CoolMax Fanless Power Supply

Fans are usually found in power supplies, due to the large amounts of heat produced, but they just add to the noise produced by the computer. CoolMax has decided to take a new approach to silencing the power supplies; they have eliminated all fans. Though this power supply may be silent, its temperatures could possibly soar due to the lack of cooling. Well in this review, we will find out.

Features:

∙ Real No-noise Design.
∙ High performance components are designed for extra long life and provide maximum system performance
∙ Heavy-duty transformers designed to support high performance system with several drives
∙ Cable-tube on main power cables for better cable routing and neatness
∙ Aluminum Chassis
∙ Built in EMI filter, low ripple noise
∙ Over voltage, Over power and Short-circuit protection
∙ Tube-tide design to tidy the wires
∙ Designed refer to UL, CSA, TUV regulations. Meet Intel ATX12V/ATX 2.03 requirements
∙ Compatible with all leading processors including Pentium III, 4 and AMD Athlon XP

As mentioned previously, this power supply features a real no noise design. This design is possible thanks to many small openings around the entire housing, so the heat can easily be ventilated outside the PSU case. No fans can be found in this case, only passive heatsinks. A cable-tube design on the main power cord, allows for better cable routing and extra neatness. This is particularly useful if your case has a window.

Performance:

The power supply features most of the same cables and design as found on the CoolMax Taurus Series which can be found here.To test the power supply we installed it on the following rig:

∙ Asus P4SGX-MX
∙ 2 x LED case fans
∙ Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz
∙ Crucial 512MB PC2700 DDR-RAM
∙ Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM

We tested it under load and idle, below are the results.

Since this PSU is fanless, we decided to also test to see if an increase in case temperatures was noticeable. Only a 1-3 degree (Celsius) case temperature increase occurred when installing the fanless power supply over the A+ GPB Enterprises 420W True Silent power supply. I personally thought the temperature increase would have been more dramatic.

Conclusion:

This power supply was very interesting. The fanless design eliminated all power supply noise and only caused a 1-3 degree increase in case temperature. If a silent PC is important to you, I would recommend the CoolMax Fanless Power Supply.

Pros:

∙ Silent
∙ Fanless
∙ Large number of connectors
∙ Performs well

Cons:

∙ Pricy (~ $110)