my home brew completely passive power supply

Oli · Post by **Oli** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:22 pm

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Oli · Post by **Oli** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:23 pm

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mynci · Post by **mynci** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:40 pm

ok, i want one, i want one now.
how do i make it and where do i get the bits? do you have a pcb layout and parts list?
how reliable is it? how hot does it get under full load?
did i mention that i want one?
is it a nexus modded? or did you redesigne from scratch?
i want one.

cheers mynci

Post by **MikeC** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:41 pm

Wow, very prof. looking already! The obvious questions --

1) what are temps like (all over the PSU...)
2) any audible buzzing from coils?
3) any obvious hot spots?
4) did it fit in your case w/o any cutting?

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:44 pm

Very nice - very neat

Is that a PFC choke I spy (that used to be mounted on the lid of the FSP case)? Does it vibrate like hell (and cause psu case hum)?

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Tue May 13, 2003 3:44 pm

well one of us asked the questions drooling and the other in a sensible fashion, ill let you work out who embarased themself.

i still want one.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Tue May 13, 2003 4:36 pm

That's nice. Professional look. Looking forward to temps and such soon. Great job!

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Tue May 13, 2003 5:40 pm

Sweet. What is the degC/Watt rating on that heatsink? I could probably work backwards to figure out the necessary rating to keep those tranny's cool, but..... laziness prevails.

Oh yah, and are the heat from the coils a problem?

fmah · Post by **fmah** » Tue May 13, 2003 5:42 pm

Nice job, be interested in the temps.

rpc180 · Post by **rpc180** » Tue May 13, 2003 5:56 pm

That's seriously the nicest DYI wiring job I've ever seen, hell it even beats most professional factory wiring jobs.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:35 pm

Radeonman wrote:Now that I look at it - is the heatsink attached to the back panel and you used some sort of thermal goop to transfer heat from components -> back panel -> heatsink? (This feels horribly ineffecient if so).

Looking at the first pic I see that he has a hole in the PSU case where the heatsink attaches. I think he attached the MOSFETS directly to the heatsink. What you see could be thermal compound, but it's more likely mica shims.

It does look like the mounting holes are non-ATX standard, but it is hard to tell from these pics.

Really looking forward to Oli's posts with temps, performance, etc. It looks like great work.

EDITED cause I kannot spel vary ghood the furst tyme.

quix · Post by **quix** » Wed May 14, 2003 2:21 am

WOW! very nice!!!
i'm also very interested in the temperatures of the heatsink and espacially the coils and the transformers! been thinking about getting a better psu (fortorn-based or enermax) and redo the mod! so, if your transformers&coils are cool (you seem to have a higher end system) then i'll get that fortron!! espacially since the summer is coming and i need some better cooling (now running fanless, pix)

and that's a very nice heatsink! having everything in atx-psu case also helps alot... it really suxx to do something on my fanless psu, everything has to be taken apart etc...

elitezoid · Post by **elitezoid** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:57 am

That looks the Bees Knees!!

sorenbro · Post by **sorenbro** » Wed May 14, 2003 4:04 am

Oli, you say you have no fans running, did you turn off the fan of the Zalman CNPS7000cu or have you hooked up the PSU to a different computer than the one in the pics?

Oli · Post by **Oli** » Wed May 14, 2003 10:24 am

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energy · Post by **energy** » Wed May 14, 2003 4:46 pm

That is amazing. Looks better built than a factory one!

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Wed May 14, 2003 5:10 pm

bullet proof design has been tried and tested.

How do you plan on testing that and could you provide a video of that for out enjoyment?

gksam · Post by **gksam** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:36 am

Wow, looks great!

What CPU/voltage/frequency are you running with that computer? Because I notice you say that you are running the Zalman passively.

I'm just wondering whether the powersupply will be as cool if you were running say an Athlon XP or a P4 in that.

Cheers

herosformula · Post by **herosformula** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:59 am

Where did you get the heatsink extrusion?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Thu May 15, 2003 12:47 pm

That heatsink looks like it could be bought from BGMicro.
They've got lots of interesting electrical "stuff". Not nearly as much as Digikey but good prices on what they have.

I'm planning something similar with the Antec TruePower from my Sonata (Antec doesn't seem interested in helping me). I might as well use it for something when my new Fortron arrives!

IceFire · Post by **IceFire** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:36 pm

So when do you think you can get the article up? I have a cheap power supply here that I want to try converting.

Great job! I new someone could build a better and cheaper passive ps than the Prosilence.

wussboy · Post by **wussboy** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:51 pm

Well...we don't know about the "cheaper" yet!

Oli, what part of the world are you in? I wanna know what kind of shipping I'll be paying.

[edited for smilies. And because I can, dammit!]

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Fri May 16, 2003 12:06 am

We don't know about the "better" yet either, but it sure does look awesome - perhaps its time for you to start up a small business making these things for us? I would be getting in line to buy one too!

Oli · Post by **Oli** » Fri May 16, 2003 12:13 am

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elitezoid · Post by **elitezoid** » Fri May 16, 2003 1:34 pm

Keep up the good work Oli, I think you could get a nice little side-line up and running selling your custom silent psu's. Even better still you are in UK!

Mezi · Post by **Mezi** » Sat May 17, 2003 2:03 am

Oli wrote:My brother kindly donated a HUGE heatsink to me (three times the size of what you see in the picture)- originally destined for cooling three phase motor drives. There where fins coming from the size, so I had to cut it down to the size I wanted, and machine these fins off. I think the original 'sink is available at RS, although as Mr_Smartepants points out there are plenty of surplus suppliers.

I didn't find the heatsink anywhere. Can you give some tips what to search for. English is not my first language. I did a search for "heatsink" on BGMicro and RadioShack sites and found nothing like this. The heatsink really looks a lot bigger than the one that prosilence has. I guess i maybe will consider modding my fortron too. Only i will not have tools available to make custom casing. I guess i could find somebody to cut the heatsink to the right size.

fmah · Post by **fmah** » Sat May 17, 2003 6:37 pm

I popped open my 300 that I'm not using and see that it too has 5 components heatsinked. I assume that is typical at least for that power range.

The "giant heatsink" is of the proper size to fit in the 80mm fan area, though that base seems thin.
http://sales.goldmine-elec.com/prodlist.asp?catid=2167

energy · Post by **energy** » Sun May 18, 2003 2:41 pm

Anyone looking for heatsinks can find just about anythign here... (US based):

http://www.thermaflo.com/index.shtml