Need a really quiet, really powerful PSU

nogoodreason

nogoodreason

nogoodreason

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Joined
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Hi guys. I've just finished my watercooled rig, which is a beast of a machine which I plan to subject to some serious overclocking.

Spec is:
i7 920 | Rampage II Extreme | 12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 | X-Fi Titanium | BFG H20 GTX 295 Quad-SLi | 2x Intel X-25M G2 160GB | WD Black 2TB (64mb cache) | CoolerMaster Real Power 1250W PSU | Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Unfortunately the CoolerMaster PSU is annoyingly loud. I'm aiming for a near-silent case and have shelled out a fair bit of cash to make sure this system is running silently, so having a PSU generate this much noise (which is undoubtedly from the load) is driving me nuts.

I need a PSU which can handle my hardware (overclocked) without making any noise. And as I know that quite a few of the members here have similarly monstrous rigs, was wondering if you could recommend me one.

I currently have my eye on the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 1200W - would people recommend this? Other possibilities are the Zalman ZM1000-HP Heatpipe Cooled 1000W (would 1000W be enough considering I have 2x 295's and I'll be overclocking stuff?) and the Akasa AK-P120FG 1200W.

Was also wondering whether it's an idea to slap some of these on the new PSU, just to make extra sure: Acousti AcoustiPack Multi-Layered Material Kit
 
Ben-Irvine93 said:
The Corsair 1000w would be up for the job. Excellent psu with 7 year warranty.
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Are you sure 1000W would be enough considering I'll be overclocking 2x GTX 295's, 12GB Dominator RAM and trying to get my i7 920 to reach around 5GHz?

If so, the Corsair and the Zalman both seem like great products. But I'm skeptical about power usage.

danb21t said:
you must have some serious dosh, that looks like an expensive build!
the Intel X-25M G2's are pricey enough
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I got made redundant. I think I spent the payout wisely. ;) (Although you wouldn't *believe* how difficult it was to get hold of the damn things)

But yes, I use my PC for work and play so I don't like to cut corners. I don't mind spending £200 on a power supply if the performance and reliability are worth it.
 
Had a brief laugh at that, but I fear you are serious.

Unless you are running under phase, your processor is not going to get anywhere near 5ghz. Using 12gb of ram will limit the clock/make life more difficult for you. For one thing 12gb at 1600mhz with any ram is rare, so here's hoping you haven't bought faster ram than that. You will not run 12gb at 1866mhz.

However, this wasn't your question. You want one of the koolance water cooled psus, plumb it into the same loop as the graphics cards if need be. 1000W corsair will happily run this system, it just won't be quiet while doing so. Hence water cooled psu, quiet like.

p.s. dont cover the psu with acoustic matting, that's not going to do anything except make it difficult to fit into the case. Acoustic foam is the very last thing to do to a system, covering even a quiet system with it will do little.
 
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had em all in my time and can honestly say I have been most impressed with the bequiet models.
 
Jon has a very good point about the RAM and CPU.

Even running at 4GHz, people have been having problems running 12GB of RAM @ 1600MHz.

Also, can I ask, why do you want to SLi two GTX 295s? From what I have read/heard, quad-SLI doesn't scale as well as tri-SLi does, and apparently games crash a lot etc.

If I was you, I would get two 5870s if you really want two graphics cards, and sell those two GTX 295s.

As for a PSU, Corsair or Be Quiet! both seem to be very good, and highly recommended PSUs.
 
Yes, I am painfully aware of the annoying RAM/clock limit thing. But I've got a lot of time on my hands so plan to have a serious play with it all when it comes together. Worst case scenario I just sell some of the RAM...

As for quad-SLi: three cards wouldn't fit, and new releases are much better at handling multiple processors - particularly with the onset of DX11. The 5870s are decent enough cards, but I'd far rather stick with a card with reliable driver support than jump on the DX11 bandwagon with the very first card they come out with. In a year I'll probably sell my 295's and buy some nice watercooled Nvidia DX11 replacements, but for now this is more than sufficient.


I'd taken a look at the Koolance PSUs but was a little reluctant to add even more heat to either of my loops.

Is anyone here familiar with the Enermax Revolution 85+ 1250W? It's top of my list right now.
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=712
 
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If you wont use the liquid cooled psu, and you wont listen to reason regarding the graphics cards (quad sli driver support & gaming support sucks as so few people run quad sli systems), then your system's going to be loud. Got to compromise somewhere, I vote more radiator surface area.

It's not an issue of time, it's that the imc on the processor can't drive 12gb at such high frequencies, whatever the ram is. Dropping to 6gb is probably the way to go, but you won't get 5ghz even with 6gb. 4.2 is about the norm for water cooling, 4.5ghz exceptionally good.

Perhaps you'll understand the psu noise issue when given numbers. Say your system is using 600W at load, 85% efficiency. 90W heat dump into the psu must be removed, using a fan. Whatever psu you buy, all you achieve is changing the quality of the fan and slightly changing the efficiency. So the enermax you're looking at will sound very similar to your current psu, as it has to deal with the same amount of heat, and it deals with it in much the same way. Hence the appeal to the koolance, it removes the 90W quietly, even if it does throw most of it into one of the loops.
 
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I see the Koolance watercooled PSUs are all shipped from America... will it be a simple matter of plugging a standard UK kettle lead into it to get it to work, or will that kinda blow it up? :/
 
The answer to that is written in the link I posted above. Even on the same page that the link takes you to.
90-264V @ 110V, 180-264V @ 220V, Auto-Switching.
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It would be fine. I doubt you need to import it yourself, at least one UK supplier is likely to stock them.
 
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