Power Supply Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 Impressions and disappointment

emrahkaracam

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 21, 2020
9
2
I purchased the Seasonic Prime Fanlsess TX-700 700W for a silence focused system in a Monsterlabo The First chassis. Since it is both fanless and open on all sides, it provides air passage. This device is 80+ Titanium certified and one of the most efficient ever seen in a power supply. At 230V voltage and 50% load, the efficiency reaches 97%. This is great value.

There is absolutely no heating in the device. Even though I can load 50% max with the hardware I have, there is no sign of overheating. No signs of reflected heat to the outer casing.

However, it has a flaw that destroys all its positive aspects. That's coil whine. A sound that can be heard easily from anywhere in the room in a high-pitched and quiet environment. This sound is heard in environments where low-speed fan noise is not heard. In this case, it's completely pointless to be fanless. If it did what it promised, I wouldn't care if similar products were sold for twice the price. In its current form, it is definitely not a product worth buying.

While it was going to be a great product, it was a complete fiasco.

I bought a TX-600 before and returned it for the same reason. The fact that the two products I bought sounded the same, makes me think that this sound is a side effect of increasing efficiency.
 
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tinyitx

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 25, 2018
2,279
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There is absolutely no heating in the device. Even though I can load 50% max with the hardware I have, there is no sign of overheating. No signs of reflected heat to the outer casing.
How unfortunate!!
Coil whine noise can be more annoying than fan noise.

On hindsight, if your hardware can push the TX-700 to only 50% (ie around 350W), maybe you should have bought in the first place the Silverstone NJ450-SXL Nightjar, which is a 450W unit 80+ Platinum. Platinum is just a grade lower than Titanium but has the same efficiency at 20% and 50% load and is only lower at 100% loading.

And, instead of having a perforated casing, it uses a completely sealed casing which acts as a massive heatsink. One selling point is that, due to a complete enclosure, coil whine noise (if any) can hardly escape.
 
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Mackan

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 2, 2016
302
160
I have the Fanless Titanium 600W. But it took 4 attempts to get a unit that had no coil whine. It is completely silent under any circumstances. So there is hope if you can deal with the annoyance of returning units.

I have also tried the Silverstone NJ450-SXL Nightjar, and it had an annoying coil whine when idle.
 

emrahkaracam

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 21, 2020
9
2
I have the Fanless Titanium 600W. But it took 4 attempts to get a unit that had no coil whine. It is completely silent under any circumstances. So there is hope if you can deal with the annoyance of returning units.

I have also tried the Silverstone NJ450-SXL Nightjar, and it had an annoying coil whine when idle.
It is difficult to understand why they released the product with such a common coil whine problem. There is no point in not having a fan.

I can return the product, but I bought the last product from amazon. When there are other vendors, the cost of arriving in my country is very high. About 450€ for the Tx-700. 250€ when Amazon itself sells

Have you had a chance to try the px-500?
 

Mackan

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 2, 2016
302
160
It is difficult to understand why they released the product with such a common coil whine problem. There is no point in not having a fan.

I can return the product, but I bought the last product from amazon. When there are other vendors, the cost of arriving in my country is very high. About 450€ for the Tx-700. 250€ when Amazon itself sells

Have you had a chance to try the px-500?

I have not tried the PX-500. Since it is shorter (14cm only), and I don't need more than 500W anyways, it would be perfect. But the reason is related to the returns. I basically know I have to return X units to get a good one, and I can't be bothered again. It will literally waste months. And you also risk making your retailer angry, even if you provide a completely valid return reason, e.g. the coil whine. So sticking with the 600W for the forseeable future.
 

emrahkaracam

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 21, 2020
9
2
I have the Fanless Titanium 600W. But it took 4 attempts to get a unit that had no coil whine. It is completely silent under any circumstances. So there is hope if you can deal with the annoyance of returning units.

I have also tried the Silverstone NJ450-SXL Nightjar, and it had an annoying coil whine when idle.
I've given up hope on the Tx series. I don't think I will try again. I'm almost sure that most have this problem.

The NJ700 (same tx-700) has the same noise. from 8:30