Liquid Cooled PSU is finally ready for the mass. Your opinion?

[ao_ika_red]

The article:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12411/fsp-liquid-cooled-hydro-ptm-1200w-power-supply

My opinion (rant):
Is this like stabbing their own back? I mean, liquid cooling is used for moving big amount of heat that can't be handled by just circulating air around it. So they basically say that their psu is producing a lot of heat (which also means inefficient psu). I've seen Titanium rated PSUs (Seasonic Prime Ultra, Cosair AXi, SuperFlower Leadex Titanium, etc) that only need single fan to cool them.
And also, the price tag. 700 USD for a Platinum rated 1.2 kW PSU. That will make even Corsair's AX1600i a much better deal than that.
How about you? Do you believe there's a scenario aside of noise reduction that will convince you to liquid cool your psu?

 

[Lordhumungus]

I'm guessing they are just trying something different to remove themselves from the PSU pack so to speak.

We are at a point where PSUs are not likely to get much more efficient than they already are and they are also pushing max output to about the limits of our electrical standards , so they will need something to bring eyeballs and buyers to their products.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This seems like an odd idea for many reasons.

1: a SMPS is suppose to be efficient enough that it won't produce that much heat. If your SMPS design requires water cooling it probably means it's inefficient.

2: Mixing water with line voltage electricity in a consumer product... seems like some things could go wrong.

I guess there is a coolness(no pun intended) factor to it, so I could see a market for it I guess.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Incredibly stupid. All liquid cooling setups have a non-zero manufacturing defect rate, plus a non-zero leakage rate as connections wear out. Intentionally running liquid lines inside a PSU seems unwise.

They should have just gone with adding a programmable LED panel to it for the bling factor.

 

[AMD64Blondie]

As a current PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200 owner(non-modular,thankfully..)...

I don't see the obsession with modular(detechable-cabling) power supplies.

I had a old Antec Neopower 480 modular power supply nearly kill my motherboard when the PSU failed about a dozen years ago.(back in 2005).

The Neopower's replacement,a PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI..is still working to this day 12 years later, now in my backup Ubuntu Linux PC.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Modular power supplies would be better if they were standardized. Ex: the cables should be usable across all PSUs and all brands. PSU makers should get together, come up with a pin out standard and stick with it. They could then sell other accessories separately such as extension, harnesses etc. They do well by using a standard connector (Molex Mini Fit Jr) but the pin outs they use are not always standard. Ex: you can't use a cable from one PSU for the other. But they should make it so that it's universal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Modular power supplies would be better if they were standardized. Ex: the cables should be usable across all PSUs and all brands. PSU makers should get together, come up with a pin out standard and stick with it. They could then sell other accessories separately such as extension, harnesses etc. They do well by using a standard connector (Molex Mini Fit Jr) but the pin outs they use are not always standard. Ex: you can't use a cable from one PSU for the other. But they should make it so that it's universal.

Exactly. Then you could also buy extra-long cables for big cases without using mismatched extension cables, they could offer blingtastic glowy cables for those so inclined, and any other styles that people wanted.

Also, true 8-pin GPU cables instead of those harder-to-connect 6+2 cables, and single 8- and 6-pin instead of the y cables they give you in case your card expects 3 or 4 connectors.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Also, true 8-pin GPU cables instead of those harder-to-connect 6+2 cables, and single 8- and 6-pin instead of the y cables they give you in case your card expects 3 or 4 connectors.

Speaking of GPU connectors I discovered something super annoying about them, the connector indents don't actually match the normal Mini Fit Jr. connectors that you'd buy off Digikey. They seem to be specific to GPUs and can't seem to buy them from a reliable source (did find some on Aliexpress though). I bought a bunch of Minifit stuff so I can make my own cables for my mining rig and realized that the GPU ones are odd. The ground and +12v is reversed for some weird reason, and there's also a bunch of sense pins. Why waste wires for something silly like sense when they could just be 50/50 ground and +12v. You can sense by checking if there is voltage on that pin! Whoever designed that was probably drunk.

It would also be nice if they stuck to a standard, like always 8 pin. Some GPUs of even the same line/model will have different configurations! Some take a single 8 pin, some take 2 6 pin, some take a 6 pin and 8 pin. Why not just stick with 8 pin. For more power hungry GPUs then just have it take 2 8 pins.

 

[Gellért]

I don't think tha you need a liquid cooled PSU

 

[EXCellR8]

I don't think tha you need a liquid cooled PSU

you don't need a liquid cooled computer either, but at least there's a practical market for that.

this just seems silly and nonsensical to me but then again I bought two Vega cards... for GAMING!?

 

[Red Squirrel]

this just seems silly and nonsensical to me but then again I bought two Vega cards... for GAMING!?

People still buy GPUs for gaming? Why not just get a Wii or something?

 

[Rifter]

this is real dumb idea.

 

[bruceb]

I agree, a liquid cooled power supply for consumers is not needed. Maybe for a data center and probably not even then. As to modular power supplies, one advantage is if you do not need a particular connection, you leave it out and it saves space. Downside in my opinion, is the extra connectors can at some point, introduce higher resistance into the circuits. A potential failure point, but it does make replacing a bad cable easy.

 

[Red Squirrel]

At work we have -48vdc power rectifiers that power all the equipment in the building, there's about 1,600 amps being drawn from them. If those don't require water cooling I don't think a consumer one does. In fact they're not even that loud or hot. That room is like 10 degrees as it's constantly drawing in outside air to mitigate the battery hydrogen. You can feel the heat if you walk behind the rack but it's not any more than like the DSLAMs or DMS or something.

If I had to guess that rectifier bank is not putting out any more than 10kw of heat.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Add me to the list of people who think that liquid cooling for the PSU is a terrible idea. The whole point of liquid cooling is to get rid of excess heat while pushing hardware far out of spec. One shouldn't be pushing a PSU out of spec. Though FSP seems intent on bragging that their PSU can handle 1400w loads, even though they are selling it as a 1200w PSU?

 

[bruceb]

Red-- Which Telecom company are you working for ? I retired from Verizon New York and I have seen those types of rectifiers in the central office rooms.

 

[JimKiler]

I have never seen the fan spin on my Titanium Seasonic 650 watt PSU since enabling hybrid mode. This is as good as a battery operated battery changer that is only good for changing its own batteries.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Though FSP seems intent on bragging that their PSU can handle 1400w loads, even though they are selling it as a 1200w PSU?

It seems "OC" everything is preferrable today.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Red-- Which Telecom company are you working for ? I retired from Verizon New York and I have seen those types of rectifiers in the central office rooms.

I don't tend to share that (though there's only so many of them so not very hard to figure out.) but I work for a local telco owned by a bigger one. Basically Canada's Verizon. Probably very similar building/equipment. We have Argus ones at our office but our other buildings may have other ones too like Lorain. I actually want to get some, and inverters, for my basement server setup so I can build out a dual conversion UPS but they are hard to find. May end up designing and building my own at some point when I feel more comfortable with electronics. The rectifiers are probably not too hard, but the inverters would be harder. Each module has to stay in sync with each other or you let the magic smoke out.

 

[bruceb]

You have: Rogers, Telus and Bell Canada Enterprises up there and about 3 other smaller ones. Not sure who has which part of Canada

 

[UsandThem]

Bumping this thread up since it's now available for sale at Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/insider/fsp-...P100718-_-EMC-100718-Index-_-index-_-FSP-EB1A

It even has RGB lights, and this PSU will make everything better as it claims:

"At this level of power, you’re rendering 3D models in Keyshot, animating the next Pixar film in RenderMan, or color grading a feature film in DaVinci Resolve. And you’re doing it all faster than your competition".

I just don't understand this product at all.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Bumping this thread up since it's now available for sale at Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/insider/fsp-...P100718-_-EMC-100718-Index-_-index-_-FSP-EB1A

I see they're $100 cheaper than the launch price, but my opinion is still stand.

And also, the price tag. 700 USD for a Platinum rated 1.2 kW PSU. That will make even Corsair's AX1600i a much better deal than that.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139226

 

[DrMrLordX]

Looks nice. Still pointless. Not sure why it would let anyone color grade a feature film faster, either. Overclock your PC with a watercooled PSU! YEAH! No.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Bumping this thread up since it's now available for sale at Newegg:

It even has RGB lights, and this PSU will make everything better as it claims:

"At this level of power, you’re rendering 3D models in Keyshot, animating the next Pixar film in RenderMan, or color grading a feature film in DaVinci Resolve. And you’re doing it all faster than your competition".

I just don't understand this product at all.

Amazing, just like an Intel CPU would speed up your internet connection back in the day!

Or not.

Maybe adding racing stripes would make this PSU render frames even faster!