hello everyone, glad to be a new member,bI'd just like to share a few things that happened this weekend...
I just bought a 3700BQE. I have it all gutted, cut out the front fan grille.
Maybe I'll post pics of the car paint later this week in the cases section.
I had to rma the SL350S PSU the first day I brought the case home new, I tried to power it up, and it was DOA. After I tested the new PSU, I decided that I would mod the intake fan grills as seen in your forum. It seemed like a cool thing to do, but I geuss I did it wrong, as I forgot that the heatsinks are live!! Yes the PSU was off and discharged while doing the bending, nearest I can figure though is, one of the vents I bent made contact with the internal h.s., and upon powering up, well..... POP!!!
Crap, I forgot all about live heatsinks. Just be careful people.
I've been building pc's for around 10 years and I'm new to the silent pc approach, my backup case has 7 80mm fans in it!!!
I took her apart, and after cutting the heatshrink off the ceramic inline fuse, I replaced it. But, after powering it up, and making sure nothing was touching this time, it made an even louder pop and I saw a spark near one of the mosfets!! Now it's really dead. Oh well, it's only money. I compare it to when I used to play with cars as a hobby, sometimes you have the mixture too lean and when you hit the nitrous, you have pistons which resemble slugs of aluminum.
You know what? The components inside this lightweight PSU are really chinsy, not at all what I had expected from ANTEC. My old SX1040B case with the 400W Psu is what I have for comparo. It's got huge sinks, a giant transformer almost twice the size of the sl350s, and the two caps look like oil tankers in comparison. I'm GLAD I KILLED the sl350s!
Now I can get a real PSU, like maybe a Noisetaker, or a Fortron, or whatever.
Casuality of war, SL350S
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar
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LANpirate1
- Posts: 7
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LOL!!!!!!! 
A casualty of the War on Noise. hehe.
I actually did something similar a few years ago, when I was a kid--when I was trying to repair an old Kenwood stereo receiver from the early 70's, one of the things I had to was replace the bi-polar power transistors. But in my ignorance, I removed these mica insulators Kenwood had there in the process, and didn't put them back. I was figuring, like many people here at SPCR probably would, "if I leave those out, it might improve the transfer of heat to the heatsinks." Little did I realize of course that the casing on the transistors was actually connected to the BASES OF THE TRANSISTORS!!! (The casing was connected to the bases, while two pins were used for the Emitters and Collectors.) Needless to say, the minute I tried firing up the receiver, I saw a shower of sparks around the heatsink, and I heard a loud POP!!! Luckily, it also blew the fuse, and nothing was seriously damaged, so I then replaced the mica insulators, and all was good.
What this goes to show though is that it is VERY important that when you have a transistor that needs to be cooled that way, it is a good idea to make sure that it is THERMALLY COUPLED TO, and ELECTRICALLY ISOLATED from the heatsink. Either that, or if you insist on having the transistor make direct contact with the heatsink, you'd better make absolutely certain that the heatsink is electrically isolated from everything else.
I'd also like to say though that the size of the heatsinks and capacitors in a PSU is NOT a very good indicator of PSU quality. A 350-watt PSU like the Antec SL350S is obviously not going to NEED as large heatsinks or caps as a 400-watter. But even then, MikeC's recent review of the Enermax Noisetaker is a good example of a higher-powered one that doesn't need such big heatsinks. After all, greater conversion efficiency == less heat that needs to be taken away by heatsinks to begin with. Also, PSUs that have Active PFC typically have only one bulk cap instead of two. Again, that is not an indication of poor quality. In fact, quite to the contrary, it is a sign of a good quality active PFC circuit.
Bottom line: Don't judge the quality of a PSU solely by the size of its heatsinks and caps.
A casualty of the War on Noise. hehe.
I actually did something similar a few years ago, when I was a kid--when I was trying to repair an old Kenwood stereo receiver from the early 70's, one of the things I had to was replace the bi-polar power transistors. But in my ignorance, I removed these mica insulators Kenwood had there in the process, and didn't put them back. I was figuring, like many people here at SPCR probably would, "if I leave those out, it might improve the transfer of heat to the heatsinks." Little did I realize of course that the casing on the transistors was actually connected to the BASES OF THE TRANSISTORS!!! (The casing was connected to the bases, while two pins were used for the Emitters and Collectors.) Needless to say, the minute I tried firing up the receiver, I saw a shower of sparks around the heatsink, and I heard a loud POP!!! Luckily, it also blew the fuse, and nothing was seriously damaged, so I then replaced the mica insulators, and all was good.
What this goes to show though is that it is VERY important that when you have a transistor that needs to be cooled that way, it is a good idea to make sure that it is THERMALLY COUPLED TO, and ELECTRICALLY ISOLATED from the heatsink. Either that, or if you insist on having the transistor make direct contact with the heatsink, you'd better make absolutely certain that the heatsink is electrically isolated from everything else.
I'd also like to say though that the size of the heatsinks and capacitors in a PSU is NOT a very good indicator of PSU quality. A 350-watt PSU like the Antec SL350S is obviously not going to NEED as large heatsinks or caps as a 400-watter. But even then, MikeC's recent review of the Enermax Noisetaker is a good example of a higher-powered one that doesn't need such big heatsinks. After all, greater conversion efficiency == less heat that needs to be taken away by heatsinks to begin with. Also, PSUs that have Active PFC typically have only one bulk cap instead of two. Again, that is not an indication of poor quality. In fact, quite to the contrary, it is a sign of a good quality active PFC circuit.
Bottom line: Don't judge the quality of a PSU solely by the size of its heatsinks and caps.
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LANpirate1
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2004 8:03 pm
- Location: Whitby, Ontario
I forgot to say: welcome to SPCR, btw!! And don't get discouraged by your blown PSU--the journey to silence is a fun one, even if it does have bumps in it. 
I am personally experimenting with PSUs myself, too. I have a Coolmax Taurus CX-350 at the moment, but I will soon be receiving a Fortron FSP400-60PFN to try out as well. I am thinking of putting it into a new system for my mom, depending on how well it performs. But it you want massive heatsinks, that thing has got some of the most massive heatsinks you'll ever see!!
I am personally experimenting with PSUs myself, too. I have a Coolmax Taurus CX-350 at the moment, but I will soon be receiving a Fortron FSP400-60PFN to try out as well. I am thinking of putting it into a new system for my mom, depending on how well it performs. But it you want massive heatsinks, that thing has got some of the most massive heatsinks you'll ever see!!
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LANpirate1
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2004 8:03 pm
- Location: Whitby, Ontario
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NeilBlanchard
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Cleverpower?
Hello:
You might want to consider the Cleverpower PS -- NewEgg.com has 'em for only $35 shipped. 18dbA at idle and 25dbA at full load!
You might want to consider the Cleverpower PS -- NewEgg.com has 'em for only $35 shipped. 18dbA at idle and 25dbA at full load!
i was thinking about that happening when i was modding my sl350s. when i bent the slats near the heatsinks i tried to pull them 'out' as much as possible, and they have a 2-3 mm gap between themselves and the heatsinks.
sorry it didn't turn out well for you
having said that, it's not a totally pos psu, with an l1a swap, bent grills and no rear grill it's running silently and well within temps (and voltage specs)
sorry it didn't turn out well for you
having said that, it's not a totally pos psu, with an l1a swap, bent grills and no rear grill it's running silently and well within temps (and voltage specs)-
NeilBlanchard
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Well -- somebody's got to try it first!
Hello:
Well -- somebody's got to try it first! Okay, I volunteer -- I already ordered one this morning...Radeonman wrote:Don't we have a policy about blindly reading manufacturer's numbers without an official review?
Re: Well -- somebody's got to try it first!
I and many others have been wondering about these PSUs, too!! Please let us know how they are once you've tried it, cause I'm really curious!! I've read a couple reviews now that have consistently complained about low voltage on the 12V rail--that's the main reason I've been hesitant to try one. They do look like an interesting design though. I've also written an email to Sharka Corp, asking them if they could send a sample to SPCR for review, cause I think it clearly merits a full review. (No response yet though.NeilBlanchard wrote:Well -- somebody's got to try it first! Okay, I volunteer -- I already ordered one this morning...
)