My mini-ITX system rebuild with a Corsair SF 450W PSU.

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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/cubitek-mini-cube-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.

 

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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 had to get some 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....!

 

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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 might need to order!!:censored:

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.

 

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I heard the new Corsair SFX PSUs are noisy when the fan turns on/off. Did you experience anything like that?

I tried a game of Planetside 2(with the sides off) and I could barely hear any of the fans. The pump noise was more noticeable.

 

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Finally got round to finishing the rebuild now. Definitely much quieter under load now,and not much different than idle.

 

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How comes you went for the small form factor PSU when you're using the same case?

You might spot one reason in one of my earlier pictures - a full sized PSU means there is hardly any clearance for the graphics card cooler to breath and as a result the fans start spinning up more during game sessions. I am lucky I am using a GTX960 but I might want to go with a higher TDP card sometime in the future.

Another reason,is also the fact that using the smaller PSU with extension cables meant I could actually tuck the cables easier out of the way!! The braided cables on the XFX PSU were a pain to do so.

The case also has the disadvantage that if you use anything longer than a 140MM PSU,you cannot install a 120MM intake fan easily.

With a modular PSU a 140MM PSU won't fit as the cables need more space. Hence a short,modular PSU enabled me to do this.

Plus,I might consider downsizing at some point,so I can at least move this PSU over without worrying it will fit!