. We think, however, that SilverStone could have installed a bigger 140 mm fan (the modular cabling system could have prevented this implementation though).

As explained, on this power supply all cables use the modular cabling system, including the main motherboard cable (which uses a 20/24-pin connector), the EPS12V cable and the ATX12V cable, which use separated cables.

Figure 2: SilverStone Decathlon 700 W.

Figure 3: SilverStone Decathlon 700 W.

This power supply comes with three auxiliary power cables for video cards: one with an 8-pin connector and two featuring two 6-pin connectors each.  This is a very versatile configuration, even though we prefer to see power supplies using individual cables for each video card power connector. It would be also better to see all connectors using 6/8-pin plugs.

On the peripheral side this unit comes with two SATA power cables containing four SATA power plugs each and two peripheral power cables containing three standard peripheral power plugs and one floppy disk drive power plug each.

All wires are 18 AWG, which is adequate for a power supply on this power range.

This power supply is manufactured by Impervio, the same manufacturer behind OCZ EliteXStream 1,000 W. It is interesting to note that SilverStone uses different vendors for their other power supply series. For example, Strider ST50F is manufactured by FSP.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.