SilverStone is a company that needs no introduction. Although they have only been in business since 2003, in that time they have produced some great case designs. Just in the last several months, I've had the Kublai mid-tower and Grandia HTPC cases up for review, but it has been a while since our last power supply from them. Shawn was the last to take a look at one, the Olympia 1000 in March of 2007. In the tradition of the Zeus and Olympia power supplies, with their single, large +12v rail, SilverStone now introduces the next generation of power supply built especially for enthusiasts, the Decathlon.


The Decathlon, like its predecessors, sports a single +12v rail, but adds something not found on previous models: modular cabling. Although modular cables typically add some bulk and extra cost to a power supply, they are often a great asset to have for keeping clutter inside the PC at a minimum. The Decathlon series is available in power ratings from 650W all the way up to 1200W, all with the same great features such as all modular cabling, >80% efficiency rating, silent cooling and single +12v output. While many manufacturers continue to produce multi-rail power supplies, incorporating three or even four smaller, separate +12v outputs, SilverStone has continued to stay with a single rail. The theory behind a single rail advantage is seen when using extremely power hungry video cards that could potentially overtax the smaller output of one of a multi-rail +12v connection. Generally however, most cards that require a large amperage draw will have more than one power connector, in which case you can feed two smaller outputs to the card and still not overtax the supply. To be honest, I have never had a problem using either type, and as long as it runs my system overclocked and remains stable, I'm happy.

Let's take a closer look at the SilverStone Decathlon 700W.