Amacrox Calmer 560: Silence is Golden
by Christoph Katzer on April 2, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
The Amacrox Calmer 560 targets a specific group of users. The 400W output is enough for most midrange and lower systems, but potential buyers should be aware that it only includes a 4-pin ATX12V connector for the CPU and not the 8-pin some boards desire, and there's only a single 6-pin PEG connector. That's enough to support midrange to high-end graphics cards with current GPUs. Given that this is a fanless PSU, we expect most users will be going for a lower end fanless GPU as well, so the lack of multiple PEG connections shouldn't cause any difficulties. In short, this power supply is a great fit for HTPCs, quiet office systems, or PCs that happen to be located in bedrooms.
The cable harnesses are very short, which again limits the versatility of this unit. It will definitely not work in a full-size tower, since the cables are not long enough to reach the different motherboard jacks, let alone the HDDs and DVDs. However, the Calmer 560 is a standard ATX size, so it can mount in smaller midsize and mATX cases without difficulty. For an HTPC or small mATX setup, of course, the shorter cables should be a perfect match. Just make sure the case can handle a heavy PSU, as this unit weighs around 4kg/8 lbs.
The performance is average at best, with quite a bit of voltage drop at higher loads. Most of the rails - including the important 12V rails - stay within specs even with 10% overload, so it should be adequate. The efficiency is very good and stays above 80% at most loads and input voltages. With a maximum of 86% using 230VAC, the Calmer 560 won't waste a lot of power, but optimal efficiency requires a load of ~100W or more. The high efficiency is important considering the fanless design; you definitely don't want to have to deal with any extra heat.
Amacrox PSUs are not yet available in the US, but the company is working to change the situation. In Europe, Amacrox is already a recognized brand that's available at most online stores. The price of around 150 EUR is quite steep considering the specifications; many competing power supplies offer virtually silent operation using a low RPM fan for half the cost of the Calmer 560. In the US this price would be more than $230, which is definitely too much for this product.
The price is too high for us to recommend this power supply, and fanless can be a bit of a concern in actual practice. Sure, a fanless PSU might be fine, provided you have at least one decent case fan; or maybe a fanless GPU with other low-RPM case fans. Removing all the fans in a modern PC, though? You'll want to be very careful if you try that approach. Still, we know there are people out there who want nothing other than pure silence, and that is what they get with the Amacrox Calmer 560. We recommend staying at loads closer to 200W rather than pushing for the 400W rating of this PSU, but then it's quite difficult to get silence on a 400W system anyway.
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sprockkets - Thursday, April 3, 2008 - link
Their Zen 300w power supply costs around $75, although expect to have more issues with them than their 12cm fan ones.Every so often, I wish someone would review POS power supplies. Just to see what they would do, and how easy they can destroy motherboards.
piroroadkill - Thursday, April 3, 2008 - link
And so, your wish is granted: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReview...">http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReview...dkreviews - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
If you are building HTPC and pick right components you can get away with fanless setup. I did just that for my HTPC setup and it wasn't a rocket science.I got Antec NKS2480 case with FSP Zen Fanless 400 watt PSU, Ninja Mini for CPU cooler and that's it! throw in hard drive and optical drive and you are all set. Antec case does come with 2x120mm fans that you can use, but it's not necessary.
My HTPC is on 24x7 and temps are as reported by SmartFan during movie watching. (idle temps are even lower)
Temp 1 38
Temp 2 38
Core 15C
Power consumption as reported by Kill A Watt:
Boot up 60-88 watt
Idle 65 watt
Non HD Movie 67 watt
dkreviews - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
I guess I forgot to mention I use Gigabyte 780g mobo with AMD 2400 (45 watt)strikeback03 - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
Why are PSU makers still including more Molex connectors than SATA? Now that the optical drives have finally gotten their act together and moved to SATA, the need for Molex is primarily legacy devices. Would be nice if the PSU reflected this and flipped the ratio of connector types to support SATA.Zolcos - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
I have a lot of fans in my system, and exhausted my supply of fan mobo headers. Having a lot of molex connectors from the psu really helped out.Of course this situation doesn't mean a lot when we're talking about components designed for silence. But also consider that lots of people building a system just migrate optical drives from an old box. Not to mention that I needed to use pata optical drives in order to free up more sata ports, which are all in use now.
Molex is still king. In fact most people using sata just have a single sata hdd -- there isn't a huge market for having lots of sata power connectors. If you really have that many sata devices, you probably need a bigger psu than this one anyway.
Christoph Katzer - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
I agree... sometimes there are still even more Molex than Sata connectors. I bought my first Sata DVD drive just a week ago, maybe there are still too many people with old stuff like me.HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
The case it comes in appears to have better build quality than the PSU itselfSuper Nade - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
It is better built than the FSP Epsilon and seems to be based on a different platform. The OEM is FSP (both the UL and the SPI on the transformers point to this).HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - link
I am mostly talking about the exterior appearance. I figured it was FSP just based on the way they broke down the label.