found cheap US source of seasonic "super silencer"

grnarrow · Post by **grnarrow** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 3:01 pm

After Mike's review of the seasonic "super silencer" 400, I was looking for the units to become available in the US, intending to get a 300W unit. Last saturday I found 400W units available at 2 places, one of which had them for about $99, while the second, mbsuperstore.com, was selling it for $63!

I thought surely they must have inadvertantly listed the 400W unit for the price of a 300W (which was not yet listed on their site). I could find no resellerratings.com listing for them. I had originally been planning on getting a 300W unit, so I figured I'd order it and see what showed up. The next day their site had a 300W unit showing for $36, so I hoped I might actually get a 400 watter for the $63.

I continued to watch the site, to see if there were adjustments to the price, and at one point they raised the 400w to $67, then it went back to $63.

Well, it arrived today (friday), and indeed it is a 400W super silencer.

Unfortunately, on checking their site today, they have raised the price to $76.70, but the 300W is still $36.80. There is also now a 300W "super tornado" for $41.20.

Super Silencer 400W
Super Silencer 300W
Super Tornado 300W

If anyone else decides to order from them, I do want to point out that I never received an email confirming my order, or notifying me of shipment, but their website did provide a fedex tracking number when it was shipped on Tuesday. And as I said, they have no resellerratings.com history, and I have no idea what their track record with rma's is, so shop at your own risk.

There is a $5 handling fee, but on their home page you can get an instant coupon for $5, so that evens out. With shipping, my total was $68.76.

Hopefully they'll drop the price again, but $77 still seems pretty good for those of you looking for one of these units.

I just wanted folks in the US to know there is an apparently legitimate source of reasonably priced "Super silencers" with units available for us!

karmasalad · Post by **karmasalad** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 4:34 pm

Thanks for the heads-up! I'm tempted to order the 300W, but I think I'm going to wait a little longer so that hopefully a more well-known vendor will start carrying it.

How was the packaging of the item? And have you had a chance to install and test it yet?

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:24 pm

the prices have all been raised

WickedOC · Post by **WickedOC** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:36 pm

$93 + shipping for a 300watt super tornado!?!?!?!

Man, I can get an almost identical fortron unit shipped to me for $32.

How does seasonic expect to sell any at that kind of price???

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:00 pm

Looks like mbsuperstore.com has issues with their pricing mechanism... first they sell for almost half the MSRP, then jack up the price to 50% over?!

miker · Post by **miker** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 8:37 pm

LOL, probably trying to make up for the ones they sold at a loss

gustavs_a · Post by **gustavs_a** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 9:22 pm

Where can I find the specs for the Super Silencer PSUs? Manufacturer website doesn't even says that they make them (no such model numbers)! If the efficiency of 400W model is 78%, I am interested, what efficiency has the 300W model?

Thank you

grnarrow · Post by **grnarrow** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 6:49 am

karmasalad wrote:How was the packaging of the item? And have you had a chance to install and test it yet?

The unit itself was in its retail shrink-wrapped packaging, which was then put in a box with styrafoam peanuts. It seemed well cushioned. I opened the retail package and inspected everything, which all looked fine, but I haven't installed it yet as I haven't ordered any other parts for my new system yet.

I just had to jump on that one when I saw the price.

That's really weird what's going on with their pricing. I wonder if they have some kind of automated thing that jacks up the price when an item starts flying off the shelf. Maybe I just got in before they started selling any volume of these items, or they just realized they goofed and upped the price to the intended level.

grnarrow · Post by **grnarrow** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 6:55 am

gustavs_a wrote:Where can I find the specs for the Super Silencer PSUs? Manufacturer website doesn't even says that they make them (no such model numbers)! If the efficiency of 400W model is 78%, I am interested, what efficiency has the 300W model?

If you missed it, check out MikeC's review of the Super Silencer 400. He includes specs. He has also indicated (either in the review or posts in the forum, I'm too lazy to look it up) that the 300W and 350W units are supposed to have the same efficiency as the 400W.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 8:44 am

As with their earlier FS series, the new Super series PSUs all have the same basic circuit topology & physical design. What differs is the power capacity of core components. They should all have the same efficiency.

golemB · Post by **golemB** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 5:07 pm

MikeC, I noted that you said the newer FS series should now use the newer, quieter fan, which I assume makes newer Seasonic PFS psu's about as quiet as the Super Silencers, right? If so, does anybody know how to tell whether a FS series is "new"? I mean, apart from the slightly higher efficiency of the Super Silencer, why bother if we can grab FS at about 2/3 the price?

(For my money, the Active PFC Seasonics look like the best compromise in price versus noise when considering cost savings in efficiency - found a 300 FS for $50 including UPS Ground.)

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 5:17 pm

golemB wrote:MikeC, I noted that you said the newer FS series should now use the newer, quieter fan, which I assume makes newer Seasonic PFS psu's about as quiet as the Super Silencers, right? If so, does anybody know how to tell whether a FS series is "new"? I mean, apart from the slightly higher efficiency of the Super Silencer, why bother if we can grab FS at about 2/3 the price?

(For my money, the Active PFC Seasonics look like the best compromise in price versus noise when considering cost savings in efficiency - found a 300 FS for $50 including UPS Ground.)

The fans may be the same, but the new PSUs are much more efficient. I think I measured several of the FS series at 72-73% efficiency; the new ones are 78%. If you reeverse it and look at it from the amount of heat generated, it's 27-28% of the total vs 22%. That difference means 27% more heat for the FS series. This means the FS will get hotter & its fan speed up sooner than the Super series. Plus the new ones have wire fan grills, so less turbulence noise at higher CFM. All in all, in real apps., even with the newer fan, the FS series can't be as quiet.

WannaOC · Post by **WannaOC** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 6:10 pm

I'll tell ya, half the problem with finding quiet pc parts at good prices is resellers cant find a distributor that carries them. I cant find one anywhere and I've been looking hard as there are very few vendors out there for these products and I want in on that market! Thats the other part of finding them nice and cheap: they can charge more because they are part of a small group selling them. I'm sure this site charged a normal price at first (very nice IMHO) for them then realized what everyone else charges and raised them to equal. It's too bad...

golemB · Post by **golemB** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 11:44 pm

Darn... so I guess I can't get a near-great quiet PSU for less than $50?

tumorboy · Post by **tumorboy** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:52 am

they have a big list of silent power supplies
You can get a seasonic 300 watt for approx 42
400 watt for $79
$7 for UPS I think

www.directron.com

angryowl · Post by **angryowl** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 9:07 am

I've orded from them many times. Their email confirmations, re-confirmations with tracking numbers, etc, are all really professional.

They carry a huge amount of great stuff at good prices, and they have a ton of quiet computing gear.

I've had nothing but good luck with them.

My 2c.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 9:16 am

looks like directron is only carrying the earlier SS...FS line, not the newer SS...AGX ("super" series) line. FS series are excellent & cheaper, but you should know...

golemB · Post by **golemB** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 11:21 pm

Caved in ... bought the SS300FS from Directron for $44 plus $6.43 shipping. (Axion Technologies has it for a couple dollars less, but I like Directron.) Hey, I put SPCR Forums as my referral, so maybe they'll listen to us more.

On an unrelated note, thanks to you guys, I wound up getting four L1As (for two systems) and a Thermalright SLK-800A with some Arctic Silver Ceramique -- figured it was worth doing my system right "this time around" (as if I won't cave in again and buy more stuff later, hehe)...

I couldn't (yet) justify the additional cost of the Super series to myself, figuring that when the day comes for that, I will have more money, will want something like a 100% passively cooled unit, and/or will live someplace quiet enough to justify the extra effort... Ah, the infallible logic of what we tell ourselves to justify our addictions...

golemB · Post by **golemB** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:17 am

SPCR rocks!

The new components definitely quieted my machine and even dropped the temps! The SLK-800A rocks!

I just installed my SLK-800A with Arctic Silver Ceramique in a snap, and topped it off with a Panaflo 80mm L1A (12v for now). I removed all four Vantec Stealths from my case and soft-mounted a single rear outtake Panaflo (also 12v). (That's why I'm amazed my CPU temp actually dropped 5-10 degrees!) Then I installed the 300FS PSU with homemade sponge grommets.

I can still hear both the rear PSU fan as well as the 12v Panaflo rear case fan, but for the first time I can actually hear my hard drive loud and clear.

Once I get data transferred and so forth, I'll switch over to a quieter Deskstar and think about undervolting the rear case fan. And once the system's burned in enough to convince me of the solidity of the PSU, I'll think about modding it (bending / clipping vent holes only).

Wiring two Panaflos in series should give me 6v on both, right?

found cheap US source of seasonic "super silencer"

found cheap US source of seasonic "super silencer"

Try www.directron.com

Directron Rocks

Sweet success!