My system rebuild with a Corsair SF 450W PSU.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thought it was time to refresh my old system after seeing the release of the Corsair SF 450W fully modular PSU. This is the first foray by Corsair into the SFX PSU field. It is a fully modular Gold rated PSU and the range comes in 450W and 600W flavours.

Basically I am aiming to improve airflow and make my system quieter under load.

My current system uses the following case:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages...-review,1.html

The system has the following specs:
1.)Xeon E3 1230 V2
2.)16GB DDR3
3.)AsROCK B75 ITX
4.)480GB Sandisk SSD
5.)2x2TB HDDs
6.)Corsair H40 AIO water cooler
7.)XFX 450W
8.)Gigabyte GTX960 4GB

Firstly some unboxing pictures.

Box reminds me of the one my old HX520 came in nearly a decade ago - yellow and black. Seems Corsair are consistent.....when it comes to box colours that is!!



Now for the included accessories.



The additional cables and the PSU come in soft touch FAAAAKE velvet bags - so nice and stress relieving to touch. Corsair obviously care about the mental health of it's customers!! +1

They also included some cable ties and a very nice high quality metal badge too.



However despite this concern,they didn't bother to include an ATX adaptor plate!!



Bad Corsair!!

The included cables.



However,to my chagrin they were shorter than I expected(more on that later!!).

Finally,a picture of the PSU.



At low loads the PSU will run passively it appears!! Yay!

However,you can only appreciate how small an SFX PSU is when you look at the following picture!



The XFX PRO 450W is also one of the shorter ATX PSUs currently available at 140MM long too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The system as it stands - not really touched it in 18 months or so.



Its a "tad" dusty.

The other side of the case.



Yes,one of the HDDs is the wrong way up.

The first thing was to take the system apart to clean the dust.

When I took the fan off the H40 I was confronted by this scary,shaggy dust BUNNY of DOOM!!





That is nearly two years and a half years of dust there,Boys and Girls!

However,thanks to MR Miele,the BUNNY was vanquished.



I then proceeded to give the bare chassis a good hoovering and rubbing down(oo-er!).





However,on re-assembling the system I immediately realised the cables were too short,whatever way I routed them. Should have realised that since it was an SFX PSU. So,I am still waiting for the additional bits to arrive in the post. However,the build does look neater now.

The graphics card does seem to be able to "breath" better now.



The rear vent should also mean hot air from the graphics card should be easier to expel from the case,meaning the cooling fans in the system will need to work less harder.



TBC....!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I managed to get some more parts in the last few days including the power and data extension cables and some other bits and pieces.



Among them was a combined fan filter and isolation gasket in a rather fetching "safety first" yellow. I also purchased a foam gasket so the fan for the H40 was not being screwed directly into the cooler itself - hopefully it would reduce some of the potential vibrations. I also installed a fan controller so I could adjust the speed of the intake fan.

The build so far - thought I had a molex to 3 pin fan adaptor lying about but it seems to gone for a walk!! Another bit I might need to order!!



The back of the system with the extension cables installed. I routed the power cables round the storage compartment of the case. It is a tad messy,but luckily there is enough space there.



Almost getting to the end now!!

I managed to get the last adaptors I required.



The side panel was modified with some adhesive sound proofing.



Voila! A picture of the finally assembled system.



Got there in the end!! The case does have scratches on it but it has been moved around to LANs,etc which is one of the reasons I have tended to use mini-ITX systems.

At idle it is very quiet now but the biggest difference is at load. I played some Planetside2 and the fans only slightly spun up!!

The graphics card is definitely quieter now,and the AIO water cooler fan seems to be working less harder now.

[DanceswithUnix]

Nice one. Have used the Silverstone SFX PSUs a couple of times now, so ATX units just look so big!

[watercooled]

Somehow I hadn't noticed they'd released this. Looks like a decent unit but it ain't cheap for a 450W! I guess that's the price you pay for compactness though.

When you get around to trying it, how subjectively 'loud' is the fan (if you can load it enough to get it to actually spin)? It looks like one of Corsair's decent quality ones but component placement can still cause air turbulence. I recently upgraded my Llano system to a Core i3 6100 with the stock cooler as I keep hearing people praising how quiet it is, then after about 60 minutes of hearing it rumble up and down depending on load immediately put my Scythe Shuriken back in (which I made a lot harder than it should have been - note to anyone trying it, just take the motherboard back out of the case before trying to fumble with the obscured pushpins!)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It uses a Rifle bearing.

Edit!!

Supposedly the unit is rated for 450W on its 12V line!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Added some more pictures.

With the sides and me running Planetside2,the fans barely spin up!!

The pump noise is more noticeable.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Finally got round to finishing the rebuild now.

[Pob255]

Looks good, although by the size of the dust bunny on the rad I think a filter is definitely in order, on the bottom for that intake fan.

How do you find that case? I was a bit put off by the 92mm fan mounting on the back, did you mod it for 120mm?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Silverstone isolation thingy is also a fan filter,so now the intake does have a filter on it.

Regarding that case - it does not officially accept a 120MM fan. But what I did find is that if put a foam strip on top of the rear panel housing a 120MM AIO water cooler wil fit without physical attachment - I also use double sided foam to securely fasten the top,so it is quite secure now.

[Jowsey]

Perhaps a helpful point on dust bunny protection. Have the cooling fan set up to pull as opposed to push, that way the dust still gets stuck in the radiator fins but they are very accessible to quickly whip a hoover over them. Even if you did not do it more regularly, that 18-monthly clean would still be made easier as you'd not have to unscrew anything

Nice build though. I bought my case as, even though it's ITX, it's got plenty of storage options (3 2.5's and 2 3.5's I believe). But I ended up buying a micro server and a motherboard that only has 2 SATA ports !! Wish I'd went for something a bit smaller in the end.

[SliceT]

Looks sick. I wonder how much the temperatures dropped since you killed the rabbit

[g8ina]

sick adjective (ILL)
A2 ​physically or ​mentally ​ill; not well or ​healthy:
a sick ​child
a sick ​cow
My ​father has been off sick (= not ​working because of ​illness) for a ​long ​time.
Anyone who could ​hurt a ​child like that must be sick (= ​mentally ​ill).
The ​old woman ​fell/took/was taken sick (= ​became ​ill) while she was away and had to come ​home.
Sarah called in/​reported sick (= told her ​employer that she was ​unable to go to ​work because of ​illness).
figurative High ​rates of ​crime are ​considered by some ​people to be a ​sign of a sick ​society.

Nowhere in the English language can the word sick possibly be used for something good !!

Unless you are a Chav :
Chav: Ooooo- dat new tune from Timbaland is sick man innit- brrrap!
Law-abiding citizen: Errr, yes.

Stop it now

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looks sick. I wonder how much the temperatures dropped since you killed the rabbit

The system is much quieter now. SFX PSUs really are the way forward for smaller cases,IMHO OFC!!

sick adjective (ILL)
A2 ​physically or ​mentally ​ill; not well or ​healthy:
a sick ​child
a sick ​cow
My ​father has been off sick (= not ​working because of ​illness) for a ​long ​time.
Anyone who could ​hurt a ​child like that must be sick (= ​mentally ​ill).
The ​old woman ​fell/took/was taken sick (= ​became ​ill) while she was away and had to come ​home.
Sarah called in/​reported sick (= told her ​employer that she was ​unable to go to ​work because of ​illness).
figurative High ​rates of ​crime are ​considered by some ​people to be a ​sign of a sick ​society.

Nowhere in the English language can the word sick possibly be used for something good !!

Unless you are a Chav :
Chav: Ooooo- dat new tune from Timbaland is sick man innit- brrrap!
Law-abiding citizen: Errr, yes.

Stop it now

LOL!!

[Zak33]

how on EARTH did this ever get left man?



I mean... CAT come ON!!!!!!!!!!!

that's DIRE.... yours a PC man.. come on!

want your case to be quieter.... VACUUM it out dude!!!!!

(needs some compressed air through those fins now too... really blast it clean

[Zak33]

I cant look at that... Its making me tense