Silverstone SX500-LG PSU Overview and Pin Out Guide

Silverstone released the SFX format with an initial hardwired series. While the new form factor was a godsend to the small form-factor community that was just welcoming in the ITX form factor, the lack of a modular variant made cable management rather difficult in cases such as the Silverstone SG05. This was not the case for long, Silverstone answered to the wants expressed by the SFF community and in 2012, Silverstone announced the SFX 450 80+ Gold rated PSU. Although the wattage is on the low side of sub 500 watts, many enthusiast found they could run i7 setups with GTX Titan GPU’s without any issues. This further increased the demand for the ITX market, Silverstone followed with the 600 watt SFX model, but later expanded the SFX series with the SFX-L variant. Compared to SFX, SFX-L is slightly longer, coming in at 130mm compared to the original 100mm. With the added 30mm of depth this allows for a 120mm fan to be used, compared to the 80mm fan present on the SFX line. This change was to counteract a complaint found in the SFX models, where a loud whining noise could be found coming from the 80mm fans. The SFX-L has remained the same height and width as the SFX series, however make sure your SFX compatible case, says (SFX-L) as the extra 30mm of length could be an issue.

Silverstone’s SFX-L, comes in a very brightly colored package, which certainly stands out among the competitors. Keep in mind the SFX/-L series will come in a small package, due to the reduced size of the PSU, and reduced amount of cables that come with the unit.

Included in the retail packaging comes a Silverstone product manual, SFX-L 500 watt manual, SFX to ATX adapter plate and four 6-32″ black screws.

Not only do all the cables provided with the SFX-L 500 watt PSU come in all black fused wires, all the cables are also the same cables that come in the Silverstone Strider short cable kit.

The PSU is shipped in a bubble wrap sleeve, and comes with a warning label that can be seen through the bubble wrap. The warning is to let users know that the PSU fan will only operate during times of heavy load or when a certain temperature is reached.

The SX500-LG uses an SFX-L form factor which is slightly larger than a regular SFX but is still considerably smaller than an ATX power supply, measuring only 130 x 125 x 63mm (identical width and height as SFX form factor PSUs).

To remove the top shell, four black screws found on the right and left side of the power supply must be removed. One of these screws is located directly under the “warranty void” sticker*. The fan is hard wired into the PCB of the power supply, and caution must be exercised that you do not yank on the wire, which is zip tied to a grouping of other wires.

Silverstone has changed the 80mm fan used in the previous models, with a 12V, 120mm fan from “Globe” which utilizes a sleeve bearing system and runs on 0.35A. Compared to the previous 80mm fan, the 120mm replacement is much quieter and runs only when the load or temperature threshold has been met. Silverstone has tapped High-Power as the OEM for the SX500-LG, it uses a half-bridge topology design with LLC. The Sirfa HPM platform is a familiar design, used in the Rosewill Photon PSU as well. Japanese capacitors are used with a Rubycon on the primary side and Nippon-Chemicon filtering on the secondary.

The Silverstone SFX-L 500 watt PSU uses one of the easiest pin outs available on the market. The only downside to this PSU is the single PCIe connector. Because of this users that use GPUs that have dual PCIe connectors will have to run multiple double wires in order to avoid using the pigtail style configuration. For those that do not know what the term “pigtail” means, its when manufactures make cables that branch off from the primary PCIe connector. For users using dual 6 pin configuration, four double wires will be required. For users using a 6+8 configuration, a total of six double wires will be required.

*Modders Inc, is not responsible for any damage that may occur during the process of voiding your warranty to either the user or components. Please exercise caution when dealing with power supplies, as they can discharge even after being unplugged.