Do PCs really have to make noise? The professional solution

       

Indeed there are PC power supplies on the market which do not have any fan built in at all! To achieve this, there are two options, both of which need to be employed fully to match this objective:

• Use more aluminium – increase the passive loss heat transfer from the active components to the air by enhancing the heat sink surface.
• Use more copper – enlarge the wire cross sections in the windings of the HF transformers.

The weigh shows it: Although this PSU has an output rating of “only” 300 W (rather than 420 W as the conventional one viewed last week), its mass is about 15% higher because a lot more active material is needed.

The surprising thing about it is how high the achieved loss reduction is: Actually the same PC used 13 W less after the conversion to this fanless (or rather fan free!) power supply. So the efficiency of the former model must have been awful!

Note that so long the PC used only 72 W when idling and 126 W peak load – far away from the 420 W the old PSU claimed to be able to offer, and still far below the lower rating of the really absolutely silent model! Both values could be lowered by 13 W, which under these circumstances is quite a lot when viewed in relative terms!