seriously quiet PSU suggestions

Mercutio

Mercutio

Mercutio

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2003
Posts
5,145
Location
Sheffield, UK
I never seem to pull the trigger on the ones I should with this. Was looking at a CM V850 when they were about £73 around christmas, decided to leave it... they are now £115+.

Looking around at the moment, the superflower leadex based PSU's seem to be a decent setup but can anyone recommend a decent PSU from a GOOD OEM that's very quiet while supplying about 550w?

Might be a bit less than 550w these days as I've gone from a GTX480 to a 7950 and from 4 raid drives to a pair and an SSD but... just for the hell of it.

Now considering most PSU's are only quiet until around 60% load then they all ramp quite a bit, I'm guessing it's going to be a bigger unit. Would like to keep it under £100.

eVGA supernova G2 750w is looking like a possible at the moment (leadex based).

QUALITY psu recommendations please with a guesstimate of 550w load and a requirement of VERY quiet. Think like "Zen" or "hun, are you not talking to me?" kind of levels.
 
There are two fanless PSUs that might suit you, one 500W Superflower and a Seasonic 520.

But yes they are expensive for the rated power, but that's the cost of silence.


Then there are more normal PSUs with fans that are quiet and also ones with Hybrid fan modes that do not spin up till a certain temperature is reached.

Superflower Leadex, EVGA 750/850G2 have this but the EVGA come with a massive 10yr warranty!!

Seasonic X+P series also have this.
 
I have a Seasonic fanless 400w plat psu. Running an i5 4570T, a GTX960 Strix, H100 cooler, 2x 120mm rans, 2x 80mm fans, 3x mech hard drives (soon to be 6x if i can find the other molex psu leads :-( ), raid card, 1 ssd.

Silence. . . . .

Seasonic fanless are great.
 
my 650w superflower leadex gets pretty toasty in fanless mode so i have the fan on all the time. However, i cant hear it anyway so it makes no difference. On that basis i believe any of the leadex or evga g2's would fit the bill.

Mercutio said:
IMight be a bit less than 550w these days as I've gone from a GTX480 to a 7950 and from 4 raid drives to a pair and an SSD but... just for the hell of it.
Click to expand...

it'll be closer to 350w i would have thought. didnmt measure my system when i had the 7950 in there, but ive got a 970 now and they both draw broadly similar amounts and my whole system sits around 310w under load at the wall.
 
Last edited:
Have you considered one of the Corsair AX series power supplies, the fan only kicks in when it needs to, basically for normal use it does'nt run, only under heavy loads and then only for as long as it needs to.
 
Well, missed the one I was after...

ended up with a Seasonic X-Series 1250w from the market so.. yeah, I think that'll do :D

had a look at Jonnyguru review first and it's still above 85% efficient on weak loads so it'll beat my current bronze for reading at the wall and... well, if I ever need the headroom....:rolleyes::D
 
Just going on the jonnyguru review. He mentions:

"Now, about the semi-fanless mode. Where did I see the fan start? In test one. The unit would only run the low load test in fanless mode - the fan kicked on as soon as test one got going. Actually, I kind of prefer it that way. You don't want units this size getting that hot, even at low loads. Extreme heat cycling from jumping from a low load to a high load every time you fire up SLI is kind of hard on parts. Seasonic? Change not a thing on the fan controller. Those who want silence aren't often shopping for 1250W units anyway. And at no time could I hear the fan over the screamers in the load testers, so it's not really a loud power supply anyway."

So seems there's some sort of veeeeeeeeeeeeery minor issue with low draw and hybrid. He's a bit confusing there, think he means "semi fanless" and "fan on" rather than semi-fanless and fanless (as there's no option to completely disable fan). I might be reading it wrong though too. Still, it's totally going to fit the bill and then some :)
Everywhere says these are super, super quiet so I'll get something set up that works :)
 
Last edited:
Seasonic X series is I can confirm 100% silent at all times (just had to RMA one after just over 2 years old but it has a 5 year warranty & superb customer service).
 
Never heard a thing out of my Seasonic X series that I can remember. From what I've seen it usually doesn't spin the fan up until load goes over ~250watt and even then the fan has never got fast enough to be audible over anything else in the case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom