How quiet?

[Gamingphreek]

My system is in need of a new PSU. I am using one of our spare PSU which is very noisy for my likings.

I have 4 Panaflo 12L fans throttled down to half speed. For my cpu cooler i have a Thermalright SLK-947U Copper HS with a 92mm Ultra Low Speed Panaflo 92mm fan running at full speed. Finally my GPU cooler is an MSI Stock cooler garaunteed to run at less than 15dba.

Is my system quiet enough that i should opt for a Modstream or a Seasonic PSU. Or should i be just as good with a Powerstream. Right now i am using a Thermaltake 420Watt PurePower (I hate it btw).

Basically should i look for the quietest PSU or should i look for a decent one.

My rig is in my sig. My FULL LOAD (Running P95, S@H, Multiple Web Apps, and Games) is 42C for the CPU, and 20C for the case ambient temps are 70F in the Winter and 78 in summer.

As a sidenote i think my DVD-ROM drive is going. I would like a very quiet drive (Im using a generic one right now) can anyone make any recommendations. Right now i like the Asus, or possibly the Lite-On.

-Kevin

 

[Zucarita9000]

Try to look for PSUs with a single, low speed 120mm fan.

 

[Spike]

Not sure about the rest but for a top end DVD drive get a NEC 3520a. The NEC drives consistently get some of the highest ratings (google for NEC 3520a reviews) and they are actually quite affordable. I believe the 3500 16x +/- is currently like $65.99 at Newegg. I have a NEC 2510a (same thing except only 8x +/- and 2.4x DL) and I have never actually heard it while in use. My lite-on 48x24x48 is MUCH louder.

The only issues that the NEC DVD burners have is that they are not the best CD burners (thats what I use my Lite-On for) and they are slower than some at reading CD's (again, lite-on comes in here as I use that to install and run any game cd's). Their strengths come from being able to burn just about any media (from el-cheapo to TY made discs) and haev consistently great burn quaility. Personally I use my NEC all the time for installing game CD/DVDs and don't notice any difference between that and my lite-on speed wise.

-spike

 

[Operandi]

I would go with a Seasonic Super Silencer or Tornado, also consider an aftermarket Zalman GPU cooler.

 

[xbassman]

Dude....You are obviously into quiet.....

I would go ahead and get the Seasonic.
Another piece on the quiet front would be a Pioneer DVD burner.

Last year I bought a Pioneer DVR-107 for my HTPC and was amazed how quiet it is. Now my wife has one in hers also. I put a 108 in mine and my daughter's box also.
A reason to look at the retail version (A08XL) is Pioneer has a quiet utility that you can use with these on there website.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Agreed on the Seasonic... I have a Super Tornado 350 and it was amazing how quiet it is compared to the Thermaltake Not-So-"Silent Purepower". Thermaltake is guilty of misleading advertisement with their "Silent Purepower" name-- That thing is as loud as a NASA aircraft testing wind tunnel.

On the DVD ROM: If the OP does not need a burner or want to go to the expense of getting one, he can get an Asus E616P DVD reader for less than $30, and it has the Quietrack technology which dampens vibrations of fast-spinning discs and thus minimizes the noise.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Im not necessarily into quiet, but my machine is in my bedroom

I know that the OCZ will be quieter than the Thermaltake. I also know the Seasonic Tornado is the quietest PSU on the market (barring fanless). I want something with a lot of power though. I mean i am planning on upgrading in Q3 and going dual core, top o' the line PC, and i want a srong PSU. Seasonic yes it is strong and efficient but it doesn't have anything on PCP&C and OCZ.

What im basically asking is, is my system quiet enough that i would notice a huge difference between the OCZ and the Seasonic?

As for the DVD-ROM.... i dont want to spend the money on a DVD-RW drive. I simply want something to play my movies. My current one (generic) is EXTREMELY noisy and vibrates the entire case. Also when watching DVD's i think the eye is misaligned as the DVD will freeze, and then ill here a whirring sound and then a sound like something attempting to read and install a program or something (It isn't installing anything just an example ). The DVD-ROM doesn't matter as much to quiet but i dont want it rattling my whole case like this one does.

-Kevin

 

[wisdomtooth]

In that case, the Asus E616P is definitely for you. It's a no-frills, quiet DVD reader, and it's cheap.

As for the PSU, if I'm putting a PC in my bedroom I would value quietness the most. Seasonic might not give you the most power, but it IS still a notch above most PSUs when it comes to power efficiency and delivery. I don't think you can go wrong with the Seasonic.

When the dual-cores come out you will most likely need to gut your machine for major upgrades. What's another PSU when time comes for that (in about a year in any case)?

Good luck.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
In that case, the Asus E616P is definitely for you. It's a no-frills, quiet DVD reader, and it's cheap.

As for the PSU, if I'm putting a PC in my bedroom I would value quietness the most. Seasonic might not give you the most power, but it IS still a notch above most PSUs when it comes to power efficiency and delivery. I don't think you can go wrong with the Seasonic.

When the dual-cores come out you will most likely need to gut your machine for major upgrades. What's another PSU when time comes for that (in about a year in any case)?

Good luck.

Yeah that was the DVD-ROM drive i was looking at. I think i will order it.

As for the PSU.... that is the thing. I dont want to upgrade it again. I have a very limited budget (16yr old working and going to HS ) Therefore i would really like one that has all the latest features and is still pretty quiet. If anyone has a Powerstream or even a Modstream would you mind commenting, as well as anyone with a Super Tornado.

-Kevin

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Your "sig" mentions an ALLIED 450W PSU, as opposed to your Thermaltake mentioned in the initiating post. What happened to the ALLIED?

I had an ALLIED 500W (AL-B500E). It was fine at stock settings, running as cool as a ice-cube and quiet as a mouse. It just wouldn't hold the 12V on that rail as I began to push the OC'ing limit.

As to "What is 'quiet'?" -- much of it is in the ear of the beholder, although everyone agrees that running a TT 70mm CPU-cooler fan at 6,000 rpm is pretty damn noisy, and running high-CFM 80mm fans at their top end such that the system begins to sound like the wind-tunnel at Lockheed -- is also pretty damn noisy.

The loudest fans in my system are ThermalTake 92mm Blue LEDs. I have them running at 3,200 rpm and deployed for rear exhaust. Mostly, they generate air-turbulence or white-noise at that speed -- which surprises even me -- as I would expect some sort of motor-whine, and between the motherboard ducting and the PaxMate, even that "whoosh" sound is severely muffled. As far as I can tell, I've pretty much put a stake in the noise-monster's heart.

My PSU is an OCZ PowerStream 520. As promised, it is extremely quiet. I'd actually prefer that the fans ran a bit faster, therefore with a tad more noise, because the exhaust feels just slightly warm compared to the ALLIED it replaced. But I emphasize this: it is just "slightly warm" -- and not "hot".

I've also seem some projects -- probably at Tom's Hardware (.com) -- for replacing or even adding fans to a PSU. Those projects remind you that you would probably void your PSU warranty.

I've had ThermalTake Purepowers, and the fans CAN be a tad noisy, but the speeds are adjustable and I seem to recall that you could tune them down to between 2,000 and 2,500 rpm. For the price, they are "decent" PSUs for office and casual home use, but you could do better even for $20 more. If your system is your pride and joy, I offer the observation that I'm extremely happy with the OCZ PowerStream 520. I got it for $134 at Directron out of Houston, TX. They were offering it with free UPS ground shipping, and there was no CA sales tax. Chances are, their 470 and 420 models are cheaper.

If you have the money to spend, you could get a PCP&C Turbo Cool, but it seems to me there are other alternatives like the OCZ line which offer similar quality for a lower price.

 

[Tiamat]

Stick a qtip into the fans in your psu and see if it drastically affects your noise. If it doesnt, then you have to look elsewhere. The 92mm Panaflo L1A @ 12V still makes a good amount of noise. However, probably not as much noise as a GPU fan - try stopping your 5900XT fan and see if that lowers your noise.

If there is a fan on your gpu, it would rank noise as:

GPU
PSU
CPU

where PSU and CPU are interchangeable since i do not know the noise characteristic of the thermaltake power supply.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well i know it isn't my GPU as i have unplugged everything but that and there was no difference, also it is MSI's proprietary cooler than came on it, which on this model is dubbed starforce and is GARANTEED to run at under 15dba IIRC.

As for the PSU, well i had an Allied but i think the capacitors blew on it, and one of the fans was going so my dad had this TT (COMPLETELY AGAINST MY WILL) so i figured TT or no computer. Ah well. Before hand it was relatively quiet nothing to challenge those silent people but it was modest. However this fan in the TT is pretty noisy. I will also check that CPU fan, if that is kinda noisy what should i do. Get one of the rear panel controllers for one fan and turn it down. (My other fan controller is already maxed out with 4 fans)

At any rate i will have to get a new PSU because the TT is having some problems maintaining voltages with 24/7 load (Only S@H and some web apps, not running P95 and games 24/7). Im kinda leaning toward the 420 or 520 watt OCZ. The 520 because it has more power but the 420 because it is cheaper.

-Kevin

 

[Tiamat]

I didnt bother checking, but what fan controller do you have? If you have a sunbeam you can easily put 2 fans onto one knob - like 2 exhaust on 1 knob. I have the Panaflo M1BX 92mm (louder than yours) and at 7V it is pretty quiet - the PSU fans drown it out. With the panaflo, around 9V is the place where the motor/bearing noise suddenly drops quite a bit. So, you sacrifice relatively little airflow for a good amount of the "annoying" type noise.

Using a Zalman Fanmate would be another possibility however, if it were me, i would look up the Wattage per line on your fan controller and the wattage of your fans. IIRC, Panaflo L1A 80mm is 1.2Watts (12V at .1A). This is a very tiny wattage when the fan controller (if it is sunbeam) can deal with 20Watt load.

 

[akira34]

Try putting a larger fan on your heatsink... Something that will do the same CFM at less dbA...

Personally, I'm still on the quest for a dead silent computer (from 5'+ away)... I hope to have it in under a month, but only time will tell. How quiet is really a personal thing... For me, quiet enough is going to be silent at over 5' from the computer. For other people, that's at 10', others still it's a low drone one the same floor is quiet enough... Oh, and I also want low temps with my quiet system too... heh

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well i cant. The SLK-947U supports up to a 92mm fan. I cant put a bigger one on there

-Kevin

 

[akira34]

You might not be able to go larger, but you might find one that does more CFM at a sound level you can handle.

 

[seasea]

here is a question: does turbulence depend on cfm or rpm? My case fan is kinda loud cause of turbulence and I am wonder if i change to a different fan with the same cfm or rpm will i have the same turbulence. and can turbulence be caused by my sleeve fan just being old?

 

[akira34]

Turbulence noise is most likely caused by blade shape not CFM or RPM.

As anything ages, it tends to get louder (just look at your grandparents :shocked: )...

 

[Tiamat]

Turbulence occurs when the airflow hits some sort of barrier. At greater airflows, the turbulence noise is higher when you are dealing with identical cases. Turbulence has most to do with "what is in front of the fan".


OP: Another option is to keep your panaflo and get an SI-97. I might do this later on, but im too lazy to undo the mobo and take out the slk947U.

Also, your temperatures can rise another 10 C and you wouldnt even notice a change in performance or life of parts. RIght now, my CPU idles around 48-50 and loads at 55C. I have only noticed problems when the cpu temp exceeded 65C - games dropped to desktop.

Of course, my temps and yours are not comparible because mobo sensors are not very reliable. Only the change in temp is reliable.

So.. id say keep your panaflo l1As 92mm and 80mm and lower voltages. 7V panaflo 80mm L1A are not to bad for noise, and probably 9v panaflo on your cpu will be sufficient for noise and cooling. Then.... go from there

 

[Granorense]

Also, if you plan to upgrade your hard drives (don't know what brand you got right now) get Seagates. That is an adivice I took from someone in this forum a few years back and I am happy I did.

 

[seasea]

Originally posted by: akira34
Turbulence noise is most likely caused by blade shape not CFM or RPM.

As anything ages, it tends to get louder (just look at your grandparents :shocked: )...

so do you think if i try fitting a 92mm fan into my case i will be getting more turbulence that a 80mm fan. And does my gratting size defeat the purpose of a 92mm fan?
Thanks

 

[wisdomtooth]

For your particular case, the 92mm fan is for blowing hot air out the back.

Just make sure you get a slow-speed 92mm fan (2500rpm or so), mount it with noise-dampening fasteners, and it should stay relatively quiet.

 

[seasea]

cool thanks.

right now i have a rear 80mm blowing in, a front 80mm blowing out, a silentboost 80mm blowing into the hs, and a thermaltake w0014 which has two fans (one fan is blowing air out of the exhast in the back and the other, i think, it pulling air away from the hs in the ps).

so i'll get 2 92mm fans and replace my 80mm fans and try that setup with the back blowing air out and front blowing air in.

thanks again

 

[seasea]

sweet thanks for the advice. it turns out that all i needed was just to change the exhaust to the right direction...now its running quieter and cooler...it seems like my 80mm antec pro runs with tons of turbulence blowing inwards.

thanks