Seasonic S12-430 or Antec True 380S (Sonata version)?

paapaa · Post by **paapaa** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:40 am

I now have the Antec Sonata case with the included True380S power supply unit. I have changed the video card stock cooler (Hercules 9800 Pro) to a passive system called be quiet! Polar Freezer and my CPU is now cooled with Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu. The loudest part now seems to be the PSU fan.

What do you think, will the S12-430 be considerably more silent than my present PSU? It seems to be very efficient on a wide range of load levels and the fan seems to run very quiet at moderate/low load levels. The power usage of my computer is at most 170W with full load.

A totally passive system might not be good for me because of the passive vide card cooling. A passive PSU might reduce the case air flow too much.

Any suggestions? Should I change the PSU?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:50 am

The Seasonic S12-430 or 380 would be quieter than the True380S. Whether it is "significantly quieter" is a subjective judgement.

If the loudest part of your system is the PSU, and the noise bothers you, then that is what you should try to improve. The S12 will be an improvement.

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Wed May 04, 2005 9:05 am

Swap from TP380S to S12-430 was one of the better upgrades on my Sonata-cased system. Exhaust air from PSU was warm, now its ~ambient. Noise level dropped "significantly" to my ears. Tried but haven't been able to induce a load scenario that causes the S12 fan to ramp up to audible range.

Concurrent change to fixed 5V 120mm fans helped, but the PSU noise was the greater contributor before the swap.

If/when you make this change, the stock Zalman 7000B fan will then be the noisy part. (I've gone through this same noise reduction sequence.)

paapaa · Post by **paapaa** » Wed May 04, 2005 10:13 am

dfrost wrote:Swap from TP380S to S12-430 was one of the better upgrades on my Sonata-cased system. Exhaust air from PSU was warm, now its ~ambient. Noise level dropped "significantly" to my ears. Tried but haven't been able to induce a load scenario that causes the S12 fan to ramp up to audible range.

Concurrent change to fixed 5V 120mm fans helped, but the PSU noise was the greater contributor before the swap.

Thanks for the info. Now the "Fan only" molex gives about 6-7V voltage so the case fan is quite quiet already. PSU is definitely the loudest part.

dfrost wrote:If/when you make this change, the stock Zalman 7000B fan will then be the noisy part. (I've gone through this same noise reduction sequence.)

What do you think, could the 7000B be used passively? The heatsink seems to be located very close to both case fan and the 12cm fan of S12-430. My motherboard is Asus A7N8X Deluxe. I'm now using Zalman at 5V and my temps are 36/43 degrees Celcius (Athlon XP-M@2,2GHz). It would be nice if the two 12cm fans could provide enough airflow to keep the CPU cool.

Damn, when you silence something, something else starts to bug you

But now I'm confident that the switch to S12-430 is the way to go.

Oxboy555 · Post by **Oxboy555** » Wed May 04, 2005 3:06 pm

I went with a S12-430 last week. At 950-ish RPMs after an hour of Half-life 2, I can't hear a thing from the PSU. Very pleased.

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:45 am

paapaa,

I'd be surprised if you could use the 7000B passively. The airflow into the S12 and out the case exhaust doesn't seem strong enough to pull sufficient air over the 7000B fins. Seems like passive CPU cooling, even with your lower power CPU, would require a heatpipe-type CPU heatsink and some airflow ducting, but there are plenty of SPCR folks who have direct experience with these things.

I'd recommend a fan swap + isolation on the 7000B instead to reduce noise with much less risk.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:33 am

Someone (about a year ago?) modded a CNPS7000 for passive HSF cooling using an intake duct and sealing off all other holes, so that all the air entering the case goes past the fins of the 7000.

I agree with dfrost's recommendation.

patricksumner · Post by **patricksumner** » Thu May 05, 2005 9:03 am

I have a similar rig. Modified Sonata, A7N8X deluxe, XP-2500 @ 1.4V Vcore, stock timing. 9800 pro w/AC silencer on low. Globe 120 in front, Acoustifan (sp?) rear fan.

I was initially running all fans from the fan only connector, but it was ramping too high. After fixing the intake/exhaust to 5V, the power supply fan was the limiting factor. I tried ducting it, still too loud. I did a fan swap to Panaflo (low flow Japanese manufactered). Still too loud. I chopped a hole in the rear of the supply and went with a push/pull panaflo solution. Still too loud. Unless I was willing to fix the supply fan(s) @ 5V, it would always ramp and get loud, even at idle.

I finally swapped out the supply with a Seasonic Super Silencer (400W). Far better than the stock Antec.

By the way, I also tried the Zalman 7000. Even at a fixed 5V, the fan was too loud. I bought a Thermalright SP-97/Nexus 90mm combo and found the noise to temperature ratio to be much better for my particular system.