[Gadget] Ended up getting the Corsair HX650 PSU

In the previous post I talked about how I managed to get rid of my 3 year old PSU all thanks to Rakuten Auctions. Now it was time to get a new PSU.

Originally I was going to get the Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-PS because it was only 140mm in length and was fully modular, both of which would help when building a SFF PC. Further, even though the efficiency was rated as 80Plus Silver, it was hitting Gold spec. And the price was reasonable – just under JPY10,000. But its modular cables were bulky and not flat in shape as the ones that come with some of the higher quality PSUs. According to reviews, it was a great PSU for the price and the features, but some people were saying that it stopped working after a couple of weeks and the quality of the PSU design could be better. After what happened with my Plantronics Backbeat Go 2 wireless headset, I’ve grown a bit more sensitive about these warranty issues.

Thus, I wanted to see if there were better options. My criteria was like below.

1. 80Plus Silver or better efficiency rating
2. 600W to 700W
3. 160mm max length
4. Modular or semi-modular, but the position where the cables come out matters

[Rant] Got rid of the Corsair TX850 power supply through Rakuten Auctions

Look at all those cables! That's what you get with a non-modular big PSU. That won't fit in a small form factor chassis. So I decided to replace the PSU with a modular, smaller and a more efficient PSU. How did It try to get rid of it? My newly found friend - Rakuten Auctions.

After being on exhibition for many days on the auction page, my Corsair TX850 (the original edition) power supply unit found a bidder. My original price for the PSU was JPY7,000. But since nobody bothered to bid for it for a period of a week, I dropped the starting price to JPY6,000. Even then, nobody bid for it for few days. I had lost hope.

But one day, someone did. For a moment I thought it was time to do a research on PSUs available in the Japanese market. That meant, heading over to my trusty site – kakaku.com. Originally, I was smack bang set on the Silverstone ST60-PS PSU because of its smaller size but the price of it went up a bit making it not so appealing anymore.

I indeed did a research on power supplies, but that is for a separate article. This post is about the auction.

[Rant] Mini-ITX build plans are not completely gone

Few weeks ago I got this itch to build a Mini-ITX rig. But I had to give up that thought because It would only be a side-grade (not an upgrade) if I do it now and it sounded like a lot of money spent with no gains. If I do it when Broadwell comes out, then that's a different story.

In the mean time, I wanted to reuse as much components from my current build as possible. In the original feasibility study, I figured that I would have to give up the CPU cooler and the PSU because they would not fit in a small mini-ITX case. Quite recently I came to know that Fractal Design Node 304, which is a nice little mini-ITX case, can actually house the Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler just fine.

[Rant] Wanted to make a mini-ITX rig but...

There are too much comprises to be made to make it a reality.

 

For a long time, I wanted to make a SFF PC. There are so many choices these days. If such was available at the time when I built my rig, I would have gone with a SFF build. But now I have a ATX build. So if I want to build a SFF PC, it would be a conversion, not a build from the scratch. But the thing is, I want to reuse as many components as possible from my current rig.

 

CPU, graphics card, RAM and storage are no problem.

 

Obviously the motherboard and the case have to be replaced.

 

I would really like to use the cooler and the PSU in the SFF build. But most SFF cases and motherboard don't let you house a Silver Arrow Extreme cooler. It seems that the BitFenix Prodigy and the Fractal Node 304 would let you, but it would be nearly impossible to find a motherboard that would let you install it without blocking the PCI-E slot. Most mini-ITX motherboards have weird CPU socket positioning. The only one that might work is the Asus Z87I Pro. I wanted to put a ROG Maximus VI Impact in there as it is the most powerful mini-ITX motherboard out there. It also comes with awesome integrated audio. But it seems the Silver Arrow is just too fat for it. But I don't have any proof attesting or detesting this claim.

 

The mistakes I have done when building my current PC

I'm sure you would say I have an awesome PC, and that I should have pretty happy with what I have got. But there are so many areas to improve and I could have made it perfect if not for the following mistakes I've made when choosing the components.

 

The PSU

 

The PSU I have in the rig is a Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 850W model. It is very stable and has enough juice to power the system even if I add a 3rd graphics card. However, the mistake I made was choosing this series: the TX series. TX series has one *big* problem. The cables are non-modular. While some people might say modular cables are unreliable and such, but it would have been a whole lot better if I could remove those ATX molex connectors from the PSU. I don't need them, but they are there. I should have bought the HX850 which is pretty much the TX850 with modular power cables.