Fanless PSUs are a good choice if you:
Otherwise, it’sbest to stick to standard PSUsas the drawbacks of using a fanless PSU easily outweigh the benefits. Let’s see how.
Advantages of a Fanless PSU
The first advantage of having a fanless PSU is—itreduces the overall noiseproduced by your PC.
You’ll certainly notice a difference between a fanless PSU and afan-equipped PSUin this regard.
Secondly, the potentialrisk of fan failureis hugely minimized.
There’s no way thepower supply can intake dustfrom the exterior if it lacks a fan.
This helpsprevent dust buildupinside the PSU that could possibly damage the fan bearings in the long run—the most commonproblem in standard PSUs.
Apart from that, fanless PSUs also haveimpressive power supply efficiency.
They are typically available only in80 PLUS Platinumand Titanium variants that offer up to 95% efficiency.
No wonder! A fanless PSU should obviously havehigher efficiency valuesto ensure minimal heat dissipation.
This contributes towards theleast power wastageand eventually, a cut down on yourpower bill.
If you think these things create value for you, no doubt, go for it.
Drawbacks of a Fanless PSU
Fanless PSUs may not be worthwhile if you own a system with high power requirements. As the power consumption tends upwards to thePSU’s capacity, itstarts overheating.
In such a case, active cooling is a must, which isonly possible with fans. The passive cooling mechanism in fanless PSUs does not perform that well here.
If you opt for a fanless PSU, justforget about overclockingorrunning your PSU at full load.
Be Quiet!, one of the dominant players of the fanless PSU industry itself states thatthere’s a problem using these PSUswith high-end systems. They only work well up to a certain limit and overheat beyond that.
Power supply overheatingcould even trigger the OverTemperatureProtection feature andshut it down.
You may cancel out this drawback by keeping anextra wattage headroom. But there’s no advantage to doing it.
Fanless PSUs are also a red flag forPC cases with limited airflow. To counter it, you have to ensure you place your PC in thebest possible positionandmaintain the airflow.
Now comes the price. The build quality of the components used in these PSUs makes themmore priceythan the standard ones.
That’s whyproper budgetingis a must if you want tobuild a PCintegrating a fanless PSU.
Conclusion – Is Fanless PSU Worth It?
In all honesty,I don’t recommendgetting a fanless PSU. The cons outweigh the pros for most standard builds.
Even if you’re hoping to build a quiet system, there are better alternatives.
Fan-equipped PSUs fromreputed brandscan be super-quiet if you get ones withzero-RPM fan modeor hybrid fan mode.
Their fans do not spin unless you are heavy on load and are almost near to silent.
On that note, also be aware that a fanless or quiet PSU alonedoesn’t guaranteea completely silent working environment.
