Review of Silent 400w Power Supply 333
SnowPunk98 writes "OCModShop has done a review on a SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU "The power supply doesn't boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that.""
My 400w power supply is silent, too (Score:5, Funny)
Advertising? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Advertising? (Score:5, Informative)
(Yes, I'm stealing links from some of my old posts [slashdot.org])
Re:Advertising? (Score:5, Interesting)
Every time a front-page story about the iPod goes up, you get 150 posts about how much the iRiver is a better deal. Every Rio story has just as many posts trashing it in favor of the iPod.
As far as I can tell, a /. story gets you a 2-12 paragraph blurb followed by 300 posts bashing your product, your company, and anybody who buys your stuff. Not a very good way to advertize at all!
(I have, on the other hand, bought stuff I've seen on /. banner ads. My "#include " beer glasses from thinkgeek, for example.)
Re:Advertising? (Score:4, Funny)
You, sir, are a true geek.
Your #include beer glass is almost as cool as my big chipped plastic mug with Apple printed on the side in the most horrible pink color ever seen.
Re:Advertising? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Advertising? (Score:3, Interesting)
And the original Macintosh never had an external power supply either. It used so little power that it was actually energy star compliant - without any sleep function at all.
What is silent? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
14dBA is way below whisper
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
This page [audioholics.com] has an excellent table of information on various dB listings.
According to it, human breathing at 3 feet is 10dB... can you hear people breating from 3 feet away? (I can't.)
Re:What is silent? (Score:2)
Re:What is silent? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, I can definitely hear my wife snoring 1 foot away. Does that count?
dB On A Stereo Different Than dB For Sound (Score:4, Informative)
Your stereo achieves maximum volume at OdB because at that setting there is 0dB of attentuation applied to the signal before it gets to the gain stage(s). The numbers on a stereo, or mixing board (well, the numbers below unity at least) really ought to be specified at -XdB not XdB. So when set to 15dB, your stereo is attenuating the signal by 15dB before passing it to the gain stage.
Sound Pressure Levels (SPL), on the other hand are the measured SPL compared to a reference level defined to be 0dB. 0dB is defined to the the standardized lower limit of human hearing under ideal conditions. Interestingly, for humans with no hearing loss, this lower threshold is thermally limited. In other words, if your hearing isn't damaged and there are no other sounds, you can hear the temperature of the room. At 0dB, your eardrum is deflecting by about the diameter of a Hydrogen atom. Another fun fact to know and tell: the system of small bones that convey the vibration from the ear drum to the inner ear function as a hydraulic system with a 7000:1 ratio, which is almost exactly the accoustic impedance mismatch between air and the fluid in your inner ear. For an intersting discussion of human hearing, read the first few chapters of Master Handbook of Acoustics [amazon.com]
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
For example, the Silent Boost [thermaltake.com] heatsink/fan from Thermaltake [thermaltake.com] is advertised as being as loud as 21 dBA. However, closer inspection will tell you that it uses an 80cm Panaflo [panasonic.com] 2450 RPM fan, and Panasonic says the fan alone (without the heatsink, which will add to the noise due to additional turbulence) is 28 dBA loud.
The same goes for all sorts of fans and PSUs advertised as being silent. Manufacturers exaggerate their claims, and the one with the lowest number typically sells the loudest product.
Re:What is silent? (Score:4, Informative)
Zalman, Thermaltake and others neglect to specify this, which is no surprise since their claims always clash with each other and with their suppliers'.
And there's also the subjective side of things, but that's a whole other issue. Two fans with the same noise emission levels aren't necessarily as pleasant, since their spectra may be completely different. Reducing RPMs will give you less overall noise, but crappier fans will always give you irritating bearing noise, for instance, even though they may be quiet on average.
Re:What is silent? (Score:2)
14dBa not credible (Score:3, Interesting)
Mike Chin at www.silentpcreview.com writes a more credible review [silentpcreview.com] of a psu that has a 120 mm fan and it's cranking 22 dBa when the psu is drawing 215 watts. I find it very hard to believe that an 80 mm fan can move enough air to cool a loaded 300+ Watt psu while only generating 14dBa of noise.
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
0 dBA may be "perfectly silent" in the sense that you can't hear it by itself, but if you put two or more 0 dBA sources together, you will hear them. The 0 dBA sources are producing sound.
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What is silent? (Score:5, Informative)
You are wrong. 0dB means a unity gain. In other words, the signal you are measuring is exactly the same intensity as the reference signal.
In audio, 0dBA (notice the A) means it's the same intensity as the smallest discernible noise to "standard" human ears. Basically it's pretty damn quiet.
You most certainly can have negative dB. It just means attenuation (ie, the signal you are measuring has less intensity than the reference signal). 0 gain (which would be truly silent) is the same as negative infinity dB.
Outstanding!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:3, Interesting)
On a side note, I have never really been bothered by noise from my computers, except maybe the older ones when the fans start to rattle.
The soothing hum is actually kind of nice to my ears, and if I try and sleep in my room with none of my machines powered on, it becomes almost too quite. Guess I'm just used to it by now.
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:2)
A soothing hum is fine. The problem comes in when you have odd noises. One of my hard drives made this awful whining noise and I just go so sick of it I had to throw it out. An old Sparcstation had that problem with the 2GB Seagate drive in it a few years back as well. Sounded like I was running a table saw chopping w
I'll buy that for a dollar (Score:2)
She's wilder than me, and it keeps me up all nite...she can drive as fast as I can, but she stops at all the lights.
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:2)
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:2)
Years ago, somebody built a cooler for an Apple IIGS that had way too many fans on it. It just about needed the weight of a monitor, floppy drives, etc. over it to keep it from floating over the computer.
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:2)
Best part: Sound of the engine makes drive noise unimportant.
Sorry about the link, it only seems to work half the time.. :(
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:5, Interesting)
You mentioned the monitor whine, did you know that a large percentage of the populus can not hear that? Second question. Do you, by any chance, have ADD or AD/HD?
Here is why I ask:
All my life I have been able to hear the whine from television sets, and monitors. Even if I am in another room I can "feel/hear" it when someone turns on (or de-gausses) a monitor. I used to think that everyone else heard it too, and when I realized that they didn't, I quickly stopped talking about it. (didn't wanna be labelled a nutcase or anything)
Especially bad were the old "dumb terminal" CRT's that were starting to go bad. If there was one near me, it would drive me almost batty. I could hear it *all* the time. When I worked at a call center in the early 90's, I would walk around at night when I was on the late shift until I found the bad CRT and turn it off. Usually I could "triangulate?" the location by walking around the room once first.
About the same time I was (finally) diagnosed with AD/HD. About 2 years later, when I switched doctors, I was asked about things that distracted me when I was trying to concentrate. I mentioned the monitor/CRT whine, and the doctor was somewhat amused. "I hear that a lot from easily distracted people."
That got me thinking, so I brought it up at an ADHD group meeting a couple months later. Not suprising to me, almost everyone I asked at the meeting said that they could "hear" the TV's and monitors in other rooms, especially when they are first turned on, even if the volume is all the way down.
I told my doctor about it at my next appointment, and she dismissed it as coincidence. She did not seem to even believe that such a sense of "electronic or electromagnetic perception" even existed.
I had her blind test me by going in the waiting room and switching the TV on and off a specific number of times. I was correct on the number each time.
As far as I know, nothing ever came of it. I just let it go, because it seems to be damned hard to convince someone with a Phd that you might know something that they don't.
Personally I think that, if my theory is correct, (That this "perception" of Electromagnetic interference, or maybe it is just a "sound", is so common in people with ADD or AD/HD, That the increasing numbers of devices which generate those sounds could correlate with the increasing numbers of ADD and AD/HD cases) it could really be interesting to say the least.
Needless to say I have neither the expertise nor the resources to study this.
I apologize to the slashdot readers for taking up so much space, and their time, in my ramblings, I just needed to finally get that out of my system and tell someone when the opportunity came up.
And hey, if I get famous, you heard it here first.
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:5, Insightful)
No, you're not alone. As a matter of fact, I can usually hear if a TV set is turned on in another room, even if the door is shut, or even on another floor (yes, the TV is muted) due to the high-frequency tone it emits.
The noise is generated in all CRT's; TV set, computer monitor, CRT projector, osilloscope, etc and is called the "line frequency". The frequency of the tone is 15.734 kHz, wich is well within the human hearing range.
However, modern equipment generate a lot less - if any - of this noise. The generated sound really is a biproduct of the frequency used to generate the line scan of the electron sweep. I am unable to hear any line noise from my brand new computer monitor but I can hear some (but not a lot) from my old TV set. Some really old TV sets and PC monitors make so much noise that I am unable to stay in the same room as the monitor for any period of time without developing a brain tumor.
Also, many (most?) people over a certain age does in fact NOT hear this sound, due to reduced hearing. Although reduced hearing is in no way something to crave, I wouldnt mind being unable to hear this tone. It can be terribly annoying and distracting and can even cause headache. In fact, many people who have trouble with headaches after a day of office work should try upgrading their monitors. Even if they are unable to conciously HEAR the sound, the ear is still recieving the noise (and the noise melting their brains - or something).
There is, AFAIK, no relationship between ADHD or ADD and being able to hear the line noise. Whether or not you ARE able to hear it would solely depend on your hearing. Bare in mind that you can have certain part of the frequency range reduced or "enhanced" due to various factors. For example, frequent visit to discos and clubs, where loud music is played, is a sure-fire way to remove that line noise from your hearing (although the tinnitus you'll develop can be even more annoying).
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:3, Interesting)
True, an ADD / ADHD's ears are just as normal as everyone else's.
However, the human brain suppresses redundant noise (e.g. heartbeat) so that our consciousness may focus on the important stuff. This may be directly related to why ADD people have attention problems (I guess, I am not a doctor).
Re:Outstanding!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Examples:
I have an old Nokia 17" monitor, that can do 1280x1024@85Hz at the max. However, the guy I got it from always ran it at 1280x960@75Hz, because higher res/freq gave him headaches. I certainly found out why, as it gave a high pitched whine when it went above that. Seriously high pitched.
A friend of mine used to run his monitor at 16x12@90Hz, because he could. This was with
Or CD/DVD drives (Score:2, Insightful)
come on... (Score:5, Funny)
The purpose of a power supply is not to be quiet - if that was the purpose I'd just make one that didn't work - the purpose is to provide electricity to the components in a computer. Duh.
Re:come on... (Score:2)
HA! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:HA! (Score:3, Informative)
Date : Sunday, January 25, 2004
Author : SnowPunk98
Vendor : SilenX
Introduction
I have reviewed a lot of power supplies over the years here at OCModShop and now I look at the SilenX 400w. This power supply claims to be the quietest active cooled power supplies on the market. I have done reviews on many other silent power supplies from many other companies. Some have been as quiet and they boasted to be and others were much louder than they should have been. This power supply features Ove
Other sources of noise (Score:3, Insightful)
You've got hard drives spinning and cpus cooling.
Still, a step in the right direction.
Re:Other sources of noise (Score:2)
Re:Other sources of noise (Score:2)
I replaced both of those and now my hard disk is the most noisy part of my system and well, there isn't much I can do about that, but the PC is a whole lot less annoying than it used to be. One of these days I'll be able to afford something truely quiet.
Booting from a 4+GB CF card would be good. Then only when it loads up the next media file from the hard disk would it make any noise. (i'm assuming 120+G
Re:Other sources of noise (Score:2)
I thought about that, and quietpc.ca has such a thing, but they say it would cause my 7200rpm drives to eventually overheat.
My case is already covered on the inside with foam baffles I bought there, but it makes little difference.
Re:Other sources of noise (Score:2)
You know... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:2, Insightful)
I want lots of pretty LEDs, like you used to see on 50's B SF movie computers...
"Danger, Will Robinson..."
it must be quiet (Score:3, Funny)
CB
Re:it must be quiet (Score:2)
slashdottted already... (Score:5, Informative)
Quiet PCs (Score:5, Informative)
My PC is transformed, the loud, obtrusive, high pitched whine has now been reduced to a quiet, low pitched rumbling. I struggle to hear it when I'm 10 feet away, and even when sitting by it and working it's so much quieter it's much more enjoyable to use. Music is also a much nicer experience without the fan noise. I've even found that my CPU runs cooler with the Zalman heatsink than it did with the medium priced heatsink I had in there before.
Re:Quiet PCs (Score:2)
silenx psus are nice too. the company that manufactures them, ahanix, also made the htpc case i'm using. i only went with the zalman because the silenx was on a few weeks backorder
Re:Quiet PCs (Score:2, Informative)
Also, while Zalman PSUs may be quiet, they're not on the same level as the SilenX. The parent article notes that the SilenX is "much quiter" than a PSU which he reviewed as being "much quieter" than the Zalman. So the SilenX is essentially "much, much quieter" than the Z
Weight (Score:5, Informative)
And the best part is, that low frequency vibration will help the motherboard crack even faster since the Zalman coolers all cheerfully ignore the max weight limits set by motherboard companies. They have supposedly caused a few mobo deaths.
Tip- a)make sure all the standoffs are installed properly and the mobo is screwed down. b)if you move the machine, consider taking the CPU heatsink off FIRST, because if you bounce it around, the heft of the heatsink could flex the motherboard a little too much.
Re:Weight (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Quiet PCs (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: Quiet PCs (Score:3, Funny)
-Joe Blow
Marketing Division
Zalman Inc.
(hehe)
Re:Cost? (Score:2)
Re:Cost? (Score:3, Interesting)
He got a noise blocker cooler for his cpu and a silent fan for his case. Both had manual control of the fan speed.
At low to medium speed we were strugling to hear the fans, but as you got to top speed, they'd get loud as hell.
Anyway, the fans at medium speed managed to cool the cpu to acceptable levels, so it was ok.
After that we realized just how loud the graphics card was, so we went back to the store and got the zalman passive heatsink. Boy did that work wonde
So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
-1, lack of insight (Score:2)
Pros:
# Only 14dB which means its silent
# 5v &12v lines are very strong
# Cables are a good length
Cons:
# Does not have a box
That's all we get?
Sweet... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd rather they spend their time researching quieter case and CPU fans.
Here's a sound clip for the power supply: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply: (Score:3, Funny)
Soko
Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply: (Score:2)
Seasonic Tornado (Score:2)
The fan is also placed horizontally rather than vertically, so it won't develop a whine over time.
Seasonic Tornado [seasonicusa.com]
Re:Seasonic Tornado (Score:2)
The Tornado isn't all THAT loud, but it's very noticible, even when my Athlon 64 is running in Cool and Quiet mode (800MHz @ 1.275V).
Great thing: they're both high-efficiency power supplies. About 15%-20% less power consumption acc
Silence is not the main goal (Score:2)
Think of the children (Score:2, Insightful)
So, the unit showed up well packaged, undamaged, and in a bag instead of a box. What's the problem? Not enough useless packaging to end up in landfills? Yeah, that'll make your computer perform
Fsck the Children (Score:2)
The power supplies aren't the problem.. (Score:2)
*THOSE* are the noisemakers here.
Apple anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
I happen to notice that the G5 (when I saw it at Best Buy) had the power supply at the bottom of the case spread along the length. I bet you it uses the bottom of the aluminum case as some sort of heatsing, obviating the need for one more case fan.
In my opinion, the ATX power supply should go out the window. There's no reason to be cramming 500 watt power supplies in such a cramped box.
Several ideas:
Borrow from Apple, make the power supply longger and use the case as a heatsink. Spread the heat out.
Female molex connector jacks. Right now you have a whole bunch of wires in the anticipation that everyone has a RAID array, 2 cdroms, and video card that needs auxially power. The unused connectors have to be rubberbanded and bunched somewhere.
Gives us jacks on the PS unit so that you ony have the minimum amount of wires needed in a case.
By the way, Antec is soone releasing a tottaly silent psu. No fans whatsoever, just big aluminum heatsinks on all sides, rated at 350 watts for now. The Inquirer had a photo from CES.
--
Re:Apple anyone? (Score:2, Informative)
The ATX, and more common ATX12V and EPS12V, refers to the type of connectors supplied as well as a few power requirements that don't concern most home users.
If you are looking for a small 400W ATX12V supply look at either Etasis or a company called SPI, which goes by the name of Sparkle or Zippy at your local Fry's.
Re:Apple anyone? (Score:4, Funny)
If you are 100% positive that you will neither use all that stuff, nor re-sell the PC before it's obsolete, a pair of horizontal wire clippers can provide a very simple solution to your problem. :)
External power supplies (Score:2)
My understanding is that power supplies don't actually need cooling at all. The fan is there to keep the power supply from overheating the rest of the computer. So, how about ripping the power supply out of the computer and replacing it with a fan (which can be much lower speed since it isn't handling the hot power supply. Then put the power supply into a mid-cable wart like laptop power supplies. Does anyone actually offer such a beast? Am I confused and power supplies actually need active cooling on
costs $99 (Score:4, Informative)
And I just bought a power supply... (Score:2)
Question with out answer... (Score:2, Funny)
Or
If the computer that isturned on in the forest crashes, will the squarles cuss out Windows and the Bears mawl on Bill Gates???
What's all the fuzz about (Score:3, Informative)
My power supply is better (Score:2)
Turn it off! Turn it off!
It CAN'T be turned off!
/not-so-obligatory Simpsons reference.
Silent PCs (Score:5, Informative)
Typically the most irritating noises in order are
1) CPU Fan
2) PSU Fan
3) Case Fans
4) HDD
I have a Zalman pure copper Flower on my CPU with only one 12cm fan ducted near it. (No CPU fan). With my HDD decoupled [silentpcreview.com] it was silent (i.e. I could not hear it at 2 AM from 1 meter) during normal operation and barely audible when seek/writing.
To overclockers 28dB may seem quiet, but whispers are about 24dB. I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away. About every 3 dB doubles the acoustic energy. (e.g. if one fan is 20dB, then two of the same fans would be about 23dB) I guestimate my system at about 22 dB.
Re:Silent PCs (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed, and I like quiet PCs a lot as well -- but keep in mind that it's a lot easier to learn to filter out white noise than whispering.
I *do* have to say that people that get a fancy sound system and then have a regular PC have got to be crazy -- nobody can hear "external vs internal DAC" differences as more significant than the fans in the PC.
What a lame article (Score:2, Insightful)
Who cares. Its a power supply with some "quiet" fans in it. Stick a quiet fan in any power supply for 5 bucks and you have the same product.
Now post some articles on ram coolers or glowing mouse pads.
Que? (Score:2, Insightful)
SilentX compared to competition (Score:2, Informative)
Not impressed. NorthQ 500W 12db here (Score:3, Informative)
Slashdot Effect (Score:2, Funny)
Silent PC Review (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?o
Will it fit in a G4 Quicksilver case? (Score:2)
If it has a fan, it is not silent. (Score:5, Informative)
These things are neat. No fan, just a big-ass heatsink sticking out the back of your case. But remember that without the airflow from the PSU you will need a fan for your case (or a special self-cooling case).
My free solution to having a quiet power supply (Score:2, Interesting)
System specs: I have a nice Enermax Whisper 350 Watt supply. Very large full tower case. Celeron 1.2 @ 1.3 GHz CPU. Only one hard drive and no fancy 3D graphics card.
I removed the two fans from the supply, as well as the top cover. I then mounted the supply on the back of my case outside. It is oriented so that the supply's heat sinks get as much convective cooling as possible.
This works very well inde
Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply? (Score:2)
CB
Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply? (Score:2)
CB
Re:5v/12v regulator chip (78xx) (Score:2)
Apple Advert (Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.) (Score:2)
Hardly on the same level as the 1984 Apple ad.
Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple. (Score:2)
LOL, good troll (Score:2)
It's a wonder I get anything done. Somehow, I do.
Oh, and I can hear the relays in the PBX click from 25 feet away. Astounding. They must have dug those suckers up from a 50 year old landfill. Or maybe they used starter solenoids from an automoti
You want one of these then... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Big deal (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Silent? 3 days until... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Silent power supply? (Score:2)
Re:Silence is overrated. (Score:2, Funny)
your analogy is a bit flawed. people who drives SUV's have small penises. If you actually have a powerhouse machine (quad xeon i think would count) then it is very fitting for it to sound like it.
however if you had say a single processor celeron that had a 6x120mm fan array which swallowed passing rodents whole, then i would be forced to redefine you.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
most everyone who isn't a poser.
Funny how every Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexis, BMW, Mercedes, Bently, Rolls Royce, and other cars you will never afford all strive like crazy to make the engine silent as possible.
In fact Porche, Ferarri and Lamborgini all have very silent engines until you rev them up to a resonance point.
The only people I know that want a noisy engine is the wanna-be poser kids that have junk cars that they want to make look and sound annoying becaus