Seasonic S12 REV.A2 really QUIET as they say?

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:42 am

A friend of mine managed to test 6 samples of Seasonic S12, 3 500W and 3 600W.
He stated that REV.A1 was extremely quiet, while REV.A2 was only "quite quiet", that's because there is a persistant low frequency noise (very low, from 1 mt it disappears), due to some electrical interfecences inside the PSU. Seasonic told him that was a defective unit, but the PSU they gave from RMA had the same issues (another REV.A2).
For the ones who remember, this is pretty similiar to what happened with the first Tagan series (that strange coil noise).
The only choice he got was buying an old REV.A1.

Some one could verify this?
Is it true, or that was only a batch of unlucky Seasonic?

I was going to buy one of these, but now I am not so sure about, chances of getting a REV.A2 are pretty high.
I got a terrible experience with Tagan, I'm not willing to repeat that with Seasonic.

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:30 pm

Im also in the market for the 500W so would love to know if its true or not.

djnotepad · Post by **djnotepad** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:59 pm

same here, but i already ordered one and its on its way

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:33 pm

hey everyone has one of these, but nobody can help?

RV8C · Post by **RV8C** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:18 pm

I switched from an S12-430 (first revision) to the S12-500 RevA2. As far as I can tell, no low frequency noise. Also, there was no increase in any noise whatsoever going from the 430 to the 500, but that's probably because the Nexus 120mm (going at 12v) drowns out any other wind noise. BTW, my case is the P180, so maybe that blocks off some of the noise as well??

Cheers

mickey4paws · Post by **mickey4paws** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:39 am

I just received my S-12 500W and will hopefully be installing it this weekend, and will let you know. Mine is rev. A2.

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:26 pm

Is V2.0 same as A2?

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:29 pm

If you can't hear it @ 1m, what's the problem? Is your case closer than 1m?

Also, my experience with the A1 revision of the 500/600W models was not good. With the samples that I saw, the A2 was a signficant improvement over the A1.

Note that I am talking about the 500/600W models, the 430W models and below had a very slight increase in noise across the revision change.

Also, I have a bone to pick with your terminology. No fanned power supply is truly "Silent" (produces no noise). At best, they are "Quiet" (produces little noise). The S12s are the quietest fanned power supplies on the market, but they are not silent.

With a slighly looser interpretation, "silent" can sometimes mean "below the ambient noise", in which case there may be some circumstances where the S12 is silent. But, as a general statement it's still false to call it silent without qualifying your statement because that usage is dependent on a specific environment.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:21 pm

Well, Devonavar started it and I will continue on the same subject... Blame him if you disagree!

I can't understand why many people say "it was silent before, but now it's even more silent". That doesn't make sense!

Wouldn't it make sense to say in that context "more quieter" or "it was inaudible at 2m before, now it's inaudible at 1m".

Just funny reading "My new fan is more silent than my stock fan was". What happens when it gets more silent time after time, does it create a sound sucking vortex?

Edit: I'm not ranting about the users in this thread, just in general

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:51 pm

With a slighly looser interpretation, "silent" can sometimes mean "below the ambient noise",

Wow, that is one loose interpretation! Going by that definition a jackhammer is "silent" if you're standing next to a jet taking off. I think defining 0dB as "silence" would be a sensible stance.

Wouldn't it make sense to say in that context "more quieter"

No, because it's gramatically incorrect!

Watch out, spelling police about! If someone wants to say a new component produces less noise than their old one they should say it is "much quieter [than my old one]". However, since no-one listens to me about anything, least of all language, looks like it's just you and me to join the grammar police!

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 5:01 pm

Devonavar wrote:If you can't hear it @ 1m, what's the problem? Is your case closer than 1m?

It is (and even if it wasn't, I'm not willing to have a "quiet PC only if you stay 1mt away from it).
But, even if it wasn't, my Zalman does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE at all. So I want another PSU that does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE at all, since it is possibile.
Simple.

Also, my experience with the A1 revision of the 500/600W models was not good. With the samples that I saw, the A2 was a signficant improvement over the A1.

Can you tell my why?

Tell us about your experience.
BTW, the only difference from A1 to A2 is the ability to power up (without problems.. or so) on DFI ultra-D m/bs... Nobody else noticed these improvements you are talking about.

Note that I am talking about the 500/600W models, the 430W models and below had a very slight increase in noise across the revision change.

ok but that's not the point
I do not care about fan noise (ehr..I care.. but I'm not talking about it, now).
I'm talking about a "BZZZING" electrical noise (impossible to eliminate).

Also, I have a bone to pick with your terminology. No fanned power supply is truly "Silent" (produces no noise). At best, they are "Quiet" (produces little noise). The S12s are the quietest fanned power supplies on the market, but they are not silent.

They are not, if they make that "BZZZING" electrical sound.

Aleksi wrote:Well, Devonavar started it and I will continue on the same subject... Blame him if you disagree!

I do.

I can't understand why many people say "it was silent before, but now it's even more silent". That doesn't make sense!

Maybe it doesn't make sense for you.
For me, and here in Italy (and in France, Switzerland, Germany, etc), it makes sense ("silent" is used to describe everything about quiet computing, not only "a thing you are unable to hear").

Wouldn't it make sense to say in that context "more quieter" or "it was inaudible at 2m before, now it's inaudible at 1m".
Just funny reading "My new fan is more silent than my stock fan was". What happens when it gets more silent time after time, does it create a sound sucking vortex?
Edit: I'm not ranting about the users in this thread, just in general

With a slighly looser interpretation, "silent" can sometimes mean "below the ambient noise", in which case there may be some circumstances where the S12 is silent. But, as a general statement it's still false to call it silent without qualifying your statement because that usage is dependent on a specific environment.

bla bla bla

Read that this way:
Seasonic S12 REV.A2 really QUIET?
Happy now?
SILENT/QUIET, that wasn't the point, just a stupid mistake from a non-English guy (I didn't think there was such a maniacal attention to grammar details).
-_-

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:58 am

my Zalman does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE at all. So I want another PSU that does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE

Is there a reason why you can't simply get another Zalman? (I presume you are taking about the Zalman 400W ZM400B-APS PSU?)

I'm talking about a "BZZZING" electrical noise (impossible to eliminate).

Certain combinations of components interact with PSU's to produce coil buzz; I'll give you an example. I have a Fortron Zen fanless PSU, and it is silent (no coil buzz) when I use it with my HTPC. However when I use it to power my main computer it makes a noise like a swarm of bees. It's just something about my main PC setup which makes it make that noise; it doesn't buzz all the time, only when it is combined with certain components (or certain combinations of components); I'm sure the same is true for the Seasonic. If you've had good experiences with the Zalman PSUs it would make sense to stick with that product as it obviously works well with your setup.

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:49 am

MiKeLezZ wrote:hey everyone has one of these, but nobody can help?

yeah, its very sad that no one answers your question while most ppl here own S12. All they did was to fill your thread with offtopics.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:34 am

yeah, its very sad that no one answers your question while most ppl here own S12

Yes, but how many people do you think have owned BOTH a Rev. A1 and Rev. A2? And do you really think if lots of people had this buzzing problem the S12 would be SPCR's top recommended fanned PSU?

All they did was to fill your thread with offtopics.

My last post in this thread was CERTAINLY not off-topic. My previous one was, but I was correcting Aleksi. Maybe I should have taken it to PM, but it's not my problem if no-one else is experiencing the buzzing issue this guy is talking about; like I said, him and his friend are probably just unlucky in their combination of components, and seeing as he already knows the Zalman ZM400B doesn't buzz with his setup, what's the gripe?

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:37 pm

jaganath wrote:
my Zalman does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE at all. So I want another PSU that does NO -ELECTRICAL- NOISE
Is there a reason why you can't simply get another Zalman? (I presume you are taking about the Zalman 400W ZM400B-APS PSU?)

lol.. do you really want an answer

I'm talking about a "BZZZING" electrical noise (impossible to eliminate).
Certain combinations of components interact with PSU's to produce coil buzz; I'll give you an example. I have a Fortron Zen fanless PSU, and it is silent (no coil buzz) when I use it with my HTPC. However when I use it to power my main computer it makes a noise like a swarm of bees. It's just something about my main PC setup which makes it make that noise; it doesn't buzz all the time, only when it is combined with certain components (or certain combinations of components); I'm sure the same is true for the Seasonic. If you've had good experiences with the Zalman PSUs it would make sense to stick with that product as it obviously works well with your setup.

That makes sense, but all those people have different setup... and is not normal to make such a sound (Seasonic told him to RMA the unit

).

jaganath wrote:Yes, but how many people do you think have owned BOTH a Rev. A1 and Rev. A2? And do you really think if lots of people had this buzzing problem the S12 would be SPCR's top recommended fanned PSU?

They don't need to. I'd know only if they have that noise, too...

All they did was to fill your thread with offtopics.
like I said, he and his friend are probably just unlucky in their combination of components

1° guy: 600W REVA1 no noise
600W REVA2 noise
600W REVA2 noise (lesser)
600W REVA1 no noise
2° guy: 500W REVA1 no noise
3° guy: 500W REVA2 noise (lesser)
4° guy: 600W REVA2 noise
5° guy: 500W REVA1 no noise
I will investigate on their setup...

and seeing as he already knows the Zalman ZM400B doesn't buzz with his setup, what's the gripe?

Maybe I don't want it anymore?
Maybe this strange thing need to be well-know? (REV.A2 is only 1-2 months old, and in fact, nobody reported any problems with the old REV.A0 and REV.A1).
Maybe I'm going to buy one of these, and I don't want that f*****g noise?

So.. if you own a REV.A2, tell us if you can hear an electrical coil noise from inside the PSU!

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:02 pm

There are 3-4 rev A2 S12s in the lab. AFAIK, they have never made any electrical noise no matter what combination of components we hooked them up to.

The first gen of S12-500/600 had a noisier Yate Loon ball bearing fan. The A2 has a much nicer Adda fan that's closer to the noise of the lower power, quieter S12s.

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:37 am

MikeC wrote:There are 3-4 rev A2 S12s in the lab. AFAIK, they have never made any electrical noise no matter what combination of components we hooked them up to.

The first gen of S12-500/600 had a noisier Yate Loon ball bearing fan. The A2 has a much nicer Adda fan that's closer to the noise of the lower power, quieter S12s.

Thanks, I trust you more.
They are 600W or 500W?
I only fear that coil noise (bad experience with Tagan), not the fan one. I simply can't live with it.

djnotepad · Post by **djnotepad** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:17 am

just got my seasonic in. can't hear any buzzing even with the case open

mickey4paws · Post by **mickey4paws** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:42 pm

I also just installed my Seasonic (500w) and it's super quiet. I can't hear a thing from it.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:03 pm

After reading this post, I was nervous installing my new S12-330 last week. And sure enough when I installed it, it was VERY quiet, except for a small buzzing sound that I could only hear when I was very close <.5m with the side panel off. After stopping the fans in my system indivdually, I realized that the sound was coming from my Zalman CNPS-7000B-AlCu fan and not the PSU. With my Tricool and Zalman fan off, I couldn't even hear the fan in the S12!!!

Now my system is so quiet the only sound I can hear in a dead silent room is the hard drive grind (not too bad since it's suspended), but that's a very low grumble that's nearly impossible to hear even during a quiet movie scene. Final step is maybe some foam for the case and the HDDs and/or some adhesive floor tiles to remove any remaining resonance in my SLK3000B. For a wild story (to me anyway) on quieting VGA devices read my other post here.

patord · Post by **patord** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:46 pm

As far as I remember, the two main diffs from A1 to A2 are
1. switch to Al caps
2. switch from sleeve bearing (a1) to ball bearing fans (a2)

I have both revs for the S12-500. The A2 to me is different in terms of the outbound airflow acoustics and every so slight bearing chatter. I do not notice any coil noise in my rev a2 ones.

Note that I also own the older SS400's and those are just a tad quieter due to their use of sleeve bearing fans and non Al caps.

MiKeLezZ wrote:A friend of mine managed to test 6 samples of Seasonic S12, 3 500W and 3 600W.
He stated that REV.A1 was extremely quiet, while REV.A2 was only "quite quiet", that's because there is a persistant low frequency noise (very low, from 1 mt it disappears), due to some electrical interfecences inside the PSU. Seasonic told him that was a defective unit, but the PSU they gave from RMA had the same issues (another REV.A2).
For the ones who remember, this is pretty similiar to what happened with the first Tagan series (that strange coil noise).
The only choice he got was buying an old REV.A1.

Some one could verify this?
Is it true, or that was only a batch of unlucky Seasonic?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:38 am

I also own the older SS400's and those are just a tad quieter due to their use of sleeve bearing fans and non Al caps.

Does the type of capacitor have any effect on the quantity or quality of noise emitted?

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:37 am

Thanks to you all guys.
Yesterday I ordered a S12 600W (122€).
My fingers are crossed!

oguzokay · Post by **oguzokay** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:04 pm

Hi'
I'm planning to buy a Seasonic S12. Even it is declared as the quitest fanned psu, I'm sure it will be noisy in my system. So I'm planning to change its fan with a 18db 12cm Papst which runs at 1200 RPM max. Can anybody tell me will this work or not?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:09 pm

I'm planning to buy a Seasonic S12. Even it is declared as the quitest fanned psu, I'm sure it will be noisy in my system

Why is that? Is the rest of your system totally passive (fanless)? Don't you have hard drives?

I'm planning to change its fan with a 18db 12cm Papst which runs at 1200 RPM max. Can anybody tell me will this work or not?

It will "work", as in the fan will spin and will be controlled by the Seasonic fan control circuit (if you plug it into the PSU fan header) but whether it will be quieter than the stock fan.....the most common fan swap with an S12 is the Nexus 120mm.

oguzokay · Post by **oguzokay** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:26 pm

My system(CPU,GPU,NB,HDD) is passively watercooled by Innovatek. There are no case fans at all. HDD is enclosured as well as watercooled by Innovatek HDD Pro so it is not a concern. (HDD Pro absorbs most of the noise caused by HDD)

Pabst fan that I'm deciding to buy is stated as 18db@1200 rpm at 12 volt by the manufacturer. What I'm worried about is the overheating issue. I'm not sure that fan will sufficiently cool the Seasonic S12. I wonder if anyone here has experienced such modification with a lov db Pabst fan.

there are two options for me. Either buying a Silentmaxx Semifanless 450 watt psu(rated 12db max) or buying a Seasonic S12 and modifying its fan with a very low db pabst fan. Silentmaxx is way so expensive and I have some concerns with its reliability.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:59 pm

oguzokay wrote:My system(CPU,GPU,NB,HDD) is passively watercooled by Innovatek. There are no case fans at all. HDD is enclosured as well as watercooled by Innovatek HDD Pro so it is not a concern. (HDD Pro absorbs most of the noise caused by HDD)

Pabst fan that I'm deciding to buy is stated as 18db@1200 rpm at 12 volt by the manufacturer. What I'm worried about is the overheating issue. I'm not sure that fan will sufficiently cool the Seasonic S12. I wonder if anyone here has experienced such modification with a lov db Pabst fan.

there are two options for me. Either buying a Silentmaxx Semifanless 450 watt psu(rated 12db max) or buying a Seasonic S12 and modifying its fan with a very low db pabst fan. Silentmaxx is way so expensive and I have some concerns with its reliability.

Whatever happened to trying it out before modding it? Worry about whether there will be noise first before worrying about what to swap the fan with. You may end up being pleasantly surprised.

oguzokay · Post by **oguzokay** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:25 pm

Whatever happened to trying it out before modding it? Worry about whether there will be noise first before worrying about what to swap the fan with. You may end up being pleasantly surprised.

I want dead silence man, not a quiet PSU. For instance, I got very irritated with a Panaflo L1A which is declared 21 db by its manufacturer.
18db@1200 rpm seems to be dead silence in theory at least.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:20 pm

oguzokay wrote:
Whatever happened to trying it out before modding it? Worry about whether there will be noise first before worrying about what to swap the fan with. You may end up being pleasantly surprised.
I want dead silence man, not a quiet PSU. For instance, I got very irritated with a Panaflo L1A which is declared 21 db by its manufacturer.
18db@1200 rpm seems to be dead silence in theory at least.

Panaflo has never been considered silent at 12v. There's also quality to the noise in addition to actual noise level (i.e. a 21dB woosh is way better than a 21dB tick).

But anyways I digress from the point I was getting at, which is that I think you'll be wasting time and money by considering a fan swap for your S12. Especially with a hit-or-miss Pabst.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:02 am

I want dead silence

Good man. I have exactly the same goal. For true 0dB performance, have you considered any other fanless PSU's, ie Antec Phantom, Silverstone ST30NF, FSP Zen etc?

Seasonic S12 REV.A2 really QUIET as they say?

Seasonic S12 REV.A2 really QUIET as they say?

Re: Seasonic S12 REV.A2 really QUIET as they say?