Silverstone passively cooled PSUs

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:45 am

Does anyone have any experience with:

Silverstone ST30NF

I'm considering one of them for my server and silence would be a very positive feature for a possible replacement of the Antec Earthwatts 380W it currently has.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:01 am

Yes. I use the ST30NF in an Antec 3480 case instead of the stock PSU. It hardly gets warm even though it is on most of the day.

Perfect PSU for this case as the heat can escape upwards through the grill. It's a bit longer than a normal ATX PSU, which is almost a problem for this case.

See original thread : viewtopic.php?t=47909&start=0&postdays= ... highlight=

I looked at your server case and there is no top grill. Probably not a problem for the ST30NF. You should measure your current wattage usage and compare to the ST30NF spec.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:15 am

What is the issue with the EA380 you have right now? Those PSUs are pretty quiet under the right conditions, but you want to make sure they get fresh air if you have some hot components and a standard ATX-style case.

I don't like the idea of passive PSUs. While there may be no fan inside, in many cases you still end up getting noise from the coils buzzing. Might as well have a super quiet fan running in there anyways. You get more bang for your buck with a quiet, actively-cooled PSU than with a passive one. The Enermax Modu82+ is $120 at Newegg right now with a $30 MIR, which makes it almost half the price of the ST30NF with more wattage to boot.

But it is nice and shiny!!!

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:00 pm

As I mentioned in the thread I referred to, my server measured around 65 watts of power consumption so high power consumption should not be a problem.

The whole system runs very cool, but it still makes a bit noise (only a bit). Stopping the case fan and/or the cpu fan doesn't make a difference so I'm guessing it's the PSU.

I wouldn't call it loud, I just would like to have it quieter, after all, this is SPCR forums

The 300W model would be more than enough for me, and considering the price difference (at least in Finland), there is no point in paying 50 eur more for the 450W model in my case. I just mentioned that model too if someone wants to talk about that too, or has experience with either one of them.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:20 pm

I don't like the idea of passive PSUs. While there may be no fan inside, in many cases you still end up getting noise from the coils buzzing. Might as well have a super quiet fan running in there anyways. You get more bang for your buck with a quiet, actively-cooled PSU than with a passive one. The Enermax Modu82+ is $120 at Newegg right now with a $30 MIR, which makes it almost half the price of the ST30NF with more wattage to boot.

I have had quite a few Silverstone ST30NF. most are absolutely dead silent. I did have one that had coil whine/buzz, but this was a secondhand unit so had probably been mistreated/bashed about. to be honest, once you find a fanless PSU with no coil noise, it's unpleasant to go back to fanned PSU's. for me, the EA380 sounds like a lawnmower engine in comparison. I see what you are saying about bang for buck, but like we are always saying on SPCR, most people do not need the maximum wattage of even the most modest unit on the SPCR Recommended page.

basically, it's a Rolls-Royce of a product (ie a luxury); yes, it is expensive, but ask most Rolls-Royce owners if they could go back to driving a Honda Fit or something, they would say no.

Modo · Post by **Modo** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:51 pm

Suosaaski wrote: The whole system runs very cool, but it still makes a bit noise (only a bit). Stopping the case fan and/or the cpu fan doesn't make a difference so I'm guessing it's the PSU.

Or the hard disk. Seagate and silence don't really go together.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:36 pm

Modo wrote:
Suosaaski wrote: The whole system runs very cool, but it still makes a bit noise (only a bit). Stopping the case fan and/or the cpu fan doesn't make a difference so I'm guessing it's the PSU.
Or the hard disk. Seagate and silence don't really go together.

The hard disk goes into standby when idle = silent.

Moon GT · Post by **Moon GT** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:18 am

What would worry me putting this in an NSK 3480 is you'd lose all airflow over the HDD.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:26 am

I've had both and I can't say enough about the quality and performance of these units. I wouldn't own any other.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:35 am

Moon GT wrote:What would worry me putting this in an NSK 3480 is you'd lose all airflow over the HDD.

Agree, but put the HDD in the bottom OR vertically against the front suspended. See posts by porkchop for an OK solution (3.5in drive).

viewtopic.php?t=47645&highlight=

I have 2 drives in one of these - both 2.5in. A Seagate vertically against the front and a Mtron SSD in the bottom. (Might swap them if the noise is better)

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 1:50 pm

If the system's power draw is only 60W, why not use a PicoPSU? Up to 120W, totally silent/passive, and a LOT cheaper.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:02 pm

Iron_Dreamer wrote:If the system's power draw is only 60W, why not use a PicoPSU? Up to 120W, totally silent/passive, and a LOT cheaper.

The power draw is at idle (what it mostly is), but I want to be sure the PSU can still handle full load if I decide to do something that needs the power.