Devil's Canyon Gaming mATX Build (critique)

[figment_]

A helpful (and no doubt attractive) person pointed out that NewEgg is currently selling the Rosewill Silent Night 500w for $100. That's a SuperFlower fanless build which looks to be a rebranded Kingwin Stryker which was just a rebranded SuperFlower Golden Silent.

It's Platinum rated, comes with a top-panel heatsink that works well in a bottom-mounted case, and it has impressive Jonnyguru reviews (as Styker, as Golden Silent). In both cases the reviews were almost identical. Both had a nearly flat efficiency curve, good hot performance, and ~35mv max 12v ripple (at my max wattage, the ripple was probably <25mv). The only complaints were in not having a MOV (for transient protection... but I've got a UPS for that), some good-but-not-fantastic soldering (which doesn't really matter) and the price and availability (which is being remedied somewhat by Rosewill and a sale).

Yes, it's Rosewill and that makes me feel dirty, but it seems NewEgg is trying to change that brand image and is putting some high quality stuff under the Rosewill name. And this particular PSU avoids my biggest complaint against Rosewill PSUs: that they often save cost by using crappier fans. No fan. No downgrade.

Any reason why this isn't a reasonable upgrade to the XFX XTR or a RM550?

 

[Termie]

That's a nice PSU, but it's still more expensive than a 650W XFX XTR, offers 150W less power, and won't be any more silent under 200W or so, since the XTR runs fanless at low power. Also not fully-modular.

But yes, it's nice, just not an upgrade. It's a sidegrade with a focus on efficiency/silence rather than power/modularity.

And by the way, avoid the RM. It's junk compared to a Seasonic- or Superflower-designed model.

 

[Essence_of_War]

And by the way, avoid the RM. It's junk compared to a Seasonic- or Superflower-designed model.

OP, I agree with this.

The only reviews I've seen of the RM series has pointed out that it has weirdly small and under-engineered heatsinks, and that it runs quite warm at room temp under modest loads until the fans cycle on.

It would not be my first choice for a PSU in a world where EVGA's SuperFlower units are regularly on-sale for similar or lower cost.

 

[figment_]

That's a nice PSU, but it's still more expensive than a 650W XFX XTR, offers 150W less power, and won't be any more silent under 200W or so, since the XTR runs fanless at low power. Also not fully-modular.

Granted.

Note that the build as it is won't top 400w, even fully loaded. However, it will likely break 200w while gaming, so it would push the XTR into fanned mode. Still, it wouldn't be louder than the 770.

And by the way, avoid the RM. It's junk compared to a Seasonic- or Superflower-designed model.

Done. No longer thinking about the RM.

Current leaders are:

SilentNight: Fanless, Platinum, but lowest power. Not fully modular, but I'd actually be using all the non-modular cables.
XFX XTR: Hybrid fan, cheapest, more power than SilentNight
EVGA SuperNOVA: Hybrid fan (effectively fanless at my load), fully modular, amazing power regulation, but same efficiency as XTR with higher price.

 

[Termie]

The Supernova G2 starts at 750W, which is really too much for your build. I'd stick with either the SilentNight or the XTR. I agree you don't need 650W, but the XTR also comes in 550W, and is much, much cheaper than the SilentNight, as in $73FS/AR right now at Amazon. Totally different league price-wise.

You have to decide how important silent operation is. Your GPU is very quiet, so perhaps that's what you want to put the emphasis on with your PSU. I personally am not sold on using fanless PSUs for gaming PCs. Doesn't seem like quite the right approach to me, especially in a low-airflow system like the one you're building.

 

[figment_]

The Supernova G2 starts at 750W, which is really too much for your build.

Yes. It's nearly doubling my expected max-draw.

However, I'm more interested in efficiency curves. Theoretically, I shouldn't care whether the PSU maxes out at 500W or 1500W, I just care about what sort of efficiency and power quality I get at 100-350W. From what I can guess, the XTR and the EVGA will give me similar 88-90% efficiency curves across that wattage (maybe dipping lower on the low end for the EVGA...)

The EVGA does it with better ripple. The XTR does it at a lower price. Both look great.

You have to decide how important silent operation is. Your GPU is very quiet, so perhaps that's what you want to put the emphasis on with your PSU.

And I'd say that my GPU is not terribly quiet. It's far better than some, but its going to be the noisiest thing in the build, by far. I don't want to seem like I'm obsessing over the PSU. Truly, any of the options I'm looking at will work for me, and I'll likely decide based on sales and whatever mood strikes me.

I personally am not sold on using fanless PSUs for gaming PCs. Doesn't seem like quite the right approach to me, especially in a low-airflow system like the one you're building.

I'm running a hybrid-fanned PSU (Seasonic X-650) in my current gaming system (same 770, with a 2600k @ 4.5GHz). The fan rarely turns on. It is, essentially, a fanless PSU. It works out rather well using pretty much the same airflow pattern I'm planning here. It's certainly not the only way, but it does work.

It's also wouldn't say this is a low-airflow build. The plan is to use a pair of 140mm intake fans, which will be voltage-controlled by the motherboard. Under load, they'll spin up to push quite a bit of cold air into the system. It would only really follow the low-slow methodology (low restriction, slow fan) while idle.

 

[Termie]

...

I'm running a hybrid-fanned PSU (Seasonic X-650) in my current gaming system (same 770, with a 2600k @ 4.5GHz). The fan rarely turns on. It is, essentially, a fanless PSU. It works out rather well using pretty much the same airflow pattern I'm planning here. It's certainly not the only way, but it does work.

It's also wouldn't say this is a low-airflow build. The plan is to use a pair of 140mm intake fans, which will be voltage-controlled by the motherboard. Under load, they'll spin up to push quite a bit of cold air into the system. It would only really follow the low-slow methodology (low restriction, slow fan) while idle.

Your dual 140mm fan idea isn't going to pan out if you need to get into the 206mm space allocated for the PC. Just trying to give you all the possible scenarios here!

Also, an X650 hybrid solution and a fanless solution are not equivalent when you're pulling 325W. One is fanless, one is actively-cooled. For component longevity in a gaming system, I'd take an actively-cooled PSU any day.

 

[figment_]

Your dual 140mm fan idea isn't going to pan out if you need to get into the 206mm space allocated for the PC. Just trying to give you all the possible scenarios here!

The 350D has space for two 140mm intake fans. Its 210mm wide, and I've got a couple plans to make that fit.

Also, an X650 hybrid solution and a fanless solution are not equivalent when you're pulling 325W.

Believe it or not, when I'm gaming on the current build, (same 770, 2600k @ 4.5), the PSU fan on the X650 does not spin up. Documentation says it should, but it doesn't. It only spins up under high heat, not PSU load. Other hybrid solutions may work differently, but my current system does run games with PSU not being cooled by a fan. It's nice to know a fan is there, but I've gotten over my fears of my PSU overheating.

Note: The reason for the fan not spinning up would likely be the front-mounted 700rpm fan which is blowing cold air toward it and the video card. In that regard, the PSU is being cooled by a fan, just not by its own fan.

Anyway, on to other topics:

I ran across my reasoning for Max 7 Gene rather than Gryphon: It's the sound card. I have an X-Fi Titanium that I'm using right now, but its not because of the great quality or my love of Creative. As I said before, I have two systems and I occasionally need to mix audio from both (usually Hulu while working on the server). I tried using an analog patch cable (Speaker out to Analog In) between the systems, but between a shared PSU, a shared KVM, and an ethernet crossover cable, I was generating wicked ground loop interference. This was fixed with a premium sound card capable of accepting optical input.

The hope was that the Max 7 Gene's "isolated" sound daughter board would be using a real digital interface and thus avoid the ground loop issue, and let me escape the need for the discrete sound card.

Still, I don't know that its worth the price difference. I had selected the Gene with the hopes that a sale might drop the price to something more appealing. If not, I'd take the Gryphon.

It would be nice if I could ditch the X-Fi, but it's already purchased, so ...

 

[Cerb]

Yes, it's Rosewill and that makes me feel dirty, but it seems NewEgg is trying to change that brand image and is putting some high quality stuff under the Rosewill name. And this particular PSU avoids my biggest complaint against Rosewill PSUs: that they often save cost by using crappier fans. No fan. No downgrade.

Rosewill has offered good PSUs for quite awhile, you just had to look for the Superflower models. Them and Kingwin are most of what we have in the U.S.. The Rosewill Capstone series, FI, are good supplies.

But, like EVGA, XFX, BeQuiet, Thermaltake, etc., they are rebranding, and it's all top notch.

 

[SilentRunning]

If you are purchasing the processor from Microcenter why not get the Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Motherboard for $179.99 plus tax using the bundle discount.