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Samlex America 320 Watt Industrial Power Supply
Review Date: July 30, 2003
Reviewed by: Dwayne Sessom
Sponsored by: Sidewinder Computers
Every PC enthusiast has at one time or another had the thought of using an alternate means of cooling their CPU go through their head. The most popular, and least expensive is air cooling using fans, and generally lots of them. The next level of cooling is the use of good old H2O. Water is good for keeping your CPU at ambient temperatures - 70 to 80*F. Taking cooling to the next level, we venture into the world of Thermo-electric cooling, or "pelt" cooling. Pelt cooling can take your CPU to near freezing. 40 to 50*F is common with the right setup.
One of the more common peltiers is the 226 watt variety from Swiftech, which is what I will be using today. Powering this big of a pelt properly is not an easy task. It requires a lot of juice, and a totally seperate power supply from the rest of the system.
Click for larger view.
While it is possible to run a 226 watt peltier off of an ATX power supply, it is not recommended because ATX power supplies do not meet the power requirements to supply the pelt with all the power it needs to operate efficiently. In other words, you will be starving the pelt for power by using an ATX PSU to push it. The best ATX power supplies provide 18 amps on the 12 volt rail, and the Swiftech 226 pelt requires 24 amps to run efficiently. This is where the Samlex America 320 watt industrial power supply comes in. This power supply can provide the juice that peltiers thirst for.
To give you a good idea of how much power a 226 watt peltier consumes, your entire PC including monitor consumes about 2 amps at idle. The Swiftech pelt consumes 24 amps all the time. 12 times the power the rest of your computer consumes! So, you can see why a peltier requires a totally seperate power supply from the rest of the PC, and using the right type of power supply is crucial for stable operation!
The Samlex America 320 watt industrial power supply fits the bill for doing this job.
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Features:
- Low Cost, High Reliability.
- 105° Output Capacitor.
- Internal AC Input Range.
- Adjustable voltage output.
- Built in EMI Filter, Low Ripple Noise.
- High Efficiency, Low Working Temperature.
- Soft-Start Circuit, Limiting AC Surge Current.
- Short Circuit, Overload Over Voltage, Over Temperature Protection.
- Compact Size, Light Weight.
- 100% Full Load Burn-In Test.
- Thermocontrolled Fan.
- UL1950 Approved.
Click for larger view.
At first glace, it may seem a bit odd if you have never worked with this type of power supply before. It's dimensions are totally different from an ATX, making placement in your system the most obvious challenge. If you want this power supply to fit inside your case, you have to be a little creative, and have plenty of room. It will fit into a couple of 5 1/4" bays in some cases. If not, you can lay the unit on the bottom of the case and route the power cable out the back.
The next thing you will notice are the power connections. They are all bare screw mounts, reminding me of many car stereo amplifiers I have seen. It may look a little intimidating at first, but it's really pretty simple. There are 3 connections for power input, where you will have to attach the AC power cord, and 6 connections for output (3 posative, and 3 negative connections).
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The test setup:
We will be testing the Samlex America 320 watt industrial power supply on the following system:
- DFI LanParty Pro 875 motherboard
- Pentium4 Northwood 3.0C Retail boxed
- Swiftech MCX4000-T 226 watt peltier/heatsink with 92mm Vantec Tornado
- 2x 256MB OCZ PC3200 DDR
- WindowsXP Professional
- Motherboard Monitor version 5.3.0.0
- * Ambient room temp = 74*F
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As you can see, the Swiftech MCX4000-T is a monster! It looks like it needs lots of power and it does.
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