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*QUIET* Big PSU needed.

B

bigspice

n00b
Joined
Mar 19, 2005
Messages
24
I am about to return my PC&P 510w SLI as it appears to be defective and is extremely loud. I dont care to get a replacement unit and want to explore my other options.
I dont currently use SLI or PCI-E but want to ability to do this down the road. I want a lot of headroom for future additions and am big on build quality/reliability.

I also want rock-solid rails.

--My other big concern is noise, the PC&P is really bad in this regard.--
I am not too concerned about price.

Here are some of the ones I am considering:

Seasonic S12 600W.
Enermax Noisetaker 600W (the SLI model).
OCZ Powerstream 600W
SIlenx Ixtrema PRO 600W (i dont think it has the 24 pin connector or a pci-e though-for future use).

anyone have experience with these power supplies? your feedback is greatly appreciated
 
i JUST BOUGHT THE ENERMAX 600WATT SLI....

I will be installign a few hours. ill let you know how loud it is...

Relibility...well, its enermax, im sure its top notch...
 
for both quite and monster amps Id second the Seasonic
specifically the S12-600
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=106
but it lacks the dual dedicated PCI-E leads
strikes a good balance between power quality and soind


but then I personally would just mod for that PCP&C
http://www.leesspace.com/quiet_psu.htm
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8450
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027398202&postcount=14
by extending your PSUs thermal solution outside of the PSU itself,
you can significantly decrease the suond signature,
yet retain the best power quality available ;)


when you say defective
do you just mean loud or is there something else?
 
the pc&p was very loud; kinda sounded like my lite-on cdrw at full speed. it was the same volume at both idle and load. pc&p tech support told me that they thought it was defective. I really didnt feel like messing around with a second unit. also, as far as modding... I didn't want to risk frying the unit by messing around with the guts. so, i sent it back. the seasonic looks good, I just wish there was more than one place (microcenter.com) to buy it; they got slammed on resellerratings.com.
 
the Seasonic is good ;)
likely the best tradeoff of power capacity, quality and sound youll find
at least in stock trim

I would point out though that
1. stuff gets damaged a bad fan in the PCP&C wouldnt be unheard of
2. the 510's where never known as "quiet" listed at 34 > 44dba :p
3. most of the modding I recommended is outside the enclosure
and the little that is inside is pretty easy.
 
Happy with my RealPower 450W (Cooler Master's first attempt at PSUs, so I'd expect them to try to make a mark). The only downside is its lack of PCIe, but adapters are less than $10.

As an alternative, I'd say look for anything with a single 120mm fan- most notably, Antec's NeoPower and OCZ's ModStream are both modular.
 
i really like my antec neopower, its no slouch in the amperage dept eihter, 18 on teh first rail and 15 on the second (ATXv2 complient) its pretty much silent too, got a big ol 120mm that spins pretty slow.
 
i was reading the pcper.com review and here is what the rails read at a 263W load with the 24-20 pin adapter.:

+3.3V : 3.18
+5V: 4.90
+12V: 11.86
-12V: -11.87
5VSB: 4.99

is the 11.86 +12V number a cause for concern? I have narrowed it down to the Enermax 600W noisetaker SLI and the S12 600W.
It looks like the S12 is quieter... but is the Enermax better power wise?

thanks,
 
bigspice said:
i was reading the pcper.com review and here is what the rails read at a 263W load with the 24-20 pin adapter.:

+3.3V : 3.18
+5V: 4.90
+12V: 11.86
-12V: -11.87
5VSB: 4.99

is the 11.86 +12V number a cause for concern? I have narrowed it down to the Enermax 600W noisetaker SLI and the S12 600W.
It looks like the S12 is quieter... but is the Enermax better power wise?

thanks,
Click to expand...

the 3.3v line only running 3.18v would be more of a concern to me...

11.86v aint that bad for a 12v line.

BTW: I vote for the enermax SLI. I cant even hear mine when i turn off all my case fans, so i dont know how much quiter it can get..Here is my tread on mine (just some pics)
 
bigspice said:
with the 24-20 pin adapter.:
,
Click to expand...

all within spec
+12V....11.4V to 12.6V
+5V......4.75V to 5.25V
+3.3V...3.135V to 3.465V

but as I(illa Bee points out (and Lee Garbutt in that article)
the +3.3V rail is of greater concern
I dont know about the potential to adjust the pots in that supply
but would guess its possible
the problem with a "tyipical" supply would be that the +3.3V and +5V rails are actually the same at least when it comes to adjustment and capacity
thus altering the +3.3V\5V to optimize the +3.3V through the adapter might put you higher than is optimal in the +5V whan its directly attached to a drive and not through an adapter.

Ice Czar said:
closer to the reference value is better than either higher or lower
stuff also doesnt tend to get fried from lower values as much as higher values
anything higher than the 5% range is called an overshoot and that fries most stuff
anything lower is called an undershoot and that makes things unstable


for reference Basic Spec compliance of 5% is
+12V....11.4V to 12.6V
+5V......4.75V to 5.25V
+3.3V...3.135V to 3.465V
but its also a dynamic range
the supply converts power from AC to DC as the load changes from the components
well it also has to keep the reference voltages within the range above while it doing that
so measuring at one point is like watching a single frame in a movie
so logging the voltage is a good idea

that said your BIOS and software is lying to you
what you dont know is by what amount
for that youd need to measure it with a multimeter
cheap ones can be had for $20 or $30 though their accuracy isnt all that much better than the BIOS
they scale up to hundreds of dollars and increasing accuracy

ideally you calibrate your software to a hard measurement (like at idle)
then log till your confident that your within spec at all times

a high reference voltage at idle means that while the supply might be regulating the load within its own parameter,
under some circumstances it could be letting overshoots through
now there are advantages to having a higher reference value if your overclocking
but only if your not allowing overshoots
thats one of the reasons overclockers like supplies with tighter than spec load regulation
so instead of a supply with a range of 5% regulation it has 3% or 1%
and can thus have a higher reference value without letting through overshoots ;)

most components can deal with higher than 5% values and are commonly tested to survive split second 10% values, but these wear on the components

since IC Chips (integrated circuits) vary from pristine to just barely passing the functional test, that means a little "wear" (electromigration) could cause immediate failure or not be noticable degredation for years

more to the point though, the odds are greatly increased for some failure somewhere by the sheer number of IC chips throughout the computer as a whole.
some are behind buffers like the CPU and RAM which have the voltage modified by the motherboards voltage regulation modual, while other lack any buffer at all, like the drives ;)
Click to expand...


based on Lee's work on that article
Ive started to make people aware of the added resistence on the +3.3V rail when using an adapter, and pointed out that the OCZ Powerstreams, and Modstreams employ a 20pin with 4 pin addon connector, I feel a much better interim solution ;)
 
i went ahead and placed the order for the s12 600w and should have it next week. I will let you know what i think. on a different note... what does each rail do? i.e.. the 12v1 powers the proc etc...

thanks
 
bigspice said:
what does each rail do? i.e.. the 12v1 powers the proc etc...
Click to expand...

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/funcVoltages-c.html

of course when that was written when the +3.3V\+5V rail was employed for the CPU and Videocard
these days that has changed considerably now ist still employed on AGP cards, RAM, PCI cards the mobo itself, the +5V is also used on some drives

PCI-E though is 100% +12V

playing around with this would give you a good idea
http://takaman.jp/D/index.html?english

make sure to do an AMD config
then change the mobo from with ATX12V Conn to without (with the same CPU)

nearly as telling is the difference between a P3 and P4 of the same MHz
 
finallyyyyy got a chance to install the s12 600w.
I am very impressed. in terms of noise, it is huge improvement over the PC&P and is noticeably different from the antec truepower 380. if I turn off all the case fans, I can hardly hear it running. again, very impressed. thanks for all your help with this decision.
 
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