toronado455 wrote:I read on the Silverstone page "The fanless mode operation deactivates when PSU’s internal temperature reaches 55°C.", and you said "...around 25°C you should expect that kind of fanless operation range with the Silverstone (as recorded by ComputerBase): with higher ambient temps, YMMV...". So I'm a bit confused.
There should be some language barrier because I'm unable to get what confuses you, and about what. Alternatively I explained really bad.
This is my original phrase:
quest_for_silence wrote:Any PSU fan controller (set aside digital ones like for instance Corsair AXi ones) is temperature-driven.
So around 25°C you should expect that kind of fanless operation range with the Silverstone (as recorded by ComputerBase): with higher ambient temps, YMMV but you should still get about two-three times your expected power draw of fanless operation range.
It means that available data says fanless operation lasts above a 180W power draw with an ambient temp of about 25°C ("
...around 25°C you should expect that kind of fanless operation range with the Silverstone (as recorded by ComputerBase)...").
That also means that at higher ambient temp there are no published data ("
...with higher ambient temps, YMMV...").
As an educated guesswork about higher ambient temp scenarios, I added that
I'm expecting at least a large portion of this fanless operation range (120-130W? I was thinking something like that, which corresponds to 2 or 3 times your NAS/PC expected real life power draw)
under any normal scenarios, that means an home server, in a western world house, with typical North american temperatures ("
...but you should still get about two-three times your expected power draw of fanless operation range...").
toronado455 wrote:I don't understand where you are getting the 25°C limit,
I quoted ComputerBase, a large german publisher,
who reported the actual ST-30SF fan profile at about 25°C.
toronado455 wrote:but are you saying that ambient room temps exceeding 25°C will trigger a PSU fan to start even if the internal PSU temp has not reached 55°C?
No, I was saying I have no actual data about PSU fan profile when ambient room exceeds about 25°C, but I can make an educated guess based upon my own experience with this kind of PSU (semi passive).
The 55°C limit was quoted subsequently as an attempt to answer to your concern, because it's the only figure available about when the fanless operation is deactivated (given that the relationship between ambient temp and "internal temp" is largely unknown, I'm also aware this late figure doesn't add that clarity about "
when the Silverstone fan controller actually deactivates passive operation").
toronado455 wrote:My concern is that the ambient room temp where the computer is used may indeed exceed 25°C...not by a lot, but 78-80 (sometimes more) fahrenheit room temps are certainly possible during the warmest summer months.
Those 78-80°F are 26-27°C, a really small increment over the 25°C reference, I wouldn't mind about that.
toronado455 wrote:The PSU I'm replacing in the system we are discussing in this thread was an old Seasonic S12 500W (which died) which had a constantly spinning fan which never bothered me.
Well, if you have your experience and ideas, don't ask for a recommendation: just pick another Seasonic, the proven G-360 is a nice and well built option for instance, very efficient above 40W and rather quiet under 150W. And it's a long standing
SPCR reference.
Their S12/M12 are nowadays a too old design, I'd pass, but if you like it, the old 430 might still be a relatively solid choice: less efficient, less quiet, less performing than a G-360 but solid.
toronado455 wrote:What would really bother me noise-wise in a PSU would be buzzing and whining noises from coils, etc. I would also tend to think that such noises would be an indication of poor quality, but I'm certainly no expert on any of this.
Unfortunately whining may happen with any PSU (Seasonic, EVGA, Corsair, Silverstone): very often it's not related to build quality, but at any rate just pick your new PSU from a supplier who puts no objection to return (Amazon does that here in EU, for instance).
toronado455 wrote:EDIT: sorry to add more... but I would also like to keep the weight to a minimum if at all possible. (I realize that's kind of a contradiction of my desire for high-quality PSU since most of the best tend to be heavy right?)
Sorry, I can't help: if you wanna minimize weight, the Silverstone SFX is your best candidate by far.
If you don't feel love for it, I guess the Seasonic G-360, with its short 140mm casing, could be your second best.