Hot & loud Power Supply

finsfree

finsfree

Member
The fan on my PSU is always running hot with the fan at like max RPM's.

I had it as a FreeNas Box running Plex Media Server. Every time a friend would stream media from my server the fan would just kick into high gear. Is this because of content rendering or it's getting too hot?

I am noticing my electric bill going up. I know it's summer right now but it's higher then normal.

The PSU is only 430W running a AMD Phenom II Quad core 2.3MHz, 8GB DDR2, 1 SSD & 2 Sata 7,200 HDD.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
finsfree

finsfree

Member
johnb35 said:
Time to replace it. Those psu's are actually terrible. You don't need to spend that much on a psu. If you really want modular then this work just fine.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...earchSuccess-_-INFOCARD-_-cx500m-_-17-139-147
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll replace it.

This computer is going to be running 24/7 as a Plex server. As far as being energy efficient, wouldn't I want to go with a 80 PLUS Titanium or Platinum series PSU? I don't need a lot of Watts. According to the CoolMaster calculator 380W would work just fine.
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
finsfree said:
As far as being energy efficient, wouldn't I want to go with a 80 PLUS Titanium or Platinum series PSU?
Click to expand...
Depends on how much power costs for you and how much power is wasted due to the efficiency difference between the PSUs. It's not just 80PLUS branding you have to watch out for, you need to look up the efficiency curves of each PSU you're considering and see where on the curve you're lying on depending on the power draw you expect to have.

If you really want to work out how much money you're saving per month on power, there's a decent amount of calculation you'll have to perform. If you want to consider the financial implications, then well... that opens up a whole can of worms you can consider.

Typically though, the difference between 80Plus Bronze vs 80Plus Platinum is fairly small and you won't break even in cost until year 5-8 (depending on cost of electricity, additional cost associated with 80Plus Plat PSU's, etc...) In your case, you might break even earlier if it's ran at 24/7.

Also consider that getting a bigger PSU, may not be a solution for you. An 80Plus Platinum 1200W PSU for example will be pretty inefficient to only produce 380W of power compared to a 80Plus Gold 500W PSU. Again, this is due to the efficiency number not being a fixed value, but a graph of % efficiency vs Power draw.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top