Loud PSU

drew64

drew64

drew64

Associate
Joined
18 Feb 2009
Posts
691
Location
Cambridge
hey.
quick query, i have an Antec basiq 500watt psu, and as far as i can deduce, its causing some incredible noise, almost sounds like a server.

ive generally just put up with it, but as i'll soon be giving this rig to someone else when i upgrade i was wanting to sort this.

aside from buying a new one (expensive :( ) what other options are there?
 
Free ear muffs with every PC gift? ;)

Is the PSU under warranty? Is it being squeezed to within an inch of its life by your hardware?
 
d_brennen said:
Free ear muffs with every PC gift? ;)

Is the PSU under warranty? Is it being squeezed to within an inch of its life by your hardware?
Click to expand...

i believe the warranty would have expired.

its a 500watt psu.
and i have:

q6600 @ 2.8
4 gig ram
4850 512mb single slot gfx card
2 x 250 gb HDDs
a dvd burner
and a sound card


so wouldnt assume it's being taxed that close to max
 
Have you recentley added anything new to the system? i added a 4870 a couple of months ago and the psu went very noisy, down to it doing more work and pumping out more volts !
 
Some psu's are noisier than others especially if it only has a 80mm fan.

ALso power decays with psu's over years up to approx 10% per annum so if old it may only be putting out 350W now.

Secondly pretty much all psu's have their fan not running or running on the slowest setting up to 50% of the max power being consumed and then they start increasing the rpm and get noisy.

So by all accounts with the combination of the above, your fan in your psu could be running at full tilt as you may be using say 80% of the current max power the psu supplies.

It is for this reason (plus psu's are more efficient when running at 50%) that I have a 860W psu even though I don't need all that power as it means it is running efficiently and silent.

So look at a 120mm/135mm psu replacement with plenty of surplus power is my advice.
 
Greebo said:
Some psu's are noisier than others especially if it only has a 80mm fan.

ALso power decays with psu's over years up to approx 10% per annum so if old it may only be putting out 350W now.

Secondly pretty much all psu's have their fan not running or running on the slowest setting up to 50% of the max power being consumed and then they start increasing the rpm and get noisy.

So by all accounts with the combination of the above, your fan in your psu could be running at full tilt as you may be using say 80% of the current max power the psu supplies.

It is for this reason (plus psu's are more efficient when running at 50%) that I have a 860W psu even though I don't need all that power as it means it is running efficiently and silent.

So look at a 120mm/135mm psu replacement with plenty of surplus power is my advice.
Click to expand...

So does this backup what i said that, about more load = more noise?
 
The Zalman ZM -**** Series is silent, using one myself couldnt be happier, and is classed as one of the most, if not the most stable PSU around.

O and cool :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom