Antec has release a silent power supply that has no fan. There are probably other PSU out there with no fan.
Gigabyte and other company have made fanless version video cards.
These component may be fanless, but they all require a fan of some sort. Without decent airflow, the fanless psu and fanless card will quickly overheat. The fanless card for example are heavy heat generator that will probably heat up the other components in your case, which will drive the case fan to spin faster and generate more noise. You may even need to install a second case fan.
From a build perspective, is having fanless component really a good way to guy. Perhaps this allow you to control noise thorough a single component (namely the case fan).
Paul
Does fanless component really equal less noise as a whole?
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freak_in_cage
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:05 am
what you say is true, but think of it this way. you can have a fan on your GPU, 1 on CPU, 1 or 2 on PSU, and still need intake & outake fans (unless the other fans are running full speed, which would make them noisy)
or, you can have everything fanless (except perhaps CPU) and have 1 large intake fan running pretty slow and 1 outake, again running slow.
a 92mm/120mm fan on intake running slowly is still uch quieter than a 40mm fan on a graphics card running full speed.
if you have a very powerful graphica card then fanless cooling may not be posible, in which case you will need a fan anyway!
things become really interesting when you start having ducts in your case, designed to draw cold air directly outside straight onto a hot cmponent, thats when things get real quite- the air is so cool the fan doesn;t need to run much at all!
or, you can have everything fanless (except perhaps CPU) and have 1 large intake fan running pretty slow and 1 outake, again running slow.
a 92mm/120mm fan on intake running slowly is still uch quieter than a 40mm fan on a graphics card running full speed.
if you have a very powerful graphica card then fanless cooling may not be posible, in which case you will need a fan anyway!
things become really interesting when you start having ducts in your case, designed to draw cold air directly outside straight onto a hot cmponent, thats when things get real quite- the air is so cool the fan doesn;t need to run much at all!
Chipset and graphics coolers are restricted in the size and positioning of fans they can use*, and this means they often have to use smaller fans running faster.
*While adhering to ATX/AGP specs, which aftermarket coolers don't necessarily have to do.
So it's often worth using passive graphics and chipset coolers, even if you have to turn up other, larger fans to compensate. Good 120mm fans are much quieter for a given cooling effect than most graphics or chipset fans, even if they aren't positioned to provide optimal airflow to the chipset or graphics card heatsink.
Working on the basis that a good 120mm fan can be effectively inaudible, there's not much point in not using them for case and CPU cooling. Whether a 120mm fan in a PSU is inaudible depends on whether it ramps up, and whether the internals of the PSU produce turbulence noise. This is a little uncertain, so if you want to be assured of minimum fan noise, a fanless PSU is a safer (though much more expensive) bet.
For most users, in cases with good airflow from a pair of quiet 120mm case fans, a good PSU won't ramp up, and the fan noise won't be an issue. Good airflow from case fans will also make passive graphics and chipset coolers more viable.
*While adhering to ATX/AGP specs, which aftermarket coolers don't necessarily have to do.
So it's often worth using passive graphics and chipset coolers, even if you have to turn up other, larger fans to compensate. Good 120mm fans are much quieter for a given cooling effect than most graphics or chipset fans, even if they aren't positioned to provide optimal airflow to the chipset or graphics card heatsink.
Working on the basis that a good 120mm fan can be effectively inaudible, there's not much point in not using them for case and CPU cooling. Whether a 120mm fan in a PSU is inaudible depends on whether it ramps up, and whether the internals of the PSU produce turbulence noise. This is a little uncertain, so if you want to be assured of minimum fan noise, a fanless PSU is a safer (though much more expensive) bet.
For most users, in cases with good airflow from a pair of quiet 120mm case fans, a good PSU won't ramp up, and the fan noise won't be an issue. Good airflow from case fans will also make passive graphics and chipset coolers more viable.
I guess the biggest advantage from "fanless" components is more freedom. You might need a fan for them to work, but 1) they can probably deal with lower airflow and (for PSUs) sometimes tolerate higher temperatures than fanned solutions and 2) you get to decide which fan to use and where it sits.
I agree with freak_in_cage that ducting is very powerful with such components, as you can sort of "put components in series" in terms of airflow, and if it's planned out correctly (cooling the lowest-heat components first, and the hottest, most heat-tolerant ones last), you can heat your exhaust up quite a bit. The hotter the exhaust, the more heat you remove from the case per airflow. Lower airflow -> lower noise.
I agree with freak_in_cage that ducting is very powerful with such components, as you can sort of "put components in series" in terms of airflow, and if it's planned out correctly (cooling the lowest-heat components first, and the hottest, most heat-tolerant ones last), you can heat your exhaust up quite a bit. The hotter the exhaust, the more heat you remove from the case per airflow. Lower airflow -> lower noise.