Corsair SF600 (2018) 600W SFX Power Supply Review @ [H]

[FrgMstr]

Corsair SF600 (2018) 600W SFX Power Supply Review

Corsair is no stranger to the enthusiast computer power supply market, and most of its PSUs are built for ATX form factor cases. Corsair does however dabble a bit in the SFX end of the spectrum which tries to shoehorn as much power as possible into the smallest space possible. Let's see what the new SF600 is all about.

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[noko]

I had the older version, which [H]ardOCP also reviewed and if I remember right it was awarded Gold. Anyways the older version ran a 6700k plus Vega 64 LC system flawlessly for about 6 months. Gaming wise from the wall it was pushing 500w with balance settings in the Adrenaline drivers. I upgraded to a 850w Seasonic to better match the system but that Corsair power supply was rock solid even when pushed pretty much to its max. So if this power supply is like the older version - it is a very good power supply.

 

[Neapolitan6th]

Its amazing to see what these little PSUs can do. Its neat to see them handing such power hungry hardware.

I would think SFX units will soon offer wattages capable of handing even the most overclocked gaming hardware. Such as Silverstone's soon to be released 700 watt SFX or Corsair's rumored potential release of a 750 watt SFX unit.

A 5ghz 9900K paired with an OCed 2080ti or Vega 64 is not out of the question.

That said, I very much see users needing larger PSUs for the HEDT segment with X399 and X299 when OCed. The cooling needs of HEDT generally excludes it from the SFF discussion for the most part. (I would love to hear about anyone's experiences who paired a 7980XE with Asrock's ITX board though!)

 

[noko]

Its amazing to see what these little PSUs can do. Its neat to see them handing such power hungry hardware.

I would think SFX units will soon offer wattages capable of handing even the most overclocked gaming hardware. Such as Silverstone's soon to be released 700 watt SFX or Corsair's rumored potential release of a 750 watt SFX unit.

A 5ghz 9900K paired with an OCed 2080ti or Vega 64 is not out of the question.

That said, I very much see users needing larger PSUs for the HEDT segment with X399 and X299 when OCed. The cooling needs of HEDT generally excludes it from the SFF discussion for the most part. (I would love to hear about anyone's experiences who paired a 7980XE with Asrock's ITX board though!)

That would be packing a lot of punch in a little space which make these power supplies great!

 

[oldmanbal]

I really liked your conclusion. With the inflated gpu burden we've seen over the last year, hardware really comes down to how much you get for your money, and your observations were relevant, specific, and well reasoned. With power supplies typical usage comes down to does it work or not as intended. When components like this tend to disappear in a build, there really has to be a good reason to pony up more cash for them.

 

[AMv8(1day)]

Oh yeah, let me tell you all about my plans of slapping an 18-core, $2K CPU into a single PCIe slot motherboard and mounting a heatsink the size of a basketball to it!
Joking, but honestly, I think that Intel's crumbling usefulness in the HEDT realm will end up killing it or forcing them to totally rethink their hard price separation between their mainstream and "enthusiast" platform, which is obviously just a scrambled together core-unlocked Xeon package already.
It made sense when they had complete control over the market and halted all real innovation years ago, but with Zen, and soon Zen2, there is really very little reason to even consider HEDT anymore.
Apparently Zen2/Ryzen3 will be dropping a 16-core/32-thread model, clocked up to 3.9GHz-base/4.7GHz-boost? All of that power on AM4? Not even requiring TR4!?!
Why would anyone bother wasting the extra grand+ for a similarly spec'd HEDT CPU/Platform?
Back to the HEDT ITX idea, you can manage so much raw CPU performance on the LGA1151/AM4 platforms at this point, that the only real reason to go to the higher HEDT/TR4 platforms is because you need more PCIe lanes, which makes no sense with an ITX motherboard.
I'm saying this while I have a sub-20L dual 8-core Xeon, 8-DIMM system in a Cerberus X case at home right now, and another dual Xeon, 16-DIMM system in a sub-40L NZXT H500 that will likely get a pair of 12-core Xeons when I get around to it.
But both of those systems have ALL of the PCIe lanes on full sized motherboards.
You want to see a really cool system that can be paired down to a relatively small footprint while still retaining it's usefulness ? Check out the Asus Z11PA-D8.

 

[superray]

Trying to decide between the gold and platinum version. Platinum is apparently a tier up but I like the cables of the gold better. They're more compact and saves space in an itx build.

 

[[Spectre]]

Trying to decide between the gold and platinum version. Platinum is apparently a tier up but I like the cables of the gold better. They're more compact and saves space in an itx build.

Sounds like Gold is the right answer for you then.

 

[Neapolitan6th]

Trying to decide between the gold and platinum version. Platinum is apparently a tier up but I like the cables of the gold better. They're more compact and saves space in an itx build.

Sounds like Gold is the right answer for you then.

The Gold version is actually on rebate right now for $90 at Newegg. Pretty good value there for an ITX 600 watt unit.

Very much looking forward to [H] getting Corsair's SF750 SFX in for review. Preliminary coverage has shown it to handle as much as 950 watts sustained load before tripping its protections. Whether that is because they are underselling its capabilities or being too loose on their protections I am not sure.