Quitest Non Fanless PSU

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:19 am

I need the quietest PSU for my home setup. I have been reading the reviews and it seems the Seasonic is very quiet.

Am I correct or have is missed one?

Another alternative is to replace the internal fan with a quieter one but I have been told that I will still be better of going the 120mm PSU route

PS Unable to afford Fanless

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:40 am

Firstly, Petrolhead

Welcome to SPCR!

The Rev 3 versions of the Seasonic Super Tornado and Super Silencer are generally regarded as the quietest actively-cooled PSU's avilable at this time. Nexus and Enermax are pretty damn quiet as well, but Seasonic has continuously improved its Super series - they are incredibly efficient, have very quiet fans, and a fairly intelligent thermal fan control circuit which keeps them quiet until they are seriously loaded. Best of all, they aren't that expensive. You are unlikely to do better with anything else.

Modifying a PSU is doable, but not for the faint of heart - and it does invalidate your warranty. If you are new to silencing, I'd stick with what you buy for a while. It is a bit of a toss-up between the Silencer and the Tornado, but personally I think that the Tornado has the edge (that's the 120mm fan).

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:47 am

Cheers for the Welcome

Yes, after I posted I read up some more and would seem the Tornado (strange name concidering the noise a Tornado makes

)

As for modifying I am not adversed to getting my hands dirty but I may be just as well to sell on my suppply

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:59 am

petrolhead, what PSU do you have at the moment?

Pete

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:04 am

The one that comes with the Antec Sonata case, hope that helps. If I remember its their true 350 watt jobbie with the single rear mounted fan

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:16 am

If you are at all up to it, a fan swap for a Panaflow L1A at 5 or 7V would make a huge difference.

Have recently done the very same for a friend of mine on that PSU. Difference was awesome. Also twisted the slats (90deg.), on the opposite side of the fan to improve airflow, whilst the PSU was out.

Would be cheaper than a new PSU if you are comfortable with pulling it apart.

Pete

EDIT: Though I have seen it, I would feel a little cruel getting rid of that extra 'w', it's done the world no harm so I will leave it.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:17 am

That's the TruePower 380S. It can be a quiet PSU with the well documented Panaflo M1BX fan-swap. You'd have a decently quiet PSU for about $20 max.

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:33 am

Mr_Smartepants I'm not sure an 'M' panaflo is needed, an 'L' would surely be sufficient and quieter, petrolhead there is a good thread here complete with good pictoral descriptions of vent twisting.

Pete

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:36 am

Anyone any experience with these http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2542.html

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:39 am

Use the forum search function and dial in silenx.

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:52 am

SilenX has a long history on these boards. I won't go into details - there are several stickys on the subject - but suffice it to say that their products, though not bad, are unjustifiably expensive, and their business practices are dubious in the extreme. Round here it would more accurate to call SilenX "they who must not be spoken of". What many of the veteran board members think of SilenX is, by SPCR standards, unprintable.

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:03 am

Ok

Had a quick search and interesting reading

So back to actual quiet fans then

Thanks peteamer for this link. What voltage are you using, 7v? Where are you getting the voltage from within the PSU of somewhere outside. Did you consider a resistor to bring the voltage down are is that just overcomlicating things.

Have had a look here http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html and the nexis looks even quieter so why the paniflow

Soryy for the cross examination but i'd rather get it right the first time

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:41 am

So back to actual quiet fans then

, ... you got the idea.

I can't remember which voltage I used, as it's for someone else I probably used 7V as a precaution, if it was mine I'd try 5V and keep a check on the exhaust temp. and adjust if needed. As I recall, I cut an unused supply and shortened it then soldered the joint within the PSU to keep things 'right'. Have a search for 7V mod. MikeC has it documented on the main site as well, with some great pics and explaining it very well.

The Nexus fans are highly regarded as well as far as I know, Panaflo were chosen because of .. er ... um ... Well actually I can't remember. I do know they came from Dorothy Bradbury. The link can be found in the 'Sticky for the U.K.' in 'Deals, Vendors & Classified' section of the forum. (I'm assuming your in the U.K. or close from your previous link to KustomPC's)

Any questions, just yell, one of us will come up with what you need, might not be me though ... I'm concerned about tainting my 'Useless Gobshite' reputation...

Pete

petrolhead · Post by **petrolhead** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 10:06 am

Having now spent some time looking into this it appears that the PSU is one of the quietest compoents, phew, glad I didn't but a PSU.

The mail culprits are the CPU fan and the VGA fan. see http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 806#146806 and http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 834#146834

I should receive the new fans tomorrow and will have a play and test compared to the std Antec fan. I ahve also bought some resistors to also play with.

You may see me on here again, if now I have blown myself up