Sorry, I've only had experience with Antec's TruPower line of supplies, which I find to be very good indeed

I would be a little dubious about this powersupply - it says that the whole PSU is a heatsink, yet there's no mechanism to move the heat away from the PSU - either with a fan or with an external heatsink hanging off the back of the PSU.
 
I would imagine that, in an already warm case, installing this PSU would be asking for trouble - and remember, heat rises, and you'd be placing a very hot PSU right at the top of the case, where the heat doesn't have anywhere to go. I'd think that if you stressed it by running lots of drives, a power-hungry graphics card or a high-end processor then you'd more than likely suffer a cut-out (not burnout, because it has over-temp cutouts built in).
 
IMHO, not a good idea.
 
Rgds
AndyF

some of these fanless PSU's are actually just a heatsink yes..
and what they mostly are made to do, is to transfer all the heat from the psu to the chassis. which ofcourse is a good idea IF you have a metal case of some sorts..
there are a certain pc tower (i cant rememeber the name), but it is build as a huge heatsink. and you plug heat-leading pipes to all you hot pc components and directly into the chassis..
 
its the most expensive pc tower in the world im sure, but after what i read i worked very well and silent..
 
i would maybe recommend that PSU if you run a water cooled system and then can attach some heat leading pipes on it..
it would kill quite a few decibels..
 
a totally silent system without any nois is a dream pc
a tad epensive maybe.
and ofcourse you would have need to buy real silent HDs too
hehe
 
best regards
ES

Originally posted by janfebmar:
Quote:its the most expensive pc tower in the world im sure, but after what i read i worked very well and silent.....
 
You mean THIS!
 

jup a friend of mine got one..
well.. rather a friend of my coop corporal, but hes in my squad and lives not far from me
 
 

its a tad heavy he said.. lol

Some other options..
 
There is a way to put a mic and speaker in the chassis,
and have the recording analyzed - and generate the 'negative image' of the sound..
 
Wave breaking up wave, should reputedly result in silence..
 
 
Or..
 
Do some carpentry, make a box for the computer with sound proofing materials as padding.
There are some expensive materials, and some cheaper (maybe just rockwool?).
 
Still you need to fan out hot air from this box, but you can do so with i.e A low noise(not to costy Papst fan.
 
Even better is to ventilate to the outside!
One exhaust pipe, with an exhaust-fan on the outside of the building/cool basement etc..
And one intake hole that should be same size or bigger.
 
Might even add a smal pipe to give CPU cool outside air too.
 
U can also get soundproofed pipes for venting.
 
 
 
-E

that was good ideas.
i have also though about making a vent system to outside.. which would work fine. but what about when i rains then get hot and the water goes to steam (or something). dont the moisture damage the hardware?
 

Wow, some interesting ideas. Thanks for the responses. I don't need a completely silent PC, just something that I can't hear in every room of my apartment.
 
I'm looking to get a EPIA based mini-itx system for a file server. A lot of those can run without any fans. The problem is that the cases are either butt-ugly or $300 (like cases from Hush and the Cubit.)

yeah.. my pc is also butt loud..
i remember when i was running a local fileserver on LAN parties me and some friends arranged once a month (there were around 200 to 300 ppl there each time), and i had to use 80x80 delta fans to cool the HDs down.. it was making nois as an hercules airplane.. lol
but now, i have watercooling and i am very pleased with it..
the case is also metal so plugged some heatpipes to the tower, (it works if you dont have to open your case like once every day
hehe.. then its work.
 
well. good luck on your project.
im going back to base in like 3 days time and this is what i do when im home.. stare at the screen and party.. lol. what a life
 
best regards
ES

I personally say that you should have 350watts PS minimum. It will keep the motherboard and drives running fine without over-exausting the PS.
No need to get fancy with the PS unless you're a modder.
 
Frankly, it all comes down to the 2 things:
 
-enough watts?
-quite?

One thing I've noticed recently is that some of the power supply manufacturers have gone to a (2)Two Thermal Fan solution, i.e., one 80mm and another 92mm auxillary fan. Both are pretty darn quiet and move a lot more air then a single fan and thus keeps your supply running cooler to begin with
 
The other thing that can be done is to replace any case fans with thermal fans too, this way they only speed up once the ambient temp gets above a certain preset temp and then the fan slows down again once the ambient tem goes back below this threshold.
 
And then the other option is to use something like Smartfan technology that many mobo manufactures use and set the thermal temps accordingly in the BIOS...

yeah.. they keep making new fans which are more silent that the old ones.. which is a good thing.
but watercooling is still the best option.. can argue with that.
and yes.. i know there are downsides with that too.. and aye.. i know what they are.
little downsides in my book anyway which is why i not run watercooling in my pc.. the hard-drive watercooling bays are greate to . now my hds are real cool.
and that makes the work faster and dont get busted to fast..
one of computers worst enemies are temperature...
 
keep it cool guys
ES

Originally posted by jmmijo:

Quote:One thing I've noticed recently is that some of the power supply manufacturers have gone to a (2)Two Thermal Fan solution, i.e., one 80mm and another 92mm auxillary fan. Both are pretty darn quiet and move a lot more air then a single fan and thus keeps your supply running cooler to begin with  
The other thing that can be done is to replace any case fans with thermal fans too, this way they only speed up once the ambient temp gets above a certain preset temp and then the fan slows down again once the ambient tem goes back below this threshold.
 
And then the other option is to use something like Smartfan technology that many mobo manufactures use and set the thermal temps accordingly in the BIOS...
 
Yeah, I just bought a new power supply because my old one was giving me problems. This new one is supposed to be quiet. I'm wondering if somthing else is making the fan noise. I'll try to disconnect the video card fan and see if that makes any difference. I'm hesitant to replace the CPU heatsink/fan because I am considering selling my board, XP2100 and memory to a buddy and going 64 bit.