Computer Power Supplies

[maverickronin]

so if any amp need +12V to work you have plenty of power

Like I said, that's really only car audio amps. They already run on 12-ish volts, can use even more power than a 1300W PC PSU, and don't need another conversion to a higher voltage too make use of it.

It's a good way to get bass on the cheap too. Craigslist car sub box and amp + PC PSU + MiniDSP/AVR for xover and you get a lot of boom for your buck. I helped a friend of mine set up something similar when we were in college except we used an extra 12V 100 amp ham radio PSU his dad had laying around for some reason.

Dunno if it could work but some have two separate +12V lines sometimes and maybe you can have +24V with half the amperes.

That could work with some power supplies but it would really depend on how tight their regulation is and if/how it monitors the output so you'd need to test it rather extensively first. If the PSU doesn't like its separate 12V rails tied together it could do anything from automatically shut down to explode...

 

[Sal1950]

. Personally, I've never seen the need to use something else than Seasonic; why bother when the best isn't that expensive?

I went with their Prime PX due to the better lifetime rating.

Sounds like you guys look to the Seasonic units as TOTL in PC's, am I getting the right impression here?
I've got a couple possible builds on wish-list files at newegg right now and the PS is one of the things I've been undecided on. This will be my new audio server unit and I want something that will be very quiet to silent in operation. I've got near new 6 TBs in SSD right now and a spinner 12TB backup box that will handle all storage right now. I'm looking to build the most powerful PC I can while still keeping all the cooling chores passive. Anyone what to throw some ideas at me? I only get around to a new build for myself or a friend every 10 years or so, so each time I have to do a bunch of homework first to make good purchasing decisions.

 

[q3cpma]

Sounds like you guys look to the Seasonic units as TOTL in PC's, am I getting the right impression here?
I've got a couple possible builds on wish-list files at newegg right now and the PS is one of the things I've been undecided on. This will be my new audio server unit and I want something that will be very quiet to silent in operation. I've got near new 6 TBs in SSD right now and a spinner 12TB backup box that will handle all storage right now. I'm looking to build the most powerful PC I can while still keeping all the cooling chores passive. Anyone what to throw some ideas at me? I only get around to a new build for myself or a friend every 10 years or so, so each time I have to do a bunch of homework first to make good purchasing decisions.

The main point is that Seasonic is like Hypex, they make the PSUs, and other brands buy them and put their sticker on it. A bit like Crucial/Sandisk/Samsung/Toshiba for SSDs, cut the middle man and buy from OEMs directly.
In JonnyGURU's test, it's also consistently the best.

 

[mansr]

Sounds like you guys look to the Seasonic units as TOTL in PC's, am I getting the right impression here?

I've never had any trouble from them in the past. Their 12 V power brick has lowest noise of all in my pile of such devices, for what that's worth.

I'm looking to build the most powerful PC I can while still keeping all the cooling chores passive.

Seasonic make a 700 W fanless PSU. Is that enough? Your main challenge with a fanless build will probably be the CPU, though for light file server duty, you don't need a lot of performance.

I only get around to a new build for myself or a friend every 10 years or so, so each time I have to do a bunch of homework first to make good purchasing decisions.

I know the feeling. Last time I put together a PC from scratch was over 10 years ago. At the fundamental level, nothing has changed, of course, but I hadn't kept up with the developments in detail. Thankfully, some friends of mine know that stuff and could help me out.

 

[Tks]

Sounds like you guys look to the Seasonic units as TOTL in PC's, am I getting the right impression here?
I've got a couple possible builds on wish-list files at newegg right now and the PS is one of the things I've been undecided on. This will be my new audio server unit and I want something that will be very quiet to silent in operation. I've got near new 6 TBs in SSD right now and a spinner 12TB backup box that will handle all storage right now. I'm looking to build the most powerful PC I can while still keeping all the cooling chores passive. Anyone what to throw some ideas at me? I only get around to a new build for myself or a friend every 10 years or so, so each time I have to do a bunch of homework first to make good purchasing decisions.

Passive desktop PC's are a luxury and even more niche than some builds people do concerning exotic cooling. There have been (here and there) attempts at making cases that act as heatsinks, but those have either been vaporware, or confined to extremely SFF (small for factor) PC's.

A COMPLETELY passive build won't be cheap at all, the transition to full silence at desires of desktop performance is a massive increase in price. There are of course lower-powered devices as you've seen probably people talking about Intel NUC's which have cases that aren't TOO expensive. But those again, are somewhat costly as well (though far less than bespoke systems looking to tackle desktop-level performance, unlike silent NUCs that are capable of somewhat resembling mid-tier laptop performance).

You said this will be your audio server. So the power and performance requirements will be next to nothing (as audio is virtually resource free these days unless you're doing some sort of audio tracing experiments in research), and any modern NUC should suffice. So if that's all this computer will be doing, you can look into simplifying this whole process (so you don't have to do much "building"), getting one of these NUCs (or even a laptop, seeing as there are fortunately these days, silent laptops as well, though unfortunately not any that I know of that still sport an Ethernet connector), would be the smoothest course of action if you're looking to avoid massive headaches.

I can perhaps help with more specifics if you're looking at resolving some sort of hardware kinks or questions you may have with specific SKU's you may find interesting.

 

[mansr]

Show us the build, I love seeing people's new setups.

As promised.

This might just be the tidiest PC I've ever put together.

 

[mansr]

Idk jack about computer PS on a technical level. I was wondering since people in audio are always like cocaine addicts whenever discussion about "power" comes into play. With that said, can one take a computer power supply and make use of it in an audio system (sure the I/O is different, but I am wondering are there any issues with rails or how power is managed or things of that nature). Seeing as how getting 1000W power supplies is not a problem. But in audio it seems to be a massive headache with these things going up in flames (figuratively) whenever they're turned on even sitting at idle the damn things require tones of active cooling and heatsinks.

It's the magic of SMPS.

 

[mansr]

Well the +12V line of the most powerful ones is queit powerful (I've seen 1300W, 108A with a quick search) so if any amp need +12V to work you have plenty of power (in a real scenario, as noted on this site you just need 5 clean watts practically). Dunno if it could work but some have two separate +12V lines sometimes and maybe you can have +24V with half the amperes.

Multi-rail PSUs still have a shared ground, so you can't connect them in series.

 

[Tks]

@mansr

You running a Xeon or something? Been ages since I've seen 8 channel DIMM slotted mobo's on a consumer build in an ATX form factor case tbh.

Btw good choice on the fan and cooler. And good cable management.

Also about computer power supplies. Why don't more audiophiles repurpose them for their power amp needs and such? Instead of buying those heat-wave monster linear supplies? Of which also get charged a massive premium.. Is it simply because they're all lunatics to this degree where they feel the power supplies offered by audiophile companies have some sort of magic to them?

There has to be something I'm missing here as to why people don't do this in this hobby.

 

[mansr]

You running a Xeon or something? Been ages since I've seen 8 channel DIMM slotted mobo's on a consumer build in an ATX form factor case tbh.

It's an AMD EPYC. I cheaped out and got a 16-core 7302P. The motherboard is an ASRock Rack ROMED8-2T. With 7 PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and a maximum of 2 TB RAM, there's room for future upgrades here. There is no on-board audio, so I don't need to fret over that.

Btw good choice on the fan and cooler.

Not so much choice as the only non-turbine type made for that socket.

And good cable management.

Easy when there are so few of them.

Also about computer power supplies. Why don't more audiophiles repurpose them for their power amp needs and such? Instead of buying those heat-wave monster linear supplies? Of which also get charged a massive premium.. Is it simply because they're all lunatics to this degree where they feel the power supplies offered by audiophile companies have some sort of magic to them?

There has to be something I'm missing here as to why people don't do this in this hobby.

Audiophiles believe SMPS are evil and ruin the sound. That's all there is to it.

 

[Sal1950]

Seasonic make a 700 W fanless PSU. Is that enough? Your main challenge with a fanless build will probably be the CPU, though for light file server duty, you don't need a lot of performance.

That should be plenty I think.

So if that's all this computer will be doing, you can look into simplifying this whole process (so you don't have to do much "building"), getting one of these NUCs (or even a laptop, seeing as there are fortunately these days, silent laptops as well,

Oh dude, that would take all the fun out of it. Cost isn't really a factor here, short of catastrophe this build should take me to the cemetery. LOL Box I'm on now I built in 2008. I'll probably reuse the same case, a monster CoolerMaster Cosmos with tons of room for a huge passive CPU cooler and sound deadening material on the side panels, see below. That's kind of where I'm hanging, wondering how big a CPU I can run using one of these passive coolers. Just for giggles, I wonder if the Silverstone HE02 would handle my current 95watt Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield Quad-Core 2.83 GHz LGA 775 95W? This review says it should???
https://www.fullysilentpcs.com/2020/04/04/the-best-fanless-cpu-cooler-showdown/?v=7516fd43adaa
I never stress this CPU too much, highest I ever see is around a 20% usage playing a 5.1 SACD file while surfing the net at the same time

This might just be the tidiest PC I've ever put together.

That is a sweet, clean build. And no gamer bling I see, no lights and colored LED's flashing everywhere? LOL
How much noise does that noctua cpu cooler make? Does it slow WAY down or even stop under light loads?

CoolerMaster Cosmos "Quiet Tower"

 

[Vasr]

For people looking for noise and efficiency ratings/measurements, here is a good site although it may not have the latest releases tested

https://www.cybenetics.com/index.php?option=power-supplies

It can be an eye opener of how some of the popular brands and/or models within same brand can be noisy.

For silent PCs, you want less than 15db (lambda-a++ category at that site).

The Seasonic Focus Platinum series 550w is one of the best compromises at the moment for price and efficient/silence operation (has a hybrid mode to switch off the fan below certain temp which would cover most non-gaming use). It used to be around $100 pre-covid-19 with rebates pushing it down further. Now, it is typically back-ordered with no rebates at around $115 to $120.

Bitfenix PSUs are also very quiet but it is almost impossible to find one in stock anywhere and disappear within a few hours when they do come in stock.

B&H is a good source for PSU ordering for those that don't like Newegg.

 

[Certainkindoffool]

That should be plenty I think.

Oh dude, that would take all the fun out of it. Cost isn't really a factor here, short of catastrophe this build should take me to the cemetery. LOL Box I'm on now I built in 2008. I'll probably reuse the same case, a monster CoolerMaster Cosmos with tons of room for a huge passive CPU cooler and sound deadening material on the side panels, see below. That's kind of where I'm hanging, wondering how big a CPU I can run using one of these passive coolers. Just for giggles, I wonder if the Silverstone HE02 would handle my current 95watt Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield Quad-Core 2.83 GHz LGA 775 95W? This review says it should???
https://www.fullysilentpcs.com/2020/04/04/the-best-fanless-cpu-cooler-showdown/?v=7516fd43adaa
I never stress this CPU too much, highest I ever see is around a 20% usage playing a 5.1 SACD file while surfing the net at the same time


That is a sweet, clean build. And no gamer bling I see, no lights and colored LED's flashing everywhere? LOL
How much noise does that noctua cpu cooler make? Does it slow WAY down or even stop under light loads?

CoolerMaster Cosmos "Quiet Tower"

That was my favorite case. I went to the cosmos 2 ultra years ago, and it is just too damn big. The Cosmos is tiny in comparison.

 

[LumbermanSVO]

Sounds like you guys look to the Seasonic units as TOTL in PC's, am I getting the right impression here?

About a year ago I pulled a bunch of 2 and 3RU Core Duo machines from the Cotton Bowl Stadium that had been running 24/7 for several years. I tossed all the electronics except the Seasonic power supplies and set the cases aside to build later. About 1.5 months ago I built two of the cases and didn't think twice about reusing the power supplies in them, they have been running 24/7 since, a large portion of that time with the CPU's pegged at 100%. I'm not worried at all about the power supplies.

 

[Sal1950]

That was my favorite case. I went to the cosmos 2 ultra years ago, and it is just too damn big. The Cosmos is tiny in comparison.

Dang, had to look that up, it IS a big boy. The spec says it weights almost 50lb empty!
I do like my old Cosmos, plenty of room for lot's of drives, full size MB and plenty of air movement. I see no reason to toss it.

 

[Certainkindoffool]

About a year ago I pulled a bunch of 2 and 3RU Core Duo machines from the Cotton Bowl Stadium that had been running 24/7 for several years. I tossed all the electronics except the Seasonic power supplies and set the cases aside to build later. About 1.5 months ago I built two of the cases and didn't think twice about reusing the power supplies in them, they have been running 24/7 since, a large portion of that time with the CPU's pegged at 100%. I'm not worried at all about the power supplies.

High quality power supplies certainly last a long time. I typically recycle them through several generations of hardware. My Enermax Galaxy evo 1250, circa 2008, is still in active duty. But, I don't use it on totl hardware.

 

[Sal1950]

I put this OCZ PS in this box in 2008 also, it has given me no issues except it's fan sounds like a jet engine.
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

 

[Certainkindoffool]

Dang, had to look that up, it IS a big boy. The spec says it weights almost 50lb empty!
I do like my old Cosmos, plenty of room for lot's of drives, full size MB and plenty of air movement. I see no reason to toss it.

With a 1/2" plexi side panel, hardware, and watercooling, iirc, it weighs 86lbs and doesn't fit under most desks.

 

[mansr]

That is a sweet, clean build. And no gamer bling I see, no lights and colored LED's flashing everywhere? LOL

It's all server/workstation parts, so none of that nonsense.

How much noise does that noctua cpu cooler make? Does it slow WAY down or even stop under light loads?

The fan is controlled by the BMC which reports 500 rpm when idle. I haven't noticed it making any noise even at full load. That cooler is rated for much higher power, so I doubt it will ever need to run at top speed.

 

[ReaderZ]

Delta makes the best ones IMHO, Seasonic tend to have some quirk or reliability issue, My last one just went dead in 2 years for no reason EVGA 1050 GS, should have gone with leadex super flower based 1050G2.