Dual Power supply Idea

DanGerMus

Well some of you may remember i toyed with the idea of doin my own water cooled PSU and well what i've come up with is ... Bad idea. So here's the new idea what about two lower powered PSU in a case. i have a p180 and two PSUs will fit with minor mod. Now what i'm lookin for here is silence that is the main factor in this equation. So what i'm thinkin is two 300-450 watt psus side by side. It can be done i've sourced the cable for it on www.performance-pcs.com now all a need is the power supplies. Whats the quietest i can get my hands on. Silence is Golden

christophicus

FPS do very good passifly cooled PSU's

awhir

seasonic are mena be very silent and great psus.

christophicus

^^ yes they are supposed to be very good ,although no silent. The only thing about passive PSU's is that you then need to have alot of airflow going throug/by them, which may require noisy case fans.

DanGerMus

well i have got some good quiet case fans. People say the seasonics are good alot. but are they silent.
Remember the old days when pc's were silent accept maybe for the faint whirr of a small psu fan and the occasional tick of harddrive. i want 2 of those PSU's lol.
Any way though. Those FSP's are fairly expensive on OCUK where else can i get em.
Seems they are the same as the alphacool silent maxx too.

hopeful

Call me thick if you will..and I'm sure you will...but won't two very quiet PSU's probably put out as much noise as one good quality quiet PSU?

Most high quality PSU's are pretty much silent..I have a Hiper TypeR 580watt and a Tgan Easycon 530watt...both are effectively silent...both were inaudible inside a P180.

I can't help think you are making life too complicated

Of course having twin PSU setup will be more 'bling' and for me that would be reason enough to go that route!

Anti

so lemme get this right 2 x 350/450w psu's, so thats 700/900w. You really are not gonna need all that power. Even in a 8800gtx sli setop. Maybe some of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-EN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=111

or these seasonics:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=589

But when mounting them, esp in a p180 they go on their side. So you cant run them with the 120mm fans pointing to each other. So you will have to mount them with the 120mm fans pointing outwards towards the case side panels. I would be worried about a heat buildup here. So you will need to have a 120mm fan pushing air past the 2 psu's an also vents in both side of the case would help too.

Best of luck with it anyway.

DanGerMus

Well there are a few differant pieces of logic that i'm using here. One is two good quiet 350-450 watt psu's are cheaper than one 700-900 watt psu which won't be quiet. Reasons being they are in the same size package, generally anyway, and therefore need higher speed fans to just get the air through due to more densely packed components and greater heat output. So two will be easier to cool because there is less resisntance to airflow and heat is more spread out. Plus i had intended on the sideways mounting with the fans out, the case already has a Fan in the lower chamber which will more than suffice. and if not instead of cutting up my lovely p180 i figured making vents in the side of the psus would be easier and would provide a straight path for air from the lower chamber fan. Warranties? Bah who needs em.
Two, is you dont sum dB directly. its the inverse log summed and then log of that answer. note a decibel is one tenth of a bel.
Example: 20dB + 20dB= 2Bel+2Bel= 10^2 + 10^2= 2*(10^20), Log{2*10^20)= 2.301Bel=23.01dB QED
Actually the rule is when adding dB of the same intensity you just add 3dB to one of em. ie 20+20=23 or 30+30 =33 and so on.

Three bling is good.

Four power is or will be needed. Have 2 DVD, Four fans, three HD, Am adding water cooling which will mean more fans, and pump, maybe 2 later on, buying a raptor or two. maybe more ram. And will Be buyin adding a big GFX card soon. but even so 350-450 was just a ball park figure.

Any way pick holes in my logic i'm sure i'm mistaken somewhere usually am... lol.

hopeful

Perhaps one other thing to consider is that cable management in a P180 is a pianful experience at the best of times...having two PSU's will just be a nightmare!
But they could look good so I'm going to sit on the fence on this one

Anti

maybe stick to modular psu's ?

DanGerMus

It's not so bad you just have to put a little more thought into it.
Im goin to have to say HELL YEAH to modular psus. Dont fancy having to ball up any extra cables and tuckin em away.

edit...these maybe. just gonna see if i can find em somewhere else cheaper. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-026-EN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=111