SilverStone Essential Gold 750W Review

Manufacturer: SilverStone

UK price (as reviewed): £87.95 (inc. VAT)

US price (as reviewed): $89.99 (exc. tax)

The Essential Gold family comprises three capacities – 550W, 650W, and 750W – and we’ve the highest-wattage model, also known as the ET750-HG, in for review today. The price for this particular PSU is as low as £80, which is pretty good for a semi-modular, 80 Plus Gold, 750W design. It’s not uncommon to find 80 Plus Bronze-rated units at a similar price, but equally SilverStone doesn’t have the market to itself at this price point; Corsair’s CS750M is just one example of a similar competing model.

At 160mm deep, the ET750-HG is not going to win any awards for compactness, but neither is it too large to fit in most cases. This standard sizing is matched by standard, generic aesthetics; in fact, we’d argue it’s particularly bland in this department. Even the port labelling feels outdated with its reference to IDE (!) connectors – we don’t think it would be too much to ask SilverStone to rework the unit slightly for a modern audience.

One bonus of the design here is the hybrid modular cabling, whereby only the main 24-pin and eight-pin connectors are hardwired to the unit. All other connectors are attached via modular plugs, allowing you to use only as many as you need to minimise excess cable clutter. All cables are flat and black, which will be useful when it comes to cable routing.

The cable connectors and lengths are detailed in the snippet from the official spec table above. The inclusion of four 6+2-pin PCIe connectors is definitely welcome, although a secondary CPU power connection wouldn’t go amiss, as that’s not that uncommon on higher-end motherboards these days. The cable lengths are all fine for ATX mid-towers and should cater to most full-tower designs as well. The design also allows you to connect every cable run at the same time, giving you a total of 12 peripheral power ports (nine SATA, three Molex).

As is preferred, the ET750-HG uses a single 12V rail, over which more than 99 percent of the rated capacity can be delivered at once at an ambient rating of 40°C.

Taking a peak inside, we find that the ET750-HG is based on a mid-range platform from OEM Channel Well Technology (CWT). Specifically, it looks to be a derivative of the PUQ platform that’s widely used by competitors including Corsair. We’ve no complaints really about the layout or design – it’s not too cluttered, so good attention has been paid to keeping things cool.

Actually doing the cooling is a sleeve-bearing Yate Loon D14SM-12 140mm fan, which is about average for this price. We’d prefer a fluid dynamic bearing model, but the model here should still get the job done. It has no semi-passive capabilities, remaining on at all times.

The warranty on this PSU is a little limited at three years.