SPCR

I'm looking for a Haswell-ready power supply that does not have a strong smell. I have a lot of allergies, and the smell of the new power supply I bought gives me a headache. It isn't a burning smell like the power supply is overheating. It is a smell from the materials the power supply is made of.

If you have recommendations on what power supplies have the smallest amount of smell, or experiences with power supplies with a strong smell that it would be good to avoid, I'd be interested in hearing about them.

I also want a quiet power supply, if possible, but at this point, I just want something that will power up my computer without giving me a headache.

So far, every painted power supply that I have smelled has been a problem. I sniffed some of the power supplies on the SPCR recommended lists, and every power supply that was black was a problem. So I'm looking only at unpainted power supplies.

Of the unpainted ones, I have smelled these three so far:

Enyle 600W ATX Power Supply
Kingwin ABT-750MM ATX Power Supply
Seasonic SSP-650RT Power Supply

Of those three, the Seasonic SSP-650RT smelled the best to me, so I have been running it continuously with a power supply tester for several days. Unfortunately, the smell is still too strong, and I don't think I will be able to use the power supply at all. I had hoped that the smell would fade after some use.

I can't just transfer the power supply from my old computer from 2003, since it does not have any SATA connections.

Suggestions?

You could use adaptors to get SATA power connectors on your old PSU but this would not fix the Haswell problem.

I think smell is too subjective to get useful suggestions. You could always leave a PSU in a well ventilated area for a few weeks and see if the smell goes away for you.

Welcome to SPCR!
9/10 people use power supplies that are far to powerful. what components do you have in your rig, and what resolution is(are) your monitor(s)?
knowing this info might open up the options for PSU choices.
Maybe its not even paint. maybe its one of the anti oxidation coating applied to the PSU components....?
you could also tear the guts of the PSU out and mount the board bare.... I guess.

It could be the paint...it could also be one of the various petrochemical compounds (plastics, epoxy, wire insulation, etc). Most of that stuff will outgas for a while and then minimal/no smell.

Here are the components of my new computer:

Intel (Haswell Refresh) i7-4790 CPU
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile RAM 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
ASUS BW-16D1HT Internal 16x BDXL Blu-ray Writer
HGST Deskstar 4TB 3.5 inch hard drive
Intel S3500 Series 480GB 6Gb/s Enterprise Solid State Drive

I also plan to add:

BlackMagic Decklink Studio PCI-Express video capture card
RME HDSPE AIO PCI-Express sound card, possibly with the AI4S-192 AIO expansion card for additional inputs

To begin with, I thought I'd use my TV as a monitor, so I have enough pixels to play high definition videos.

Insignia LCD TV NS-L22X-10A 1080p 1920x1080 pixels

I also want the option to add a graphics card in the future, and the option to add two additional SATA hard drives in the future.

I plan to use the computer for sound and video editing, and also for scientific computing. There may be times when I leave it on for a few days while the CPU is fully used, doing a scientific calculation. Rendering video could also take a long time, though probably not as long as the scientific calculations.

I've done some reading on the Haswell issue for power supplies and just realized that I could use a non-Haswell-ready power supply so long as I change the BIOS settings to turn off the Haswell-specific features. So that opens up some more options too, but aside from looking for an unpainted power supply, I'm not sure what else to look for. It's hard to find information on how a power supply smells or what materials are used inside the unit from reading online reviews. I wish there was an Odorless PC Review site. There also seem to be few unpainted power supplies available.

You could use the old PSU and get Molex to SATA adaptors.

Smells can not only come from the paint but comes mostly from the glue, plastic materials and the board inside, so chances are high that a cheap PSU will be made of cheap (and smelly) materials.

General problem with smell is nearly the same as with noise... how quiet is quiet? Does the reviewer say it is quiet, because he thinks it's quiet or is the reviewer referring to something like spcr-quiet?

How smelly is the smell? Difficult because we do not even have a SI unit for "smellyness"...

strangeattractor wrote:I'm looking for a Haswell-ready power supply that does not have a strong smell. I have a lot of allergies, and the smell of the new power supply I bought gives me a headache. It isn't a burning smell like the power supply is overheating. It is a smell from the materials the power supply is made of.

AFAIK, impossible to get.

What you are mostly smelling are component manufacturing fluids and flame-retardants (very poisonous). Yes there are allowed to be use even within the EU (even with the REACH standard).

The best bet is to buy a Used supply that fits your specs. If it's been run 24hour/day for a few weeks with good ventilation, most of the smell should be gone.

The other option is somehow to burn it in for a few weeks in a hotbox - outside or in a ventilated space.

I'm also thinking of how to solve this issue, and the above is the best I've come up with so far.

I'm also thinking of how to solve this issue

there's always SPCR rule number one, from like 2002.... remote locate your computer in another room or closet.

-no smell, no sound (and no overly bright LED's ).

Thank you everyone for the ideas and comments, and keep them coming.

Yes, a SI unit for smellyness would be a big help.

Thank you for the information on the manufacturing fluids and flame retardants. It gives me more insight into the problem, and more keywords to search for. Apple and Dell both say on their websites that they have phased out use of brominated fire retardants, although it's possible they have replaced them with something else similar. As yet, I have not found a manufacturer who makes and sells individual ATX12V power supplies that says that they do not use brominated flame retardants.