[Rant] The clash between the Raven RV-03 case and the Corsair HX650 Gold PSU

In the previous post, I wrote about how I ended up buying the Corsair HX650 Gold PSU for my current rig. Actually, this PSU will eventually end up in a SFF build. I’m in the verge of slowly moving from my current rig to a SFF rig. Since I have no idea when I will be able make the complete translation, it ended up going in my current rig for now.

The PSU was ordered from Sofmap where the PSU was available at the cheapest price. The PSU arrived within two days and I quickly installed it.

It felt a bit harder to push it into the PSU compartment of the Silverstone Raven RV-03 case. But finally it went in. First hurdle passed. I hope I won’t have a hard time pulling it out.

Then there was the 2nd hurdle - a much more problematic than before. The orientation of the power socket at the back of the PSU seemed problematic. It was 90 degrees rotated compared to the TX850 and at first I thought the internal power cable of the case wasn’t long enough. (The following pic shows how they end up when installed inside the Raven RV-03 case. The power cable comes from the top right hand corner.)

But luckily it fit OK. I had to pull it with all my might though. After I plugged it in, it went back to a relaxed position. The installation was the hard part. (Later I found that there was a easier way to do it.)

[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.

 

Reseated the CNPS9900Max-B heat sink, but no good

So, I finally managed to find time to take apart the PC and reseat the CPU heat sink. Removing this heat sink was very difficult. I had to take out the motherboard from the case, but after that it wasn't that hard. The cooler is pretty large so there isn't enough space inside the case to work with. There is a special Allen key that is required to remove the heat sink. I even had to remove the RAM modules because they were restricting the movement of the Allen key. BTW, if I lose it, I'm screwed. It is pretty hard to remove the cooler with regular tools. But I guess it is not impossible.

 

I used Arctic Cooling MX-4 for thermal paste. I had a tube of it lying around. That's what I was using before this. It is easy to apply. I used a card to spread the paste sparingly on the IHS of the CPU.

 

Installing the cooler back was not so hard since the motherboard was outside the case. But the whole process took a lot of time. A whole Saturday afternoon. I also cleaned up the dust in the case and arranged to the cables a bit. The back side of the motherboard tray is a cable mess. Thanks to the design of the case, it is well hidden. Just wish I had a PSU with modular cables. It would be much cleaner then. And the fan controller is not helping either. It has 12 wires coming out of it and the wires are not colored black. Yuk! These Japanese people don't know anything about aesthetics. (The fan controller is made by Scythe and that is a Japanese company.)

 

The heat sink didn’t need much cleaning though. There weren't much dust on it. Looks like the fan filters of the case are doing a pretty darn good job.

 

But unfortunately, everything that I did was in vain. I didn't see any improvement in cooling performance after the reseat. It was just like before. I wonder if I should have put a pebble of paste on the IHS and let the pressure of the cooler do the spreading. Or perhaps the stock thermal paste was better than MX-4. Or perhaps this cooler doesn't work well when placed in "pushing air up" orientation. In other chassis' , the cooler would be installed in an orientation where air would be blowing from front to back - horizontally. In my case, it has to be blowing air vertically. Plus, it could be why the fan vibrates when the RPM is between 1200 - 1600. The fan itself is so flimsy. Not rigid enough.

 

These are the temps when I transcode videos using Handbrake. (Look at the max temps. Realtemp was reset before every test.)

 

Dust busting!

So I'm finally set for cleaning up the inside of the PC chassis. I will also be reseating the HSF while I'm at it. All this was because of this post. I’m not sure if the cooler itself is the culprit, so this is to check that. If I manage to drop the max delta temps of the CPU to 50C after reseating and cleanup up, then I would keep the current cooler. Else, I might have to look for a new cooler.

But first things first. I have to start from the outside. From the things that I can see. So I decided to clean up the fan filters for the intake fans of the case. There were little dust on the first front fan filters. But there was a lot of dust on the bottom ones. A LOT!

 

The one on the left is the filter for the intake of the PSU fan. The one on the right is the filter for the two 180mm air penetrator fans.

I washed them up and fitted back and ran Prime95 for 20 minutes. Well, I didn't really see a noticeable drop in temps, but who cares? At least I feel it is running cooler now. That's what matters. What your mind feels is what matters.

I was planning to do the full clean up job today, but it got late. Maybe in the weekend. At least the PC won't suffocate during that time.