The more efficient power supplies get, the less heat they produce, that is a positive side effect of that reality. Seasonic has now released three new power supplies that have no fans whatsoever, pass... Seasonic Offers Three new Titanium Certified PSUs that are Fanless
Well, Seasonic did deliver quality with the Focus Plus Platinum, so I'm set for about 8 more years before the warranty goes.
Never bothered by PSU fan noise from units owned in last 10 years. So fanless designs not a selling point to me.
I have tried previous gen, it was overheating at half of load, I don't believe in physic of this solution.I got Silverstone one, which had much bigger heatsinks, it's 3x times heavier and actually works for couple of years.
I've had one of their previous versions in my HTPC for 5-6 years or more. Considering it runs 24/7 it get's warm but never hot.
I think it basically relies on a updraft airflow design. Cool air goes from bottom to the top of the PC case, and videocard also have to be pointed to the top, so it doesn't blow hot air into the PSU.
Silverstone fanless were (unless last gen) Seasonic rebranded. It work pretty well i must say, even in real hot climat. (i have one in my HTPC).
Totaly agree, using those simple principe make you PC a lot cooler. I can't remember how many over heating PSU in PC where with fan down with chassis at less than 1mm, or in totaly closed box (i know it look neat, but it's not cool at all ) Those PSU should be with space around and a place for the heat to goes out on top of it (i have a 600W and it never overheat).
HTPC - i guess has not big power consumption, so its not wonder that it is working. Well i never got this concept.. you pay lots of many for fanless PSU to actually need some additional fan (yeah you can use one of your choice and easy replace it, but still) for airflow to keep it alive. These should be design to to work without additional air flows.
I have a Seasonic Titanium 850 watt PSU in my gaming PC. Its lovely in Hybrid mode and 90% of the time its fanless. To me over paying on the PSU with a titanium unit is perfect since they have great low power efficiency so you don't have to worry about hitting the sweet spot of power draw. If you oversize enough they run fanless most of the time and at 40-50% load the fan comes on but is at the bottom of the fan curve so it isn't audible. That all is to say I prefer this approach over a true fanless unit.
I guess with such high efficiency, what's the point of having a fan when there is so little waste heat? 700W as fanless is pretty impressive. In terms of noise, I agree - PSU fan noise [on decent models] has never been an issue. However, fanless units can be appealing for certain custom rigs where the PSU might be in an awkward place that can't get much breathing room.
