which silent psu

[allyb]

hi,

i am after a near silent psu round 550-650w

i am looking at the new seasonic x650, fractal design newton 650 and the corsair hx650

which is the quietest under full load?

i know the seasonic is quiet upto 300w but then the fan kicks in full. should i consider a 0db fanless psu instead, im under the impression this is better for a low spec pc.

would appreciate some views on this. My aim is to get this to run as cool and silent as possible, room is already hot in the summer dont need a 2nd radiator! quite often leave it on when it is busy overnight if neccessary so silence is key here because i am a very light sleeper.

thanks

[arthurleung]

What spec is the machine you're going to run at? You'll probably find that you don't even need 300W so all your choices will be very quiet.

Fanless PSU usually only stay fanless up to 300W and then the fan kicks in (and will be louder with a non-fanless PSU in that case)

[Ulti]

To be honest, unless you've got an SSD and almost no fans in your case, you won't hear a PSU at all. PSUs are generally the quietest actively cooled component in your case. HDDs, CPU fans, GFX fans are usually louder so you shouldn't need to worry.

About reaching full load, what exactly is your system? You're only going to be drawing over 300W if you've got a quad core and a 4870X2 or something when gaming. My system probably won't even draw more than 200W at peak to be honest.

[Maccer101]

Yeah can you list the Spec of you PC, however most of the top PSU brands are very quiet, check out the SPCR website

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs

[allyb]

hi

well i think the spec will be the following:

gfx yet to determine which, was looking at the 4550, but passive in stock is impossible to find so far possibly have to go 4650, just want something cool and silent that will allow me to play hd. maybe the new 5670 heard it runs cool and quiet.

mobo is gigabyte p55a ud3
8gb corsair 12800 ram
3 x 1tb sammy f1s
ssd in future possibly intel x25m 80gb unless better ones come out my mobo supports sata3.0 so dunno whether to wait for those ssds?
i5 750
fractal design case is in mind at the moment although i love the antec remote fusion max and the silver fortress 02, fractal seems better for silence and storage.
corsair h50 cooler.
sony bd rw.

thought a 550 to 650w would be needed and a 300 would be too low. I will probably end up with 6-8 hdds in there, looking at getting wd green 1.5tb have 2 already in my nas.

hope this helps.

[Ulti]

A PSU that provides 300W of power on the 12V would be enough actually. Even if you use 6-8 HDDs, most of them are likely to be idle-ing.

I think something like a Corsair VX450W may suit you but that only has 6 SATA connectors, you do have the option of daisy chaining some molex to SATA power connectors though.

[allyb]

it does no harm going for a bigger psu though does it, i do like the sound of that new seasonic psu 90+ eff. and hopefully itl not ramp up enough for the fan to go on very often. def has to be modular i hate cable mess in the case and on my floor, i wish power wud go wireless quicker lol.

[Ulti]

Wireless power? Haha, although I've heard it does exist for recharging cars or something but I'm guessing that's just inducing an emf through a magnetic field etc.

No harm going for a bigger PSU obviously, just you spend more and sort of "waste" energy. As I did mention earlier though, seeing as you're likely to go for a big name, you won't really need to worry as with your computer you won't really peak at high and your pc will mostly idle whilst playing HD videos and therefore you won't have to worry about the PSUs' fan speeding up.

[arthurleung]

If you just want something to play HD, be quiet and possibly serve as a NAS then i7 seems to be the complete opposite direction to go. The i7 cooler will be the loudest thing you'll have in that machine, along with the blu-ray drive.

Regarding to the PSU, the efficiency is at maximum normally at 50-75% load, so getting a 650W PSU will get you less efficiency than a 450W (4650 + i7 will be about 200W full load).

If you're really planning to sleep with the machine on, getting a quiet case and a good CPU heatsink will be your top priority, along with a carefully picked graphics card. And perhaps a few quiet fans (after your build the machine)

I normally keep my HTPC and Workstation 1 on overnight, both are next to my bed, but WS1 is under a desk so that blocks out some of the noise. The HTPC is slightly noisier with the AMD stock heatsink and a stupid 200mm fan on the top. Just need to replace the fan to get it more quiet.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

For a general purpose machine a Core i3 or one of the 45W CPUs from AMD would make more sense.

[allyb]

no i do need it for work too, i just meant the gfx would only be used for HD not gaming. the spec is perfectly fine for me, its just the psu im unsure what to go for, i have heard the h50 coolers are quiet, why would that be the noisiest? it was my understanding of psus that they only use the wattage required and that going for a lower wattage or higher wattage doesnt make any diff in energy usage, especially in a very efficient psu. so the waste of energy in this case would not be accurate?

[floppybootstomp]

I'm told Seasonic make a great deal of Corsair's PSU range, dunno if that's true but Corsair are a little cheaper than Seasonic usually.

I use all Corsair PSU's here, modular and non-modular, they all quiet enough for me.

I've had about 5 Antec and 2 tagan PSU's crap out on me but so far, touch wood, no Corsair PSU's have gone belly up on me.

If you want really quiet, consider Zalman. But if you go there also consider second mortgage.

[kmac]

I am using a Corsair HX620 and an Enermax 525W Modu82+

Both are excellent quality and very quiet. Noise is a major factor for me and I would have no hesitation recommending both these PSUs

For more Silent PSUs check out http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs

[allyb]

yeah the corsair is 97 the seasonic is 111 both same wattage but the seasonic is semi fanless and 90+ rating , i thought for the extra be worth going for it .

[Ulti]

Well if you don't mind spending the extra cash then I don't see why you should't go for it, it's a bit excessive but seeing as you don't seem to mind then all is good.