Conclusion

Passive power supplies are yet another step in the direction of totally silent computing, the products reviewed today from Silverstone and Yesico prove that it possible to power a fairly recent system without instabilities or overheating.


Each PSU is constructed to basically be one big heatsink

However with another source of air circulation removed from your PC the overall system temperature will rise, in our tests the CPU temp went up 10°C, adding a 80mm as rear exhaust reduced this to a mere 3°C, but that would be counter productive as the idea is to have less moving components inside your PC case.

Both Silverstone and Yesico give you the opportunity to remove a few dB from your system, Silverstone’s unit stands out with its sleek looks and compact design, while Yesico’s unit packs a slightly bigger punch but can cause installation problems.

Unfortunately to have the opportunity to have a passive power supply inside you case you will have to pay quite a bit extra. These units don’t come cheap and easily cost over $150/€150. Whether or not their added cost is worth it depends on your needs for total silence.

But do realize that silent computing, especially with a high end system, is still a costly operation, as each component in your system will have to be upgraded / updated to fit into your “silent PC” plan.

This can drive up the total cost by quite a bit and must be taken into consideration.

PRO
Extremely silent (read absolutely no noise)
Excellent heat dissipation


CON
Pricing!
Possible installation issues (Yesico)
Increased system temperature (obvious)


Thanks go out to Jurek at Silverstone and David from ITC Multimedia for giving us the opportunity to test these products.

Questions/Comments: forum thread