What make a fanless PSU more expensive?

[dtc]

Two PSUs with "80+ Gold" made by the same manufacturer:

[a] Fanless - 460W, £146
[b] With Fan - 650W, £115

What are the bits and parts that make the fanless one with only 2/3 of 650W to cost 30% more expensive than the one with fan? Any idea?

[Bigian88]

newer technology is always more expensive.

I suppose the whole 2 watts used to power the fan to extract the heat from the PSU is saved in the fanless model - thus saving you a little bit of energy but the main cost would come from the technology implemented that replaces the fan, like heatpipes.

[andyn]

Basically a fan is the easiest and cheapest way to remove heat from the PSU.

Without a fan they have to adopt alternative, and more expensive, strategies, including:

- Aliminium cases instead of steel.
- Heat pipes.
- Fins.

These all push up the materials cost, and also the time/cost of manufacturing.

They also have to be very high efficiency. This is because basically the %age of power which is 'lost' by a PSU is lost in the form of heat, and without a fan there are severe limits to the amount of heat which can be dispersed.

Also they are probably more difficult to design in the first place, and the manufacturers will want to recoup some of that design cost.