Interesting : >600W? Waste of money

[Fraz]

Are you sure you're not thinking of an inkjet printer head?

It's not that far off actually - in fact Intel said themselves that if things had continued the way they were at the turn of the millennium, then the wattage per unit area output by a CPU die could have equalled that of the sun:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/arti...core%20explain

FYI, the sun outputs about 63 Watts per square millimetre of its surface area, and CPUs output ~120 Watts per ~200mm^2, so it's about 2 orders of magnitude away from being true.

[watercooled]

You're missing the point - energy output per cm^2 or whatever is equal to the sun - that doesn't mean it's as hot. My body outputs more heat energy that a piece of the sun the same size but it's only around 37C.

[Fraz]

You're missing the point - energy output per cm^2 or whatever is equal to the sun - that doesn't mean it's as hot. My body outputs more heat energy that a piece of the sun the same size but it's only around 37C.

I was just supporting the slightly misinterpreted statement that Oolon made. He obviously heard what I've heard several times, although is exaggerating somewhat.

Besides, a CPU die clearly has a very high surface-area to volume ratio, whereas the human body does not, so I fail to see your point really. A CPU die with a good heat-spreader on can easily reach 100 degrees, and that's with an enormous extra cooling surface area. A CPU die has a surface area not too far different from the tungsten filament of a 100 Watt bulb, and bearing in mind that these get to about 3000K, and the surface of the sun is about 5800K, I think it's safe to say that if you could actually put 120Watts through a CPU die without it burning out, it would get very hot indeed.

[Syllopsium]

Are you sure you're not thinking of an inkjet printer head?

It turns out I'm basing the quote on some dubious facts that then got twisted. The original source appears to be that various CPUs *would* be hotter than parts of the sun if things continued the way they were going. Obviously this has been avoided to some extent, so the statement is actually bollocks.

Sorry about that.

PK

[watercooled]

If I ran 120w or something similar through a heating element with a surface area the same as a CPU die it would get pretty hot but not as hot as the surface of the sun though.
"Besides, a CPU die clearly has a very high surface-area to volume ratio, whereas the human body does not, so I fail to see your point really." Yeah I'm midnight posting again that was a bad comparison on my behalf sorry. Still an interesting fact though...

[Fraz]

Still an interesting fact though...

Yes I did the calculation last night... it's pretty amazing really. As far as I remember the sun only produces about half a watt per cubic metre of volume.

[SirCanealot]

+1 to this article. However, I feel it's important to leave yourself a little bit of space when you buy a PSU. It's better not to stress a PSU to 100% of its capacity (for heat and noise issues), and anyway, I want space for future upgrades and for when I overclock the hell out my processor. For the sake of £20-30, it's worth it getting a slightly better PSU than you NEED.

My 2 cents anyway.

[arthurleung]

+1 to this article. However, I feel it's important to leave yourself a little bit of space when you buy a PSU. It's better not to stress a PSU to 100% of its capacity (for heat and noise issues), and anyway, I want space for future upgrades and for when I overclock the hell out my processor. For the sake of £20-30, it's worth it getting a slightly better PSU than you NEED.

My 2 cents anyway.

Not necessary, getting a decent £50 PSU is fine, just spend another £50 on another one when you need. No point spending on £100+ PSU when its going to age, get noisier, and probably not as energy efficient when compared to new PSU a few years later.

Since PSUs normally have the same physical size, they just put fans that are capable of spinning faster in beefier PSUs. A 500W PSU running at 50% should be as quiet as a 1000W running at 25% providing the efficiency is more or less the same, as the heat output will be the same. (Assuming the operating temperature is the same). If you just want no noise you would have gone straight to the fanless PSU.

[Dragonclaw]

Read good reviews of the Nexus 430 value PSU. Supposed to be very very good and almost silent too. So, maybe a 430w is sufficient if you buy a good quality one?

[TheAnimus]

I use a higher than required PSU so that I have a quiet PSU.

It was cheaper for me to buy an insainly overwhatted zalaman, than a watercooled one, by quite a wide margin.

As it stands the fan is so slow (1.5kprm ish) it makes no real noticable sound, its as silent as the puump.

[Fraz]

Since PSUs normally have the same physical size, they just put fans that are capable of spinning faster in beefier PSUs. A 500W PSU running at 50% should be as quiet as a 1000W running at 25% providing the efficiency is more or less the same, as the heat output will be the same. (Assuming the operating temperature is the same). If you just want no noise you would have gone straight to the fanless PSU.

Although you are completely right in a physics sense, I wonder if you are right in a manufacturing sense. I expect the heatsinks they put on a 1000W PSU are somewhat better/bigger than the heatsinks on a 500W PSU. Thus, for the same thermal output, the fan may need to spin less on the 1000 Watt PSU, making it quieter.

[watercooled]

If you want a powerful but quiet PSU Enermax are very good there - unless you heavily load the one I have (Modu82+ 525w) the fan spins at a near silent 500rpm. I've heard good things about that Nexus too but since I haven't seen a proper review of it I'm not sure of the quality of the output.

[arthurleung]

Although you are completely right in a physics sense, I wonder if you are right in a manufacturing sense. I expect the heatsinks they put on a 1000W PSU are somewhat better/bigger than the heatsinks on a 500W PSU. Thus, for the same thermal output, the fan may need to spin less on the 1000 Watt PSU, making it quieter.

I suppose you can also expect there will be more components inside the 1000W PSU increasing the airflow resistance, hence needing more powerful fan to force air through.