Well.... when I mentioned that I was purchasing an ExoticPC SilenX, I was asked to review it and post it here.... so here it is.


This will be a two-part review. I wanted to give my first impressions, as well as a thorough tested review... so this submission is part one. Part two will be posted this weekend right after I build the system and run it through some paces.


So,... on to part one.


I'll preface by telling you my situation. I record music in my own little home-recording studio, and the bane of my recording existence, up until this point, has been the noise that my PC produces. I currently have it in a self-modded "box", padded with foam, just so I can reduce it to semi-acceptable levels while recording... but I wanted it totally silent. Condenser mics can pick up a whisper across the room, and my PC was far from a whisper. Even with the doors shut on its "box", it was still being picked up by my mics.

I was wary about spending a truckload on yet another "silent" PSU, because my last (and current) PSU purchase was an Enermax "Whisper Quiet" which doesn't quite qualify as a "whisper", and was definitely not "quiet". But the folks at Exotic PC informed me that they have a 7 day, 100% refund, satisfaction guarantee on their SilenX PSU's... so I figured, "What the heck."


I took the PSU out of the box and checked it out. Everything looked fine... The mod appeared to have been done well. I didn't notice any amateurish signs of "tampering". The PSU itself is (as they claimed) a Fortron FSP350-60BN. (I'm assuming this is very similar to the Fortron/Verax/Conrad PSU's that were mentioned in the THG review.) The fan is an Ahanix fan, model 825-15-20.

I immediately jumped the 4th and 6th pins and went straight for the outlet.... I plugged it in and didn't hear anything, so I reached for the power switch because I thought it might be off... then as my hand passed by the back of the PSU I felt cold air and realized... uh... it was on. I'll tell you what... this thing is dead freaking silent. I had to put the back of the PSU directly next to my ear just to hear a thing. Even then, all I could detect was a slight mechanical "whirr".

I can tell you that right now I am completely satisfied with the purchase. Once I put this thing in its case, there's no way in hell that I'll be able to hear so much as a decibel out of it. Combine that with the fact that I'm going to use watercooling on all my components, and this should make for a very quiet system.

But I will say that I can't give a thumbs-up to this thing yet, for one reason: I don't know how it will perform under full-load. The amount of air being pushed out the back of the PSU isn't exactly a lot, so they had better have some good architecture and heatsinks goin' on inside that thing for it to stay at acceptable levels at full-load.

So I'm going to hold my recommendation until I can test this thing to my satisfaction... but I will say this... as it stands, this thing has lived up to, and even exceeded, my expectations... I seriously couldn't hear a dang thing while holding the PSU in my hand no more than a foot from my own face... that alone has gotta be worth something. :p


WATYF

I will concur with the review. I purchased the 18dBA 300W model a while back, and recently purchased the 350W and 400W 14dBA models. Both of the 14dBA models are virtually silent when run by themselves, I have to put my ear right up to the fan to hear anything. In my AMD 1400 Tbird system, the 350W model stays silent. In my AMD 2100 Tbird system where case tempuratures are nuclear, the 400W supply does crank the fan up a notch. The air coming out of the PS is noticably warmer. As a result the fan is audible from a couple of feet away. More than 4 feet or so and it is inaudable to me. I think the case being so hot is what is heating up the power supply, not the power supply itself heating up due to excess load. The small amount of noise left is not bothering me enough to mess with it at the moment, but I may tweak things some in the future.

The 14dBA models are definitely quieter than the 18dBA model that I have, so it would seem to be worth the extra money.

Well... as promised... Part Two.


The most CPU intensive application that I have is Pro Tools. On my old system, the temps would climb to 60*C (or higher) after I had been running it for a bit. So obviously, I wanted to know if this thing would be as quiet under the strain of PT as it is at idle. As it stands, my new system (with the SilenX PSU) idles at 30*C (btw, I'm using watercooling).


I loaded up PT and created a session, and then (for a totally different forum) I started performing some stress tests... creating large amounts of tracks with CPU comsuming plug-ins and what not. Anywho... after a while of doing this, I checked out my temps... they were hotter... a whopping 2 degrees hotter. :p Needless to say, the PSU never made a peep. Maybe if I wasn't using watercooling and keeping my temps so low, I could find out how it performs when it gets extremely hot inside the case... but as it stands, I can recommend this PSU (as far as the "silence" factor goes). It hasn't made an audible noise since I fired it up yesterday, and I've been pushing my system ever since I put it together... it's been running all day yesterday and today, and I've been benchmarking, and installing apps, and tweaking it out for 24 hours straight.

In general, I'd recommend trying a combo of this PSU and a watercooling setup, because quite frankly,... I can run my system dead silent now just by shutting off the radiator fans on the watercooling unit. It'll still keep relatively low temps, and it doesn't make a noise (except for the occasional whir of a pump, or din of a HDD.)

Just FYI... here's all the stuff I'm running on the PSU. Seems to be able to handle all this without a problem.


AMD Athlon XP2800+ (T-Bred B)
Asus A7N8X
Koolance PC2-601W Watercooling Case
ExoticPC SilenX 350W PSU
512MB Corsair XMS3200 DDR
128MB Radeon 9700 Pro
Winfast 2000XP TV Tuner
Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax+ 9 8MB cache (System Files)
Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax+ 9 8MB cache (Audio Files)
Pioneer 16X DVD (Slotload..! whoo hoo!!)
Lite-On LTR-52246S 52X CD-RW
Digi001 PCI Digital Audio Interface


WATYF

Thanks for the mini-review WATYF1,

I'm curious to know how it compares to my modded Antec. My Panaflo L1A runs w/o a grill, spaced away from the internal circuitry @ ~5V almost all of the time. If you have a multimeter, could you figure out what voltage your fan is running at?

WATYF1, thanks for the review. I hope Mike C checks this out too sometime.

By the way, you say the Silenx allowed the case to get 2C hotter than your old system. What PSU was in the 'old' system?

korsch... actually... I meant that the system only got 2 degrees hotter than idle while I was running Pro Tools... it was much, much cooler than my old system in every way. But that's mainly due to the watercooling. I'm not saying that this PSU will keep your system cooler. I'm just saying that it has handled full-load and everything I can throw at it, and it still can't be heard from more than a few inches away.


WATYF

Yeah... I noticed that coupon offer when I got the PSU. I may try it out... I can't think of anything else that I need to buy, but if I do, I'll be sure to take advantage of that.


WATYF

Do you know the make and model of the 14dB fan in the silenx? I checked the fans that they sell just as case fans and didn't find one with those specs; they do list a thermally controlled fan that seems fairly low speed (max 25 dB). If they really do have a fan that's quieter than a Panaflo at 12V (and not US$15-20 a pop), I'd sure as hell like to get some.

When comparing to the Panaflo, are you comparing the 60mm 24dB FBA06A12L1A (as written), or the 80mm 21dB FBA08A12L1A (which maybe you meant)?

Just a note of appreciation for the willingness of WATYF and digitalix to take the time to share their experiences - very informative. See the new "Interesting Silenx info" post for newer specs on the 400W unit.

Someone post the pics of the heatsinks inside the 400w or whatever their top of the line 14db is.

By the way why not just buy the sonata case rip out the antec quality PS. And sell or use the case for the same price as a Silenx ?

What I meant was an option to buying a silenx 400w would be to buy a sonata case that includes a Antec True 380S the sonata case and PS are $109 and the silenx 400w is $109. Antec is know for very good power supplies. You could take out the power supply on the sonata and ebay the case or use it. I realize the silenx is quieter, but it would'nt be tough to make the antec quieter. I personally want a black aluminum PS with serial ata power connectors, and there isn't one. To me the benefit of getting a quiet power supply is the possibility of getting better heatsinks inside it. Because I will change the fan anyway. There is the new thermaltake 480w coming out with serial ata and the new zalman 400w, don't know if it has serial ata. I like the looks of the new Zalman fan speed controller also.
http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/zm-mfc1.htm

The silenx does have some nice looking heatsinks

WATYF:

Slightly off-topic: Do like the performance and sound level of those DiamondMax+ drives? I'm looking to either add one or use one to replace my noisy WD800JB. Could you share some experience with the drive?

You didn't ask me, but I'll give you my 2c on the drives... and other stuff mentioned!

Regarding the DiamondMax+ - I just bought about 4 of them (120 Gig) from Costco ($129!). The blurb says they have 'whisper quiet' FDB motors, etc. I also own the Seagate Baraccuda IV 80 Gig, and it is MUCH quieter. Seek noise is especially noticeable in the Maxtor. I'm using them as auxiliary storage, and I really needed cheap drives so they fit that bill, but they are nowhere near the seagate in terms of noise (imho).

Regarding Aluminum cases - I agree they are flimsy. One thing I really like is that they are light - easy to maneuver. I think the 'softness' of the aluminum also greatly helps prevent sound leakage/transmission. But my latest case was a steel case.

Regarding Serial ATA - I'm really looking forward to them so I can locate my drive 'anywhere I want' - parallel cables are obviously limiting due to max length and also physical issues, but even "rounded" parallel cables are a royal pain due to their physical bulk/stiffness. I've heard that rounded cables are actually a problem due to signal issues - by bundling all those wires together, you are bypassing the purpose of the intervening 'ground' wire (in the newer 80-pin ata cables, every other wire is a ground wire, simply shielding the two adjacent data wires). Serial ata wires are thin, flexible, and can be very long (outside the case is what I'm looking forward to!). I've already bought my P4PE asus mobo which has serial ata support. I've heard that serial ata drives will ship with a power connector adapter. I'm going to buy one as soon as I can.

Digitalix - regarding warranty - do you actually 'need' warranty? I would have thought the failure rates, shipping costs, etc would make warranty a waste of time. I have never in my live tried to use warranty on any modern electronic component. But I don't build systems for a living!

Well... I can't quite comment on the performance of the drives at the moment, because I'm having a problem with them, and I'm not sure what the cause is yet...

but yes.. they are noisier than the Seagates. Seeking is very noticeable. Fortuntaly, I'm not so concerned about it, because at idle, they aren't audible. But they do make a decent racket when they're working.

I will admit to you one thing though.... of all the parts I bought in this new setup (which you mentioned above) the only components I'm disappointed in are the HDD's. I had better "luck" with my previous generation Maxtors (D740X).


WATYF

WOW!!! Got my 350 Watt SilenX PSU yesterday, resisted the urge to pop the lid and mess with it in any way, and put it into service. It was FANTASTIC! No noise at all (casual observation). With my hand right up against the grill, I can feel a slight movement of air, and it's not overly warm, so it's not as if they are letting it run too hot.

Now, at this point, this is a new system and the main case is open, and the only adapter card in it is a video card (ati aiw 128). Obviously, when I add cards, close it up, and put it to work, heat will rise and I would expect the PSU to do more and therefore sound more. BUT - all other PSUs (Zalman, SeaSonic, etc) were noisy even at 'no load' and rose from there, so this is definitely progress.

As another aside, my mobo is the new Asus P4PE, with built in SATA, LAN, Sound, USB2 and Firewire - that's why I have no cards but video in my system - may not need to add anything! This does help with heat, obviously. I have a P4 2.4 GHz with Zalman all copper flower heatsink running at min fan, current CPU temp is 39.

Interestingly, if I remove all the front panel drive covers, such that I can see right through to the PSU from the front, I can hear a very slight noise from the PSU; but not from the back of the system. So it's as if the little noise it does produce is aimed at the inside of the case, which is obviously good.

Anyway - it's still early, but this guy gets my vote of approval so far!

Those SilenX almost sound too good to be true! Don't think they are available here in Denmark though

Anyone know if there is a retailer list somewhere?

You know, digitalix, with how much you've been pimping silenx, and the fact that I'd never heard of them before, I was pretty convinced you were a 'guerilla marketer' for ExoticPC. In fact, I'm still somewhat convinced you are. (Joke, man, joke.)

BUT, considering how well they've been received on the forums, and people's good experiences, even if it's true, I'm OK with that. I've been waiting for a Fotron-quality PS to kick the original-model Zalman out of my system. (Bearing chatter... ugh.)

More competition in this space is good, and considering how Antec PS's have a virtual 'mindspace monopoly' at most forums (Ars, HardOCP, etc.) it's nice to see a company come along and better them in every way.

I'll be ordering the 400w today... it's overkill for my XP1800+ now, but hey, I will upgrade soon (maybe even watercool), and the headroom means one less expense later.

sweet bejeesus! good luck to you.

Doesn’t that just figure. I exchanged e-mails with one of the exoticPC guys last week and when I sat down to order a 350 watt this weekend, I noticed that the website no longer had any of the silentx power supplies even listed. I shot off an e-mail that day (which has gone unanswered) and I guess this is why

As I currently have a PC with no Power Supply, a month just isn’t going to cut it . It looks like I have to look elsewhere (sob…). Now what was the next most quiet power supply out there again.

-Euthymic

Yes, very best of luck to all of you at ExoticPC!

For the record, the 400W 14dBA SilenX power supply is the real thing. I've been able to try it out for a little while now, and it truly is the quietest PSU I've ever encountered. It's hard to express how pleasantly surprised I was (and still am) by its performance and silence. It is easily quieter than the various Q-Tech and Nexus PSU's in my several other rigs, by quite a large margin IMO. To everyone who is looking for a truly quiet PSU solution, you really should check out the 400W 14dBA power supply by SilenX when it once again becomes available. Really.

By the way, I'm very curious about a few things now. Can anybody say why Ahanix' acquisition of ColorCase has resulted in the shutdown order for ExoticPC? What will the new company be called, that will be carrying the SilenX brand? Will they have a website, etc? [I would like to begin ordering and using the 14dBA 400W SilenX power supply regularly in all my custom computer builds, now that I've become so convinced after trying it out. My own customers will definitely want the benefits of this quiet and powerful PSU, and several have already expressed their interest...]