Can anyone recommend a very quiet PSU for my HTPC? I need a standard ATX to drive a fairly low powered micro ATX system and I'd like to budget no more that £50. Reviews don't always tell you how quiet the PSU is - especially the cheaper ones. My present generic one is the only part of my system I can hear so it would be good to get rid of it!
I had a coolermaster 650w silent pro m - and i was really impressed with it. Very quiet indeed. Might be worth looking at the other silent pro m models
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w...-88-eff-80-plus-bronze-quiet-fan-atx-v231-psu I've heard good things about the be quiet models and they have good reviews and spec, noise and reliability.
Brilliant thanks - both the Be Quiet and coolermaster models had come up in searches but it's good to hear from people who use them. If I can get one from Scan I get free delivery too - life is good!
Both of them are great PSUs that I have previously used. I'd have no hesitation in getting either! They're both quality units! The only thing to base it on would be how much power you actually need.
A much easier and cheaper solution is to replace the fan in your existing PSU - that's what I did with my Thermaltake Toughpower and WHAT a difference it made.
That's an idea but as it's a generic make it seems a bit like polishing a t*rd! Food for thought though- where's that sharkoon fan I had?...
Aye you'll be wise to ditch that. A few years ago I once used a generic one as a stop gap until my new one arrived and was lucky not to lose any components when it went 'bang'.
The Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 430W CM uses a 12cm sleeve bearing Silent Wings fan with a maximum speed of 1229RPM and noise rating of 16.2-20.1dBA. Some options which might be better: Be Quiet! Straight Power E8 400W (£47 @ Scan) http://skinflint.co.uk/583804 Uses a 12cm FDB fan with maximum speed of 910RPM and noise rating of 13.5-14.7dBA. Seasonic G-360 (£47 @ OCUK) http://skinflint.co.uk/830678 Seeing as this is a new product, not much is known about it. But it being low wattage and 80 Plus Gold efficient, it would be an absolute failure on Seasonic's part for it not to be quiet even on full load.
Seasonic if you can acquire it, all there products are silent under load, and reliable even when pushed.( anandtech put 1200 watts through there 1kw model it didn't break a sweat, load numbers for 3,5,12v were still well in spec as well.) Be quiet one is not a bad alternative. Gets a lot of good reviews.
It doesn't matter how efficient a PSU is, it depends on the fan that is used and the Seasonic units I'm thinking of use a fan with a minimum speed of 1000RPM.
There low end units don't even have a fan, or a fan that only spins under high load, which is not gonna happen in this situation
The units you are talking about are low wattage, but still high end units. This doesn't mean that Seasonic don't produce/sell loud units.
I've been lent an Enermax liberty 500W that a friend has no more use for so I'll try that out and see if it's worth buying from him. Otherwise I'll have to look at getting one of the recommendations above.
