SPCR

Hey everyone.

I have just put my new build together and everything seems to be running fine. I went with the Corsair SF450 as my psu.

Here are just a few words about my experience so far:

I have to say I love the smaller form-factor of the sfx standard. It really frees up a lot of space in the case. The case I used for this build is the Ncase M1 and I definitely feel the case is designed with sfx psu in mind although certainly an ATX psu is also an option.

One of the reason I went with the SF450 was because of its ability to be fanless at lower loads. However in my case the fan seems to be spinning even at idle. Although it is spinning very slowly, this is exactly what I was trying to avoid by choosing this psu. Otherwise the psu looks and works great. There is a little bit of rattling also at low speed, but it is very very faint and my computer is very close to where I am sitting. I cannot hear it from where I am sitting however someone with a quieter system might. Under load it seems to spin up a bit, but I have not done enough testing to really say anything useful here. Other than that it seems to be a unit of good quality and it feels solid in hand.

I have checked that the cpu is downclocking correctly to 800mhz (i5 6600k) when idle so it should be fairly efficient. Other than that I have the GTX 750ti and 1 sdd along with 1 3.5" hdd installed.

So what do you guys think, is this to be considered normal? The fan of the psu is facing outwards, but I have my doubts that the orientation of the case will be of importance in my case. I am still considering going with a fanless atx psu, however this will mean some compromises elsewhere.


Edit: Just tested powerdraw from the wall with Kill-a-watt. It seems to be idling at around 40W. With light use it probably increases a little bit.

Delirious wrote:So what do you guys think, is this to be considered normal?

How much high your internal temp is?

From HWmonitor:


Temperature 0 31°C (87°F) [0x1F] (SYSTIN)
Temperature 1 37°C (98°F) [0x4A] (CPUTIN)
Temperature 3 31°C (87°F) [0x1F] (TMPIN3)
Fan 0 437 RPM [0x1B5] (SYSFANIN)
Fan 1 793 RPM [0x319] (CPUFANIN)
Fan 2 435 RPM [0x1B3] (AUXFANIN0)


I am not sure if these numbers really tell you the internal temp.

Until now I have had only 2 120mm fans installed as intake at the floor of the case. I will now be adding a 92mm exhaust fan to the back of the case and see what the effects will be.

Delirious wrote:I am not sure if these numbers really tell you the internal temp.

Me too: may you put a digital thermometer inside the case, near the PSU, for a while? The relevant reading might be helpful in order to assess the internal temp.

Alternatively you might ask directly to JonnyGURU (he works for Corsair) on his forum whether that behaviour is absolutely normal, or it can deserve an RMA.

Been a little busy lately, but I have now tested with a thermometer.


The sensor has been placed at the top of the psu where the exhaust is. This is also at the very top of the case. The indoor/room temperature is at 24.7 degrees Celsius. The sensor reports max temp as 32.8 C and min temp as 28.5 C (the fan is not spinning all the time).


There is now one 92mm exhaust fan in the case and only one 120mm intake fan working. I am waiting for a fan splitter cable to arrive. Then there will be 2x 120mm intakes fan and this is about the best cooling I can manage in the case with the current setup. The CPU-cooler is an Noctua NH-U9S.



Also when entering Windows the case fans are ramping up and down like crazy. I can see in HWmonitor that the temperature sensor for the Case is jumping up and down rapidly. Any suggestions here? I have now updated to the latest BIOS, but the problem is still the same.

It might be worth trying Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility which its obvious use aside has a very good graph based monitoring section which might give you more information about what is happening with the CPU temperatures.

Thanks for the tip lodestar. I have installed the program and found it very useful. CPU temperature is not a problem. CPU is idling around 31-32 C. At full load (cpu stress test) it reaches about 58 C.

However the motherboard temperature sensors spikes like crazy almost immediately after opening a game or similar stressful load. The 92mm case fan suddenly jumps to 1750 rpm which is very audible. I am therefore thinking about RMAing the motherboard, but I am open to any suggestions.

I have done some changes in the case and I am pleased to note that I have yet to see the psu fan spin during light load/idle. What I did was turning the PSU 180 degrees around so that the fan faces the inside of the case. After that I removed the 3.5 hdd from the case entirely. The front bottom 120mm intake fan was moved to the side intake blowing directly at the psu. This also had the added benefit of supplying the cpu fan with fresh air. It also seems to work pretty good with the general airflow pattern of the case.

The downside is that I dont really have any room for the 3.5" hdd now. Although I could place it on the case floor I guess. However the hdd was also adding a considerable amount of vibration and noise to the case.

Overall in a case like this there will always be compromises, but I still think it a very good for what it is.

Would love to see some pics of your setup.

I always put my 3.5" HD on the case floor. I never felt comfortable suspending drives, even though it is (or was) popular here for a long time. Instead, I bought some rubber (sorbothane) and rest my drive on 2x 3/8"strips of that, which then rests on a 3/8" layer of foam, which rests on the case floor. No vibrations transferred to the case this way.

Thanks for the tip. Seems like a good idea placing it on the floor. But I do not really think there is room for it. I would have place it right under the fanless gpu where I have placed an intake fan.

I will see if I can get you a picture of the setup.

I had an Ncase M1 with a semi passive SFX PSU (Silverstone) but I could never get the PSU fan to stop spinning. I eventually sold the case and went back to a regular ATX case as it was too loud.