Very Quiet PSU

wellibob · 23 Oct 2013 at 18:47

Any advice on a great value silent psu to run my pcserver with 6 hard drives and a few fans. Running great on a 500w hiper (not the ones that explode) for many years and am looking for a good replacement without breaking the bank (main pc does enough of this)

P5k Premium , E8500 Xigmatech 1283 cooler, 8 gig ram , Nv 210 Gpu , 5 x 2tb WD Green & 128 SSD. Thats it. Basically acts as a download unit and posh NAS.

kefan77 · 23 Oct 2013 at 18:48

post the specs and budget.

Glanza · 23 Oct 2013 at 18:50

Seasonic are silent most of the time, just depends on your budget and what wattage is needed.

snips86x · 23 Oct 2013 at 18:52

Bit of a variety:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seasonic 520w FANLESS '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £119.99
1 x Enermax Triathlor 550w '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (ETL550AWT) £69.95
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £67.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 530W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £67.99
Total : £338.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).

wellibob · 23 Oct 2013 at 18:53

Specifiaction Added to post

kefan77 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:00

Seasonic G 450W.

I'd even choose 360W, but you never know what may come. anything above is MASSIVE overkill. completely fanless units are too expensive for this case imho.

well, I had a look, 450W is on offer for £64 and 550W for £68, so if you're buying here, get the overkill for £4 more.

wellibob · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:06

I agree the Seasonic 550w is great choice. I'll have a browse thanks.

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:15

Corsair RM series...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair RM Series RM 650 '80+ Gold' 650W Power Supply (CP-9020054-UK) £99.95
Total : £109.85 (includes shipping : £8.25).

kefan77 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:21

RMs are only quiet in idle. they are in fact quite loud under load. not that this rig would ever stress that PSU.

but 650W for £100? lolz

wellibob · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:25

A 430w would be more than adequate and £100 & 600 + watts is bonkers I agree for my server

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:32

kefan77 said:
RMs are only quiet in idle. they are in fact quite loud under load. not that this rig would ever stress that PSU.

but 650W for £100? lolz

Quite loud?!

The RM650 has a zero RPM fan mode up to 260W then 10dB up to ~450W and slowly increasing there onwards. See here

£100 for a fully modular, gold rated, quiet PSU... Yes please!

wellibob said:
A 430w would be more than adequate and £100 & 600 + watts is bonkers I agree for my server

Bit of headroom for future rigs.

kefan77 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:43

do you always quote vendor's own marketing blurp when trying to prove your point?

go read some reviews - especially the parts that talk about noise under load.

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:48

kefan77 said:
do you always quote vendor's own marketing blurp when trying to prove your point?

go read some reviews - especially the parts that talk about noise under load.

Quote them. Vendor blurp? I own one.

kefan77 · 23 Oct 2013 at 19:55

550W

Weaknesses:
• Fan noise becomes very noticeable at full load

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:15

kefan77 said:
550W

Weaknesses:
• Fan noise becomes very noticeable at full load

Jesus come on! Source?! Context? Help me out here!

snips86x · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:34

Under full load you'd expect some noise!

OCZxFTW · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:35

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seasonic G series 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £64
Total : £74.50 (includes shipping : £8.75).

These are very quiet (the fan only comes on at load)

And they are a very reliable power supply,

With a 5 year warranty

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:38

OCZxFTW said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Seasonic G series 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £64
Total : £74.50 (includes shipping : £8.75).

These are very quiet (the fan only comes on at load)

Really? Can you link me to somewhere talking about this?

The PDFs for the G series suggest:

Smart & Silent Fan Control [S FC]

However the Proseries and X-series have:

Seasonic Hybrid silent Fan Control *(Patent Pending)

The 'hybrid' fan suggests silent to a point. The 'fan control' suggests low RPM.

dt97583 · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:43

From a previous post of mine:

The XFX Pro Series range look to have hybrid fans with their 750W model and up:

Hybrid mode when activated, allows your fan to stay off when your computer is idle but turns on automatically when the PSU needs it.
Operates Silently until it reaches 20% load or 25°C
Switches to Quiet Mode (only 16dBA)
Reaching 50% load which Cooling Mode to cool the PSU appropriately

The Antec High Current Pro range all have:

Thermal Manager - An advanced low voltage fan control for optimal heat & noise management

Same for the HCG-***M range but not the HCG-*** range.

The cheaper Seasonics looks to have:

Smart & Silent Fan Control [S2FC]

While the Proseries and X-series have:

Seasonic Hybrid silent Fan Control *(Patent Pending)

PDFs here: http://www.seasonic.com/pdf/datasheet/NEW/Retail/

Excluding the Corsair CX and VS range the rest look to have "zero RPM fan" up to around 20%, some up to 70%.
The HX range, in general seem to ramp up pretty fast.
The AXi ramp up pretty quick but the non Corsair Link equivalents remain at 0% until 60/70% load.
The RM range all ramp up at 40% load but even then still at a low 10dB. They also come with:

...capacitors and transformers carefully selected to eliminate coil whine and other background noise that can be annoying in quiet environments.

The TX 650 range ramp up at 35%, the 750 range at 30% while 850 range at 20%. All fairly aggressively except the 650 range.
The GS range ramp up at 25% fairly fast.

OCZxFTW · 23 Oct 2013 at 20:46

davidmt83 said:
From a previous post of mine:

The XFX Pro Series range look to have hybrid fans with their 750W model and up:

The Antec High Current Pro range all have:

Same for the HCG-***M range but not the HCG-*** range.

The cheaper Seasonics looks to have:

While the Proseries and X-series have:

PDFs here: http://www.seasonic.com/pdf/datasheet/NEW/Retail/

Excluding the Corsair CX and VS range the rest look to have "zero RPM fan" up to around 20%, some up to 70%.
The HX range, in general seem to ramp up pretty fast.
The AXi ramp up pretty quick but the non Corsair Link equivalents remain at 0% until 60/70% load.
The RM range all ramp up at 40% load but even then still at a low 10dB. They also come with:

The TX 650 range ramp up at 35%, the 750 range at 30% while 850 range at 20%. All fairly aggressively except the 650 range.
The GS range ramp up at 25% fairly fast.

OK i made a mistake but here is a noise chart for the power supply

And yes it only has smart fan control

http://postimg.org/image/b6w4mn7bf/