[grogi]

Antec Phantom 500 Watt Silent Power Supply Review
"...Antec introduced the Phantom line in 2004 with the Phantom 350 as a completely silent alternative to a fan cooled power supply. Heavy external aluminum heat sinks bonded to or linked to with thermally conductive pads allowed the working components within the power supply to direct heat to the exterior of the case. Certainly at that point the traditional solution of having the power supply attempt to cool itself via warm air from within the case was starting to be recognized as a not-so-cool solution. But of course 350 Watts does not capture the average extreme machine builder’s imagination, even if they do want to keep things quiet. This is where the Phantom 500 steps in.

Beefed up to supply a max of 420W on the 12V rails the Phantom 500 also has a managed fan system for thermal protection. I know when I first read of the Phantom 500, the addition of the fan seemed like a compromise to the design theme. Afterall, the brochure says …”Quiet as a mouse – dead mouse that is”. I wondered at what point would this little thermal mouse spring to life and what kind of noise would it make? Why did they feel that they needed to have a managed fan system? The answer it turns out, all comes down to the variability of the enclosure environment, which I’m going to cover in detail. First though, let’s get the box open."