are 300+W fanless power supplies reliable?

what are the issues with them?

if they have quality issues, does it effect the life of the motherboard and associated components?

have any tests been done? or anybody have experience using one and how long?

The Seasonic x 650 is in effect fanless at 300 watts.

Silverstone Nightjar ST45NF

I have this. THis thing rocks the party

how long have your systems lasted with the power supply you recommend?

aside from that question, you should check voltages with a multimeter. 'cos i'm pretty sure that if the multimeter picks up the voltages not being steady and right, then that's not a good power supply.

Under what conditions would you get the nightjar when this is available and runs without a fan under 300 watts:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Seasonic_X650
It is 100% fully modular. It runs with no fan under 300 watts. It has built in over heating protection. It has more reserve capacity. It costs less. Is more readily available.

Though even with all that reserve, if you are running a silent system, when are you going to need even 200 watts?

Well I run a silent system and I need 200 watts to power my system. It's almost all used by my Videocard however. (Which comes stock fully passive)

From what I've read fanless power supplies are pretty crap. The tiniest bit of airflow provides much more cooling than convection.
IMHO its better to just get an efficient PSU with a big fan, and mod the fan if necessary to spin slower. But you need to know what you're doing. If you're not an expert don't play with your power supply. You may die. Not joking. They can store enough power to kill even after they're unplugged.

I have an Antec Phantom from a while ago now.

If I were to buy a PSU today it'd be the enermax 87+ 500W as I still have fans in my system running at > 300rpm (550rpm). The only reason I didn't go seasonic or something back then is the PSU would have been louder than the rest of my system.

Fanless is cool but doesn't really make sense unless you eleminate all the fans.

I heard some rumors from a Chinese local forum that at Computex 2010 (June 1~5) Seasonic will come with X-series second generation:

For silent running - X-Series-Fanless 400 and 460W <<<
For performance and efficiency enthusiast - X-Series 560, 660, 760 and 850W
For high-end and gaming application - X-Series 1000 and 1200W

I don't quite trust it but it's really promising for the new arrival Computex.

You don't want a fanless but a semi-fanless imo like the Nesteq ASm X-Zero see here problem is it's 700w.

Currently i have the Zalman Zm600 see here which is semi-fanless in a way (heat pipe + fan) except i can't regulate the fan nor does it complety stop.

This one makes the whole "rumor" look stupid - what would be the point of replacing the already existing 650W and 750W versions with 660 and 760W ? None, zero, nada.

Though it sounds ridiculous, the rumor becomes true today and it's really good news for silencers, I don't know how to post images in this forum, and just post a Chinese URL with pictures here (search X-400 in your browser):

http://www.chiphell.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=95089&extra=page%3D1