Passive PSU

[pwner_1337]

I'm curious as to wether or not there are any retailers in New Zealand that supply passively cooled PSU's as if I tried to do it I would surely eff things up

[_N_]

you had me there for a second, I tought you were reffering to a passive power supply,
there is a big difference between a pasively cooled PSU and a passive PSU.

what sort of W are you looking at?

[pwner_1337]

well I think a 350W PSU would be perfect for my uses. As long as its passivle cooled so I dont hear a damn thing.

[oD1Nz]

I really don't think a fanless PSU would be a good idea, considering the heat that most generate.

It'd probably be best to go with a "slient" PSU, so it does have the capacity to cool itself when needed. OCNZ has a nice Zalman 400W "Noise-Free" PSU (http://www.overclockers.co.nz/product/psu/zalman.shtml). I really think it would be a better option.

[EDIT: speeeeling :o]

[Valium]

one of the shuttles comes with one, dont remember the model though.

[swiftynz]

Silent power supplies are great in theory, but at the end of the day you still need to extract the heat from your case somehow. So basically you remove one source of noise but have to add another fan above the PSU to keep it cool.... unless you have an ultra low power PC and some kind of masters in convection cooling.

At the end of the day you are much better off with a quiet PSU such as an Enermax Noisetaker or Zalman. A small, or even a tiny amount of airflow is 10x better than none at all. And your hard drives will make more noise than a quiet PSU anyway.

That's the problem I'm having at the moment... dam those noisy 7200.7's. :(

[pwner_1337]

So I should go witha "silent" PSU, I mean I've got an AcBel 400W which claims to be <27Db. But I want to leave my rig on at night and sleep and I dont like turning my pump on and off. What about replacing the fan in my PSU, its a good PSU but I don't like the sound. I figured with my lack of modding knowledge I could take out the standard fan and put ina 80mm Panaflo and run that through to my fan controller.

[swiftynz]

That depends on the power supply. If you're not putting too much load on it and it's running well under spec, then swapping the fan out for a quieter one probably wouldn't hurt.

If the air coming out of the back now feels coolish or barely warm, then I reckon you'll have no probs. Just be careful, and if after the mod the air feels hot and the PSU case is rather warm, you might want to speed the fan up a bit.

[Geek4Life]

Originally posted by Valium
one of the shuttles comes with one, dont remember the model though.
There is the Shuttle "Zen" model which has an external silent PSU. It looks much the same as the brick you get for charging a laptop.

[Konev]

the Zalman TNN case has a fanless PSU, not sure on the price of the case thou.

[swiftynz]

Originally posted by Konev
the Zalman TNN case has a fanless PSU, not sure on the price of the case thou. Around NZ$4000 :(

[MycoolCar]

try PM'ing osmium, he did a bulk order of PSU's and other silent stuff from slienX in the USA.

I have one of their 520w PSU's and its great, very very quiet and works well. Only downside of it is that it has no rear power switch, but thats not a biggie.

I think he brought in 450w PSU's aswell as some 14dba fans. Just see what he has left.

[scuzzy]

Originally posted by swiftynz
Around NZ$4000 :(

TNN500A, Fanless Case, Aluminium, 300W PSU, A64 $1,850.84
http://www.ascent.co.nz/mn-product-template.asp?cname=Cases

Looks like they may be a little cheaper than 4k (not that it makes much difference for most of us :) )

[swiftynz]

Hah, yea I remember thinking it was around 2 grand and thought, that must be US$ :rolleyes:

Still, $1800 is way out of my price range, and almost everyone else as well.

[Valium]

hmmm, zalman or vapochill?

at that price it would be a real tough choice.

[max]

SilentPC Review (great site) just reviewed this case FYI:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article161-page1.html

[fatsanchez]

Personally I think buying a new psu would be a waste of money.

About a month back my already noisy topower 370w got even noisier as one of the crappy fans started to die.

I ripped out the 2 old 80mm, and replaced them with a single vantec stealth 80mm in the back. These fans are very very quiet, they dont push a great deal of air, but its plenty for a psu.

Just leave the fan grilles off (or cut them out).

My HDD's (seagate cudas) are now the loudest thing in the case, (i have a vantec on the cpu as well, and a zalman vga heatpipe)