Fanless PSU + P180, a perfect pairing?

Overconfidence · Post by **Overconfidence** » Fri May 05, 2006 6:51 pm

hapveg wrote: My current (fanless) Yesico 350W PSU occasionally has problems with my current PC, while my 400W Zalman works fine..

That's because the Yesico only has 16A (!!) on the 12v rail.

Very, very, VERY weak.

Also, to whoever said that the 1900XTX pulled 175W, I believe that was the whole system (not completely sure though).

Still, a system with two dual core 3.8ghz Xeon processors (insane power requirements) only pulls ~400W. You'll be fine.

Poodle · Post by **Poodle** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:49 am

I just sold my system but it worked out really well*.

You can see my system in my sign.

I had a "naked" Phantom 500w with the fan and plastic bracket removed (bye bye warranty) with a Nexus 120mm in midships positon in the lower chamber. You won't need the plastic bracket for the 120*38mm antec fan that comes with the case as the p180 has holes in the steel so that you can mount a 120mm fan (nexus?) with those black anti vibe fan mounts. I then used soft silicon glue to eliminate the narrow opening that emerged between the fan and the case because of the black fan mounts. This way you don't lose effiency from the fan as the fan would otherwise circulate some air "in a circle" through that opening. There are also other openings that can be eliminated with tape or even better: Acoustipack or other dampening material.
Don't forget to lose the psu bracket and mount the psu directly to the back of the case with screws when using a fanless psu. This way you get a little better heat transfer between the phantom to the air and you get also some heat transfer to the case wall. Not much, but something...

*As I'm a gaming junkey and it's summer soon I chose to sell everything and start a new system project to be finished after summer.

As it's saturday night I'm also drunk so please excuse spelling etc.

hapveg · Post by **hapveg** » Sat May 06, 2006 6:14 pm

I've got the system built, and will confirm, others were right, I was wrong.

I really didn't need a more powerful PSU, the 400W Zalman runs everything perfectly, even though the PSU is old enough to not have a PCIe connector (using a molex->PCIe adaptor).

I'll post more details later, at the moment I'm a little preoccupied, my SATA Spinpoints were the loudest thing in my case, but I'm typing this post from a (0db) pendrive. It's the first time in years I've actually been able to say my PC is quiet enough. I'll post more details in a few days when I've a bit more experince with it (to the Silent Storage forum).

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Sun May 07, 2006 5:12 am

told ya

Glad to hear you're set up; enjoy

andy_c · Post by **andy_c** » Fri May 26, 2006 5:47 pm

Hi hapveg,

I've got a music server that uses a P180 case with a Nexus 120 fan in the lower chamber, run off a Zalman FanMate at the minimum voltage of 5V. PSU is (actually was) an Antec Phantom 350. My motherboard is an ASUS K8N, socket 754. The CPU is the lowest power Athlon64 available right now, a socket 754 3000+ Venice core which is spec'ed by AMD at a maximum power dissipation of 51W. Video card is an ATI 9250, which is low power compared to gaming cards. I have 4 HDs in a RAID 5 configuration with a standalone Promise RAID controller.

Even though my system doesn't dissipate much power, and I had a fan running at 5V about 2 inches from the PSU, my Phantom 350 died last night. I just replaced it with a Seasonic S12 430W supply that I was going to use to quiet down my main computer. I'm back up and running again. I must say I'm not impressed with the Phantom 350. The Seasonic supply is very quiet. I like it so far.

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Fri May 26, 2006 9:33 pm

Keep it simple. A good power supply like the Seasonic S12 430 will likely be the quietest component in your system. The fan controller in the S12 is especially nice since it doesn't run any faster than needed. I have NEVER heard mine over the hard drive noise and case fans in my P180. I stuck my head on the floor behind the computer and I think that I heard it.

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:08 am

IsaacKuo wrote: 1. Put a fan in the lower chamber, making the fanless PSU pointless. What's the point of getting a fanless PSU only to dedicate a fan specifically for the PSU?

(i haven't read the rest of this thread)
the point is you have a power supply built from the ground up to run with very low air flow, this means a super slow super quiet 120mm fan can cool it far quieter than any psu with 120mm fan
i have a phantom 500 watt fanless psu in my p180 with 500rpm slipstream fan cooling it silently

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:58 am

There are cheaper 120mm fan PSU's which are also designed from the ground up to run with very low air flow, and you can replace its fan with whatever quiet fan you want.

CallmeRoth · Post by **CallmeRoth** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:25 pm

I didnt read everyones post but my first thought is this:

Passive PSU, Passive Ninja passive this passive that but then you throw in 4 case fans....:S

Im not sure maybe I am missing something.

Also 3.8ghz passive...

donart · Post by **donart** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:01 am

CallmeRoth wrote:I didnt read everyones post but my first thought is this:

Passive PSU, Passive Ninja passive this passive that but then you throw in 4 case fans....:S

Im not sure maybe I am missing something.

Also 3.8ghz passive...

You're missing that you can buy separate fans making no sound. For some reason, these fans are not included with active PSU's or active cpu coolers.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:09 am

It really isn't hard to replace the fans which come with 120mm fan PSU's and CPU coolers. You don't have to use the fan which comes with them. Swapping the stock fan for something better is standard SPCR practice.

donart · Post by **donart** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:35 am

IsaacKuo wrote:It really isn't hard to replace the fans which come with 120mm fan PSU's and CPU coolers. You don't have to use the fan which comes with them. Swapping the stock fan for something better is standard SPCR practice.

Yes, I just did that on my own PSU, but you lose the warranty then.

I would also have felt more comfortable by using a non-modded PSU, I don't want things to burn up.