Do these match up for a SFF slim case?

ExoMale · 1 Nov 2017 at 17:31

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x be quiet! TFX Power 2 300W '80 Plus Bronze' TFX Power Supply= £51.95
1 x be quiet! TFX Power 2 300W '80 Plus Gold' TFX Power Supply= £56.99

Total: £119.44
(includes shipping: £10.50)

Having to stay down south few extra days so need a computer or laptop for the time being and found a Lenovo Thinkcentre SFF slim tower I’m picking up tomorrow morning all being well and has the following

i3 4150
Lenovo board
1x4gb ram
500gb hdd
Liteon 240w 80 plus bronze
Windows 10 pro

All for a glorious £45

That psu states 230w if I read it correctly for 12v so should be decent, but because it’s haswell and you can get decent low profile cards for mild gaming I might replace my current system as it’s perfect size for space I have, but to do that I would need a better psu for longer lasting, ideally full modular, but they all look too tall for the design of case.

So for example, are these types actually designed for said cases? Looks like the liteon that top one.

pastymuncher · 1 Nov 2017 at 19:39

You are not gaining that much extra with those psu's as the bronze has 264w and the gold has 288w on the 12v rails. They are also not particularly good units with even the gold having cheap internals. They are also noisy going by the reviews. The thing is that there is not a lot of choice in the TFX form factor.

ExoMale · 2 Nov 2017 at 00:16

Ha yeah so I've noticed, silverstone usually popular for this segment, but OC doesn't sell the silverstone models in the style as those BeQuiets and yeah I don't get the bronze/gold difference for nearly same price either, seems pointless.

Further googling to try find the exact model of this machine comes up with a potential being an Edge 73 which doesn't list the 4150, but does lit's these...

Intel Pentium Processor G3220
Intel Pentium Processor G3420
Intel Core i3-4130 Processor
Intel Core i3-4130S Processor
Intel Core i5-4570S Processor
Intel Core i5-4430S Processor
Intel Core i5-4670S Processor
Intel Core i7-4770S Processor

So don't know if the 4150 was added by the seller, but if these come with those i5's and that i7 then maybe there might be a more powerful version of the Liteon or similar given the power outputs, though my only concern is the boards if is the same as what I'm getting has a pcie x 3.0 with a max 40w output which rules out a 1050(ti) which are the best low profile cards I can find unless that's psu limited, though the board looks micro atx so may be a chance to change for a proper h81 board.

Plus side to getting this is a whole system for just a few quid more than I've seen the 4150 selling for on its own and all I'd need is a better 1150 board and then I'd have another bargain but better system

pastymuncher · 2 Nov 2017 at 08:52

You seem to have a knack for picking up decent things cheaply so you could take the bits you want out of that pc, pick up a H81 board so you can use a decent gpu and rehome it in a bigger case so that you can use your EVGA psu. I would want more than 4Gb of memory too. With the bits left over from the two pc's you have robbed from you could pick up more cheap parts to make them whole again and sell them on.

Armageus · 2 Nov 2017 at 08:56

ExoMale said:
my only concern is the boards if is the same as what I'm getting has a pcie x 3.0 with a max 40w output which rules out a 1050(ti) which are the best low profile cards I can find unless that's psu limited

It's not a PSU limitation, it will be a board/bios limitation - I have had several HP SFFs that are similar.

ExoMale · 2 Nov 2017 at 19:58

pastymuncher said:
You seem to have a knack for picking up decent things cheaply so you could take the bits you want out of that pc, pick up a H81 board so you can use a decent gpu and rehome it in a bigger case so that you can use your EVGA psu. I would want more than 4Gb of memory too. With the bits left over from the two pc's you have robbed from you could pick up more cheap parts to make them whole again and sell them on.

Yeah Ha I can get lucky with some decent things, not easy though.

Ha yeah that was my theory, not so much a case change, think if I buy just a case for myself I will go itx as I do like the smaller builds and did try to secure an H81M-HDS for £15 all boxes etc apart from maybe missing Backplate as the board in the Lenovo looks M-atx so figured £15 for a test fit wouldn’t be bad, plus fail safe be a new case, hopefully can get it before I have to go back up north.

This person with the motherboard has a VS450 for £15 which I was thinking of retiring my Evga to storage for a good build later on, but I’ll see, I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet.

Only problem with this Lenovo without setting it up yet is I thought it had hdmi along with vga but it doesn’t, it has display port with vga so I will need to get some sort of low profile card with hdmi just to connect it to my available screens :rolleyes:

, I want to see how this thing does before I go changing anything and for ram, I haven’t looked to see if it’s 1333 or the supposed 1600 going by specs online for the Haswell versions, it should support 16gb so might sell the 4gb stick for an 8gb

ExoMale · 2 Nov 2017 at 20:04

Armageus said:
It's not a PSU limitation, it will be a board/bios limitation - I have had several HP SFFs that are similar.

Ah right okay, I knew these types of computers have limits due to their nature, but only had dells, but as above I could try get a new board and hope it fits or just get a low powered gpu as I will need hdmi so it can tie me over.

On another note, are the low profile versions of the 1050(ti) actually rubbish? Just curious as for desktop they are highly recommended if you can’t afford a 1060 and if I can get good gaming from a 750 then surely I could make a nice mid gaming system providing I can change the psu.

pastymuncher · 3 Nov 2017 at 10:19

Is that VS450 the Corsair VS450? If so I wouldn't even buy it at £15. The VS series is their budget basement rubbish that is full of cheap and nasty components. Your EVGA is massively superior to it.

ExoMale · 3 Nov 2017 at 23:22

Yeah it is and I'm not buying it now anyways lol, I gone back to Gloucestershire early so I've skipped it all together, even the motherboard as they live in Devon..

I have however picked up an Asus 2gb passive gt 610 for £5 on my way up which is low profile, but not bracket so had to take that off lol, seems to be doing okay under Windows 10 pro, though found a cheap brand 19" tv that was spare back at my Devon address which sees 1080p, just doesn't display properly at the minute annoyingly, I've also checked and it is running its supposed 1600mhz ram, the ram prices have gone up at the shop I go to, £15 now for 4gb rather than £10/12, so will need to try find better deal, got windows updates to do, but so far it's not a bad little machine..

On another note, I also picked up on the way, but different location an HIS 6870 1gb for £10, it's classed as spare or repair as apparently their system would only boot to bios with it installed, so I took the gamble to test it out, ideal if it works, be better than that 6670 ha.