Ok, here is what I am trying to accomplish. I am trying to minimize the number of fans in my computer I am planning on building, as much as possible. I am planning on watercooling the chipset, cpu, and gpu. Currently the case I am planning on using has a 120mm front intake, 92mm rear exhaust, and an 80mm top blowhole. Either the rear exhaust or top blowhole is going to have to house the radiator, and I was thinking probably the rear hole as that would be ideal. I am interested in getting a fanless PSU, but I would like to take an idea I got from Orac and mount a project box to the front of it, so that I can run the wiring out in a specific way. The problem is I realize that this will cover some of the holes on the fanless PSU that I know are necessary to keep it cool. Is this a bad idea and should I just go for one with fans in it, or will it matter a whole lot? I am trying to keep the number of fans to a minimum, as I would like this to be a quiet PC (I produce music and want something that doesn't sound like a damn jet engine). Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated. Adam
hey should work where eva u wanna put the rad.....just remmber raidators rely on air passing through them to cool, so at the front of the case is a far better idea with a nice cool air intake. As for the psu, depending on ur budget u can simply buy a silent fan psu, or of course there are some good price fanless ones on the market, stil to the major brands...wen ur runnign a water cooling setup ur gunna want a decent psu anyway.
You can watercool your PSU's main regulators and let the rest of the components be cooled by air currents.
Well, I realize that fanless PSU's are available, and already have one picked out (the Coolmax listed above actually). The problem as I stated in my first post is that I would like to mount a project box to it, and with a fanless PSU that could cause problems as the holes all around it are necessary for airflow through the PSU, and the project box will cover almost a whole side of the PSU's ventilation holes. The other option I am considering is getting a near-silent PSU (probably the Enermax noisetaker 420), but alas that is adding more fans to the case which I am trying to avoid if possible. As for the radiator, yeah actually maybe I will mount it to the front of the case... I was looking into getting the Swiftech H2O 8600B kit, as this is my first foray into watercooling I wanted to start simple, and the radiator that comes with that is an 80mm radiator. I'll have to look around a bit more. Adam
Depends on how the PSU's heatsinks are set up. I recently recieved a SilenX fanless (460w! arguably the second most expensive consumer PSU) and most of the air comes in through a ton of vent holes in the bottom. Some heat gets out through vents at the top and there's a heatsink mounted externally (I would have thought it'd be heatpipe'd on there but it doesn't look like it). There are some ventilation holes on the back wire-out side however as the external side is solid, airflow in there won't do much. But the one you're looking into may be totally different. My suggestion is that instead of trying to avoid fans, just use really quiet ones. At least as power supplies go, it's much cheaper.
bah, i've just spent the past 30 mins trying to find the webpage where I saw a selection of watercooled psu's for sale. Its a real extreme watercooling page with some SERIOUS hardware for sale (including a radiator that holds 15 120mm fans, thats 15 front AND back, so a potential total of 30!). Anyhoo, can't find it If I track it down i'll let you know, but lets face it, thats the only way your going to get a silent psu.
Well it's not the only way...like we've been talking about, there are fanless psu's out there that have recieved pretty good reviews. I have one picked out...I'm just not so sure about covering the inside front of it with a project box. I might just go with the enermax noisetaker. Adam
Here I found this watercooled PSU...but they're out of stock. I couldn't find a site that was based in the US that sold them anyways as they're made in Germany. They're damn expensive too. http://www.z-web.be/cc/cc/product_info.php?products_id=1138
You can make your own watercooled PSUs by attaching copper tubing (electrically insulated between the two surfaces of course) to the heatsinks. That should work very well, and I have seen it done before.
These are well rated http://www.chillblast.com/customer/product.php?productid=16497 http://www.yesico.de/ Good review http://www.akiba-pc.com/article.php?42.2 Matt
