CeBIT 2008 Day 3 - PSUs and Cases
by Christoph Katzer on March 6, 2008 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Thermaltake
Thermaltake has a 2000W power supply at their booth. Yes: Two Thousand Watts! To show how ridiculous this kind of power supply is the company is powering two systems at the same time with a single power supply. The one system contains an SLI setup and the other has four cards in a Crossfire-X setup. (Ed: Yeah, that sounds tremendously useful: a single point of failure for two systems. I suppose maybe it might be useful for a test bench area, though.)
A little more interesting is the new lineup of TR2 power supplies that start at just 300W. Unfortunately, most manufacturers have neglected the 300W-400W market, so users need to go for a Seasonic (Ed: nothing wrong with that, though certainly not inexpensive) or generic brand power supply. It's nice to see another major manufacturer returning to this market, especially in light of the fact that many PCs still rarely need more than 200W. Like many of NVIDIA's other partners, Thermaltake also displayed a running ESA system.
Zalman
The Zalman booth features several 3D monitors to attract passing people. Concerning coolers, we didn't actually find anything new. A smaller part of their booth shows the power supplies. Zalman's latest lineup starts at just 360W and goes up to 1000W. The latest additions of 750W, 850W, and 1000W are probably made by Enhance, which is a good manufacturer for this segment. One interesting innovation is that all of the power supplies have heatpipes installed, which help move most of the heat from the inside of the PSU to the heatsink near the back of the power supply.
Miscellaneous
Arctic Cooling already showed their new power supply at CES, and it seems they are getting close to a final sample now. The power supply has an 80mm fan installed, which is located on the front of the PSU and blows air into the power supply.
We met with the representatives of Super Talent, a company more known for memory. Their newly introduced power supply is named Atomic Juice, which is either a silly name or excellent marketing. It seems the power supply comes from FSP and uses a rather old design. The first model will come rated at 600W, since Super Talent wants to start in that popular market.
Amacrox is another company that doesn't do much in the US (yet), but in Europe this brand of FSP-manufactured PSUs is selling quite well. We have already tested one power supply, and the Calmer 2 is merely waiting for us to publish our review. The Calmer 2 is a very interesting power supply since it has no fan and is therefore completely silent. There are also 1200W versions available, but they include a 135mm fan since it's not feasible to run such a PSU without active cooling. One interesting footnote with Amacrox is that most of their power supplies ship in metal boxes, which can be used for several other things after the power supply is mounted in a case.
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Christoph Katzer - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
I added the last gallery with misc products.kilkennycat - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
Did Enermax not have a booth? That's weird. Their power-supplies are somewhat popular in Europe.Christoph Katzer - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
They had but there was nothing new to show in fact. We wrote quite a lot at CES about the new PRO82+ and MODU82+.MGSsancho - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
first of all their the best.http://www.anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=1398">http://www.anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=1398
more on that HTPC case? my current htpc is amd 690 based and its just sitting here in pirces. im looking for a nice case. so yeah moer htps cses please :)
PS. im loving the silverthone cse
Christoph Katzer - Sunday, March 9, 2008 - link
That case is actually for the Xbox360 but Lian Li has the same case also for SFF.Freddo - Thursday, March 6, 2008 - link
All the manufacturers seem to be bragging about having xxxx Watt, but I'm not interested in that.300 is enough for me. I just want a really efficient and quiet PSU. A passive cooled one. Looking at the market today, it seems like the last passive cooled PSUs were released 3 years ago. I'm sure if they tried, they would be able to make passive PSUs more efficient today than they were 3 years ago. So where the heck are those? Stoopid companies.
7Enigma - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
I'm still waiting for these case/psu companies to get a clue and have a properly vented setup. Why do I have a psu that has a horizontal vent out the back with a closed-top on the case? Seems pretty logical to me that the psu (be it passive or actively cooled) should have the intake at the side (as in the highest point in the case), and the outlet at the TOP with corresponding opening at the top of the case to let the hot air out. Put a piece of removable mesh or something to prevent dust from getting in.I've seen some cases with huge 200mm fans on the top of the case, what I really want is a port hole on the top where the PSU is mounted, with a PSU that has its outlet also on the top. This would reduce the need for active cooling under all but the most demanding situations since the hottest air will have easy access to simply rise out of the case the way physics intended.
For SFF or low power/silent setups you wouldn't even need an intake case fan since the escaping heated air would cause a suction at the front (ideally at the base of the case for the coolest air).
Maybe I haven't looked around enough but comon, SOMEONE, make a PSU/case that would address this. Heck I'm about ready to start my own company to produce these!
xsilver - Thursday, March 6, 2008 - link
if you're only after 300w then I think the second hand market is ripe for the picking at the moment.a lot of noob people who are upgrading their 300w-500w fanless PSU's are selling them off for cheap!
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 6, 2008 - link
Did you read the NesteQ comments? Semi-passive sounds like a good compromise: if you don't break a certain threshold, you get pure silence. It sounds like they're working on US partners right now, so I'm definitely interested to see where they go.JarredWalton - Thursday, March 6, 2008 - link
Just an addendum, I recall quite a few people experiencing failures with purely passive designs. If there's no airflow at all (i.e. no case fans or other fans), temperatures can and do get out of control. Without the potential to activate a failsafe fan to cool things down, you run a risk of overheating and failure. Sure, it fails silently, but I think most people would prefer a little occasional noise just to be safe.