Has anyone tried this Silverstone SFX PSU

[DanceswithUnix]

My daughter's CPU fan is way too loud when gaming thanks to lack of room in the shoebox case. I was thinking of getting one of these:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...id=458&area=en

It comes with an ATX adapter, and should give me a bit more clearance above the CPU. That is all I need, and I should be able to get a decent heatsink in there.

Currently powering just a 100W APU, she might get a mid range video card if she ever plays a game that needs it.

[D1DM]

Two reviews for it:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=368
http://www.thelab.gr/showthread.php?t=129444

I'd definitely say that it's worth getting.

[malfunction]

What heatsink and case are you using at the moment? How much space do you have for a heatsink? How bad are your current temps at idle and under load?

Some top down heatpipe based coolers support a fan under the fin array (or can be easily modified to do so) to reduce the overall height of the heatsink + fan.

If the case has a 120mm fan mount I'd strongly suggest one of the AIO liquid coolers (e.g. a refurb Corsair H80 at ~£40). I'm using a H60 in a SilverStone SG05 (with 2 x 120mm fans in push pull at 7V) and it works a treat.

If all the existing kit is out of warranty (or you don't care) and you're using a top down cooler under the PSU (rather than a tower heatsink) you could try reversing the air flow for everything, including the fan in the existing ATX power supply, as, assuming the PSU is quite close to the top of the existing heatsink - and the PSU isn't being run ragged - this would get a good amount of relatively cool air straight into the heatsink and may stop the power supply fan fighting with the heatsink fan. The downside may be increased system temps but it greatly depends on the case in question. I've had good results from this in the past with small shoe box cases (anything bar a shuttle case which is probably better off left as it is).

I've even mounted a fan on the outside of the PSU before (in a TFX PSU, not an ATX one) to switch from a 10mm fan to a 25mm fan and get more airflow through the CPU heatsink. If the PSU fan is only 2 wire then you can probably disconnect it and use a different fan plugged into a motherboard header rather than plugged into the PSU's fan header. Obviously if the fan is soldered in you'd have to be prepared to resolder it, if it's a 2 pin plug it's a fairly easy test if you're already prepared to open the PSU up.

Obviously changing the airflow in a PSU might lead to dead spots and no air may mean a dead PSU so you'd want to take measurements of all temps before and after, try some load testing and check for hot spots.

[DanceswithUnix]

What heatsink and case are you using at the moment? How much space do you have for a heatsink? How bad are your current temps at idle and under load?

Some top down heatpipe based coolers support a fan under the fin array (or can be easily modified to do so) to reduce the overall height of the heatsink + fan.

If the case has a 120mm fan mount I'd strongly suggest one of the AIO liquid coolers (e.g. a refurb Corsair H80 at ~£40). I'm using a H60 in a SilverStone SG05 (with 2 x 120mm fans in push pull at 7V) and it works a treat.

If all the existing kit is out of warranty (or you don't care) and you're using a top down cooler under the PSU (rather than a tower heatsink) you could try reversing the air flow for everything, including the fan in the existing ATX power supply, as, assuming the PSU is quite close to the top of the existing heatsink - and the PSU isn't being run ragged - this would get a good amount of relatively cool air straight into the heatsink and may stop the power supply fan fighting with the heatsink fan. The downside may be increased system temps but it greatly depends on the case in question. I've had good results from this in the past with small shoe box cases (anything bar a shuttle case which is probably better off left as it is).

I've even mounted a fan on the outside of the PSU before (in a TFX PSU, not an ATX one) to switch from a 10mm fan to a 25mm fan and get more airflow through the CPU heatsink. If the PSU fan is only 2 wire then you can probably disconnect it and use a different fan plugged into a motherboard header rather than plugged into the PSU's fan header. Obviously if the fan is soldered in you'd have to be prepared to resolder it, if it's a 2 pin plug it's a fairly easy test if you're already prepared to open the PSU up.

Obviously changing the airflow in a PSU might lead to dead spots and no air may mean a dead PSU so you'd want to take measurements of all temps before and after, try some load testing and check for hot spots.

Case is a Silverstone SG02. Never been happy with the airflow in these things (the wife has an SG01 which is just cosmetically different).

I have a bunch of heatsinks sat around, but currently it is on an AMD FX heatpipe one (Coolermaster made) which is quiet at idle but that tiny 70mm fan kicks one hell of a racket in some games.

I did try reversing the fan in my Wife's CPU, but it seems the clearances didn't work the other way around with that fan so it buzzed like heck. There must be some way to shim the fan up 1mm away from the fins but I didn't have the negotiated downtime to start working out custom mods

[Goobley]

I had a good look into these PSUs. They're pretty impressive especially for the price. Messing around with one in a friend's system, the fan wasn't even coming on until sustained ~45% load and this was with only one intake (SG05).

[DanceswithUnix]

I had a good look into these PSUs. They're pretty impressive especially for the price. Messing around with one in a friend's system, the fan wasn't even coming on until sustained ~45% load and this was with only one intake (SG05).

Nice to know. If I can sort out an inverted decent size CPU fan blowing out through the PSU, then there probably isn't much need for that PSU fan at normal loads.

[LenMargaux]

That looks great for a SFF build. 300W already enough for you?

[DanceswithUnix]

Bought it, fitted to my daughter's machine this evening. Lovely unit, makes a huge difference to the inside of the PC both from the size of the PSU and the fact that the leads are the correct length.

I can see me getting more of these for the other SFF machines in the house, probably starting with the house server in the Coolermaster Elite 120 that I was just never happy with the noise from.