[LAU] Any opinions on this ...

[pete shorthose]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:19:26 +0100 (CET)
"Kjetil S. Matheussen" <k.s.matheussen at notam02.no> wrote:

> 
> >
> > pete shorthose:
> >> > > Have not tested this one:
> >> > >
> >> > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104035
> >> > >
> >> > > Pricey, but I have successfully used this one:
> >> > >
> >> > > 
> > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256047&Tpk=silverstone 
> >> nightjar
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> > I would go for either of these, although they cost a bit more.
> >> > By mounting a silent 120mm fan running at 5V close to one of
> >> > these, they should probably work just fine.
> >> 
> >> Perhaps I missed something here but aren't the above units fanless by 
> >> design? why add a fan?
> >
> > Contrary to the fans included with PSUs, the fans you can
> > buy separately can be silent, especially when downvolted
> > to 5V. So to ensure you don't
> > overheat a fanless PSU, which can happen if it's too hot,
> > it could be a good idea to mount a fan close to the PSU.
> 
> That was a bit unclear. If I've understood correctly,
> fanless PSU's turns off if they run too hot, that's
> why you might want to add a little bit of air flow 
> through it, especially if you run a hot CPU, etc. and
> have no case fan.

This may be good advice, particularly if you live somewhere much
hotter than the UK. However, you needn't assume the cooling efficiency
is inadequate. Just crank the central heating up to something
a little higher than the hottest temperatures you experience locally then run
it under as heavy a load as you can for as long as you need to in order to
satisfy yourself that it's safe to use sans fan. Regularly cleaning the unit
should help too. The Silverstone PSUs all seem to have a single temp
status LED and I'd imagine you'd see quite quickly if it couldn't cope
with the conditions. You could abort as soon as the warning LED lit.  

I recognise that a device need not be truly silent in order to be effectively so,
and perhaps taking such a risk is unnecessary, but I've bought a fair few
"silent" or "quiet" fans in my time that were nothing of the sort. I've also had
lots of problems with fans that seem to have (or develop) defects that cause
noise so I'd rather just be shot of the whole spinny roundy horror show.

OT now but I'm still losing list posts when there is a matching direct (CCd)
message. Anyone shed any light on this? I'm using sylpheed and have been
doing for a long time. This particular problem however is new. :(
 
cheers,
pete.