Seasonic Platinum PSUs

[jonnyGURU]

Would a quiet box work? Egg crate mattresses cut up to line the inside of a cardboard box; an SPL meter set 10-15cm from the intake fan; cables out to a load in another room. The load would not have to be precise. An approximate load is OK, since it is the noise that is being measured.

That's pretty much what would have to be done. The PSU would have to be plugged into a breakout board in another room. Since cables would have to be run from that room to one where the load tester is situated, the voltages couldn't be accurately measured at the load tester. You'd have to use a clamping DMM to measure current and the probes at the breakout board to measure voltage.

But even after you do all that, you have to figure out how you're going to bring the PSU up to operating temperature (40°C or better) without introducing noise to the room. Any kind of forced heat is going to make some noise that instruments are going to pick up and I don't see testing the power supplies at room temperature.

 

[biostud]

But even after you do all that, you have to figure out how you're going to bring the PSU up to operating temperature (40°C or better) without introducing noise to the room. Any kind of forced heat is going to make some noise that instruments are going to pick up and I don't see testing the power supplies at room temperature.

laboratory hot plate with temperature control?

 

[ehume]

That's pretty much what would have to be done. The PSU would have to be plugged into a breakout board in another room. Since cables would have to be run from that room to one where the load tester is situated, the voltages couldn't be accurately measured at the load tester. You'd have to use a clamping DMM to measure current and the probes at the breakout board to measure voltage.

But even after you do all that, you have to figure out how you're going to bring the PSU up to operating temperature (40°C or better) without introducing noise to the room. Any kind of forced heat is going to make some noise that instruments are going to pick up and I don't see testing the power supplies at room temperature.

I think that testing psu's for sound pressure level at room temperature is a reasonable thing to do. Or stock up on incandescent light bulbs and put a 100W in the quiet box with the psu. It wouldn't have to be precise, just within 50 Watts or so of 1/3, 2/3 and about full-out, to give us a read on how noisy the psu is.

As for the "hybrid" mode, a read on when the fan starts spinning would be nice. My X-650's and my X-750 don't spin until they get to a certain load, which is a big reason I bought them. I'm not quite sure when that is, but Wolfie's eyeballing the fan while he ratcheted up the Amps was a big help. If there is a way to gradually scale up the Amps, noting when the fan comes on would let some of us know how much we can draw from this psu silently would be very useful. As it was, I bought the X-750 to make sure my bench rig would be able to run silently at the level of power I draw. And it does -- barely.

 

[BFG10K]

As for the "hybrid" mode, a read on when the fan starts spinning would be nice. My X-650's and my X-750 don't spin until they get to a certain load, which is a big reason I bought them.

I don’t think the fan is load controlled but rather temperature controlled. I’ve had entire gaming sessions with my rig below where my X-560’s fan never even turned on.

 

[ehume]

But the load in part determines how hot the components get.

 

[BFG10K]

But the load in part determines how hot the components get.

Right, but looking for a particular % load where the fan turns on is meaningless since it’ll always be different.

Instead you should be looking for the temp value, and I believe I’ve seen 25C floating around in several places. Personally I think that figure is a little low based on how my unit behaves.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Well, Seasonic claims that their hybrid fan is load and/or temperature controlled. i.e. It will turn on when whichever event happens first.

I don't see testing a PSU at room temperature for noise being useful. For example: I'm doing the XFX 1250W now. At room temperature, the fan is hardly ever audible. With a 35C intake temperature, the fan is absolutely HOWLING LOUD at 40% load and up.