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

Totally agree. It really galls me that the likes of FrozenPC charge $1+ each for parts that cost pennies bulk though. Last time I got lucky and randomly found a UK manufacturer who was nice about handing out samples and got what would have amounted to "$100 worth" (at FrozenPC prices) of connectors for zilch. Sadly they didn't do neon.

 

Seasonic doesn't sell them, the only way to get replacement cables from Seasonic is to RMA the whole PSU.

I know they are Mini Fit Jr. But - good luck finding the ones they used, with the lock keys at the positions they have :
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2009/10/first-look-seasonic-x-series-psu/6.jpg

If you think you can get them in shops with no problems, could you please write the exact part numbers for these Molex Mini Fit Jr. connectors ? Nothing would make me happier than getting them from local electronics shop. The 4 and 8-pin EPS is ok, those looks like 1:1 the standard EPS connectors. The rest ? 12-pin for dual PCI-E, 16+10 pin for 24-pin motherboard - you won't find those at frozencpu and i was unable to decode their P/N from Molex website. The 6-pin for peripherial has different key pin layout compared to the PCI-E 6-pin connector.
Getting rid of original ultra-long Seasonic cables and replacing the connectors on my single braid extensions i have would save me a lot of cabling mess in my case, but without connectors i can't do anything (and i will never remove connectors from original cables with no replacement cables available from Seasonic).

PS: With key pin i mean rectangle shaped pins vs pins with rectangle shape with 2 keyed corners.

 

1 watt = 3.412 BTUs

400 watts = 1364.8 BTUs

Note: For Reference: 1 BTU is the amount of energy required to raise (or lower) 1 (one) pound of water 1 (one) degree Fahrenheit. Water weights 8.34 ponds per gallon

Now due to science Heat and Temperature are two different things and there is no formula for converting BTUs to Degrees directly but you would have enough BTUs (1334) to raise the temperature of 1 gallon of water from 40 degrees to 200 degrees Fahrenheit which is boiling point.

8.34# X 160 degrees=1334 BTUS

So we will take room temperature of 75 then add the 160 degrees of capable heat and get 235 F or 113 C which is still a lot of heat floating around components and your CPU instead of being blown out the back.
Sure it's the air in the confined space of your rig versus 1 gallon of water but air is easier to heat versus water.

 

I am sure that these PSU's are considering that they are in a well ventilated case.
It would be interesting to have a PSU report their temperatures, like our computer processors does to better see any cooling problem and not have a PSU break on us by surprise. Of course, that is easier said then done. The motherboard would need a special connector for the sensor to start with.

 

I'm sure these PSUs will be a little bit more than 0% efficient.


If we imagine they're 85% efficient, a 500W PSU dumps 60W of heat. That's 60 Joules of energy per second.

Air (stp) has a specific heat capacity of 0.0013J/(cm³ K) so if we know how much air there is around the PSU we can calculate the increase in temperature from heating, and then account for the loss of heat due to convection/dissipation/etc (very hard).

Like I can be bothered to actually do the calculations, though!

 

You summed it up very nicely

 

Hmm. To satisfy me and my girlfriend the fan of a psu should not be louder than an idling hdd, which sadly is not case with mine. My psu- and cpu-fan actually drowns out all the other fans and harddrives, only when my Optical drive spins up i any other component louder.. I am very interested in passive cooling and mean to someday passively watercool my pc. I loved my old pc for having only an exhaust and psu-fan.

 

Assuming it doesn't blow up like most pf the fanless designs in previous labs tests, then this could sell very very well.
It'll be useless for gamers like me, but I often build low spec systems for family members. These should easily powers low end dual core CPU's with low end media GPU's.
This combined with an SSD should make a PC almost silent.

 

Or just drill a hole though the wall and put your OH SO NOISY PC in the other room.

 

Is there a modular cabling standard in the works that all PSU manufacturers adhear to? It shouldn't be at all difficult for them to come to an aggreement.
It'd be easier for them and great for builders and the enviroment if they would sell FULLY modular PSU's with no cables at all and then I can purchase the cable types and length I require and not at all if already have them. Plus it would make an additional revenue stream for them selling cabling and or 3rd parties making custom length braided cables to length/design/colour/connector. Bet you'd even get mad ****s paying thousands of quid for silver cables like they do now for 4k kettle leads.

 

The cables should be identical connectors on both ends but with reversed genders. So your PSU has effectively 0cm long cables, but comes with a full set of medium length cable extenders for molex, SATA, PCI-E power, 24-pin ATX etc. etc.

 

A little pricey for what it is. For that money ... I'd expect to have a fan included. :-D

 

I gained an interesting perspective on this recently while looking into building a mini-ITX based machine for navigation duties on the sailboat I'm restoring. When under sail the only source of power will be batteries with a finite capacity. For example, a "mid range" 12V deep cycle gel cell battery with a capacity of 97 Amp Hours (Ah) will run you $340!

So lets do the math...

Lets say I have a mini-ITX box that runs on a 12V 120 Watt PSU 120W / 12V means that that tiny, perhaps minimal, computer is drawing 10 Amps off my battery! That one little machine could drain my entire power capacity in less than 10 hours, and that's only taking into account the computer, not the monitor.

My so-called point in all this is that modern computers draw a LOT of power. I remember a discussion some time back about how as PSUs began hitting the 1500W mark they might draw too much current to run off standard American 120 V 15A outlets.

All that aside, if I feel the need to invest in my computer again anytime soon, one of these would make my life measurably quieter.

 

The mini ITX wouldn't max out the 120W powersupply.

If a netbook can run ~8 hours on 2Ah Battery...how long before it drains your battery?
120W power a 40" TV

 

Not sure how long they've been there, but just seen these on Scan:

Seasonic X-400FL

Seasonic X-460FL

I'm seriously considering the 400W for my HTPC, any news on a full review of any of these?

 

the 460W version has tons of connections for a PSU of that size, wonder how hot it'll go under full load though :S