Silverstone Viva Gold 750w

Introduction

The story started with a request to Silverstone about this unit, the coverage of it is still low, and I was interested to compare it to some other units. They gladly accepted the request, but warned me that it’s an Asia aimed unit and will have to ship from Taiwan. And that’s from where we’re getting started. Let’s get into the “Viva”.

General Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables

Here we see pretty much what I would expect of a 750w unit. The only change I’d prefer to see here is an additional PCIe connector to provide power to high wattage GPUs.

External

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The unit from outside looks pretty standard, but a bit too closed off for my liking, but is in no way problematic. Mainly, the choice of square exhaust seems a bit weird, as I already noted before in the Deepcool PQ1000M review. It’s far from the worst I’ve seen, but I’d still prefer to see something with hexagons or circles here. Otherwise, the unit has a decent look to it.

There’s a button on the back right above the power switch that allows the unit to switch between a semi-passive and always spinning mode, a nice addition. As I’ve seen with some other Highpower units, the fan can spin up and down often, making the always spinning mode generally better. I was however unable to verify if this is also the case on this specific unit.

Protections

Most of the protections come from the protection IC, with minor rail OCP (Over Current Protection) coming from the DC-DC controllers. This is what should be expected from a modern unit, with the only notable lack being the 12v OCP, but this is uncommon to find on a single rail unit.

Parts breakdown+Internal

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Highpower is an OEM well known for their work with Chieftec, Rosewill, Sharkoon, Cougar, Fractal, Thermaltake and many others. They’ve worked with Silverstone in the past before on various SFX and ATX units like the Decathlon 1650w and part of the SX-G series.

The part list is similar to Chieftec Polaris, which is based off the same #817 platform. The changes are likely down to the usual swapping of part sources due to increased lead time or pricing. The platform is also used on High Power Performance GD, Green UK+/HP Evo, InWin PF, Jetek RM, Micronics Performance II and Rosewill SMG.

The capacitors in the unit are from Teapo, a well-regarded Taiwanese manufacturer. It’s a very respectable and even cost-saving choice compared to Japanese capacitors, which can increase cost drastically due to the specific conditions these parts have to be stored in. As Highpower produces in China (Dongguan) and Taiwan (Kuanyin).

The only real complaint I have here is the fan. Sleeve bearing fans often show a shorter lifespan compared to other bearings, which is likely also the reason Silverstone gave this unit a 5-year warranty. I would like to see a change to a rifle bearing fan here to increase the lifespan of the unit.

Electrical Performance

There’s sadly no third party coverage of the Viva at the time of writing, however, you can visit this review by Aris on TechPowerUp from the Chieftec Polaris, which uses the same platform and similar parts.

Conclusion

Overall, given the 75 USD MSRP, the unit is as expected here. It’s not a top performer, but fits in well against its competition at this price range. Performance will mainly have to be based off reviews from the Chieftec Polaris, but given how similar it is, this should give a good overview of the unit.

The only major change I’d like to see is the fan, as the sleeve bearing can wear out after a few years and because of that will have a shorter lifespan compared to a rifle, FDB/HDB or DBB fan. The housing seems a little restrictive as well, but this isn’t a major concern.

I’m happy to recommend the unit as a budget 80+ gold, but it’s also worth looking at our alternatives below.

Alternatives