Noisy PSU

nobodythere

I'm moving out of the house next year and I'll be setting up a wee recording studio in my room -- so I'm building a very quiet PC with a firewire port for the sound card. The PSU on my current computer (a 1.2 Duron, another reason to upgrade!), to give you an idea, makes about the same noise in combination with the CPU as a hairdrier on low-medium setting.

So I'm looking for some recommendations on quiet PSU's. I'm not eager to judge by the dB rating that are given on some PSU's because I have too much experience with these figures being exaggerated. I'm looking for (inexpensive) PSU's that make feck all noise basically from somebody who knows from experience that it's quiet basically.

Thanks for any help:) And yeah, price is an issue:P

Nukem

Eh dont know much about the fan less PSU's but supposed to be hush hush quiet. Komplett hav a few. Also if you are that concerned about noise there are loads of things you could do expensive though.

Soundproofing material
Water cooling
Cable tidy(improve air flow and reduce loading on fans)
Add quieter fans .....etc.......

EDIT:Some here too OCUK

nobodythere

Thanks. The ones advertised as "stealth fans" go up to about €200. I mean, €200 for a power supply! My family's computer, a Dell Dimension 2400, cheapest model in the range (about €450) is beautifully silent, and I can't imagine they're forking out a lot on power supply. Thanks for the help but I'm convinced that I can get silence on a budget

[Edit: Just realised there are reviews on the komplett site. Thanks ]

Lump

grasshopa wrote:

Thanks. The ones advertised as "stealth fans" go up to about €200. I mean, €200 for a power supply! My family's computer, a Dell Dimension 2400, cheapest model in the range (about €450) is beautifully silent, and I can't imagine they're forking out a lot on power supply. Thanks for the help but I'm convinced that I can get silence on a budget

[Edit: Just realised there are reviews on the komplett site. Thanks ]

Your parents computer probably has a small PSU in it, hence a smaller fan, and will also probably have the CPU fan speed reduced to keep noise down as a selling point. My machine is the loud-est bastard ever.... Water cooling coming my way when I can afford it!

John

omathuna

I have just receive a new PSU, "Hiper ATX 350W PSU SF-350TS Single Fan, Silent , PFC, Manual"
Note the Silent in the description.

I hope to swap it out this weekend, So I will let you know how silent it is next week. At €23 I am not hopefully, but the fan is thermostatically controller and I have a Celeron 2.4 GHz so it should be better than the trubojet I got with the cheapo case.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122488&cks=PRL

gline

Let me know how the hiper psu goes, i was going to get one for my 2nd pc, i want a decent/silent one, doesnt have to be high voltage , so let me know if its quiet or not

RicardoSmith

The Sonata Antec case comes with a quiet (not silent) PSU. Buy that and sell the case. Its very cheap.

Col_Loki

Quietest PSU's ive used would have been that single fan 380w PSU Antec that comes in the Sonata or my current Be-Quiet PSU.

There really really quiet, when running on low load you just dont know its on, ive had both PSU's out in my hand with nothing else on except them and i almost stuck a pen into the fan to make sure it was moving (will be a little faster when in a PC).

The be-quiets are available from www.hitide.ie , id highly recomend them.

nobodythere

Thanks a lot for all the replies

omathuna

I am very disappointed with the Hiper "Silent" PSU. It is far from silent. In fact it is as bad (noisy) as the bog-standard cheap PSU I have in the case. As for thermostatic control I have yet to hear any change in rev's with increasing temperature.
So I am going to try to find a silent fan and change the fan in my older PSU (which is off-warranty). I am also going to cut off the grill at the back of the PSU and replace it with a wire protector. This should reduce the noise from air turbulence.

Has anyone every run a PSU fan at 7 volts to reduce noise?

bush

Hope ya dont mind me jumping on your thread but im having the exact same problem. I bought this one http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301416&cks=SPK and its too noisy for my liking. I read somewhere that this quiet, I dunno maybe some people have different ideas of whats quiet. Im going to splash out more and get one thats really quiet. Is the b quiet really that quiet?

RicardoSmith

I have had Quiet PC PSU's in the past. and they are quiet. The one in the Sonata is quiet too. I've also modded a PSU with a 7v Papst and it was quiet too, though it ran very hot. Of course modding a PSU is very dangerous as they can hold a charge for a very long time. None of the ones I've had was silent. So I take with a pinch of salt many that advertise as being so. Silent for me is under 19dB. But most products don't give an accurate rating. To be honest the only place I'd trust is http://www.silentpcreview.com/ for a decent review of something silent.

omathuna

I have been doing some modding since I last posted.
I purchased a digital thermometer from Lidl, the car one that has a probe on the end of the wire.
I then got a fan from Peats with a rheostat on it.
http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=6675&type=6&sid=994712x30

I opened the old PSU (after leaving it disconnected for a week) and cut the wires to the fan. (Make you you do not short the capacitors as they can carry a hefty kick :eek: )
I drilled a small hole for the Rheostat to stick out of the back of the PSU so that I can adjust the fan speed safely.
I installed the new fan and soldered the wires.

Now when I powered the PSU up I can turn the fan down until I can not hear it. I used the digital thermometer to make sure the temperature does not rise too much and I can tweak the speed if it does. Currently the PSU air outlet tops out at 35 C when playing NFS U2. (its only a Celeron 2.4)

Here is an article were I got the idea but I did not have the thermostat to swap out. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article9-page1.html

I am thrilled with the results. I can not hear the PC when I am using it and I have often had to double check it is booting up. I installed a blue LED case fan so I can tell it is switch on!

If I sit beside the PC I have noticed my DVD drive is noisy. Maybe my treshold is too low now.

jozi

I swapped my 2 psu fans for 2 more silent ones and connected them to a fan controler, not cutting wires and keeping the 2 fans safe if i ever want to connect them again.
Works pretty well, keppt an eye on the temps at the start, ended up leaving both fans rpm speed so i just couldnt hear them but not the slowest setting.
Do be carefull not to touch any of the power caps inside the psu, their charge can kill you i believe.

Jozi

RicardoSmith

Only problem with making your computer quieter is that you on a downward spiral of chasing all the noises in you machine. Its gets to be habit you can't break.

The Real B-man

i got a hiper type R psu(red version) today have to say very impressed it has a single 120mm fan which is very silent box says 14db i would say it about that

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD05MjE=

gline

RicardoSmith wrote:

Only problem with making your computer quieter is that you on a downward spiral of chasing all the noises in you machine. Its gets to be habit you can't break.

Thats so true