Fortron vs Seasonic

snaimpally · Post by **snaimpally** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 11:06 pm

Yes this is what I really meant when I, late at night, inadvertently posted 'fortron vs sparkle'.

Doesn't this sound like a Godzilla movie? Seasonic - a sea creature emitting sonic waves that destroy everything they hit. Fortron - a creature writing software using variable names like N and M for integers ... never mind!

Looking for any info on whether the Fortron/Sparkle PSUs are quieter than Seasonic and if so which specific models ...

snaimpally · Post by **snaimpally** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 8:55 pm

I'm basically trying to find a PSU that is cheap ($30) and quiet. I sent an email to Fortron to make their PSUs available to SPCR for review and to advertise on SPCR. If you want to help, send them an email as well. Send to:
[email protected]
Danielle is Inside Sales manager at Fortron/Source in Fremont.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:52 am

http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewtopic.php?t=3794

Check out the above link, A very quiet Seasonic PSU for only $29 from new egg.

dgouldin · Post by **dgouldin** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 12:01 pm

Sorry if I am going off on a tangent of the original intent of this thread, but I wanted to post the email I sent Fortron. Hopefully it'll be helpful to others who want to write a similar email:

I am a forum member and avid reader of SilentPCReview (http://www.silentpcreview.com), and I have recently discovered your P300XFPN power supply. I have to say that I am EXTREMELY impressed with it's cooling ability at low noise levels, and I think it would be a perfect candidate for a review at SilentPCReview. This is a rapidly growing website and the best I have found on low to no noise computer solutions. I would really love to see SPCR review this great power supply. Keep up the good work!!

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 2:19 pm

Good email. I'll write one to them tonight as well.

Tom P · Post by **Tom P** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:25 pm

Back to the important stuff, namely the Godzilla movie concept. Maybe you could have left Sparkle or SparklePower in there. Sounds a bit feminine; she could be the female monster that Forton and Seasonic fight over...and her weapon could be cheezy halloween-type sparklers shooting out from her fingertips, though that might hurt the power supply marketing tie-in.

sundog29 · Post by **sundog29** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:24 pm

Based solely on posts here, I snagged a Seasonic 400. And later a SilenX 400/14. One of each, and no regrets.

snaimpally · Post by **snaimpally** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 9:28 pm

Newegg is a great place (or bad depending on how you look at it). I ordered a Seasonic for $29 with free fedex shipping. Since I currently have a Nexus in one of my computers and the Seasonic will go in another, I'll be able to get some idea of their relative noise levels.

Seasonic vs Nexus vs Fortron-Sparkle

I'm thining someone with a video camera could put pipe cleaners on the PSU wires and do a little animated battle a la Godzilla.

The fact that Fortron is sold by www.silentpc.de is a good endorsement for me that it must be quiet. I hope FSP sends a few review units to SPCR.

Radioactive · Post by **Radioactive** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:01 pm

I ordered the Fortron 300 watt P300-60ATV from newegg for $31 to replace my antec smartpower 300 watt 303xp a couple of weeks ago. I am slightly dissapointed. The unit is extremely loud compared to the antec. Last week i cut out the metal grill hoping to reduce the high pitch whining buzz and noise, but it didn't do anything. A couple of days ago, I removed the stocked Yate Loon D80BH-12(2900rpm 33cfm 35db) fan and replace it with a panaflo L1 hoping it might reduce the noise. It helped a little, but still not enough to reduce the odd noise. It seems that the air moving through the components inside is making the noise. With the panaflo, the psu also runs extremely hot. The vairable controller inside the psu seems to put adjust the fans from 7 volt to 12 volt. I suspect my antec 303xp had 5v to 12v, so when the fan was at 5v it was quietier. The Fortron does have more stable 3,5,12V and and provides more watts allowing me to overclock higher than before.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:34 am

Radioactive wrote:I ordered the Fortron 300 watt P300-60ATV from newegg for $31 to replace my antec smartpower 300 watt 303xp a couple of weeks ago. I am slightly dissapointed. The unit is extremely loud compared to the antec. Last week i cut out the metal grill hoping to reduce the high pitch whining buzz and noise, but it didn't do anything. A couple of days ago, I removed the stocked Yate Loon D80BH-12(2900rpm 33cfm 35db) fan and replace it with a panaflo L1 hoping it might reduce the noise. It helped a little, but still not enough to reduce the odd noise. It seems that the air moving through the components inside is making the noise. With the panaflo, the psu also runs extremely hot. The vairable controller inside the psu seems to put adjust the fans from 7 volt to 12 volt. I suspect my antec 303xp had 5v to 12v, so when the fan was at 5v it was quietier. The Fortron does have more stable 3,5,12V and and provides more watts allowing me to overclock higher than before.

Here is a tip to reduce noise, believe me it will be quieter. First thing you could do is mount the Panaflo L1A outside of your PSU. You may have to cut or bend some of the metal on the back of your case, but it really depends on your situation. I had a 7v Panaflo inside the PSU and it was suprisingly loud, this is because there is a lot of components such as the Heatsinks, capacitors, wires etc are too close to the inlet side, you should allow atleast 1 inch from its path. A blockage like this on the inlet side will cause more noise than on the exhaust side. Try this first, then you could aslo try decoupling the fan by mounting not with screws, rather with rubber grommets or something soft.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 11:47 am

Hello:

Radioactive wrote:I ordered the Fortron 300 watt P300-60ATV from newegg for $31 to replace my antec smartpower 300 watt 303xp a couple of weeks ago. I am slightly dissapointed. The unit is extremely loud compared to the antec.

It's too bad that you didn't get the Fortron P300XFPN 300W for $32 instead -- it is very quiet!

Radioactive · Post by **Radioactive** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 3:24 pm

ez2remember,

took your advice and mounted the panaflo on the outside. Without any good way of fastening the fan on, I had to use alot of thick copper wires and electrical tape to do the trick. I was lazy to drill holes on the case because the metal dust might will everywhere. The system temps are a couple of degress cooler and the cpu is 1 degree cooler too. The components inside this particular fortron psu really are too close to the fan, blocking the airflow and creating noise. So mounting the fan outside improves the airflow.

It's too bad that you didn't get the Fortron P300XFPN 300W for $32 instead -- it is very quiet!

Just how quiet are we talking about?
12V panaflo l1 is still loud" to me.

Gekkani · Post by **Gekkani** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 10:35 pm

Well, about Fortron PSUs .. The 400w model with Active PFC.. I think that it needs a very very little airflow to work without problems.

I say this due to this pic:

For the love of god, look at those FAT heatsinks!

Its amazing IMO.

The model is FSP 400-60PFN

[/img]

Radioactive · Post by **Radioactive** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 11:21 pm

HOLY ****

my 300 watt fortron looks like a aluminium foil compared to that!

Gekkani · Post by **Gekkani** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 12:03 am

Radioactive wrote:HOLY ****

LOL

I said the same when I saw that pic for first time

Gekkani · Post by **Gekkani** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 12:39 am

Ahmmmm

hehe... guys look at this:

Fortron 400w (same model, another pic)

Zalman 400w

Its me or is the zalman PSU just a fortron painted?

At least it looks pretty much the same.

Hey look at the fan and power button too:

Fortron

Zalman

LMAO

Doomer · Post by **Doomer** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 8:54 am

Actually Fortron, Nexus and Zalman 400w models all look like the same. And I bet they are all made by FSP=Fortron Sparkle Power.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 9:17 am

Wow, these look nice. Thanks for the pics. Are the cables long enough for your setup?

Oh, and I agree. The Fortron and the new Zalman do look alike to me. But keep in mind that I'm a newbie so I haven't seen the inside of any PSUs outside of these forum pics.

wmgriffith · Post by **wmgriffith** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 2:15 pm

I've lurked here for a while, and I thought I'd share the results of the purchase I made having considered the posts in this forum.

I purchased a Fortron 350W "noise-killer" power supply from Directron at http://www.directron.com/fsp35060bn.html. It's a variable speed fan that is virtually silent under idle conditions. Under heavy load and higher temperatures, the fan will speed up until it determines the slow speed is again OK.

When spinning fast, the fan is quite loud. I opened it to find an NMB 12V 0.3A fan which I replaced with a Panaflo L1A 12V 0.1A hydro-wave bearing fan (also bought from Directron). A soldering iron was required, but the fan power is wired into a small daughterboard that is relatively easy to reach. Now, I don't hear it ever, really, and the power supply exhaust doesn't feel particularly warm even though I can certainly tell there is less airflow.

Slightly off-topic, but to put this into context: this PS is in a coolcases.com modified D8000 case with the stock 120mm fans at 7V, and there is another L1A at 12V close-coupled to a Thermalright SK-7 heatsink. Now the dominant noise with the covers on is from the two 120mm fans. The noise is a tiny whirr, though, compared to my old Enlight case with Vantec 80mm Stealth fans at 12V.

I considered the 120mm-fan containing Forton that you can find at newegg, but didn't get it because it's only 300W and I wasn't sure about the direction of the airflow (usually a single, non-back mounted fan blows into the case).

So, thanks to everyone for their advice and I hope this contributes in some way.

snaimpally · Post by **snaimpally** » Sun Mar 30, 2003 10:24 pm

Those heatsinks are absolutely massive! How quiet is that sucker (400W)?

snaimpally · Post by **snaimpally** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:53 pm

How did you do that plexiglass blue cover for the 400W Fortron PSU?

Gekkani · Post by **Gekkani** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:46 pm

Uhh.... hold on hold on ..

That 400w Fortron is NOT my PSU. Its just a pic that I found somewhere in the cyberspace

(dont remember where)

So.. wedge... I dont know.. sorry.

And snaimpally ...mmm.. some moddin shops sells that PSU covers

For example here. At the end of the page.

Fortron vs Seasonic

Fortron vs Seasonic

cheap and quiet

Fortron AND Seasonic

newegg

Fortron P300XFPN 300W

Fortron 400

Gekkani - clear PSU cover