Fanless PSUs

[shauni]

So I know that Seasonics 460 FL is pretty much 'it' when it comes to fanless designs. But I saw that quite a few booths at CS had some fanless PSUs being pushed out, I think Super Flower had some and FSP too (And enermax?). While the Seasonic 460 FL is a good PSU, it's pretty expensive. What do you guys think, will the new ones push the prices a bit or will they also be introduced at very steep prices? Or will we finally see a rise in popularity to manufacture fanless PSUs?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just don't get the point of a fanless PSU. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

 

[shauni]

I just don't get the point of a fanless PSU. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

What's so bad about it? I don't see the point of having fans on a PSU with high efficiency (many low watt Platinum or Titanium for example) as they will not produce enough heat to require fans. Fans are generally noisy, especially at higher loads, even if it's a Sanyo Denki (24db is clearly audible). Fans wear during usage and are usually the first part to malfunction in a PSU. If you are aiming for a quiet computer, using a fanless PSU or at least one that doesn't power up the fan unless very high loads is critical, no?

 

[Fallengod]

Not sure id say the Seasonic is "it", there are actually quite a few good brand fanless PSUs out there but kind of not the point...

Fanless PSUs are great. It is extremely awesome to have a PSU that is so efficient it does not require a fan. I am not going to say they are bad in any way, the only negative with them I would say is the cost, they are about three or four times more money.... I guess its up to you to decide if thats worth it or not.

Imo, its not, or at least I have not purchased one yet nor plan to in the future. I think you have a slight flaw in the logic here. There are plenty of fan'd power supplies out there that have quiet fans that are pretty close to inaudible. I paid about $35AR for a Antec 620watt Neo Eco and the fan on this PSU is almost silient or at least quiet enough to not hear it during movies.

Just do your homework and research and I am sure you can find a fairly quiet high efficient PSU for a fraction of the price of a fanless PSU. Dont just make a general statement that all PSUs with fans are noisy, its not true.

Is it worth paying a bit more to have slightly higher efficiency rating and dead silence over a slightly less efficient PSU with some slight noise? I dont know...

 

[philipma1957]

all the best fanless cpus are good,

but I would get a corsair ax650 or a corsair ax750 or a seasonic x660 x760 (same as corsair but warranty is 5 years)

it is convoluted but follow my logic. here are the 3 best fanless cpus


http://www.seasonicusa.com/NEW_X-series_Fanless.htm


the 400 and the 460 from seasonic

http://www.amazon.com/KingWin-Stryke.../dp/B005CM8V4I


and the king win 500 watt. they run about 140 to 165 dollars.



below is the corsair ax750


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...=corsair+ax750


has a fan can do more then 750 watts and it will not turn the fan on until you pull 150 to 200 watts. so it is silent almost all the time has more power in an emergency and it will allow for expansion plus has a 7 year warranty. or buy the ax650


http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Profes...4967954&sr=1-1

same fan that won't turn on until 130 or more watts. 7 year warranty

 

[IlllI]

if anyone is interested I'm actually selling on of the few platinum certified ones http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2189448
and contrary to what some might think, its possible to have a very good, fanless psu.
if I didn't need the cash I'd keep this beast myself.

 

[shauni]

I somehow forgot about that 500w Super Flower Platinum PSU since it isn't sold in my country. Is it better than the 460-FL to the point that it's worth importing? I think it was recently mentioned in an article here that Super Flower skips some safety regulations (not the exact phrase) in order to reach Platinum and Titanium, is that true?

Also, the FSP Aurum fanless was recently reviewed here but I'm not too excited about that one (unless it's significantly cheaper than the two alternatives).
The reason why I don't want a kickin-fan PSU is because it synergies badly with the other fans which are (constant) 500rpm 5db ones. If for some reason the load increases on the PSU it will probably be heard over the other fans.

But I'm quite sure there was a lot of new fanless platinum and gold PSUs showcased at Cebit and I also think Seasonic was going to release a Platinum version, so I was just thinking if I should wait for some competition before buying the 460 FL.

 

[IlllI]

It probably depends on what your system is like or if you need the extra horsepower. The 460 has 80plus gold certification at 460w. The str-500 has higher efficiency rating obviously, but it can also do 600w at 80plus gold. Kingwin brand is made by superflower, they might not sell kingwin where you live, but perhaps superflower?

 

[shauni]

It probably depends on what your system is like or if you need the extra horsepower. The 460 has 80plus gold certification at 460w. The str-500 has higher efficiency rating obviously, but it can also do 600w at 80plus gold. Kingwin brand is made by superflower, they might not sell kingwin where you live, but perhaps superflower?

Neither is sold in my country, superflower has bad presence in nordic countries. Either way, I don't think the wattage matter as much or are as different as you think. Sure if you want CF/SLI it might be better to go for superflower, but from what I've seen at reviews, 460 FL has no problems doing 600w either (130% load). My system will probably not use over 350w though, so either way it doesn't matter.
The reason i considered the superflower one was 1. plat certification 2. seasonic has a lot of units with coilwhine/buzzing. Coilwhine and fanless PSU is a terrible combination...

 

[IlllI]

hm. What about Silverstone? Are they sold over there? http://www.silverstonetek.com/product_power.php?tno=5&area=en
granted, only bronze certification, but maybe another option for you?

 

[shauni]

Seeing as they are higher priced than Seasonic 460FL with worse build quality, I don't think that'd be a good choice. I'll look at the pricing of the Aurum Xilenser when it is released here and then decide I guess.
But this thread was more for a general inquiry of up and coming fanless PSUs, if there are even more good platinum or titanium PSUs introduced this year, maybe I should wait.

 

[TemjinGold]

Here's the problem:

Fanless low power PSU costs the same as fan high power PSU. Both do not turn on a fan on low power. At high power needs, the fanless simply can't provide the power while the high power one can at the expense of fan noise. So the normal psu is essentially the same as the fanless at low power but can also provide high power if you actually need it.

 

[thelastjuju]

I just don't get the point of a fanless PSU. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

I'm with you.. I mean, unless you are running a completely fanless setup.. what's the point?

My issue here is.. THE VIDEO CARD.. if you are interested in running a fully capable PC, you're going to have a solid video card in there, and your PSU's fan is almost never going to be as loud as the video card's fan, especially in game.. at least from my experience, its consistently the loudest fan in any system I've built..

.. so unless you have a fanless video card, would you really even NOTICE the lack of fan on the PSU? Just seems the PSU's fan noise is negligible, compared to how much louder GPU, CPU, and case fans usually are.

 

[Fallengod]

I'm with you.. I mean, unless you are running a completely fanless setup.. what's the point?

My issue here is.. THE VIDEO CARD.. if you are interested in running a fully capable PC, you're going to have a solid video card in there, and your PSU's fan is almost never going to be as loud as the video card's fan, especially in game.. at least from my experience, its consistently the loudest fan in any system I've built..

.. so unless you have a fanless video card, would you really even NOTICE the lack of fan on the PSU? Just seems the PSU's fan noise is negligible, compared to how much louder GPU, CPU, and case fans usually are.

One small correction though. You can actually make a video fairly quiet... You just have to A) Make sure you buy a video card that has a quality fan that you know isnt loud to begin with and B) You always run Afterburner, speedfan or Trixx to make a custom fan profile to ensure you keep the noise level down.

I run my MSI Hawk 5770 (which has 2 fans) with Afterburner at 20% fan speed up until around 50C and at over 50C I think I have it at like 35% or 40% fan speed which is only mildly audible while gaming. With my headphones on, I definitely dont hear anything. My system is almost dead silent with my Antec NEO Eco 620 watt PSU....

I actually sold my Corsair TX 650V2 PSU because it was the loudest thing in my system and went with the Antec....

Video card fan noise just depends on which video card and video card brand you use.... You cant just generalize all video cards like that, they are not all loud.

 

[thelastjuju]

One small correction though. You can actually make a video fairly quiet... You just have to A) Make sure you buy a video card that has a quality fan that you know isnt loud to begin with and B) You always run Afterburner, speedfan or Trixx to make a custom fan profile to ensure you keep the noise level down.

I run my MSI Hawk 5770 (which has 2 fans) with Afterburner at 20% fan speed up until around 50C and at over 50C I think I have it at like 35% or 40% fan speed which is only mildly audible while gaming. With my headphones on, I definitely dont hear anything. My system is almost dead silent with my Antec NEO Eco 620 watt PSU....

I actually sold my Corsair TX 650V2 PSU because it was the loudest thing in my system and went with the Antec....

Video card fan noise just depends on which video card and video card brand you use.... You cant just generalize all video cards like that, they are not all loud.

Problem with A is.. even the quietest video card's fan is STILL going to be a fan, isn't it? If fans can run silent enough, then going with a PSU with the quietest fan makes perfect sense too, especially considering the money you'd save.. Once playing games maxed out though, you're going to end up hearing that ambient fan noise at all times anyways, and it'll be from the video card's, not the psu's.

I can totally see for a desktop that won't be gaming at all, where you can run onboard and even avoid a video card .. but with a system that is used for gaming primarily, we are still stuck by how hot these video cards run under load and the fan noise that comes along with that.. regardless of how many other fans can be eliminated.

 

[Fallengod]

Well yes to some degree. Again, as I stated above, thats where program and fan profiles come in. You can make profiles that run the fans at lowest required speed to achieve effective cooling and low noise level.

If you are gaming, you are going to hearing the game sound through speakers or headphones. The trick is you just dont want to hear computer fan noise overpowering the game sound. That is all I look for. When I game at load, I certainly do not hear any computer fan noise with headphones, at least for the most part.

Of course they do make passively cooled video cards as well but......

 

[shauni]

My 460 GPU runs with an aftermarket heatsink (Alpenföhn Peter) and 2 500rpm fan with 5 db, so that the card doesn't make a noise even if you game full on. During stresstesting it stays around 80C which is fine for the card, as long as you don't go above midrange cards such as 7850/6850/560. Obviously you'll have to throw away that shitty manufacturer cooling solution, as most of them are unable to lead the heat away sufficiently passive.

Dunno why you all started to talking about GPUs but I don't think that's an issue as long as you don't want the most extreme card and OC.
If you compare what you can get for a 400w fanless PSU, yeah you can get a 800w with silent fan during low loads. You can argue that it's a better solution, but I think it's preferable to have a PSU that outputs 400w if your system load is 200-300w, and the build quality of the top fanless PSUs are as good, if not better since they have to be able to output max power at 50c, maybe even 60c ambient.

The issue with having a PSU fan as I see it, is the fear of it powering on and making it audible if you play games or do something intensive. In my current build, my graphics card is noiseless, my h60 is clearly audible even at idle, and my PSU (thermaltake xt) is pretty noisy. I'm trying to avoid that for my next build.
And as far as I know, fans are the first parts to fail in high quality PSUs, so we get that out of the way for free.
As you said, they still are expensive but what you pay for is an incredible build quality (rivaling many 1000w PSUs), getting it fanless and efficient is just a bonus.

 

[TemjinGold]

60c ambient?! Where the heck do you live?

The biggest argument to NOT get an overkill PSU is the purchase price you save. With a fanless PSU, that argument is moot because they are so darn expensive anyway. With the fear of the fan turning on, any instance where the huge PSU would turn its fan on is one where the fanless PSU would simply stop working because you are drawing so much power that it can't handle it.

In short, both a small fanless and a huge PSU with a fan will be silent at lower loads. At high loads, the huge PSU will turn its fan on while the fanless PSU will simply shut down. Are you saying you prefer your computer to crash over the fan coming on?

 

[holden j caufield]

with 90% efficiency vs ~70? I would think over 4-5 years of your computer being on a lot you've already saved yourself $100 in electricity?

 

[shauni]

60c ambient?! Where the heck do you live?

The biggest argument to NOT get an overkill PSU is the purchase price you save. With a fanless PSU, that argument is moot because they are so darn expensive anyway. With the fear of the fan turning on, any instance where the huge PSU would turn its fan on is one where the fanless PSU would simply stop working because you are drawing so much power that it can't handle it.

In short, both a small fanless and a huge PSU with a fan will be silent at lower loads. At high loads, the huge PSU will turn its fan on while the fanless PSU will simply shut down. Are you saying you prefer your computer to crash over the fan coming on?

I didn't mean ambient as in room temperature, I meant that the decent fanless ones should handle 60c inside the PSU and still be able to output their max wattage. Perhaps poor wording on my part.
I can't guarantee that if I buy say a hx 750/seasonic x-760 or any similar PSU with stopped idle fan that it won't ever spin up during a normal 300-400w~ single card load, even if the specs or reviews say it should stay silent, I'd feel more assured with a completely fanless design. And like I said, the component quality is about the same in Seasonic X series no matter what version you go for... To cause the x460fl to shut down you'd probably need some serious sli/cf configurations that are overclocked to the max, because from what I've seen in reviews it can easily handle 120% load without breaking a sweat.

And getting more than a 500w PSU is just stupid in terms of efficiency...