SilenX 460W Fanless PSU

johnc · Post by **johnc** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:15 pm

This looks very interesting, though pricey.

Having a fanless PSU is extraordinarily pleasant.

John Coyle

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 8:30 pm

I don't buy it.

1) 460W?

Who are they kidding? At 10 degrees centigrade, maybe. At the temps that prevail in a PC, you'd be lucky to get half that out of this thing IMO. And then for how long?

2) $280? For some aluminum HS, a couple heatpipes and a gloss black paint job?

Sorry, this just looks like more marketing goobledegook.

PS -- I bet they'll never send me a sample to test.

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 8:49 pm

Silenx send you a sample? HA!!!!

I bet Mercedes will send you one first.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:40 am

Maxamus wrote:from all the fanless PSU's this is the one that i most trust.

What do you base your trust on?

AndyP · Post by **AndyP** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:05 am

Maxamus you sound like a vendor, advertising your products. If you are related in any way to Silenx you should make yourself known NOW! There is nothing wrong with vendors posting there opinions of their products if they let readers know they are vendors. There is everything wrong in posing as a user and recommending products. Doing this is THE No1 way to encourage all people on silentpcreview to not trust any of 'your' products.

If you're not related to Silenx could you at least make some attempt to justify your claims about the product.

Andy P

kogi · Post by **kogi** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:03 am

Anyone know what the operating temp is?
The silverstone one is only 0°C~25°C

kogi

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:11 am

AndyP wrote:Maxamus you sound like a vendor, advertising your products. If you are related in any way to Silenx you should make yourself known NOW! There is nothing wrong with vendors posting there opinions of their products if they let readers know they are vendors. There is everything wrong in posing as a user and recommending products. Doing this is THE No1 way to encourage all people on silentpcreview to not trust any of 'your' products.

If you're not related to Silenx could you at least make some attempt to justify your claims about the product.

Andy P

I'll back up his claims. I have many of SilenX's standard 80mm fans and I have had one of their 400 watt PSU's as well. All excellent products. The service I got from them has been good too. I know because of what happened on this board in the past, people might be reluctant to trust SilenX, but I am sick of seeing those that have never tried their products make comments about them.

The 80mm fans I have from them are quieter then any Japanaflo or Papst fan that I own, and you DON'T need to undervolt them to acheive this.

Post by **Rusty075** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:19 am

ok guys, settle down.

No point in making baseless accusations, lets try to keep this on topic.

I don't see anything about that make makes it any better than the myriad of other fanless PSU's that have popped up. If anything I'd pick the ProSilence over that one....at least they've got a couple of years of practice making fanless PSU's. (but even they've not gotten it figured out yet)

And the huge price premium they charge is just silly. Doubling the price just to add a couple of aluminum heatsinks and (maybe) a pair of heatpipes? SilenX PSU's are just rebadged Fortron units anyway. (that's not meant as a disparaging remark, the PSU's from Nexus, Verax ans Zalman are Fortron's as well)

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:37 am

Maxamus wrote:SilenX make quality products

How many fanless PSUs of theirs have you tried?

In fact, how many fan based PSUs of theirs have you tried?

hyperslug · Post by **hyperslug** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 7:03 am

davidstone28 wrote:
Maxamus wrote:SilenX make quality products
How many fanless PSUs of theirs have you tried?

In fact, how many fan based PSUs of theirs have you tried?

I own a one that I can vouch for. Good voltage levels, runs dead silent at boot (My CPU generates plenty of heat to amend this shortly afterwards, though), no problems.

We know that they're really Fortrons so at least they started their life as quality products.

Also MikeC - if his opinions mean anything to you - did a review of a SilenX PSU and lauded their "heavy build quality" IIRC.

Nebor · Post by **Nebor** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:02 pm

Mike, if I were looking at getting this power supply, would you be willing to test it and then send it on to me? As in, I buy it, have it shipped to you, you test it, and ship it to me?

That way we could all know how good they really are.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:08 pm

Can do -- but there's always a risk of burnout -- several PSUs have failed load testing over the last 2 years.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:59 pm

Maxamus wrote:This thread has just turned into something pathetic.
Admin you might aswell delete it.
Waste of time

Cool your booster jets. No need to take everything so personally. I think what people are trying to do, is point out to you that behind the sales spiel that some (or many) of these fanless PSUs, they aren't what they're cracked up (particularly the misleading power ratings) and that there are problems associated with them in general. Have a read of MikeC comments on the main site about fanless PSUs and you'll see what I mean. He's reviewed the odd PSU and most people here reckon he knows what he's talking about

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:57 pm

Maxamus --

Perhaps it is more the tone of some responses than the overt statements that have riled you. It may seem like unwarranted negativism, but there are valid reasons.

My own comments about this particular PSU are based on examinations (including extensive testing on my testbench) of several fanless PSUs from different brands. My conclusions on fanless ATX replacement PSUs are spread all over the PSU forum and summarized here: The Problems w/Fanless ATX PSUs - http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=12452

Then there is the issue of SilenX itself. It may be that this company is making good products. It's origins are certainly dubious. In the beginning...

There was a company called Ahanix, mostly a case importer/distributer in Calif, who started an online shop called ExoticPC. Someone named Peter Kim was apparently left in charge of this little division, which developed a Fortron-variant PSU called SilenX. To market the brand to the SPCR audience, PK signed up in the forums under a half dozen aliases, and for many months, trumpeted the virtues of ExoticPC's SilenX PSUs using these various aliases, often engaging his mutiple aliases in dialogs within the same thread. It was an insidious case of fraudulent marketing, which went on for many months.

Somewhere in the middle of this fiasco, PK had a falling out with his employers Ahanix, and eventually ended up leaving and setting up his on shop selling very similar PSUs -- under the name SilenX. I have no idea of the legal (and other) battles that must lie behind this, but soon, PK's aliases were in the forums viciously dissing not only other PSU makers but especially Ahanix SilenX PSUs -- which are continuing to be made and marketed under that name, AFAIK.

Eventually, overzealousness got the better of PK, and one of the mods became suspicious of the alias's partisan comments. PK was finally exposed. And requested to apologize, leave and never come back.

He did come back under another alias at least once -- and was caught out by now somewhat paranoid forum members. And disappeared again. He is probably still floating about with some other alias.

All this is documented extensively in a couple of threads.
Who is Digitalix? - http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4504
Who is digiX? - http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8791
"Review" of SPCR at Alexis/Amazon... by digitalx?! - http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... t=digitalx

You joined SPCR forums in late March this year -- all this took place a year ago.

Perhaps you can now appreciate some of the attitude behind the comments about SilenX. I hope PK has reformed (tho I have doubts that's possible), and I hope the company treats their customers well, but what I know about them comes from the experience described above. And I know that they now charge Ahanix of having "stolen" the SilenX name, and make public statements to that effect on their web site.

If they wished to get back into the SPCR community in a legitimate way, then I'd think they would have contacted me already with a genuine apology for PK's misadventures with the trust of the people here and samples of new products at the very least. To date, they have not.

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:00 pm

I have a SilenX 300W PSU (not fanless) from SilenX.com

It definitely is a good product, and shipped very quickly.

All of the previous fanless power supplies that came before it from other companies didn't work out so well (from what I've read), so I'm sure that is where a lot of opinions are coming from.

I've been waiting for Antec's Phantom power supply, but now I've stopped waiting. Even if I did get a fanless unit (internal or external), I'd still need to install another fan because my PSU is also my exhaust.

Nebor · Post by **Nebor** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 1:28 pm

Maxamus wrote:im gonner buy it as it gets rlsed here in 4 weeks after talking to one retailer.

My review wount be an honest one in the sence that it will be in a case because i dont have a case.

I gots some mods lined up for it.
Gonner increase the sizes of the side and top vents aswell as any other vents. increase they sizes and make some more vents. This way the hot air inside will escape faster and through more channels and also will allow passive air to circulate and cool the 6 sides.

This way i believe it will stay cool.

The problems that ive read associated with fanless units is that they overheat in cases where there is inadequate cooling and airflow.
This way i'll elimate all of that.
There is some room for mods when its external.

I wouldn't mess with such an expensive PSU that has been designed to run fanless. I'm sure they designed it to run the coolest that it could. And if you mess with it, and it burns up of it's own accord, you'll be screwed for RMA.

And Mike, if it burned up, you could still RMA it. Is it not their fault if their product can't live up to it's specs?

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 1:40 pm

Nebor -- as you wish. I am willing if you are.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:36 pm

josephclemente wrote:I've been waiting for Antec's Phantom power supply, but now I've stopped waiting.

I've been enquiring about that for months with several emails to Antec. The showed one at one of the Comdex shows, absolutely ages ago, but everytime I emailed them since, they kept on saying no definite release date. In the end, I just gave up.

I wonder if the continually postponed release date is due to long term reliability problems under stress? It's interesting that the higher power Phantom has a fan, which kicks in when things get too toasty. If a company with the resources of Antec can't build a totally fanless how power PSU, I wonder who can?

Nebor · Post by **Nebor** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:41 pm

MikeC wrote:Nebor -- as you wish. I am willing if you are.

Actually I'm looking at getting a Cool Current water cooled PSU w/ a Reserator. That way I can have a fanless system. You'd be more than welcome to test that though. Should be getting it in the next month or so.

Nebor · Post by **Nebor** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:42 pm

davidstone28 wrote:
josephclemente wrote:I've been waiting for Antec's Phantom power supply, but now I've stopped waiting.
I've been enquiring about that for months with several emails to Antec. The showed one at one of the Comdex shows, absolutely ages ago, but everytime I emailed them since, they kept on saying no definite release date. In the end, I just gave up.

I wonder if the continually postponed release date is due to long term reliability problems under stress? It's interesting that the higher power Phantom has a fan, which kicks in when things get too toasty. If a company with the resources of Antec can't build a totally fanless how power PSU, I wonder who can?

Maybe they'll include copies of Half Life II with the Phantom!

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 5:07 am

Nebor wrote:Maybe they'll include copies of Half Life II with the Phantom!

Half-Life III might be more accurate