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Big Ass DP - review by bono-one| Author | Post |
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| Bobcat Senior Member  1490 Posts 2/08 |  Posted - Jul 17 2010 : 6:24AMI just replaced my power supply as the fan had become noisey, the new one isn't much better  . Who makes quiet/silent ones? I'm looking for an ATX one with an 8cm fan, around 500 watts.[Link] |
Hardware  All-Star Member Your other left 14595 Posts 3/02 | Posted - Jul 17 2010 : 11:17AM [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Jul 17 2010 : 1:41PM The 8cm fan isn't mandatory; it's just a commonly used size for the output fan on power supply units (PSU). Designers can make a quieter PSU by using larger diameter fans which can provide sufficient airflow at lower rpm speed. Lower rpm = quieter operation. The larger fans will be located on the underside of the PSU, not visible from the outside of the computer. Also take a look at these power supply review articles for some useful information about power supplies in general; it can be useful for choosing your next PSU, if you decide to buy a new one. Link 1 Link 2 [Link] |
| Bobcat Senior Member 1490 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Jul 18 2010 : 7:32AM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 19 2010 : 4:17PM My fan in my PSU has been speeding up when I'm doing things that are processor intensive. Now while this kind of makes sense, I'm wondering if this is a sign that it may be nearing it's demise? I don't recall it doing this when the PC was new. [Link] |
| Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14595 Posts 3/02 | Posted - Jul 20 2010 : 12:39AM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 23 2010 : 1:05PM As near as I can tell, it's almost silent (I have an external drive and an old Seagate internal drive that makes quite a bit of noise). Unless you have a silent hard drive and case fan, you won't hear this power supply running under normal load. It seems to be a great power supply (For the price) from all the reviews. This supply should be sufficient for a standard computer. I guess it depends on what kind of graphics card you have in it. Unless you have something really power hungry, it should be fine. Edited by - randomprecision on 7/23/2010 1:23:39 PM [Link] |
| Dave_K99 Member 497 Posts 12/07 | Posted - Jul 24 2010 : 4:14PM Their PSU test rig is comprehensive, and as far as I know they're the only site to use an anechoic chamber and decent dBA meter for accurate noise comparisons. Most of the other sites compare products by ear, or just quote the manufacturer's spec. From what I've seen, many of them test components in such a noisy environment that all but the loudest are going to be inaudible. I used a fairly cheap Nexus Value 430 in my last build, mainly because I was using a cramped case and it's more compact than a typical PSU, but that's been very quiet. If you aren't using a super high end gaming PC then any half decent 400W+ PSU should provide more than enough power. Edited by - Dave_K99 on 7/24/2010 4:15:14 PM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 24 2010 : 5:36PM I love the site though and you're right. It's an awesome site. I try to refrain from reading it though because it reminds me how loud my computer is. [Link] |
| Dave_K99 Member 497 Posts 12/07 | Posted - Jul 25 2010 : 12:34AM Of course a lot of those popular modding projects are commercial products these days; many common features, like hard drive vibration damping in cases, started out as tweaks written about on SPCR. Now there's such a big choice of products labelled "silent" that it's a daunting task to sort out the good stuff from the bullshit. Funny how quickly it went from being a particularly geeky fringe interest (even among computer hobbyists) to being big business. I guess computers becoming media centres and entering people's living rooms played a big part in that. Low power consumption "green" PC components have been a big help for low noise fanatics too. Looking back at my carefully planned case mods and all the messing about in the past, it's amazing just how easy it is to make a near silent PC today. If you're willing to make a few compromises (e.g. relatively low end graphics and a mid range CPU) then it doesn't even add much to the cost and complexity of the build. I've chucked systems together for people without taking a lot of care to keep them quiet, yet the finished PC has been less noisy than the heavily tweaked "silent" Athlon I was using a decade ago. Along with the availability of big, cheap, high quality LCD displays (I remember when my bulky old 21" Sony CRT cost as much as the PC it was connected to), the improvement in PC noise has been my favourite computing development in recent years. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 25 2010 : 4:37AM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 3 2010 : 8:23PM [Link] |
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