Coolmax Taurus fanless 480W for sale at SVC.com

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

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pcweltz
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Coolmax Taurus fanless 480W for sale at SVC.com

Post by pcweltz » Sun May 02, 2004 5:53 pm

http://www.svc.com/coolmax480.html

Anyone care to be the sacrificial victim & test this unit out?

fmah
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Post by fmah » Sun May 02, 2004 6:39 pm

I also found it listed on this site, whether they have any I don't know.

http://www.coolerstar.com/coolingfan

zuperdee
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Post by zuperdee » Sun May 02, 2004 6:47 pm

I've been wondering about these things myself. I am currently using a Coolmax Taurus CX-350 120mm-fanned unit, and it's pretty quiet.

I'm also hoping MikeC will soon be able to review the Coolmax fanless unit, as well as the 120mm-fanned ones... We'll see.

wumpus
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Post by wumpus » Sun May 02, 2004 7:43 pm

Geez, NO EXTERNAL HEATSINKS? I can't believe they didn't follow the model of every other fanless PSU I've seen, and slap some large heatsinks on the rear that would protrude outside the case and allow for outside-case cooling and heat dissipation.

This means that a lot of the heat the PSU generates is going to be dumped.. back into the case. Also, any heat that does manage to escape out of the PSU would have to be through normal case airflow currents.. I guess the default under-psu rear exhaust would force the PSU to be an intake? I'm having a hard time determining which way the air would go in this situation.

Sounds really dangerous to me!

zuperdee
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Post by zuperdee » Sun May 02, 2004 9:42 pm

I wonder too exactly what Coolmax had in mind... Personally, methinks if this design turns out not to work so well inside a typical PC case, there's still hope for it OUTSIDE the case, as MikeC has done with his (fanned) PSU.

Trip
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Post by Trip » Sun May 02, 2004 10:36 pm

it may have some use with an added fan if there are huge heatsinks inside and a high efficiency. It looks like it can take some high temperatures. Might be worth looking into...

EDIT: webpage says it has >60% efficiency at full load. I hope that's not its highest efficiency... It's also the company's highest powered PSU.

zuperdee
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Post by zuperdee » Mon May 03, 2004 12:26 am

I also noticed that 60% efficiency figure. I wonder if that's correct--60% seems a bit hard to believe for a fanless PSU, let alone ANY PSU. If that figure is correct, that means it isn't even as efficient as the 120mm-fanned CX units. I find it extremely difficult to believe a fanless unit could live very long with 40% of the input power is being turned into heat, and NOTHING to exhaust it.

I notice they say 60% at full load; maybe it is more efficient at 50% load? (And it seems the consensus at SPCR is that most systems are unlikely to load the PSU more than 50% anyway.)

Unfortunately, I am not an electrical engineer, so this is all just speculation. Like I say, it sure would be nice if Coolmax sent MikeC some review units. :)

HammerSandwich
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Post by HammerSandwich » Mon May 03, 2004 12:12 pm

With those open grills, I would not want to use this PSU in a negative-pressure case.

Bluefront
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Post by Bluefront » Mon May 03, 2004 3:48 pm

And on the other hand......build a super-positive pressure case and this PSU would be perfect. Say blow the rear fan in, the front fan in, seal the cracks, vent holes, then all the exhaust would be forced out this PSU. Now there's a new experiment waiting to happen. :wink:

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Mon May 03, 2004 4:45 pm

Yeah, but a super positive air pressure case would have to have a fair amount of airflow, implying at least some fan noise --- there goes the reason d'etre for the fanless PSU. :lol:

Just a couple of comments... (Caution: Off the cuff rant.)

1) 480W? Who are they kidding! At that load, the thing would cook and burn in 90 seconds flat in a typical quiet case. Unless they require 6 case fans for such operation (as per bluefront's comment)

2) Then there are the references to temps: 89C for the 480W... This must refer to some internal component, not a general PSU temp, but some clarification would surely have been useful. Surely it is not the temp of the exhaust air, or the casing. Unless it's meant to be a broiler too... :roll:

I had been told by coolmaxusa that they don't have any fanless units to send out, but that was a few weeks ago. Maybe it has changed? Will find out.

Bluefront
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Post by Bluefront » Mon May 03, 2004 5:00 pm

Well I don't know about that six fan thing. I bet you could pull it off with two medium speed 120's.....maybe slow speed 120's. I have a perfect case sitting here waiting for such a setup.... :D

al bundy
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Post by al bundy » Wed May 05, 2004 4:30 pm

I see that directron.com now carries theCOOLMAX CF-400 400W fanless switching ATX Power Supply ...

8)

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