I want to try and make everything in my system passive, so I'll probably drop my CPU back to stock speeds. Shouldn't be a problem then, and I want to get the X-460 as well since it has more headroom.

I'm not at all surprised that the Zen (aka Silentmaxx) failed. I had two, and they both failed under prolonged (read months), but non-stress use.

There are two water cooled PSUs available as well:
Innovatek: http://www.webshop-innovatek.de/shop/Wa ... Netzteile/
Koolance: http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/p ... uct_id=911

I'm running on a SilentMaxx 500W water cooled psu from the ATX 1.3 era. It powers my 65nm 2.5 ghz Opteron & NV260gtx quite adequately. ( I think it is no loger available. When I first plugged it in it made more coil whine than any other electical device I've ever heard, like scare you to be in the room with it. But it quieted down nicely.)

My interest in these 800 and 1000 watt atx 2.x water cooled PSUs is a matter of window shopping & dydreaming these days. But if you could get a hold of them and review them to your standards it would make a good read.

It'll never happen. Requires WC system & way too much work -- we're totally uninterested, as is 99% of the market.

Can't see the point myself unless it suddenly becomes 2003 again.

The noise of a slow turning 120mm fan may well be quieter than the noise of fluid running through the internals of a PSU which already spoils the point rather before you even consider that the noise of the hardware required to pump and dissipate the heat from the water which will be running all of the time, independant upon load unlike a modern fan cooled PSU which will ramp down or even stop the fan at low load.

Make that 99.99% of the market not being interested.

Good review, but still left me at a loss. I'm not sure if I can use the SeaSonic X-400 in my i3 HTPC without any fans?

I'm at a loss on how you expect anyone to answer this question. Do you mean a system w/o any fans?

The X400 will keep itself cool enough -- cooling the rest is up to the case, heatsinks, config, fans, etc. Whether you can do this fanlessly depends on the details. Perfection -- of a silent pc -- is in the details. You have provided none for anyone to be able to comment.

I haven't built my HTPC yet. I've been quite confused. My old VCR and DVD player do not need fans. My Media Center Extender doesn't need fans either. I can't remember, but I don't think TiVo needed fans, or perhaps it's just silent. But when I read about building an HTPC, noise and heat becomes a topic.

I've been hoping to build a silent HTPC that shouldn't be too different than TiVo or a laptop in terms of heat or noise. I was figuring on a fanless PSU, and a fanless case...because....that would be 100% silent. It is perhaps naive of me.

Here's the link on my post requesting advice: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=61827

Thanks,
Jake