HWC has published several analyses that deserve to be revisited. Although they are not from today—or even yesterday—we still consider them useful in practice. Does replacing a PSU reduce coil whine? We did not observe that, at least not to any significant extent. Thermal imaging of 16-pin PCIe connectors? We’ve got that too, along with measurements of different case fan layouts and airflow distributions (including airflow intensity).
Our testing also examined the claim that replacing a power supply can reduce loud coil whine from a graphics card. Our measurements do not really support this, and we can rather conclude that the power supply has very little influence on the sound produced by the card’s coils. Of course, different power supplies have different noise characteristics (including their own coil whine), but that is a different story.
- Link to analysis: Which combo whines the least? 12 PSUs, 3 graphics cards…
During a past visit to the Enermax test lab, we also managed to record the temperatures of 12VHPWR cables across different power supplies, providing broader coverage of various cable designs. We deliberately overloaded the cables to reach the limits of the specification, close to the power levels seen with cards such as the GeForce RTX 5090.
- Link to analysis: 12VHPWR cable thermal imaging: Different PSU, different temps
Finally, we have various system cooling configurations and observations of their behavior in a practical scenario. Yes, it is just one of many scenarios that can occur. Nevertheless, it provides a useful illustration. Stronger exhaust airflow proves more beneficial than investing the same effort solely into intake airflow. Balanced airflow—with fans on both the intake and exhaust sides—is the most attractive approach when considering the cooling of as many PC components as possible.
- Link to analysis: System cooling in the spotlight. What to increase/decrease?
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
