Which quiet psu?

giolla

I currently have one of those el-cheapo q-tec gold psu's and while it gives very stable voltages, it sounds like a hoover, so I'm lookin into getting a new one.
I was thinking about the Zalman ATX Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W ZM400A-APF which peats
are supposed to be gettin in next week at around €140,(which is cheaper than
http://www.quietpc.com/ as they slap on £30 sterling for delivery).

and the be quiet! PSU S1.3 400W Blackline Ultra Silent 2 € 78.90
http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/32/products_id/213

Any recomendations on which one i should go for? The money saved from the cheaper one would let me get one of those zalman passive gpu coolers + harddrive enclosure , but the last time I went the cheap route on the psu I ended up with this
headache.

The Brigadier

stan is selling an excellent enermax PSU in the for sale forum..

fiacha

i recently got an antec truepower 430 from elara. very happy with it.
very well constructed, lots of power outputs (including sata if you need it in future) and very quiet.

good luck

OfflerCrocGod

I have a be-quiet 320W - quite happy with it!. Also give pc-look.com a browse it has a few quiet PSU.

Ryaner

The one on Hitide sounds like I very good one. I've currently got an antec true blue 480watt which is pretty much silent. It supplies enough power but you def need to watch if your OCin or adding alot of hardware. 320Watt would def not be enough if your running alot of fans and a powerful gfx card or soundcard

Woden

people recommend the antec true blue 480W for quietness as well, i have it but don't know if its quiet because i haven't heard it beside a loud one

Ryaner

The antec one is very quiet espec if the room temp isnt high or anything. I'm talking 40C for high. Mine runs at around 1500rpm because I have alot of load on it but it's extremely silent.

Col_Loki

It supplies enough power but you def need to watch if your OCin or adding alot of hardware

lol, you definetly dont need to worry about overclocking or adding new components with the 480w antec...... it runs dual cpu's , 9800pro graphics, hard disks..... basicly anything you can throw at it. Ive done alot of overclocking with mine and it doesent seem to have any effect what so ever. Fantastic PSU. TBH i dont think theres many power supplys out there that come close to it....... and i think its pretty quiet but it does depend alot on room temps from what ive seen .

The Be-Quiet PSU's are excellent also, have won alot of awards , great construction, and can run there fans at lower speeds as they have very big heatsinks inside. It has very solid rails and good power output.

TBH if i was getting a PSU it would be between 3 , Antec, be-quiet and fortron.
If you get either of these you will definetly be happy. All are quiet and good PSU's.

Zalman PSU's are excellent (think there based on fortron's) also but more expensive. Power output for the 400w is around 450w in reality. The antecs and be-quiets are very accurate with there wattage ratings (which are probably higher than they state)........ unlike cheaper brands (qtec etc). A good example is a 300w fortron will produce realisticly around 380w, the 350w - 420w, the 400w - 450w!!!

Ryaner

Seeing your system spec there leads me wonder. The outputs on all my rails from the trueblue have dropped since I added all the compents to my pc and started OCin. I havent even started properly but I'm sure it will be very stable. I'm thinking when I start adding more HD's and water cooling into the mix. Atm I've 5fans and neon lights in the system along with 2HD's. the large HD's do take a fair bit of juice from the system as does the 9800pro when running on heavy use with cpu on heavy use.
Still saying that I've never experienced any problems from it yet. I did have problems with the other 420Watt supply I had. It was a from a case I got but was a good supply but basically it was running short of power at times.

Woden

hmm my trueblue operates under full load nearly all the time and the rails are fine, i've got a radeon 9800 and a 3200+ and 4 fans and the usual other stuff

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

check out this link for a kind psu usage guide

Ryaner

Sweet link, been looking for one of those. The thing I noticed was the voltages dropped. The don't run at the their tops (ie, 12V is at 11.8, 5 is a 4.9, 3.3 is at 3.2) I know the differences are normal but until I added the new HD and augidy2 card they were all up as they should be. Ok I added 5fans and the 2neon lights as the same time so that accounts for the drop. I still think there are one of the best std use power supplys around.

Woden

hmm my rails are -12V = -11.94V, 12V = 11.74V, +5V = 4.92V, -5V = -4.99V

thats under 100% load, once the rails are with in 5% your fine i think, just a word about the link people think it applies more to generic (i.e crappy ) psu, people are putting there shuttle specs in there and its says they need 350W while there powering there shuttles on 200W psu

Ryaner

Yeah orginally my rail were allow with a bit above their specs. The drop is grand I know just thinking when I add more which I will be soon.
The link was fairly accurate. Mine came in at min 411Watts. Some other things are in the system too which bring it up. It doesnt take into account the Mobo.some use alot more than others so note that

Col_Loki

Seeing your system spec there leads me wonder. The outputs on all my rails from the trueblue have dropped since I added all the compents to my pc and started OCin.

My system specs there are being run on a 380w Antec True Power..... the 480w was put under more pressure with 2xhard disks, 2xcdrom's, heavily overclocked system, water cooling rig, neon lights, fans, etc and i couldnt phase the thing at all. People use this power supply for dual heavily overclocked rigs all the time (AMD MP'S - Xeons & opterons take different PSU connections - although some people have used adapters and it worked fine)..... systems like 2x2500's @ 2300mhz, 9800pro, 2 hd's, 2 cd drives etc.....

Your Rails arent bad, its worse if there over as it can be more lightly to do damage. As long as there steady and dont drop to much your fine. My rails are all just slightly below the lines (but very very close) . The 380w rails arent as good but very stable and running fine.

If i remember correctly the Antec 480w TP actually outputs 484w which is more than other top brand 500w-520w ones. You dont really have to watch your rails or worry much when you have a quality PSU like that..... just pop the stuff in and off you go. I will never skimp on a PSU again.

Important rails are the +12v , +5v, +3.3v ....... the - rails arent really in use anymore. Im not at home so cant post my actual rails, but bear in mind the monitor you are using can sometimes be off and from what ive seen the measurement from voltmeters tends to give the Antecs a much closer rail than some software (not always the case). With your rails at 11.74 and 4.92 your PSU isint struggling, when it goes below 11.5v then its under pressure, under 11v and then shes struggling.

Ryaner

Well I'll know once I get the water cooling kit altho I'm serious looking at a compressor for the cpu. That will need a seperate supply tho so dunno if I will. I had some damage done from the last supply when it kicked out on me. My ram got damaged and my gfx card did too. I well happy with the trueblue tho. It was worth the money and I've no problem recommending it to anyone.

Col_Loki

lol happy customer here too !!