ASRock Steel Legend SL-1000G 80 PLUS Gold ATX 3.1 PSU Review

TweakTown Rating: 91%

Our Verdict

ASRock's SL-1000G ATX 3.1 PSU is a great 80 PLUS Gold rated power supply that is at a solid competitive price point, but nothing about it really stands out from its competition.

Pros

• 10-year warranty and 100% Japanese capacitors
• ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 ready
• iCool fan control mode
• Dual colored 12V-2x6 connector
• Lowest priced name brand 1000w ATX 3.1 PSU currently

Cons

• Nothing really innovative

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon for $165 USD

Buy at Newegg for $155.99 USD

Buy at Newegg for $229.99 CAD

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

ASRock is not a company from which you would expect to see a power supply, more like motherboards and video cards, but here we are with the Steel Legend SL-1000G 80 PLUS Gold-rated ATX 3.1 PSU. The Steel Legend line is marketed as a reasonable price-to-performance ratio below the Phantom Gaming and Taichi power supply lines.

Priced at a staggeringly low price of $160 MSRP, the SL-1000G is one of the lowest-priced ATX 3.1 PSUs currently on the market. So, why don't we look at what ASRock has cooked up with the SL-1000G ATX 3.1 PSU, put it under a load for testing, and then follow up with a conclusion?

A quick look at the ASRock Steel Legend SL-1000G Power Supply

Best Deals: ASRock Steel Legend SL-1000G 80 PLUS Gold ATX 3.1 PSU

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$165 USD	$166.55 USD	-	Buy
	$155.99 USD	-	-	Buy
	$165 USD	$166.55 USD	-	Buy
	$229.99 CAD	$239.99 CAD	-	Buy
	$165 USD	$166.55 USD	-	Buy
	$165 USD	$166.55 USD	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/18/2025 at 9:06 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Packaging

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The outside of the packaging with the SL-1000G is mainly black with some brushed gray accents. Across the bottom are all the certifications that the SL-1000G holds, specifically being 80 PLUS Gold rated, Cybenetics Platinum and A ratings, 100% Japanese Capacitors, ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 ready, iCool Fan, and lastly, a massive 10-year warranty.

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Moving around to the side of the packaging, we see the model number again, along with a brief mission statement from ASRock.

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The back of the packing shows much information pertinent to the SL-1000G. In the lower-left corner are all the cables of different lengths. All the AC and DC specifications are in the center. On the right side is the 80 PLUS Efficiency chart, which peaks at around 50% load and will be tested later. Lastly, the new revised PCIE 12V-2x6 cable has a green tip to ensure the whole connection is plugged in, unlike the previous 12VHPWR connector that had problems melting in the RTX 4000 series of GPUs from NVIDIA.

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Taking a peek inside now, we can now see how ASRock has packaged the SL-1000G.

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Open cell foam protects the SL-1000G from any damage while in transit to its final destination. An anti-static plastic bag is also present to keep debris off and out.

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The few accessories included with the SL-1000G are zip ties, a dummy PSU plug (convenient for water coolers), and a sheet with safety information and installation instructions.

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Pulling out the ball of cables, which I guess is one way to package them all, regardless of presentation.

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Laying out all the cables on the table, we have the C13 power cable, 24-pin motherboard cable, 2 4+4 EPS CPU cables, a single 12v-2x6 cable, 3 6+2 PCIe cables, 3 4-pin peripheral connectors, and lastly 9 SATA connectors.

Outside the ASRock SL-1000 ATX 3.1 PSU

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Now, getting to the SL-1000G ATX 3.1 PSU, we can see the fine grille that ASRock has decided to style with the Steel Legend branding in the center.

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The cable input section starts with the motherboard connections, the 12V-2x6 in the top center, and 5 8-pin CPU or PCIe connections are right under it. Lastly, there are 4 SATA or PATA connections to the far left.

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This side of the SL-1000G also shows the Steel Legend logo and the ASRock name.

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The power input section shows the Steel Legend logo, name, C13 power input, power rocker switch, and an iCOOL on/off switch to control the internal 135mm fan.

Inside the AsRock SL-1000 ATX 3.1 PSU

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Opening up the SL-1000G, we are greeted by a 135mm striped axial fluid dynamic bearing fan. This fan operates on 12V with .5A.

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Now, we are shifting our focus to the overhead view of the SL-1000 G's internals, which is neatly laid out.

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The primary capacitor, which is from Nippon Chemicon, is rated for 400v at 680 microfarads.

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The main transformer for the SL-1000G has the ASRock branding on top, which is a fairly common thing to see inside modern PSUs.

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Lastly, we come to the VRM section of the SL-1000G; again, the game's name is nice and neat.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

Final Thoughts

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Now, using the PSU test bench for this review, the CPU, which is the Ryzen 9 7950X, was set to 1.296v vcore to allow the CPU cores to stay above a 5GHz clock speed. The 16-core, 32-threaded CPU maintained well over a 5GHz clock during the test period, while the wattage ran up to a max of 186.33 watts but averaged out to about 175.83 watts. The AM5 motherboard that was used here was the B650 AORUS Elite AX from GIGABYTE, while the test RAM was from Patriot Memory, specifically, the Viper Venom that runs at DDR5-5600M/t.

The NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE test GPU was power limited at 94% via the NVIDIA App to control the GPU wattage. On average, the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE drew on about 209.278 watts; however, it peaked as high as 211.86 watts. The power drawn from the wall was measured using a Killawatt P3 digital electrical usage monitor, reading the total system wattage, which read between 496 and 504 watts during the testing, with the average usage being 500 watts.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.60.7000 for over 11 hours; the ambient temperature was 23C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.16-5600, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.63.0, and CPU-Z 2.12.0.x64.

So, when testing this PSU, I encountered a few problems, particularly with the BenchLab testing equipment. Something was causing the SL-1000G to hit some sort of instability/protection, which would cause it to power down almost immediately. Removing the BenchLab from the equation solved the instability/protection issue.

Now, with the only problem in the rearview mirror, we can focus on the conclusion of this ATX 3.1 PSU from ASRock. The SL-1000G was and is a rock-solid offering from a company with little to no history with PSUs, which is simply amazing. Coming in at a $155.99 price makes the ASRock SL-1000 competitive in the 1,000-watt PSU market with offerings from most other brands.

The ASRock Steel Legend SL-1000G ATX 3.1 PSU offers consistent performance with modern standards at a reasonable price. While it satisfies expectations regarding efficiency, build quality, and security features, it lacks the distinguishing characteristics that separate it from a competitive market niche. The SL-1000G is a solid pick, but it's nothing groundbreaking.