Noise and build quality of Intel PSU

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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Camacha
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Noise and build quality of Intel PSU

Post by Camacha » Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:57 pm

I can buy a 400 watt PSU that came from a Intel SC5650UP server. As I am pretty sure Intel doesn't build it's own PSU's I am not sure what brand I am dealing with. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of PSU's?

I think Intel won't ship absolute crap with their servers, as that will only come to haunt them. Besides from that logic, I have nothing to go on. So I hope some of you people can maybe tell me anything about these PSU's.

Thanks.

tehcrazybob
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Post by tehcrazybob » Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:30 pm

I have never come across one of these, but I don't know if it'd be a great choice. I think Intel typically values reliability and quality in their components, even at the expense of features and cost (as compared to mass-market companies like HP and Dell, who are lowest-bidder throughout), but that doesn't make it a good idea. First, I'm not sure what connections those server boards use - it's possible you won't find the 24-pin ATX and 4-pin P4 connectors you'd hope for.

Even if you have all the right connections, though, you might be disappointed with the noise. Most consumers aren't as concerned with noise as we are here at SPCR, and on top of that servers aren't terribly noise-sensitive. It might be the most reliable, best-regulated, longest-lived power supply you've ever come across, but it might also have a high-powered ball-bearing fan to keep it nice and cool - great for a server, tolerable for a consumer, useless for an SPCRer.

Again, I've never used this particular device. I'm simply offering some observations and possibilities to consider.

Camacha
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Post by Camacha » Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:51 pm

I think you might be right. I asked the seller about this and although he hasn't run this particular PSU, he has some experience with a simular one.

He tells me it's a standaard ATX power supply, with a 24-pin power lead, 4-pin CPU power, 6 SATA, 4 Molex and 1 FDD lead. That all sounds pretty standard to me. However, he also tells me that the PSU has a 120 mm fan which isn't the quietest he has ever heard. He says, although it's not up there with the most silent regular PSU's, it's equivalent to a not-so-new ATX PSU you would find in say a Coolermaster case.

I know that although I'm not as sensitive to noise as most people here it can annoy me quite easily. The upside of this PSU is of course is that it's built to last (with some special oversized components I am told), the downside that it's probably quite noisy. I need this powersupply foremost to use it in a benchsystem I will use for an overclockcontest, so it won't matter too much that it's too noisy and the added stability might help. But I intend to use the same system as a regular computer afterwards with the same components, and I guess the noise might be too much quite quickly.

Of course, I could always change the fan of the PSU. I'm confused what to do :P

confusion
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Post by confusion » Sun Jan 10, 2010 11:18 pm

Intel page on the SC5650:
http://www.intel.com/products/server/ch ... erview.htm

Under the Support tab you can download the Technical Product Specification, which shows the power supply and describes the connectors it has. In fact, you can learn more about it than you'll want to know. :wink:

I don't have experience with this particular unit and it's the first one I've seen in one of these cases with a 120mm fan. I do however have experience with other PSUs used in this case's predecessors.

They're usually made by Delta and look like very high quality units; internally the 600W and up ones were using a two-board design laid out similar to the Antec Signatures for years before the Signatures came out.

I've seen one under 400W in a previous case that was a Hipro so not everything is Delta. They also used to use NMB but that company stopped making PSUs I believe.

I don't have the standards of low-noise that most people here likely do, but the ones of these I've had experience with are pretty quiet to me, and these are all ones using 80mm fans.

Based on the drawings in that Intel document, I'd speculate this may be another Hipro, as the pattern of holes on the exit side looks like the previous Hipro I saw. Both Delta and Hipro use the clamshell-like case construction on their supplies for Intel.

Camacha
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Post by Camacha » Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:16 am

That sounds pretty good to me. Yesterday I managed to dig up a spec sheet of the various components used in the server. The PSU can be found from page 110 and further. You can find it here: http://download.intel.com/support/mothe ... ev_1_1.pdf. I think this might be the same document you referred to.

My main concern is that the quality of the PSU is decent, but since it has all the 80+ certificates you could want for up to and over 400 watt I guess that's pretty much covered. I can't imagine Intel shipping cheap gear with their servers anyway. If the noise of the fan turns out to be really bad I could always replace it, but listening to your story I think I could give the PSU a go without replacing anything first.

Well, listening to your stories I think I'll buy the PSU. I can get the PSU really cheap from someone that modded his server and didn't ever use it, so unless it's totally useless it's not a bad deal anyway.

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