Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?

shadymg · Post by **shadymg** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:15 am

So I just finished replacing my Antec TruPower PSU with a Seasonic S12-330, main reason being to quiet up my 2 rear 60mm fans in my Silverstone LC10m HTPC Case.

So i install it, and I connect the 2 rear 60mm fans to the low fan connectors of the PSU, and to be honest, I can't hear a difference. Do i need to configure something else? Am i missing something obvious?

Thanks

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:44 am

you need to remove the 60mm fans from your system all together. the 120mm exhaust fan in the PSU will be more than enough to expell hot air from your system.

shadymg · Post by **shadymg** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:53 am

Well, that's my concern, if it is cool enough, since i do feel hot air even with the 2 60's.

Here's my system:
In a Desktop HTPC Case, Silverstone LC10m
Seasonic S12-330
ASUS K8V Deluxe
AMD 64 3200+ Sock. 754
Stock AMD Cooler --> Was thinking about the Scythe Ninja
Nvidia 6600 GT AGP 128mb
4 Hauppauge PVR 150 TV Tuners
1 Avermedia M180 HDTV Tuner
1 160gb Seagate HD
1 200gb Seagate HD
Toshiba DVD-Rom
1 80mm Intake fan in the front
2 60mm Exhaust (hooked up to the low setting)

So...you think I could live without the 60's? Even if i go with a passive Ninja?

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:24 am

thats alot of tuner cards

you have a fairly low power consumption video card and cpu.

but given the fact that its a fully populated full atx motherboard, and 2 hard drives, i doubt you'll be able to run any heatsink on the cpu completely passive and just rely on the PSU exhaust fan.

those 2x 60mm fans really arnt outputting that much air for you even if they were at full voltage, taking them out wont effect your temps that much.

i think the only thing you really need to worry about is your hard disk temps. just make sure they stay below 45c to be safe. as long as you have that you shouldnt have any problems with your video card or cpu as long as you have active air cooling on them.

shadymg · Post by **shadymg** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:27 am

Thanks, I'll give that a shot & monitor my temps. So i'd imagine if i wanted to play it really safe, i'd use a 120 with the Ninja, right? Now it's just a question of will it fit in my case

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:30 am

if it doesnt, there are other smaller options you could choose that work just as well.

like the xp-120 from thermalright.

or a zalman 7000-alcu. although its a little tricky to swap the fan out of this if you dont like the one that comes with it.

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:35 pm

Don't expect the seasonic to exhaust hot air from you system. It moves very little air through a very restrictive psu case. It vents hot air back into your computer case throught the front panel vents. If in fact the s12 adda fan moves 72 cfm at 1800 rpm at 800 rpm it moves ~ 32cfm in free air. After case and psu impedance it moves at most 15cfm, some of which goes back into the case. You need more exhaust and 2 60mm fans are better than nothing although ideally a 80mm would be better. The 60s will be noisy at stock speed so you either need to reduce the speed to a quiet level, or find a way to use a quiet 80mm fan. But the seasonic does not play the evacuate the heat role. There have been quite a few posts about it actually increasing case temps. - FG

wisdomtooth · Post by **wisdomtooth** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:23 pm

Shadymg:

- The Scythe Ninja will NOT fit in the LC10. It's too tall.

- The fan noise I think is probably coming from your stock AMD heatsink (or other small stock fans if you got one on the graphics card or the northbridge, in which case you need to replace them!).

- You should dremel out the stupid spaghetti strainer stamped fan grille covering those 60mm fans. They impede airflow and create turbulent flow noise.

- So many tuners?!? You might want to swap those four PVR150s for two PVR500's to eliminate some clutter and improve airflow. The PVR500s are dual tuners-- Basically two PVR150s on one card.

- In a horizontal HTPC case like the LC10, the PSU IS part of the ventilation system, and it does indeed contribute significantly to the exhausting of hot air. If you find that it's venting some hot air back into the case, tape up the front grilles on the PSU casing. I have a Seasonic S12 in my LC03 case and my case runs 3C cooler than when I had an Antec Neopower in there.

HTH.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:31 pm

shadymg wrote:So i install it, and I connect the 2 rear 60mm fans to the low fan connectors of the PSU, and to be honest, I can't hear a difference.

Is this something new on the Rev2? My Rev1 S12-430 definitely doesn't have a fan only connector.

shadymg · Post by **shadymg** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:32 pm

Wisdom, thanks for the reply, extremely helpful!!! Ok, so that saves me a lot of time in searching for sizes on the Ninja

Will definitely consider the grille idea, it looks like crap anyways.

The reason for the tuners is because I just kept getting deals on them

Plus, If i ever go to digital cable or satellite, i'd need the separate cards to be able to plug in each box to it.

shadymg · Post by **shadymg** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:35 pm

lenny wrote:
shadymg wrote:So i install it, and I connect the 2 rear 60mm fans to the low fan connectors of the PSU, and to be honest, I can't hear a difference.
Is this something new on the Rev2? My Rev1 S12-430 definitely doesn't have a fan only connector.

No idea if it's new or not, but it's the main reason i bought the S12 over some other PSUs. It's a fan connector that connects to one of the standard plugs, and then has 2 LOW connectors & 1 High, 3-pin for fans.

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:03 pm

psu tests at spcr show higher intake temps for the s12-430 of several degrees (32-36C vs. 31-32C) than for the neo power 480 over the test range of 150 - 250w. I find it hard to believe that the neo power with higher fan speeds and no front panel vents would produce higher case temps than the s12-430. - FG

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:25 pm

frankgehry wrote:psu tests at spcr show higher intake temps for the s12-430 of several degrees (32-36C vs. 31-32C) than for the neo power 480 over the test range of 150 - 250w. I find it hard to believe that the neo power with higher fan speeds and no front panel vents would produce higher case temps than the s12-430. - FG

did spcr block all vents on the s12 except the rear holes going outside the case?

i always block all the vents so it ONLY puts all the hot air from the system outside the system and not back into it.

i also always get lower temps with the method wisdom describes. it works really well in lowering overall noise too since the fan noise for the PSU doesnt have line of sight outside the case, it almost acts like a muffeler for the noise to bend through before it exits the case.

personally, i only use this method with all my systems as my only means to exhaust internal case air. i never use any other exhaust fans. i also always replace the stock 120mm fan in the PSU with a nexus 120mm, and then hard volt it to 5-7volts. but i also take alot of time to plan out my hardware for my systems to make sure they dont consume too much power. i think my most powerhungry system only pulls about 200watts under load.

wisdomtooth · Post by **wisdomtooth** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:27 pm

psu tests at spcr show higher intake temps for the s12-430 of several degrees (32-36C vs. 31-32C) than for the neo power 480 over the test range of 150 - 250w. I find it hard to believe that the neo power with higher fan speeds and no front panel vents would produce higher case temps than the s12-430. - FG

The HTPC is a different animal than tower cases you are used to. It's horizontal (No convection), there are less space between the PSU and mobo, airflow is poorer, no large exhaust fans in an HTPC case, fan backpressure might have different effects especially since most HTPC cases operate with negative pressure (not enough space for intake fans), cases are much more cramped with much smaller internal volume. I wouldn't be surprised at all if PSUs in an HTPC environment would not conform to SPCR test results.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 3:25 pm

shadymg wrote:No idea if it's new or not, but it's the main reason i bought the S12 over some other PSUs. It's a fan connector that connects to one of the standard plugs, and then has 2 LOW connectors & 1 High, 3-pin for fans.

Oh, this one. Sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you're referring to the Sonata Mk 1 380S PSU that has variable voltage fan only molex connectors coming out of the PSU.

The low should feed 5V to your fans. If you don't hear any difference, perhaps most of the noise is from some other source? Other noise sources : graphics card, stock HSF and HDDs.

Don't know where you're located, but if you're in the US, svc.com has a bunch of fan adapters. It's fairly easy to convert them to 5V if you have the right tools (they sell them too). A lot cheaper than a S12-330

Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?

Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?

Re: Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?

Re: Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?

Re: Seasonic S12 not as quiet as I heard?