Power supply for Antec p183

[WyomingKnott]

I moved my system to an Antec P183 case. Because that case has an isolated bottom compartment for the disk drives and PSU, I need one that will exhaust air out the back, not out the top. Because the case places the hard drives in that same compartment, it would be nice if I had a low-noise fan rather than no fan at all.

My power needs are low; I think I currently have a 450 watt unit in there. I'd be willing to buy a higher-capacity supply to have it running at a lower percentage of its capacity.

I looked on endpcnoise.com, but their PSUs seem to all be top-exhaust. Or should I go with a fanless one and mount a low-rev fan behind the hard drives, hoping that it will push some air out through the PSU?

Thank you

 

[gilpin]

Antec do their own PSU for the P183/P193 cases, have a look at http://www.antec.com/product.php?Family=235.

Personally I have a quiet Zalman ZM770-XT in my P183 case but it is a little tight for the cables, so the Antec PSUs may be a better bet as they are shorter in length.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Gilpin
And there it is. The special-sized PSU that that case makes room for. Thank you!

I was looking at another Antec product, the Earthwatt ea500d.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Best answer selected by WyomingKnott.

 

[WR2]

Hello WyomingKnott;

Just about every PSU out there exhausts warmed air out the back.
I think you're looking at top (or bottom) intake fans?


SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W PSU This model has it's fan on the bottom.
But top or bottom fan won't matter, you'd just flip the PSU to match the fan to the fresh air intake in the case.

Getting a slightly larger PSU than actually required is one strategy for keeping the fan speed in the quiet zone longer.

 

[WyomingKnott]

In this case, the intake is forward, not top or bottom. The PSU is an a separate compartment at the bottom. So I figured that sucking air through the very low clearance between the top of the PSU and the head of the compartment would be noisy.

 

[WR2]

Top, bottom, forward the case has it covered.

 

[geekapproved]

Either way the psu is still exhausting as all psu's do.

I suggest earthwatts 380, 430, 500 depending on what hardware you have.

 

[WyomingKnott]

wr2 - I get the point now, thanks. Thanks to all.

 

[Pailin]

I have the P182 - which has the same mounting for the PSU as the P183

My Seasonic SS-500HT is very happy in there, fans run so slow (PSU exhaust temps feel "just" above ambient) there is no noise
- this while folding@home with Q6600 @ 3.4GHz and my 5850 also ( - CPU and GPU @ 100% load)

even running at full speed the air flow space allowed should cause very little restriction

Power supplies are at their most efficient when putting out between 45 - 75% of their rated capacity

with a 450w PSU already in there will find you are not getting close to that amount of power usage.

- my system (with 4 x HDD and Creative discrete sound card) folding@home pulls only 280watts

With your more modern/efficient system you would be doing well to be able to hit as much 225w I think while doing something like folding@home
..and in regular usage will be only pulling well under 100watts at the plug socket (where I measure my system box)

unless your PSU is a no name brand I would be inclined to stick with it 😉