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The Corsair SF450 and SF600 are power supplies designed for specific small form factor, space restricted environments and we have no hestitation in giving them both a very high recommendation.
Cosmetically, we love the understated design and paintwork, including the pure modular implementation which will prove popular with the enthusiast audience. The modular cables are high grade, flat ribbon style, suited to the audience who want to achieve the best looking build with good air flow around hot running components.
Many small SFX power supplies are hampered with sub 80mm fans spinning at extreme speeds however Corsair's adoption of a larger 92mm fan in both units has proven very practical indeed.
Noise levels are low for a power supply of this diminuitive stature as the large blades are able to shift a lot of air to guarantee stable operation. The fan only has to work hard when the larger 600 watt unit is close to the limit, so most times noise levels will be very low.
Technically the design is solid. Load regulation from both supplies is stellar, and ripple suppression rates very highly indeed peaking at 15mV via both +3.3V and +5V rails. The +12V rails both peak at 30mV at full load, which is well within industry rated tolerance safety levels. Both units hit very high levels of efficiency, peaking at just over 92% around 50% load.
Unlike some of their competitors, Corsair have incorporated 105c Japanese Capacitors throughout these SF supplies, which earns them bonus points. It is always reassuring to find a company spending a little extra on Nippon Chemi Con or Rubycon capacitors – long term it makes sense.
The Corsair SF400 and SF600 will be available this week online for £64.99 and £94.99 inc vat respectively. Due to their niche nature SFX power supplies are expensive but we are confident that these Corsair models are some of the best on the market. We powered a liquid cooled overclocked Core 6700k system with Titan X graphics card, 32GB of memory, and multiple hard drives from the SF600 and it was completely stable over the course of a weeks intensive stress testing.
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Pros:
- lovely understated appearance.
- 105C Japanese capacitors.
- 92mm low noise fans.
- can deliver over their rated power before shut off.
- ripple suppression.
- load regulation.
- High levels of efficiency.
- 5 year warranty
Cons:
- SFX power supplies are expensive.
Kitguru says: Both Corsair SF450 and SF600 power supplies are technically solid designs and will be ideal for many small form factor system builds. The adoption of an effective, large 92mm fan and 105c Japanese capacitors ensure they will deliver quality power for a long time.
It would have been nice to have a direct comparison with the Silverstone versions. I have a SX600-G myself and sometimes I think I can hear the fan getting a bit noisier than I would like. It’s in a small case (Case: Fractal Design Core 500), so it’s not always easy to hear what is causing the noise. I also have a weird chirping echo after about 15 minutes from cold boot. I still haven’t figured out what that is. I can hear a slight squeaking noise that gets slightly louder (still all very quiet) and then it does the echoing noise. After that it stops making the sound. But I still haven’t figured out what is causing it. It doesn’t seem to cause any problems, so I’m not too fussed as it’s too much effort to keep taking it apart.
Were these tested at 115VAC input or 230VAC input? I noticed you listed a Variac in your list of test equipment so you can better sync with Ecova’s test results, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. 😉
it said 7 years warranty on the corsair web
The site SWEclockers seem to have gotten a better model, measuring only 23 mV max ripple on the 12 Volt rail.. I guess that could be manufacturing variance or a different approach to taking measurements. :p
Either way, I’m glad I found this PSU. There’s some PSU test site that tests in far more detail than Kitguru, but I couldn’t remember the site’s name. That’s not to say Kitguru’s test was insufficient – they make a lot more effort than most other sites that “test” PSU’s.
My Sharkoon 600W SFX-L wasn’t bad, but it ran hotter and its modular connectors were pushing hard against the back of the GPU in my NCase M1. A little too close for NCase’s claim that SFX-L PSUs will “fit”.
I never bought anything from Corsair before, but I might check out their coolers, since my Noctua cooler refused to fit into my case as well…
Silverstone has some brilliant engineering for case layout and airflow. But the company has a bad habit of building things as cheaply as possible. Granted, I’m used to Lian Li, which is at about the opposite end of the quality spectrum, but Lian Li too often bumbles space optimization and cooling concepts instead. Its anyone’s guess what’s worse in the end.
But after having built in some of Silverstone’s cases, I stopped well short of wanting to gamble on one of their PSUs, especially because I couldn’t find any thorough test at the time. Too many sites call something “test” and then just paraphrase the corporate press release for the product.
At any rate, if your PC is running and never has random crashes, your’s must be good enough. The only way to reduce the noise from your SX600G would be to put in a better and/or larger fan, voiding the warranty in the process.
If I was you and the noise got on my nerves, I’d buy the Corsair PSU and ebay the other one, while its still a current model.