Silent and reasonable PSU

[mrglue]

Hi,

I'm putting together a new PC for the first time in a few years and I've got silent 400W PSU that used to sit in my old machine. I've seen some talk of the new graphics cards being very power hungry and fear I may not have enough to power everything up.

I've got: Core 2 Duo E8500, Samsung F1 1TB harddrive, Gigabyte EP45-DS3P, Gigabyte 9600GT fanless, 4GB PC8500 DDR2 ram, DVD-RW drive.

The PSU I have was very good at the time (4 years ago) and cost me about £80. Noise levels are very important too me, but entirely fanless are probably too hard too keep cool with the rest of my fans.

Any advice would be welcome.

[staffsMike]

Be Quiet! Dark power 450W - 550W (scan today only, good prices )
Enermax Modu82+ 525W
Corsair 520W HX

All great PSU's all next to inaudiable. I have the corsair and I can't hear the thing for trying and the other two are supposed to be even more quiet although you would be hard pushed to tell

[jonh17]

Corsair HX range or OCZ stealth x stream range are good aswell.

[mrglue]

Thanks guys, I'll look into those alternatives. Do you feel that the 400W one I already have is going to be too little. I see some of the alternatives mentioned are only 50-100W more powerful...

[staffsMike]

What is the PSU exactly. 400W is generally enough to run that sort of system with relative ease tbh.

[mrglue]

thanks staffsMike. I was hoping I could use my old one too, still waiting for my memory and graphics card to be delivered from Scan so that I can try it out..

The PSU is a Zalman ZM400A-APF and it's probably about 4 or 5 years old now, however it hasn't been used for the last 3 and was an excellent and recommended piece at the time...

If it's not obvious that it won't work, I'll give it a go when I get the remaining parts..

[Noxvayl]

I wouldn't use your old one because PSU's degrade over time and your rated 400W PSU will by now only be managing 300W- 330W with its volts lowering by the month and amps with it. Stable volts and good quality current is the hallmark of good power supplies and after 4 years I'm afraid even the best PSU's money can buy give bad results. Its safer to get a new one

I have the Enermax MODU82+ 525W and its whisper quite but as mike says you'd need a sound meter to tell the difference between the ones he listed. One thing that sold the Enermax to me is that it has 3x 12v rails all of which are rated at 25A(normally PSU's like the Corsair only have 2x 12v rails and are also only rated at 20A which is good but 25A is better plus it makes the PSU future proof for GFX's that might need that sort of power in a 1-2 years).

[Will404]

I have the corsair and I can't hear the thing for trying and the other two are supposed to be even more quiet although you would be hard pushed to tell

I have the HX520, and it seems to make a clicking noise, yet nothing from the outside is touching the fan, If I push it firmly in one direction this stops though???

[staffsMike]

I have the HX520, and it seems to make a clicking noise, yet nothing from the outside is touching the fan, If I push it firmly in one direction this stops though???

Check the braiding on the cable inside. Just shine a torch in and rotate the fan slowly yourself until you feel what's causing the click. My 450VX had it's braiding just clipping the fan so i carfeully pushed it back with a chopstick lol You'll find pulling on the fixed cables from the outside will probably sort the click as well.

[Will404]

Check the braiding on the cable inside. Just shine a torch in and rotate the fan slowly yourself until you feel what's causing the click. My 450VX had it's braiding just clipping the fan so i carfeully pushed it back with a chopstick lol You'll find pulling on the fixed cables from the outside will probably sort the click as well.

Will try later.
Thanks

[mrglue]

Lots of useful advice here. I'm taking delivery of my memory and graphics card tomorrow - but I've put everything else in place and found that the PSU I have only have a 2x10v power connector. The motherboard manual suggests that the PSU can work fine with 2x10v but recommends 2x12v so I think I'll make the plunge. Not sure if I can manage to hold on for long enough though - so I may give it a try with my current one first... It shouldn't break anything, just may not start or run stable?

[TAKTAK]

I have the HX520, and it seems to make a clicking noise, yet nothing from the outside is touching the fan, If I push it firmly in one direction this stops though???

hold onto all the cables and swing it around your head






i bet that would work aswell

[mrglue]

hold onto all the cables and swing it around your head






i bet that would work aswell

That could cause the low-noise ability to take a hit

[mrglue]

Corsair HX range or OCZ stealth x stream range are good aswell.

The OCZ stealthxstream 600W is only £46.99 at overclockers

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...source=froogle

I quite like the modular aspect of the Corsair HX 520 (£64) and Be Quiet 550 and Enermax 525 at £74... Free shipping from Scan and 5% cachback with Amex makes the difference smaller - but 600W may be useful with future additions to the system in mind?

[staffsMike]

pretty sure that is supposed to be louder than my gameXstream and it no where near the same level of quiet as the corsair..

[Emirzan]

I looked at that and several reviews (example here) say it's actually quite loud. Definitely go with the Corsair I reckon.