600Watt Modular Silent - What to get

[Brewster0101]

My Zalman ZH850 power supply has decided to show signs of issues just out side of its warranty.

Until it decided to play up, it was my perfect power supply, silent (real silent) and modular. The modular wasn't perfect as there were many fixed cables still.

I need to replace it with a similar power supply - silent and modular - Budget £100

My specs are
990x motherboard,
AMD X3 720
6870 GPU,
2 hard drives, 1 DVD, 4 fans

I am thinking a 650watt would be ok, although 750watt maybe will give me head way for the future.

I was looking at the OCZ ZT 750 or Corsair TX750M

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/ZT_750W/9.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/C.../TX750M/9.html

Any thoughts? Recommendations.

[UseItNow]

I think £105 will get you a Corsair HX750W! I've got one, find it quiet personally.

Although I'm not sure on how much power you need as I had a Sapphire HD6870 1Gb with kit similar to yourself running off a Corsair HX450W a while back before I sold the HD6870 on here without any issues. Could barely hear the PSU even at full load which I was surprised by to say the least!

[Brewster0101]

This is why I think 750 or even 650 might be over kill for my needs. I have noticed though that smaller power supplies only come with 120mm fans, where as the 750 watt models generally come with 140mm, ergo more silent.

This is really picky, but when I mean silent, I like to think that my ear pressed against the fan is almost silent under load.

I am happy to consider a 650 or even 550 watt PSU if it ticks all the right boxes.

[Brewster0101]

My attention has now been moved to the Corsair Ax650/750 - so cool and silent that the fan doesn't even spin up until under alot of load. !! Nice

[UseItNow]

My attention has now been moved to the Corsair Ax650/750 - so cool and silent that the fan doesn't even spin up until under alot of load. !! Nice

Oh yeah, forgot about that, I think the AX650 might be in your budget.

[Brewster0101]

AX650 is about £105

Going to look at the Silverstone st60 - this is £30 cheaper and offer similar specs.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-...12v-quiet-fan-

[DeludedGuy]

Let me know what you get and how it performs, I need something dead quiet!

[a mastermind]

I have similar spec in terms of total load (see below). My approach in choosing PSU was following:
1) checked total load with extreme (or thermaltake, can't remember now) outervision PSU calculator (google it
2) added 25% to max load (PSUs tend to become audible only when operating above 75% of their capacity)
3) shortlisted Corsair, Antec and OCZ based on brand reliability, cs, warranty, futureproofing and the budget of course (couldn't justify spending more than £70 on PSU for long term all in one middle level build, see specs below).

Initially ordered Corsair TX 650w V2 (£65), tested it for few days and sent it back due to idle noise and non-modularity (was still within 7 days so no problems under distance selling regulations). Also read about other users not so quiet experience in forums later.
Added £5 and bought Antec TruePower new 650w modular. And wow, what a difference. It's absolutely inaudible, had to do visual check to make sure the fan is working, stunning build quality and 5 years warranty (corsair offers only 3) and less cables hence tidyer case. Didn't have a need to check out OCZ, happy as a clam with my Antec PSU.

>my setup
i5 2500k (+Noctua U12P SE2), p8z68-v/gen3, 1 x Spinpoint F3, 1 x PCI Edimax wireless card, 3 x case fans, 1 x ODD dvd/cd
> to be added - HD6870 or GTX 560, 1 X SSD 120GB, 1 x PCIe sound card (xonar d2 or similar), 1 x PCI TV tuner, 2 x HDD (waiting for the prices to calm down), (in later future may be 1 x ODD Blue ray, Crossfire or SLI, and 3more case fans).

[Brewster0101]

Added £5 and bought Antec TruePower new 650w modular.

I am going to go with a 750watt PSU now. Gives me head room for upgrades but also if I only use 50% on this then on the Corsair AX750, the fan doesn't start up and I get Gold 80 plus.

I looked at the Antec which seems very good, but for £30 more I think I prefer the Corsair AX.

[kwai]

Corsair PSU's are definately a good buy,
a friend of mine had a generic 850w running his rig (i7 920 @ 3.6ghz, and gtx 295) which went pop, now using a 950w corsair model and hes been very happy with it

[Top_gun]

Try Cooler Master M600 Silent Pro. Bronze rated efficiency, modular, single rail and above all silent. The M500 had a good review on Jonny Guru's website.

[a mastermind]

I am going to go with a 750watt PSU now. Gives me head room for upgrades but also if I only use 50% on this then on the Corsair AX750, the fan doesn't start up and I get Gold 80 plus.

I looked at the Antec which seems very good, but for £30 more I think I prefer the Corsair AX.

hands down for Corsair's AX range, thicks all the boxes - quality,noise(silence ),warranty,reliability, customer service etc. No wonder, it's in different class.

You must be lucky if you can pick up AX750 for under £100 as normally the price is close to double that of TX range or Antec TP650 new.

[DeludedGuy]

Try Cooler Master M600 Silent Pro. Bronze rated efficiency, modular, single rail and above all silent. The M500 had a good review on Jonny Guru's website.

Don't go for the Coolermaster, I have the 500w one its nice but not silent, check my build here. Initially it was very quiet and remained so for a good 4-5 months, however for some odd reason it got progressively louder, it's not dust build up as I keep everything immaculately dust free.

[Brewster0101]

You must be lucky if you can pick up AX750 for under £100 as normally the price is close to double that of TX range or Antec TP650 new.

My bad, the AX750 is about £120, I didn't fully look into the price of the Antec TP650.

I would go for the AX650, but I can't find any good reviews of it. But the 7 year warranty Corsair offer on these is so worth paying the premium price for.

I wouldn't buy from Coolermaster, they are like a slightly better Thermaltake - glamour but not high end quality.

[ik9000]

I'm using the NZXT Hale 90 750w and it is near as silent as anything I'd want. Literally can't hear it - even at load. They do a 650w version which is slightly cheaper too and has exactly the same noise profile. Not sure how the price compares to the corsair ones but could offer another option - and they're gold efficiency too.

[Pob255]

Actually some of the coolermaster psu's are very good, it depends on the model though.
The coolermaster real power M wasn't that good and the elite series are only passable as low cost psu's
the silent pro gold is decent.
the GX and silent pro M are very good.

Don't go for the Coolermaster, I have the 500w one its nice but not silent, check my build here. Initially it was very quiet and remained so for a good 4-5 months, however for some odd reason it got progressively louder, it's not dust build up as I keep everything immaculately dust free.

Sounds like you had a faulty unit, it happens no matter how well known the brand is, I've had a corsair HX that was DOA.
I hope you RMA'd it as the silent Pro Modular come with a 5year warranty