Corsair SF750 Platinum Efficiency SFX Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

In terms of presentation, the Corsair SF750 is faultless. Right from the front of the packaging you are told all of the key factors that are important for the savvy PSU shopper. In addition, you are also given a nice clear image of the power supply. The only thing that isn’t pushed hard is the fact that this power supply is tiny.

What the front lacks in detail is easily made up on the rear of the packaging. The amount of information provided is both excellent and thorough. You are provided with an overview of the product, the dimensions, the power output method and the efficiency charts for the power and fan noise levels.

The multiple languages do make it a little cramped and perhaps more than it needed to be. On the whole, though, Corsair has again proven to be excellent in getting their packaging right!

Whats In The Box?

In terms of accessories, you are given everything you need out of the box to get this fitted to your system. You are provided with a good quality product manual, corsair branded cable ties, standard cable ties, Corsair branding for your chassis and a little coup de gras which I must admit, impressed me more than it probably should.

So, what’s the coup de gras? Well, you are provided with a Corsair branded USB stick. As you can note from the picture below though, this isn’t just a standard stick. This is a stick with password protection. In other words, you can set up a code on the stick and the data cannot be accessed. Out of the box, all that’s actually on the stick is the product specification. It is, however, a fantastic little addition that gets the thumbs up from me!

It wasn’t a necessary inclusion, but it’s won me over with it’s 8GB of data!

The Power Supply

The power supply itself is kept within a nice branded cloth bag. We should note that even inside this, the power supply is wrapped in plastic. The quality of the bag is a little questionable. For example, the branding isn’t particularly well embossed on it. It is, however, a nice added bonus and ensures that whether you install it or carry it around, it should never get any scratches.

Aesthetics

Despite the Corsair SF750 being rather small, that doesn’t mean that it is devoid of good aesthetics. Admittedly, most of this is based upon the almost iconic Corsair branding of sleek black with silver highlights. While this is somewhat limited, what is there is nice, strong, bold, but doesn’t detract from anything.

A light ‘ripple’ effect to the top as well as the logo embossed in the metal is a nice touch that makes this stand-out.

For such a small power supply, it is surprising that Corsair has managed to get as much ventilation as it has. With the power supply pushing a ‘zero fan’ operation, however, passive airflow is an important factor and this should help it considerably.

A closer look at the vents shows how they have looked to optimise as much space as possible with a honeycomb design.

As this is a modular power supply, the power input ports are an important factor. In this regard, while the number of ports is limited, their mirrored design means that cable insertion and removal is easy. In addition, the cables also attach with a satisfyingly firm feeling.

The fan area of the power supply is a little bland. Fortunately, the centre of the fan itself does provide a little branding and the white circular ring outline is a nice touch on the aesthetic front.

The power supply itself does, however, contain some useful information. The power output is detailed on the side of the power supply which for those of you who take (or want) the most from your power supply is very important information on how it works.

Size

As this is an SFX (small factor form) power supply, size is clearly one of the biggest design factors here. It is, in photographs, hard to give this a fair representation. Using a 9V battery as a comparison though, you can see just how surprisingly slim this design is.

When you consider that this is such a small power supply, the fact that Corsair has not only managed to get 750w from it but also a platinum rating efficiency level. This is truly impressive!

Interior

Taking apart the Corsair SF750 was remarkably straight forward and once inside, you see a surprisingly tidy design. There are no errant cables and no components seemingly out of place. A nice large open space in the centre should also help provide the best cooling possible.

As this is an SFX power supply, this doesn’t have a standard 120mm cooling fan. It instead has a 100mm design. This fan, while small, looks very solid and should provide more than enough cooling assistance. That’s when the power supply wants it.

A closer look at the internals does confirm that this has Japanese capacitors. The main capacitor (which is about the single largest single component inside) is rated to 105c and this is exactly what you want to see.

While the internal design is amazingly tight and clean, there are a few areas of concern. For example, there are more than a few areas where rather excessive glue application can be found. From an aesthetic stand-point though, Corsair has used black glue. This makes it incredibly subtle and hard to spot (if you’re not looking for it).

Despite this being present though, I do not have any concerns over the design quality. For something this small and powerful, some compromises have to be made. As above though, it is at least nice to see Corsair making an effort to not make this stand out any more than it has to.

Overall Thoughts

For such a small power supply, it’s impressive just how well Corsair has designed it both internally and externally. Given that the only criticism that we could make is the excessive internal glue, this is quashed by the fact that Corsair at least made efforts to improve the aesthetic by making the glue black.

So far, this is looking very impressive indeed. How will it manage in our testing though? – Let’s find out!

Important – Please Read

To understand the results on the new few pages, please take the time to read our detailed testing methodology page. The next page of this review will help you understand what the results of our testing mean, and educate you on the various qualities we look for in a good PSU.