Hardware Zero Noise: Seasonic's X-Series fanless PSU Preview

Seasonic's new version of its highly efficient X-Series PSU does away with the fan altogether.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2010/08/01/zero-noise-seasonic-s-x-series-fanless/1

 

Sounds interesting, especially since it's still gold rated!

 

Pretty cool but how many people really need a fanless PSU? I bet I could turn off all my case fans and I wouldn't be able to hear my PSU.

 

Fully modular... Right, would be cool - if one could buy replacement cables, diferent length cables. None of that is provided by Seasonic, the connectors on PSU side are custom size, so you can't even make your own cables unless you mod the original ones.

Until custom cables are provided directly by Seasonic or via other entity - for example like the ModRight cables sold by FrozenCPU and PerformancePCS - then the "fully modular" is worth nothing unfortunately.

 

My HTPC had two fans in in; a Coolink SWiF 80mm on the CPU heatsink running at 9v, and a Notua 800RPM jobbie modded into a bog standard 330W Coolermaster PSU. My PSU was practically fanless!

I'd definitely buy one of these for my next dedicated HTPC, however by the time I get round to building that it'll be in about four years, and I doubt I'll need that much power. I'll porbably be able to go miniITX with a picoPSU and everything will be fanless and able to handle 1080P 3D video. Ah, technological advancement. Sweet.

 

Cool, i could see one of these replacing my current PSU in my desktop if the cables are long enough.

 

Exept that the massive plasma telly you're running next to your
silent Htpc has four noisy fans whirring

 

Man, I would be the one to want to hook up a GTX 460 and Phenom II X6 to this thing...
~170 watts + ~130 watts = 300 watts / 12v = only 25 amps

 

If the x650 only starts up its fan at very high load i wonder why you would want to pay extra for a fanless design thats 250watt less. I bet if you stay below the 400watt with the x650 the fan wouldnt start up as wel and when you do need it, its there to use.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on these. Even 400W is overkill for a HTPC, let alone the fully modular 500W PSU I'm using.

As for gaming... I'd prefer 500W but it's safe to say that my PSU is by far the loudest component in my gaming rig - and as I prefer a quiet PC over absolute performance itwould certainly be of interest.

faugusztin hasa good point though - replacement/extension cables are a must. I've had enough problems finding replacement fan clips for my HTPC CPU cooler and I'd take issue if the cables weren't long enough

 

Yes but would you load all the cores and all the GPU at the same time? Unlikely. Even for a normal gaming system with a simple quad core and GTX 460 it'll be enough

 

I'm really interested in stuff like this. My PSU is annoying loud under load, and it'll be worse when my plans to watercool my GPU are finished. My case makes no noise, turning off the fans makes next to no difference, and my CPU uses Gentle Typhoons, so very little noise there, but they're on a fan controller so it's easily managed.

Damn PSU's!!!!!! Still more tempted by the Enermax Revolution 85+ though, as they're pure sex...

 

You are mistaken. Those are standard Molex "Mini Fit Jr" connectors, see FrozenCPU's DIY/Mod Parts section.
You just have to be careful to match the pinout of the cable you're replacing.
Use a multimeter to check which pin goes where on the original part.
True modding is building it yourself, not buying pre-made parts.

 

Bloody_Pete - The Rev 85+'s are nice but they're getting a bit old now. Enermax recently brought out their mid-range Gold series which are very nice, and personally I'd recommend the X-650 as I use one personally and we've all been impressed with it in the lab.

I'm sure there are others like from Corsair perhaps, but I've not used them recently.

 

I'm planning on using them in my next upgrade.

 

I'm off to do some PSU testing in Germany in a few weeks for some reviews on bit-tech.

 

No point in me buying a fanless PSU since I've never actually seen mine turn on

One thing I gotta say is: *sigh* Not even owned the bloody thing 5 months and they're gonna be revising it! DAMN IT!!!! I bet it's for the weak 5v rail. WHY I OUGHTA!

 

A fan less PSu WOW this would be great for computers operating in the sub zero temperatures of deep space.

If you purchase a high end PSu they are very quiet even under full load and this will allow you room to add more components without worry of going over 400 watts.

The PSu produces too much heat for passive cooling, sure they made a fan less PSU but that's too much heat sitting there degrading components over a short period of time.

 

Fanless PSUs are pretty gimmicky. Really the rest of the system needs to have no moving parts at all for these to make sense. And fanless parts means low performance, which means you can get away with a picoPSU. Even a 400 W wattage means there will be some pretty high power stuff (gaming graphics) or a ton of hard drives, both of which makes having a fanless PSU pointless.

Don't take this as silly excuses and random nonsense either, I'm using Nightjar 400 W.

 

But how can you possibly say how much heat they will produce? Also do you consider 5 years a short period of time? Because I don't but that's what their warranty is. Don't put down a product that hasn't even been released yet due to "heat issues" if it was that hot in there and it was such a big threat they wouldn't even of bothered with one.