looking for a quiet P/S

msc

msc

New Member
Hi, Building a new computer. Can someone recommend a power supply? Hoping to find some thing 650/800W and is quiet. And would like to stay under $100.00
Thank you, Mark
 
Seasonic power supplies are usually quiet, though you might have trouble finding one un $100. How quiet are the rest of your computer components?
 
Thank for the reply. I am just looking at parts now for a new build. But I do want everything to be quiet. This computer will be in the living room.
What part of Ma. Are you from?
 
msc said:
Hi, Building a new computer. Can someone recommend a power supply? Hoping to find some thing 650/800W and is quiet. And would like to stay under $100.00
Thank you, Mark
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diduknowthat said:
Seasonic power supplies are usually quiet, though you might have trouble finding one un $100. How quiet are the rest of your computer components?
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msc said:
Thank for the reply. I am just looking at parts now for a new build. But I do want everything to be quiet. This computer will be in the living room.
What part of Ma. Are you from?
Click to expand...

$100 for Seasonic is plenty, however, the power suply is usually not the loudest part, or even audible. I've got 1 system with a very cheap case that has an antec unit in and I can hear the case fans over the PSU, my system used to be in a cheap, thin case, I could hear all other fans over my Corsair PSU. So long as you get a decent unit, you will have no problems.

However, what is decent depends on your needs. What are the specs of your system?

If you have only a "general use" system for browsing the net, looking at photos, watching videos etc, then you can get a $40 PSU that will be close to silent, if you were to spend $100 on a higher wattage unit, it would be a bad move, because it would be less efficient, and you would also be wasting money
 
Thank you for the read. I will keep some of them fans in mind. When I pick out the case fans. For now I just want to start with a quiet P/S. Then I can work things out form there.

I am just south of Worcester. Spent a lot of time in Medford. Grew up in Newton.
 
Most units with a 120mm fan will be pretty quiet, XFX, Antec, Corsair, and Seasonic all have good units in the 650-800W range.
 
I like my Corsair TX750w it makes a little noise on boot up but I am unable to hear it after boot. It uses a 140mm fan so it pushes more with less noise :)
 
Power supply should be one of the last aspects to look at when making a quiet computer. However if you're building one from ground up then it is pretty important. For my computer I use to be able to hear my old powersupply fan whirl up when I do anything demanding on my computer. I was able to hear my PSU because the rest of my system is nearly silent (1200 rpm Noctua fan in the rear, 800 rpm Noctua fan in the front, 1200 RPM scythe slim fan on the CPU heatsink and 80mm fan tuned to minimum RPM while not gaming on the GPU).

If your computer is just a regular old office PC then you can even consider buying a fanless powersupply. Silverstone makes one in the 400 watt range and Seasonic makes a 460 watt fanless powersupply, which is plenty of power for most midrange office PC.
 
I wouldn't trust a fanless PSU in a warm climate... but thats just me.

The basic trick is, get the largest fan PSU you can fit that is of high quality.

The fan removes heat. Heat is waste. Inefficiency causes waste, thus a high efficiency PSU generates less heat for the same load. And costs less too.

I would recommend a 140mm fan, as this is about as big as you can go in a ATX PSU. The bigger the quieter, all things being equal.

If you want the rest to be silent, you need to water cool.
 
bigfellla said:
I wouldn't trust a fanless PSU in a warm climate... but thats just me.
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I ran a fanless PSU in an unventilated garage for two years in central California. Temps in the summer would exceed 100 for weeks at a time and the temp in the garage would go well over 125.

It worked just fine. Worked better than the freezer that was in that some garage...
 
Dngrsone said:
I ran a fanless PSU in an unventilated garage for two years in central California. Temps in the summer would exceed 100 for weeks at a time and the temp in the garage would go well over 125.

It worked just fine. Worked better than the freezer that was in that some garage...
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yeah, but your efficiency would have plummeted! Especially with 115VAC. 140mm actively cooled PSU's are the way to go. They are near on silent.
 
bigfellla said:
I wouldn't trust a fanless PSU in a warm climate... but thats just me.

The basic trick is, get the largest fan PSU you can fit that is of high quality.

The fan removes heat. Heat is waste. Inefficiency causes waste, thus a high efficiency PSU generates less heat for the same load. And costs less too.

I would recommend a 140mm fan, as this is about as big as you can go in a ATX PSU. The bigger the quieter, all things being equal.

If you want the rest to be silent, you need to water cool.
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If you get a quality fanless unit it usually works flawlessly. The Seasonic X Gold (or X Fanless) series is one of the best series out there. The unit I have is rated for 650 watt (not fanless) but has been tested to push out almost 150 watt more power before shutting itself down, and even at 790 watts it still ran at 84% efficiency.

The 460 watt fanless unit is 80 plus gold rated and is speced to run at 50ºC.

And water cooling isn't exactly silent, the pump and the fans on the radiator produces plenty of sound. Real silent computers have massive integrated exterior heasinks connected by heatpipes to the internal components.
 
bigfellla said:
yeah, but your efficiency would have plummeted! Especially with 115VAC. 140mm actively cooled PSU's are the way to go. They are near on silent.
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Now you are just looking for excuses not to go fanless. The question was "what's the quietest' not "what's almost quiet but efficient".
 
This fanless idea is alittle on the lame side. He said he wanted a quiet power supply in the 650 to 800W range for 100 bucks.

A quality fanless 400w power supply runs 100 bucks. This idea of getting a fanless power supply and getting more case fans to keep it cool. Am I missing something here?

A good quality power supply with 120 or 140 fan I think would be just fine.
 
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Dngrsone said:
Now you are just looking for excuses not to go fanless. The question was "what's the quietest' not "what's almost quiet but efficient".
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Dngrsone said:
You could look for a fanless PSU, and use large fans in the case to promote airflow over the heatsinks...
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That is a pointless exercise. Get a fanless PSU then put more case fans (which will in all likely be smaller than 140mm - therefore louder).

The point was, a quality PSU with 140mm fan will be virtually silent and much more efficient. There is a reason for this, especially with a source voltage of 115VAC.
 
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StrangleHold said:
This fanless idea is alittle on the lame side. He said he wanted a quiet power supply in the 650 to 800W range for 100 bucks.

A quality fanless 400w power supply runs 100 bucks. This idea of getting a fanless power supply and getting more case fans to keep it cool. Am I missing something here?

A good quality power supply with 120 or 140 fan I think would be just fine.
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The point is that most popular power supplies have horrible fans in them. Most people won't notice this because they have 5 or 6 high RPM fans in their case. However once you take out all the other noise makers a powersupply fan can get pretty loud.

But for his case getting a fanless powersupply is out of the question, seeing that no one actually makes fanless units rated that high. However, picking up your run-of-the-mill Corsair unit isn't exactly the wisest choice either.
 
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