DeepCool's Liquid Cooled PSU

By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published

During our visit in DeepCool's suite in CES we noticed a prototype liquid cooled PSU. There were some attempts in the past to build liquid cooled PSUs (e.g. the Koolance PSU-1200ATX-12S), but none of them was successful because the PSUs were very expensive, bulky and didn't offer good performance. This however didn't stop DeepCool from revisiting the whole liquid cooled PSU idea. The OEM behind their prototype is CWT, which also built the aforementioned Koolance PSU.

Some of you will probably wonder why to use liquid cooling into a PSU. The main reason is the lower noise, since with the proper design there is no need for a high-speed fan, which can be a loud noise source especially when the PSU is pushed hard. In addition, liquid cooling can offer lower temperatures which will lead to better performance and increased reliability, because the stress to the PSU's parts will be lower. However there is a catch here and this is depicted on the fact that you will still have to cool down the parts (e.g. electrolytic capacitors) that cannot be heatsink-mounted, so a fan will be needed, especially if the liquid-cooling block doesn't allow for a fanless design. In this case DeepCool used an FDB fan, which handles mostly the cooling of the PSU's passive components (capacitors).

According to DeepCool their liquid cooled PSU will be ready in 4-5 months, since they are still evaluating its performance and operation in general. As you can see from the provided photos the unit has a thick aluminum chassis which plays a significant role into removing the heat from the internals. This PSU features also a fully modular cabling design along with LED lighting. DeepCool's PR informed us that they are planning to release more than one models with most likely 650W and 750W capacities and that the efficiency certification will be 80 PLUS Gold, while they are also thinking to upgrade it to 80 PLUS Platinum. The price for the 650W model will be around $200, which is on the high side but if they manage to make this PSU whisper quiet even under full load operation and reliable at the same time, we believe that it will definitely be worthy this stiff price tag.

A table with the PSU's specifications, the ones that were available at least, is following.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
PFCActive PFC
Efficiency80 Plus Gold
ModularYes (fully)
Intel Haswell ReadyYes (most likely)
Cooling120 mm Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan
Dimensions150 mm (W) x 86 mm (H) x 140 mm (D)
ComplianceATX12V v2.31, EPS 2.92
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gam3r01
    Cool idea (Im skeptical to say "good idea"), but no thanks.
    I would rather use an EVGA P2 or T2 unit and get the same if not better cooling, performance, and quality.
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    Cool concept but I'm having trouble getting the point of this. I see these arguments:

    1). "They can make it lower efficiency to save cost"
    You could get away with making it bronze to save cost there, but then the savings are lost by adding this cooling loop. Remember the extra engineering time and QA needed for running water through a power converter reliably

    2). "PSU fans are loud"
    I've seen this thrown here and there. Personally I have a Corsair HX750i and the fan is off until 300 watts, or at 40% minimum (through Corsair Link) which is completely silent anyways. In my opinion, the PSU in your build should not be a budget item, and if you picked well, it should be pretty quiet.

    Again, I like this idea, but I don't see the point of it. The compromises in what will probably price/performance will probably not be that great.
    Reply
  • c0rr0sive
    Fans on most good power supplies are already really quiet, I honestly see no point in buying something like this, because you are still going to have a fan somewhere to dissipate the heat from the radiator, and fans can only get so "silent" before they don't move air anymore.
    Reply
  • rhysiam
    I'm trying to keep an open mind here... but this is totally pointless, surely!?

    If you're building a silent mid-power (300-700W) there are already fanless (or semi-fanless) options available. If you're building some Tri-GPU monster that you want to keep quiet, dissipating the 1200 odd watts of heat from those graphics cards is going to take far noisier fans than those required to handle the ~100 watts worth of heat coming from a top tier PSU.

    Am I missing a use-case here?
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    Not to mention the fact it still uses an fan to cool its internal components.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    Deepcool is just getting "warmed up" for April 1st, right?

    When is a PSU fan louder than the ones attached to radiators, or the pumps?
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    WOW. Just really? What a waste of resources even designing that thing.
    Reply
  • ErikVinoya
    For when you have water-cooled your CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, HDD, and Motherboard, and you still have that itch in your brain that it's not enough

    Maybe sometime, someone will also come up with a water-cooled fan, or a water-cooled radiator. Heck, why not a water-cooled water cooling loop?
    Reply
  • Haravikk
    Wouldn't it be better to just buy a platinum rated PSU instead since that should simply less hot in the first place because it's more efficient? I have a passively cooled seasonic PSU that's platinum rated and it barely gets hot at all.

    I mean, it just seems like you're throwing more power (to drive the cooling) at a PSU in order to fix the problem that it's not efficient enough; seems like completely the wrong tactic to me.
    Reply
  • Sparrow_Lassy
    This could be considered as giving the consumers additional methods to customized their rig. We can almost chuck it under "if we build it they will buy"- in this case, people will buy it maybe just for the cool factor in itself. I agree with the comments made above, this would not be a product I would consider purchasing.
    Reply