The ultimate silent computer powersupply

[tortie]

You could safely say this is the worlds most silent computer power supply. Yes, its fanless

http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower...fanlesspfc.htm

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well fanless is great, however, for that to mean much, you have to have the rest of your system down to a fanless level of quietness. Of course the novelty factor of being fanless will probably make this PSU sell to more people than really have good use for it. It is another sign that we are going down the road to overall quieter computers, which is of course great. I remain unimpressed by the power output and voltage stability ranges, though. One would expect that to improve over time as they make these PSU's more efficient, hopefully.

 

[tortie]

If you wanna go all out...

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product...dx=64&code=020

 

[tortie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer I remain unimpressed by the power output and voltage stability ranges, though.

Hi ID,

How do you check for the voltage range and what is an ideal stability range for a PSU?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I think that fanless PSU is a poor choice for today's mainstream- and high-end systems. With more and more internal devices drawing power from the +12V rail, that 14A rating on that PSU's +12V rail is woefully inadequate. Furthermore, the ratings assume an internal operating temperature (of the PSU) of only 25°C/77°F. But with the fanless design, that would require a very cold ambient temperature of about 10°C/50°F in order to achieve. But in typical room temperatures, the fanless PSU will operate at an internal temperature of greater than 50°C/122°F! That would result in a ~40% drop in the power rating. As a result, that 350W silent PSU actually delivers barely over 200 real watts - okay for current low-end systems, but woefully inadequate for today's gaming configurations.

 

[GokieKS]

Fanless PSUs have been around for a while, actually. Though it doesn't surprise me to find ThermalTake being the one who's made such a tacky-looking version...

I'll stick with a good PSU with adjustable fanspeeds, thanks.

~KS

 

[Ph34rful]

The ultimate silent computer powersupply... In my mind would be water cooled.

Or if you really wanted to go extreme, phase change.

 

[GokieKS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ph34rful The ultimate silent computer powersupply... In my mind would be water cooled. Or if you really wanted to go extreme, vapor change.

Phase change cooling systems, especially the "extreme" ones, are far from what I'd consider "silent".

And a water-cooled PSU? I suppose you could use the PSU itself to supply the power for the watercooling system, but it would be quite impractical.

~KS

 

[Ph34rful]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GokieKS Phase change cooling systems, especially the "extreme" ones, are far from what I'd consider "silent". And a water-cooled PSU? I suppose you could use the PSU itself to supply the power for the watercooling system, but it would be quite impractical. ~KS

Very true about the phase change systems. But I'm sure there is someway to make it silent. Though very impractical.

But I have seen a few "mod jobs" where guys have modified their PSU's to be water cooled. (To go with their totally silent computer) Though when I think of all of this it seems impractical to me. High-end audio to most people is impractical.

So everybody has their quirks?

After reading back over this post it doesn't seem to be clear in what I am trying to say... But I can't think of anyway to make it clearer. Oh well. Don't take this post too seriously.

 

[gsferrari]

My suggestion

Use USB drives
Use wireless mouse and keyboard
use a nice big screen with a long cable

Put the CPU far far away inside some closet and you'll never hear the sucker!!

Seriously - think of smarter ways of having a quiet listening environment...

Cheers!

 

[CSMR]

No, here is the ultimate. Internal PSUs push some heat into the case.
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=13408

 

[noir]

seeing as i always have silly ideas about silent computers... i planned a bit ahead.

i want to use a computer later as transport for audio/video and scaling.

that fanless PSU sounds great, i would put it in an external enclosure, then use a passively cooled centrino CPU, and a Holo3dgraph, and naturally the nicest soundcard out there. No HD's, no CD/DVD roms, it'll run on a ramdisk, and get its data from a Server in another room over Ethernet.

 

[spwal]

i like gsferraris idea.

thats the best ive heard yet and makes the most sense.

sean

 

[Stephonovich]

I'll take a good quality 500W (for headroom, and since when temps increase, power drops) and surround it with acoustic foam over that. Which reminds me, my mom's harping on me to quiet our computers down, especially our gaming machine. After hearing my grandpa's 1.1GHz Celeron Dell, with one measly exhaust fan, she complained about my DIY beast

Lesse... Antec 120mm intake on the top feeding a stock AMD HSF through ducting, a trio of 25mm intake in an empty 5 1/4" bay, two stacked 80mm exhaust in the back, plus a 60mm exhaust in the power supply. Oh yes, and a VGA Silencer for the soft-modded to XT and OC'd 9800 Pro. Although over the other fans, it's pretty much dead quiet anyway. I just got it because it needed better cooling. I'd estimate the noise level if you're sitting at it to be around 60dB. You can easily hear music over it, and you get used to it over time, but it still does get a few comments when new people hear it.

(-:Stephonovich

 

[Ph34rful]

It really does make sense to have a "computer closet" of sorts.
Eventually I am going to setup a file server in a closet. (hard drives are very noisey) And then setup a computer with very low cooling requirements. (meaning not the most highend processor and video card which require massive cooling)

Hopefully I can get away with passively cooling the processor and video card and using some low speed (quiet) 120mm fans. Oh ya and a PC Power and Cooling PSU (low noise).