Seasonic FOCUS GX ATX 3.0 850 W

[Shrek]

Stopping the fan at low loads helps maintaining a steady temperature.

But would not a slow fan also help maintain a steady temperature?

 

[dirtyferret]

f done right, it reduces the mechanical stress caused by thermal expansion cycles. Stopping the fan at low loads helps maintaining a steady temperature.

But would not a slow fan also help maintain a steady temperature?

I'm with Shrek and JG on this one. In fact Aris had an article a few weeks ago about semi fanless units that were set up fan side down in a PSU bottom compartment. Hot air would be trapped inside the unit while in semi fanless mode. He stated it would be better to have the PSU set up fan side up allowing the hot air to go up although being pulled in by the GPU so not perfect. Since many people do a poor job understanding their power needs and going for PSU that are far more powerful then they need, these PSU can remain without the fan turning on even while gaming. You are starting to see brands/oem make changes to their semi fanless units by making the fan come on at lower power demands or in corsair's case adding a knob (that unfortunately does not go to 11) to control fan speed.