My goal: power an uber-PC with a silent (i.e., not quiet) PSU. That means, no fan, no coil noise.
Options:
1 - Buy a 'standard' PSU, and mod it, with huge passive heatsinks, and get rid of the case.
2 - The same standard PSU, but this time watercooled.
3 - Buy a real fanless PSU
Let's consider each option pros and cons
1: standard, passive
(+) easy, riskless
(+) no impact on the watercooling loop
(-) bulky, to say the least. The needed passive heatsinks would be huge.
(-) difficult placement, due to convection -> nothing on top of it...
(-) heavy (must loan a truck to go to LANs)
(-) heatsinks not easy to find (ok i already have them i admit
)
(-) only the MOSFETs will be cooled. If anything else heats up, problems can arise.
2: standard, watercooled
(+) good results with only 1 waterblock
(+) no heat produced
(+) easy placement
(-) adds heat, and restriction to the watercooling loop
(-) difficult mod - extra care needed in WB mounting, insulation etc.
(-) expensive (need 1 waterblock)
(-) only the MOSFETs will be cooled. If anything else heats up, problems can arise.
3: real fanless
(+) the easy way, nothing to do
(+) PSU designed to work this way - no extra hot componentry (coils, etc)
(+) tight box, easy placement
(+) high quality componentry (to produce less heat)
(-) expensive
Weighting all factors, i decided to save money and opt for the solution (3).
Now who are the contenders:
* TK power 300W -> in USA, $300 + shipping
* Deltatronics 360W -> Germany, cannot order it anymore (??)
* RSG Electronics 300W -> Germany, 210 euro + shipping
Obvously i'll head to the RSG Elec one.
I am in email contact with them, they told me it's available now !
I then looked at the PSU datasheet:
http://www.rsg-electronic.de/en/date...CP300Wvorl.pdf
As this PSU wouldnt handle my complete setup, I'll power the CDRW+CDROM+2 HDDs block with a *separate* PSU.
That means providing them 12V and 5V.
Here are the power requirements:
Code:
Device 12v 5v comments
Cheetah 10K6 0.98A 0.97A power idle=9W
IBM 18ES 2A 0.75A power idle=6.9W
UltraPlex 1.7A 0.8A
Yamaha (1A?) (0.8A?) writing=11W
i can also power the rad fan:
PAPST 4412 N/2GL -> 1.25W / 12V (0.11A)
counting 11W for the yamaha on both 12V and 5V, and taking a security margin, i have:
12V: 67.4W -> ~70W
5V: 23.75W -> ~25W
So, again at RSG Elec we have:
* for the 12V, the LEA100F - it can endure the current rush at HDD startup and has active PFC.
* for the 5V, either the LDA30F or the S40
Here's a list of prices (per 1 unit) they sent me:
Code:
RCP300W 1pc. EUR 209,50 approx. 4-5 weeks
LEA100F-12-RS 1pc. EUR 94,98 approx. 3-4 weeks
LDA30F-5-S 1pc. EUR 49,99 approx. 3-4 weeks
S40-5 1pc. EUR 29,98 approx. 3-4 weeks
the '-R' means 'remote start', and the 'S' means 'with enclosure'
The S40 is more bulky than the LDA30F. The specs are there:
http://www.rsg-electronic.de/en/datenblatt/s40.pdf
http://www.rsg-electronic.de/en/datenblatt/lda30f.pdf
The LDA is more protected, and has greater precision. The S40 has 10% tolerance which is too much to my taste.
I'll then take the RPC + LDA30F + LEA100F total=355 euro for 430W of fanless PSU ! Not so bad, compared to the TK Power 300W ($300 + shipping from the US..)
(i'll check the price for the LEA75F-12-RS to see if i can save a few euro)
I'll order the stuff in December if i have some money left. Either way i'll get nothing before 2003... I'll keep you updated.