News Seasonic's latest big and silent 1,600W PSU gets a quieter 120mm Noctua fan upgrade

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That's not an upgrade, that's a downgrade.

Seriously, as much as I like Noctua brand (I have a CPU HSF), they produce some of the fans with the worst sound profile out there -- the buzz / clicking they have even on low RPM is annoying the crap out of me and before someone says no it's not my fan. I had a lot of different Noctua fans (CPU, case, radiator types) over several years and all of them exhibit this because their bearings suck. On the other hand Corsair 14cm fans that I got with Obsidian 800D are some of the quietest fans I ever owned even after 10 years of 14+ hours a day.
 
You sir are deaf if Noctua fans are great for you.
umeng2002_2 said:
I do t get the obsession with silent PSU fans. That's something you never hear over all the other fans and choke noise.
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My PSU fan doesn't even spin up until it reaches more than 350W load so most of the time there's literally nothing to hear. And once you fire up Cyberpunk 2077 and it starts drawing 750 W from the wall outlet the video card fans are the noisiest thing in the PC anyway.
 
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Higher cost and benefits that don't show up clearly on a box. My Noctuas are definitely the most expensive out of all the fans in my collection, and while the ones set up as intakes are quieter than my case's stock fans and my CPU cooler has lasted forever (it started life on a Core 2 Quad and is still going strong!), I didn't have a clear mental image of the sound difference just from the specs on the packaging.
 
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It's great to see that finally they've put in a Noctua in an official capacity into a power supply. The only non-Noctua fan in my current PC is the one in the Seasonic PSU, I wish they sold lower end Seasonic models with Noctuas. I've gone all Noctua over the years, having used dozens of fans of numerous brands over several decades. I've never experienced buzzing or clicking or any kind of annoying sound out of them. I guess different people find different sounds annoying.
 
It doesn't have to be Noctua.
I could live with NMB fans in a PSU. Do they still make fans under that brand name, or has it changed?

Noctua's advantage is definitely in the smooth bearings and high static pressure fans.
 
umeng2002_2 said:
I do t get the obsession with silent PSU fans. That's something you never hear over all the other fans and choke noise.
Click to expand...
If the case fans are quiet, and the CPU fan(s) are quiet, and the PSU is making noise...

No offense, but your fans are loud. Or maybe it doesn't matter to you. To me it matters a lot. I don't want to hear anything if that's possible.

...of course once the GPU fans spin up, all bets are off but at that point there's lots of noise coming out of the speakers so it's ok.

HWOC said:
It's great to see that finally they've put in a Noctua in an official capacity into a power supply. The only non-Noctua fan in my current PC is the one in the Seasonic PSU, I wish they sold lower end Seasonic models with Noctuas. I've gone all Noctua over the years, having used dozens of fans of numerous brands over several decades. I've never experienced buzzing or clicking or any kind of annoying sound out of them. I guess different people find different sounds annoying.
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Well, i have. Kinda. I think i screwed up my 140mm fan somehow. I don't know what i did but the Low Noise adapters were involved, and i know the CPU fans actually stopped working on at least two occasions.

Now i got the fan working properly, but it makes a LOT of noise above 1200rpm.

So, either there are DUD Noctuas out there, or people manage to screw something up, or they can wear out very quickly. This noise is approaching Intel stock cooler levels.
The fan was quiet before, even at 100% duty, so something must have gone wrong.
 
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Even when I turn all my fans down, I still never hear the PSU fan. It should only ramp up under high power draw. And if have high power draw, odds are your other fans are already spinning faster.
 
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I would like to see a follow up article where this PSU is actually tested at 1600W in a USA or Canadian setting.

Both national electrical codes say you can only operate 1440W max continuous load on a 15A 120V circuit.
- US NEC (National Electrical Code)
- CA CEC (Canadian Electrical Code)

It comes from the 80% rule for continuous power draw:
- Short term max load=> 1800W (=15A * 120V)
- Continuous max load => 1440W (80% rule)

The article doesn't address this concern, that using this PSU at max 1600W requires 20A 120V or 10A 240V. The latter is mentioned right in the manufacturer's specs (https://seasonic.com/product/prime-tx-1600-noctua-edition).
```
AC Input

100 V - 240 V
15 - 10 A
50 Hz - 60 Hz
```

I think most residential and office settings in Canada and the USA have 15A 120V circuits. Pulling 1600W is getting close to tripping a 15A breaker. If you need to plug in a monitor, or charge your mobile device on the same circuit, good luck with that!
 
It isn't available for purchase yet. Also this this is their only atx 3.1 psu besides the 2200 watt prime PSU. Unless you have a link for one.
 
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