Super Silencer or Super Tornado?

direavenger · Post by **direavenger** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:28 pm

I was wondering if the super silencer or the super tornado would be best for my application. I am aware of the difference between the two, but I didn't know if the added heat of my system exhausting through the super tornado would cause the fan to ramp up, thus adding to the noise. This is because I have 1 120mm exhaust fan. The other info about my system is in my sig. What do you think?

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:15 am

I have a 300W Super Silencer, and though it's definitely quiet, I was hoping it would be more quiet. My system draws a lot of power (two Palomino core processors and a 6600GT means a minimum 100W of DC power draw at idle), so to keep the PSU intake air cool I put the PSU completely outside the case, and ran the wires through a cut-out fan exhaust at the back of the case. Right now the PSU sounds about as loud as a ~9-volted 80mm Panaflo L1A, but with a higher, more annoying pitch. And since it's the pitch that bothers me, I think a Tornado would have been a better choice for my needs.

However, the Super Silencer PSU isn't that much louder when it's in the case, if it's ducted so that it receives a cool air intake. You can't easily duct a Super Tornado. So if you are willing to build a duct for the Super Silencer, it may possibly be quieter. Otherwise, I'll bet the Super Tornado will be quieter-sounding.

Here are SPCR reviews for the Silencer 400 and Tornado 300. The review uses SPCR's in-case thermal simulation, so both PSU's have to contend with the heat inside the case as well. Your system probably draws about 150 watts DC at load, or lower, so with either power supply the fan should not speed up substantially. The Tornado's raw decibel levels are lower, and in my opinion the sound of a 120mm fan is less obtrusive than that of an 80mm fan. So even though I haven't heard the Tornado with my own ears, I think you'll really like it.

direavenger · Post by **direavenger** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:11 am

Thanks a lot, I can't believe that I missed that review!

Well it looks like I'll be going with the Super Tornado, because it seems to stay about 3dB quieter under the loads that I will be giving it. This is in addition to sucking some hot air out of my PC. Thanks again!

Reesh · Post by **Reesh** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:51 am

Funny, I had the exact same question today and was about to post when I saw your thread

FYI
You can get the Super Tornado 350 at Newegg for $83 w/shipping
and then apply for the Seasonic $20 mail-in-rebate:

http://www.siliconacoustics.com/lib/sil ... rebate.pdf

They also have the Super Tornao 300 for $62 w/shipping but only a $10 rebate (same link as posted above).

Me personally I ordering me a 350, enjoy the deafening silence

direavenger · Post by **direavenger** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:04 am

Reesh wrote: Me personally I ordering me a 350, enjoy the deafening silence

lol, thanks for the heads-up

dan · Post by **dan** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:29 pm

rebate is pretty clear you must purchase it at siliconaccoustics, not newegg.

Reesh · Post by **Reesh** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 5:29 am

DOH!

Looks like I was too smart for my own good

jonathangallant · Post by **jonathangallant** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:44 am

I've read the review, and this discussion, and the forum discussing the article. I'm still not sure which one to get, the Tornado or the Silencer. I want to get the 400W so that later when I have a huge HTPC system I'll have enough power. But the article reviews the 300 Tornado and the 400 Silencer. So do we assume the same is true for each model of the other wattage?

Anyway, I'm thinking I'll just buy a Super Silencer 400W, swap the fan and be done with it.

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:50 pm

jonathangallant wrote:I've read the review, and this discussion, and the forum discussing the article. I'm still not sure which one to get, the Tornado or the Silencer. I want to get the 400W so that later when I have a huge HTPC system I'll have enough power. But the article reviews the 300 Tornado and the 400 Silencer. So do we assume the same is true for each model of the other wattage?

Anyway, I'm thinking I'll just buy a Super Silencer 400W, swap the fan and be done with it.

Before you do, check out this thread: How much will a 300w power supply run?. Some people in this thread run huger than huge systems on 300W PSU's.

Like I said earlier, I run a dual-CPU systm on a 300W Super Silencer. That's 100W DC at idle for the CPU's and video card, not counting two hard drives, two optical drives, the motherboard and soundcard/nic/IDE PCI cards. At load, the CPU's and video together are theoretically capable of pulling 60+60+50=170W DC, and maybe 30W for the rest. In practice, I'm probably never drawing more than 175W total, but that's still a lot, and the PSU doesn't seem to give me any trouble. What's more, both processors run off the 5V line due to my odd motherboard, and the 5V line is rated lower for the PSU than the 12V line.

In short, if you're concerned about maxing out a 300W Seasonic, forget about it.

Besides, a system that pulls as much power as mine is almost impossible to quiet down, unless you use water cooling. I use air cooling, but my system has a bunch of weird hacks and ducts and runs at the cusp of stability, none of which are appropriate for a HTPC setup.

jonathangallant · Post by **jonathangallant** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:38 pm

Thanks a lot and also for the silenx thread you replied to. I've been reading so much I think my next purchase is going to be an LCD screen before I go blind

So you have the Silencer, but you recommend the Tornado.
The thread you posted was interesting. I'm thinking that the 400+ PSUs are for high end servers or ridiculously high end PCs.

Reesh · Post by **Reesh** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:47 pm

I think the "400W" PSUs are for all of the manufacturers who need to put "400W" on the box because their PSUs are so inefficient they need to claim bigger and better!

By the way I got my Seasonic Tornado 350W PSU and swapped it into my current crappy case. Works like a charm.

Even if I put my ear up to the back of the PSU all I can hear is my CPU fan (which is a retail AMD vacuum/HSF)

jonathangallant · Post by **jonathangallant** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:52 pm

Ok, so its not that I don't believe you. I've read the discussion on 300w. I believe you entirely that 300w is fine. I'm very excited about the Tornado 300 and how its one of the only ones out there to fit Intels definition of quiet. I don't even want the 350w.......
I just don't know if I can bring myself to do it.

My friend and mentor, who taught me many things about computers, introduced me to Linux blah blah blah, has just bought a 500W PSU. I'm finally striking out on my own and doing all my own research (yay me), but then I run into websites like this:

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

And they tell me a minimum of 415W PSU is supplied. Are you so assured that a future system, with lots of PCI cards, hard drives etc etc would be fine on the 300W?

I've read so much now I'm very ready to believe you. It makes sense. The PSU would be quieter, more efficient, would handle the load..and somewhere I read "enthusiasts tend to go overboard"....soo true.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:14 am

My standard reply for such questions /threads:

In my system testing, I have never come across ANY system that draws more than ~200W DC under full test load, higher than possible in normal conditons. The highest was a P4-3.2G (prescott) dual drive system -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/article135-page4.html -- which pulled 236W AC at the highest peak load in benchmarking with a <75% efficiency PSU, meaning a power draw of less than 177W DC. Even if you wanted 100% headroom, an "honestly rated"* 350W unit would do it.

Now the CPU was a Northwood, which according to http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/Pentium4.txt draws up to ~95W max under test stress loads. If it was a Prescott, it could have been as much as 115W, which might bring the max DC load to just around 200W.

Headroom is a good thing, we should all have some. But do we really need DOUBLE the max load to feel "safe"? This is exactly the kind of paranoia the PC industry loves to foster among its "opinion leaders" -- yeah that's you geeks reading this!

-- they love for you to tell everyone that 450W PSUs are minimumfor just decent performance and >600W is mandatory for serious machines.

*Note: Just about every fan-cooled PSU in the recommended PSU list was tested to full power load; ie, they're honestly rated.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:58 am

jonathangallant wrote:I'm finally striking out on my own and doing all my own research (yay me), but then I run into websites like this:

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

And they tell me a minimum of 415W PSU is supplied.

The usefulness of power calculators, such as the one you linked to, have been discussed from time to time here in the forum. IMO some of them might be used to make a rough approximation of the theoretical max peak power draw of a system, however, as a basis for the choice of wich PSU to get the figures obtained from those calculators is of little use. Basically I agree with Ralf Hutter:

Ralf Hutter wrote:I've seen several different incarnations of those things and they're basically worthless. They make generalized assumptions about the power draw of various components that doesn't seem to accurate in the real world. They each give you a different result too. Which is correct? My guess would be "none".

jonathangallant · Post by **jonathangallant** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:18 am

I went with the tornado, 300W. I also got a Zalman 7000B-AlCu heatsink so what when I get a new motherboard I can easily bring the heatsink with me. Not bad for a first day I think, and I found it all for under $100. Thanks for the help, its been a very enlightening shopping experience.
I am sure I'll be back for more.

Super Silencer or Super Tornado?

Super Silencer or Super Tornado?

so which is it?

Re: so which is it?

400+ PSU