Advice on a PSU

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T18:21:29+0000

Hello can anyone recommend a good brand of PSU? I am looking for between 850w - 1000w, fully modular.

I was looking at this one but some reviews including on Overclockers are less than complementary.

be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W 80 PLUS Titanium Power Supply

Order be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W 80 PLUS Titanium Power Supply now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

A very important aspect would as silent as possible as it's going in a music production build, £200 absolute top limit.

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T18:31:31+0000

As a general rule of thumb, for silence, you'd want the largest capacity PSU you can get so that the power supplied would be in the "fanless" zone
Or get an actual fanless PSU.
That being said, in the vast majority of cases, the system fans and CPU, GPU cooler fans are the main culprits for system noise rather than PSU fans
Other things to think about are EMI and the dreaded "coil whine" but these are usually random and may appear/disappear just by switching out components (even from the same range/model)

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T18:46:49+0000

tamzzy said:
As a general rule of thumb, for silence, you'd want the largest capacity PSU you can get so that the power supplied would be in the "fanless" zone
Or get an actual fanless PSU.
That being said, in the vast majority of cases, the system fans and CPU, GPU cooler fans are the main culprits for system noise rather than PSU fans
Other things to think about are EMI and the dreaded "coil whine" but these are usually random and may appear/disappear just by switching out components (even from the same range/model)

Ok thanks I will take that into consideration. Going with the calculator I will be only drawing about 600w but I did want some headroom for a greedier card in the future, if possible.

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T18:50:25+0000

what are the other components in the pc?

Tetras · 2025-03-03T18:54:07+0000

RamboFB said:
A very important aspect would as silent as possible as it's going in a music production build, £200 absolute top limit.

Have a look at the reviews on hwbusters, they'll mention if the PSU is noisy. Though, as tamzzy said, PSU fans are not normally the loudest fan in the case (assuming you buy a decent one).

RamboFB said:
Going with the calculator I will be only drawing about 600w but I did want some headroom for a greedier card in the future, if possible.

If you're using 600 watts in regular usage, I'd buy a bigger PSU than 850!

The Antec HCG Pro has been purchased by quite a few on here and no complaints that I've seen. It is derived from the Seasonic Vertex, though the latter has 2 years additional warranty.

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T18:57:25+0000

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-03111) = £379.99
1 x Intel Core Ultra Bundle - Assassin's Creed Shadows and Civilization VII (SKU: DIG-INT-04525) = £0.00
1 x be quiet Silent Base 802 Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-146-BQ) = £139.99
1 x Asrock Z890 Pro RS (LGA 1851) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-03363) = £215.00
1 x be quiet Pure Rock 3 Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-BEQ-04687) = £27.94
1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C32 6400MHz Dual Channel Kit - (SKU: MEM-CRS-03242) = £209.99
1 x Crucial T700 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen5 M.2 Solid State Drive (CT2000T700SSD3) (SKU: HD-07D-CR) = £160.99

Total: £1,133.90 (includes delivery: £0.00)

Current thoughts. Re-using my GTX1660 super, only a few years old.

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T19:05:29+0000

yeah would definitely want a bigger cpu cooler (eg peerless assassin)

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T19:07:17+0000

also just check if whatever program you are using will benefit from faster block reads/writes from the ssd, if not then gen 5 is pretty useless and you're better off spending that sort of money on a 4tb gen 4 drive instead
and do you need rgb ram if the case has no side windows?

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T19:16:19+0000

tamzzy said:
also just check if whatever program you are using will benefit from faster block reads/writes from the ssd, if not then gen 5 is pretty useless and you're better off spending that sort of money on a 4tb gen 4 drive instead
and do you need rgb ram if the case has no side windows?

In terms of the drive I can look into that, cheers. The RAM that was the cheapest 64GB 6400 CAS 32, I could find. I can have another look and you are correct. I don't care if its RGB or not.

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T19:18:55+0000

Tetras said:
Have a look at the reviews on hwbusters, they'll mention if the PSU is noisy. Though, as tamzzy said, PSU fans are not normally the loudest fan in the case (assuming you buy a decent one).

If you're using 600 watts in regular usage, I'd buy a bigger PSU than 850!

The Antec HCG Pro has been purchased by quite a few on here and no complaints that I've seen. It is derived from the Seasonic Vertex, though the latter has 2 years additional warranty.

Thanks again, I will do that. So its really 1000w minimum?

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T19:20:25+0000

RamboFB said:
The RAM that was the cheapest 64GB 6400 CAS 32, I could find

ah fair enough, yeah just get the cheapest set you can, i wouldn't pay a premium for the RGB if not needed
But if the RGB ram is the cheapest...then by all means lol :cry:

RamboFB said:
Thanks again, I will do that. So its really 1000w minimum?

if you're going to use 600w consistently then yeah i'd get 1kw

Tetras · 2025-03-03T19:21:07+0000

RamboFB said:
Current thoughts. Re-using my GTX1660 super, only a few years old.

RamboFB said:
Thanks again, I will do that. So its really 1000w minimum?

With a 1660 Super the power usage will be very low (way under the 600 watts you mentioned the calculator gave you). 850 more than sufficient to keep it within tolerable temps and noise levels.

If you upgrade to something around the 300-350 level (think the 9070 XT is around there and the 5080), then 850 will still be alright, but your budget is big enough for Antec's 1000 watt version of the HCG Pro and that will give you decent headroom to avoid high temps/worst part of the fan curve.

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T19:21:09+0000

tamzzy said:
ah fair enough, yeah just get the cheapest set you can, i wouldn't pay a premium for the RGB if not needed
But if the RGB ram is the cheapest...then by all means lol

if you're going to use 600w consistently then yeah i'd get 1kw

Thanks a lot

tamzzy · 2025-03-03T19:22:06+0000

RamboFB said:
Thanks a lot

and by consistently i mean that you're running that kind of cpu/gpu loads for hours on end

Gray2233 · 2025-03-03T19:23:25+0000

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Antec HCG 1000 Pro Platinum 1000W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02746) = £189.95
1 x Seasonic Focus GX-1000 ATX 3.1 1000W 80 Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-SSC-03149) = £169.99

Total: £367.93 (includes delivery: £7.99)

These are pretty hard to beat at the moment, (Seasonic is the OEM for the Antec). I can't see you doing better for the money tbh, I'd personally save £20 and just go for the Seasonic.

Seasonic Focus GX ATX 3 1000W Gold PSU Review

It's the perfect blend of quality and balanced performance.

www.tomshardware.com

Antec HCG1000 Pro Platinum 1000W PSU Review - KitGuru

It has been some time since we last looked at a power supply from Antec, however today we analyse a

www.kitguru.net

RamboFB · 2025-03-03T19:26:20+0000

Gray2233 said:
My basket at OcUK:

1 x Antec HCG 1000 Pro Platinum 1000W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02746) = £189.95

1 x Seasonic Focus GX-1000 ATX 3.1 1000W 80 Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-SSC-03149) = £169.99

Total: £367.93 (includes delivery: £7.99)

These are pretty hard to beat at the moment, (Seasonic is the OEM for the Antec). I can't see you doing better for the money tbh, I'd personally save £20 and just go for the Seasonic.

They both look fine, thanks for that.