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PSU concept

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Seal

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Location
London
Hi ive just ordered a new psu, the cheap ol Q-tec 550W. Currently my 300W serves me well. Firstly if i only use 300W of the 550W's power will it run cooler? Im thinking of 7ving the fans as im one of those silence ppl.

Secondly, i was thinking to myself, psu's dont run too well when theyre hot as voltages go out a little so i hear... Why is it then that psu manufacturers make such naff heatsinks for the fets? This also goes for the manufacturers of "silent" psu's too. If you want to lower the voltage of the fans but still have the same amount of cooling, why not improve the heatsinks?

Right now all i see in psu's are thick crappy sheets of alu bent over 90 degrees with no, or very lame fins. Why not improve this or make it copper? Surely that would not only increase the psu's capacity slightly but will aid cooling and/or let you run the fans at a lower voltage.

Seal
 
as for the copper thing, it would raise the cost of PSUs (which are already expensive enough, especialy fer Enermax ones). and also, having bigger heatsinks wouldnt do any good because the heat is still trapped inside a little metal box. What makes them cooler is the power of the pan pushing air through and then out the back of the PSU. The 'silent' PSU's just use bigger fans that run at lower V's in order to keep them, cool and quiet. however, most PSUs (generic junk) Ive seen have the fans run default at 5V NOT at the usual 12V like case fans, and so they get very hot (PSUs are the hottest thing inside my case). Im currrently waiting to get a full tower case to put a custo built Dual PSU setup in, which will be tight. also, the amount of gain there is with temp difference isnt hardly noticable unless certain fets are cooler than others.
 
Maybe big heatsinks aren't needed because the spec sheets of some FETs showed that they can stand 100-150C.

The biggest heatsinks I've seen were in a Powmax, not the greatest PSU in the world, but pictures of Seasonics and HECs show very small heatsinks for the high voltage transistors.
 
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