SPCR

I was just wondering what this forum thinks is the most reliable fanless PSU.

I will never buy another Antec Phantom EVER, I went through 2.

How is the silverstone?

Thanks.

I've also been through a phantom, I'd go for the silverstone (or Etasis since they're the same on the inside) if I ever get a fanless psu again. They seem to be more reliable

I know you are looking for the most reliable fanless PSU, but I think a good fanned PSU will be more reliable than any fanless one. After all, the fan is good insurance! Perhaps you should consider a PSU with a large, low-airflow fan, such as a Seasonic S12.

i just bought a silverstone 2 days ago and i love it. no problems at all, i've pretty much forgotten about it already cos i put it in there and it's doing its job so yeh. i've already put it through some stress (prime95, and 3d cad with maya) and it hasn't complained.

which reminds me, i'm supposed to mount a panaflo 80L in my case now to cool the power supply, i really don't think i'll need it though because the back of the unit is barely warm. but i might as well since i'll otherwise have a perfectly good fan lying around doing nothing

i've only had it for a short time but from what i've seen so far, i'd highly recommend it.

I think Custom PC summed it up nicely

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Sorry, we won't be stocking the Phantoms again.

We lost a fortune and wasted so much time sorting returns on those damn things - they don't deserve a second chance.

The only fanless PSU we've been *really* impressed with are the Silverstone units.

http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21594

I have always been a Fan (no pune intended) of Antec, and would still buy Antec over Silverstone because I trust them totally.

However, for all those people who don't, Silverstone have now increased their warranty to 3 years to match Antec's.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-30nf.htm

Andy

I've run a silverstone for almost a full year now, and I haven't had a single problem. It's rock solid, and the temperature LED hasn't turned red a single time. Wonderful product.

The big difference is that the phantom is a completely new design, while silverstone themselves admitted they based their psu on an existing model.

The 2005 phantom's seem to have much less problems. The first batch of phantom's had issues, issues probably not related to heat. ONCE you get a good phantom it has the following advantages. (IMHO)

Atx 2.0 compatible (24 pins connecter, dual 12v rails)
More efficient (less heat)
More power (350 vs 300/250)

I can understand that you don't want an phantom, considering your experiences. But you shouldn't deter others, providing they are sure they get a 2005 model. (a warning about the 2004 models is in order)

madman2003 wrote:I can understand that you don't want an phantom, considering your experiences. But you shouldn't deter others, providing they are sure they get a 2005 model. (a warning about the 2004 models is in order)

yeh that was my train of thought too when i was choosing between the two. i was this close to choosing the phantom (esp since it was cheaper) but then i started worrying about receiving a bad unit that had been returned. then i started worrying about if i'd get a unit from an old batch, so i contacted retailers and was reassured that my unit would be from a new batch. then i started worrying if the new batch might still have bad units, since i hadn't read anywhere of antec saying "problem X with the old batch has been fixed for the new batch".

i then started to consider the phantom 500 but since the spcr review stated that it's essentially the same with a fan bolted on, i started having the same worries.

so in the end i just chose the one that had the lowest overall failure rate. i'm an antec fan too (go my bqe!) but with the horrifying failure rate of the phantom overall, emphasised by the spcr phantom poll (>50% failed), it's not hard to see how the product would be avoided in favour of a product with a 0.5% failure rate and the only failed example (mikec's one) being examined and isolated.

i really don't mean to bash antec here, honestly i must have been happier than anyone else when i found out that antec were releasing a fanless psu (the first pictures made my spine tingle!) but i just wrote the above to explain my thought process in eventually choosing another fanless psu. i would imagine quite a few people, from a regular consumer point of view, would make the same decision.

I've been using the Silverstone for about 4-6 weeks now without any problem. I'm amazed that it runs just barely warm and that it increased my case temps by at most a degree or two.

My phantom 350 has been on for 3 months with 12 hours of off time for being turned off.

It's barely barely COOL to the touch. not warm. its sorta cool. I have a 754 2.0 ghz on it as well, 9800 pro ATI aiwonder, 4pci's filled, 1 pci filled with an extra matrox 550 vid card, 1 120 gb NIDEC samsung, and a reserator 1 setup on gpu and cpu. 1 120mm pabst fan on back at about 6-7 volts, passive northbridge, 1 gig of ram.

cant see the problems here. it's the best psu i have ever owned, let alone being the coolest running compared to a seasonic 400 tornado with 5 fans in the case as I had before. soo.....

There are more good stories about these than bad. It still has the highest efficiency rating out there as well.

I think with the Phantoms, they either work or they don't. I bought one second hand- it promptly died two days after, I RMAed it and the new one has been working fine. Unfortunately for Antec, there seems to be people who are fed up with phantoms dying on them.

Yes, I am very happy with the Phantom. I did read the thread about it failing, but I took my chances. I thought about getting a really quiet fanned power supply, but I knew I would never be happy till I went fanless.

So, all in all, if you aren't willing and patient to wade through RMA process (perhaps multiple times) until you find a good phantom, its probably not worth your time. If you are patient, when you find one that works, you won't be disappointed.

timmytimmytimmy wrote:If you are patient, when you find one that works, you won't be disappointed.

haha well that's one way antec could market their phantom

it's a learning experience for both consumers and manufacturers though. i have no doubt that antec will get it right next time around.

my 0411xx phantom 350 has been working 12/7 in the last one and half month. so far very happy with it. might just be lucky.

I've had a good experience with the 350W Coolmax. It is reviewed here at SPCR with good efficiency and voltage regulation. It's also cheaper than the both the Silverstone and Phantom. It is barely warm to the touch with my undervolted and slightly underclocked Newcastle 3200+. But like many have stated, you have to make sure you have good airflow in your case for a fanless p/s.

I wouldn't buy a fanless PSU that goes inside the case. After Zalman NEPS got cancelled, there isn't one at the horizon

all Recent phantom buyers seem to have no problems

got my first phantom early december, died after 2 weeks. the replacement, made in january, never had a problem. my computer is running stable and quiet ever since.

Are any of you talking about the Phantom 500? Because that seems to have a fan which kick in once temperatures get high enough.

Phantom 350 bought in December of last year. Still going strong.

Running A64 s939 3500+, Asus A8V Deluxe, 1GB RAM (2x512), Seagate 7200.7 200GB PATA, ATi Radeon X800 Pro, Sound Card, and two 120mm Papst Fans.

Been running with zero problems. I had a SilentMaxx ProSilence 350 die on me within 4 months. They took my RMA'd PSU and never contacted me again. I will never ever deal with anything remotely SIlentMaxx ever again.

-Ed

I'm still undecided between a Seasonsic S12 500 and a Phantom 500, any advice from you experts would be greatly appreciated. I've read the reviews, but I've also read comments of SPCR members whom have posted their personal experiences with both.

I'm build a new quiet system in a P180 with an AMD Athlon 64.

Here's a pro tip:

it works. the sucker is cool to the touch on a semi-performance system. i can play doom3 or half-life2 on high settings for 3-4 hours in the summer time and it gets slightly warm, like faintly.

try that on any FANNED psu.

yeah.

I thought so.

It helps to have adequate cooling inside the case, not to cool the psu, but to prevent stupid overly hot components from heating up the psu via thermal heat and not from load. I dont think that on load this psu has noticable temperature increases even after never being turned off. I use a zalman water cooler on the 754 chip and the 9800 aiwonder pro card. Yes, there are hotter setups, but really, the difference is kinda small except for an overclocked SLI setup. 1 fan on 6-7 volts 120pabst, does the job for the case.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 239#191239

Due to a problem with my harddrive, NOT the PSU, my fan controller got disrupted (they were on the same rail). My last post will show you how good the newer batches of Phantoms are.

i'm a bit curious as to how a harddrive can damage something via a power cable? maybe i'm totally clueless, but i don't think a hard drive can send a surge of electricity to the fan controller, let alone one large enough to destroy it!

to me it sounds much more like a power supply problem. when my sl350s was in its dying stages the unstable power made my hard drives do weird things, like constantly restarting every few seconds which isn't a good thing.\

No, for some reason I had a loose connection from an extender plugged into the harddrive. The extender came with the Smart Drive 2002. Replacing the extender fixed the problem. Why? I don't know. Regardless, Antec has DEFINETLY fixed the thermal burn out problem with the Phantom.

ahh ok, probably a loose wire in the extender somewhere causing the power to go on/off/on/off? as long as your problems are fixed it's all good

not to be rude, but be careful when you use definites. the thermal burn out problem might be fixed in your unit, but it's premature to declare it fixed in all units. people take these posts very seriously when considering their next purchase, and if someone purchases a unit (be it a phantom or whatever) based on such a strong comment, and the unit fails, then it doesn't do anyone any good.

Well, after my 2 dead Phantoms 350, I decided to get a Silverstone Fanless.

So far, it's been great, 3 weeks and 0 problems.

I'll post another status check in a month and let you guys know what I think.

i like how you pluralised(?) "phantom 350" into "phantoms 350" - hehe

a reminder to everyone to post your results with either the phantom 350 or silverstone/etasis psu's at the following polls:

phantom 350

silverstone

although you might want to wait and test the psu for longer before you register your vote.

hi, another silverstone here.. no problems with psu yet, everything running as planned, but it's early days yet. the unit does get quite warm, though the heat led has stayed green. i will reserve my 'official' opinion and delay voting in the poll until it's done a few laps around the block. it does have a very slight buzz, but the noise is obscured by any fan spinning at epsilon volts. this thing weighs a a ton! the phantom is a tad cheaper in AU but didn't want one because of i) the failure poll ii) the blue light

Erk.... I wish I had not stopped reading in here. The last time I had a good read here was when the Phantom was the best thing since sliced bread.....hence I have just bought one.

Then I saw this thread....


Lets hope all goes well