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Quietest 1000Watt+ PSU

V

Vicey

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Messages
70
I'm looking for a new PSU for my desktop system and what I want is it to be really really quiet.

My rig is currently water cooled and the noisiest part of the system is the power unit. It can get pretty loud. It's a Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000Watt.

So basically I'd like a really quiet power supply. Money wise I'm willing to spend up to £250 or $393.7 USD.

I hope someone can help me out here.

The system this will be for has an overclocked Core i7 940, 6 DDR3 Dimm slots at 1.65v and dual GTX 480's - The CPU and GPU's are water cooled the motherboard and RAM is not. The Motherboard is an Asus P6T6 WS which has an NF200 chip so its power consumption is a little higher than average X58 boards. I also have 5 Hard Drives and 1 Optical drive hooked up, a pump (18 Watt model), 4 Cathode lights and 6 low-rpm fans (each rated to about 16db)

I expect this entire system at load consumes about 600-650 Watts. Quite a bit less than 1000 but remember I'm after silence and looking at a few manufacturers websites (like Corsair who list load vs sound charts) around 50-60% load brings the highest efficiency in the AC to DC conversion and also the lowest noise level. For example at 0 to 600 Watts the AX 1200 is 24db and it begins to increase at 650 Watts to 25db then 26db at 700 Watts and so on.

So anyone have any recommendations for a very powerful and quiet power unit? :D
 
Seasonic, whenever then finally bring the X1000/X1200 to market
 
Quietest would be a liquid cooled PSU, but they are expensive. Only ones I have seen are Koolance and overpriced. For an air cooled PSU I have no idea, I simply haven't enough experience.

I would shoot off an email to a PSU reviewer like Jonnyguru and ask him. Someone who has tested a lot of PSU's.
 
Naieve said:
Quietest would be a liquid cooled PSU, but they are expensive. Only ones I have seen are Koolance and overpriced. For an air cooled PSU I have no idea, I simply haven't enough experience.

I would shoot off an email to a PSU reviewer like Jonnyguru and ask him. Someone who has tested a lot of PSU's.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did consider the Koolance PSU the water cooled one. But I thought if I got that I'd need to significantly bump up my water cooling setup as although it's adequate right now I know it would be overpowered by cooling the PSU too. I'd need an entirely new case or go with an external unit.

Who is Jonnyguru? Is he a member on the forum here?
 
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

- The Antec HCP 1200 is good, but seems to use an 80mm fan (whereas the HCP 850 uses a 135mm fan).

- If you're just desperate, You could find a good PSU, and then replace the fan (void the warranty) with a 120mm Scythe GT AP-13 or AP-12.
 
I think I'll go with the AX 1200 by Corsair it seems to have the highest efficiency and lowest noise on the market.

Thanks guys!
 
Silverstone ST1500 is very quiet, and virtually silent at 600 Watts. I use mine with 2x GTX 580s and I never hear the PSU spin up or for that matter I never really hear it over the video cards.
 
Vicey said:
I think I'll go with the AX 1200 by Corsair it seems to have the highest efficiency and lowest noise on the market.

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...
I would favour the HCP-1200 over the AX1200. Despite the fact that it uses an 80mm fan, it should be as quiet as the AX1200, and it's also a slightly better PSU. Alternatively, you could go with something less expensive like the Silverstone ST1000-P, NZXT HALE90 1000W, or Kingwin Lazer Gold 1000W.

Overall, I think the best option for you would actually be to go with a Seasonic X-850 or Corsair AX850 (they are basically identical aside from branding). The Seasonic X-series PSUs are pretty much the quietest units on the market right now, and the fan doesn't even start until around 300-350W of load. When your PC is idling, the PSU won't make any noise at all, and while you're gaming, the small amount of noise will be unnoticeable if it isn't already drowned out by the sound of your other components or the sound of whatever game you're playing.
 
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I'm running an HCP-1200 here, virtually silent even with my system maxed. Granted my system doesn't top 600W draw, but 99% of the time yours won't either.
 
I have the cooler master SIlent Pro M1000 and it is silent under any load I have used it.
Really nice build quality too!
 
howdy

i've been using a zalman 1000w PSU for approx 18+ months. easily the best i've had. they really don't get any quieter than this.

the unit has 140mm fan that only really starts to spin up once the unit hits around 75% (30 to 34dBA) load.
during low load / idle the 140mm fan only spins around a couple hundred rpm. you have to have your ear touching the grill to hear anything. otherwise the heatpipes and large aluminium sinks do most of the work dissipating the heat. the water in my dual 5 1/4 inch res makes more noise.

efficiency wise, the unit ranges from 82% during light load and 89-90% at heavy to full load.

all the power cables are modular except the ATX power, CPU aux, PCIe 8pin cables and 1 Sata power lead, which are all fixed.

the unit does have a couple quirks though. there is no power button on unit. no biggie as you can just pull the power cable if required. also the unit is a little longer than your average PSU which could cause problems in some cases. also has a noise filter switch, no reason to turn that off.

overall a very quiet efficient PSU.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM1000-HP/
 
So I went with the AX 1200 and it's actually silent. At idle or full load the acoustics of the unit doesn't change, it's now one of the quietest things in my computer and that means the entire system is now inaudible when sitting a foot from it.

I'm quite pleased! :)
 
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