Need absolutely silent components

[Ganryu]

I just bought a new Coolermaster 410 case. I need to know which powersupply is absolutely silent (without having to mod it). I am using an Athlon XP 1600 system with nothing overclocked.

 

[hmsrolst]

You might want to take a look at this, although it doesn't look simple. I have no experience with it.

 

[Akira13]

Wow, that looks pretty interesting.

 

[bozo1]

Well, $200 and it still won't fit in an ATX case. I'll pass.

 

[hmsrolst]

Absolute silence is hard to come by in a PSU--$200 and a lot of fiddling.

 

[WileCoyote]

ganryu- i think the point is that no psu is going to be "absolutely silent" without some sort of modding... the quietest option seems to the new the antec ones.

 

[GrandPuba]

Well I just received my "Silencer" PSU from PC Power & Cooling and overall I'm quite satisfied with it. If you're not planning on doing a lot of overclocking than you may want to look into this PSU. Do make sure that you have adequate cooling in terms of case fans because the unit doesn't exhaust a lot of air like a conventional PSU. But if noise is your only issue then give this is a look! You should also look into some quiet case fans such as the Panaflo L1A (I just installed and can say they're awesome!) or even the Vantec Stealth.

 

[hmsrolst]

I have a Silencer PSU and think it's really a fine, quiet unit, but surely not absolutely silent.

 

[Grendel99]

The new Antec True Power ones are very quiet, they can be found at Newegg for a good price.

 

[Taz]

Enermax makes fan speed adjustable PSUs... Enermax Nice if you have easy access to the back of your case, I guess. A lot of folks seem to be doing mods to these anyway to add a quieter fan. Here's a pretty good "how-to" article... silentpcreview As I want at least a 400W PSU, this article has me leaning toward the Emermax.

-Taz

 

[bandXtrb]

Look for the Papst 8412NGL, it is really quiet. I have it as my CPU fan (my heatsink supports 80mm fan), in my power supply, and two for exhaust. Its as quiet as I can get it.

In my opinion, power supply and hard disk are the biggest noise makers after the CPU fan. For a hard disk, you may need to use a 5400 rpm drive if you are getting a bothersome "whining" sound from your system. I am running a Maxtor 80GB 5400rpm drive and the slight performance tradeoff from 7200 is worth it because its darn quiet. Noise enclosures are an option, also. I've used a noise enclosure from QuietPC.com for my previous 7200rpm hard disk -- it overheated and suffered bad sectors, so you'll have to be careful and check temperature specifications if you go this route.

Power supply fans can be very noisy. You should definitely get as quiet a PS as possible, such as the Enermaxes. I replaced my power supply fan with a low-flow fan and the power supply eventually died, so I can't reccommend this idea.

As you can see, I'm willing to sacrifice a lot for a quiet system.

 

[exedanni]

Power supply fans can be very noisy. You should definitely get as quiet a PS as possible, such as the Enermaxes. I replaced my power supply fan with a low-flow fan and the power supply eventually died, so I can't reccommend this idea.
------------

I am thinking of going down this route, but now I am not so sure... It would be a generic 300W PSU with a standard Yate Loon 28 CFM / 32.0 dB(A) fan that I was going to replace with a Panaflo lo-volume 24 CFM / 21.0 dB(A) one.

Am I unwise to do so?

exedanni

 

[Ganryu]

How is it that Dell gets their systems so quiet? A friend has a 4400 Dell system that is absolutely quiet even though it has a 2 GHz P4 and 7200 RPM HD and several case fans.

 

[Pheran]

You might want to check out the 300W ATX power supply at QuietPC. I just received mine yesterday but haven't had a chance to test it yet, I'll try to post more info later.

 

[exedanni]

Pheran: this costs about £55, so while I am sure it is of very high build quality, I can get the same effect by modding a PSU I am fairly sure, for about 1/10 of the price. Makes more sense to me since I have little/no money

exedanni

 

[tslugmo]

Ganryu:

I wondered the same thing about the Dell systems. Took one apart and found that the whole system only has one fan, with a baffle that goes over the CPU and directs the air directly to the exhaust port on the back of the case. The PSU has a big finned heat sink in it and doesn't even need hardly any airflow at all. They have 5400 RPM HDDs, and the entire case is designed around the components to maximize airflow and minimize noise. You can't get custom-made cases like this for regular components since you there's too much variance in shapes and sizes in parts. They obviously can invest a lot in the design of the case for each system, but I don't think there's ample cooling for any o/c'ing.

-tslugmo

Check out this thread for more info

 

[nnnyyy]

For power supplies, go with the new antec true power series. They are much quieter than the enermax ones. I had the original 431watt and it was pretty loud. Maybe the newer fan adjustable ones are quieter though. Zalman power supplies are also very quiet.

 

[Pheran]

<< Pheran: this costs about £55, so while I am sure it is of very high build quality, I can get the same effect by modding a PSU I am fairly sure, for about 1/10 of the price. Makes more sense to me since I have little/no money
>>



I'm sure you can, but the original poster stated that he didn't want to mod it. In any case, I just finished testing this PSU and I must say that it is extremely quiet. In fact it's quieter than my HD, which is pretty darn quiet anyway. It appears that it has a temperature-controlled fan in it.

QuietPC 300W ATX PS

 

[Bryan1129]

I bought a Zalman HS and fan and it is virtually noiseless as they claim. When I stop and let the fan run I can't tell the diff. If you want you can try replacing the PSU fan with a Panaflo, that's what I did. It will lower the noise considerably, but there will be a very quiet hum, not very bothersome though.

I was looking for a new PSU, but just replaced the fan instead, ended up saving a lot of $.

 

[Ganryu]

OK thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to try out the Antec Truepower PS first then since I can get it locally and then go for one of the others if its too loud. You guys should check out the coolermaster 410 case, it's really nice although its very expensive (~350).