Originally posted by: Qbah
The HX520 is next to the ground in the P182 And there's hardly anything more quiet. There's the Seasonic S12 (the first model) and an Enermax MODU82+ that are arguably a bit quieter. However both of them were unavailable when I was setting up my computer, unfortunately. I went with the next best thing and I'm happy. There's a distinct hum from the PSU, but it's a low frequency sound which most of my visitors can't hear anyway Well, I can, but I got used to it. There's also a Nexus 430W PSU which is by far the most quiet one available on the market (based on SPCR which I trust completely) - this one's 430W though and it was pushing it for a HD4870 when I was still running it.
Yeah, I have a TX750 and while its actually pretty quiet, its fan is the 'loudest' in my rig and I don't really care to mod it. That being said, I'm tempted get one of the newer HX units such as the HX750 or 650 (I think the 750 is 80+ silver, and the 650 80+ Bronze, however the 650 is also quieter under the kind of loads I would have it running. Of course there's also the Seasonic X650 which is even more enticing with its hybrid passive cooling and 80+ gold rating.
As far as temps go, I didn't mind them (I put my legs on the case usually and it kept my feet warm ) - it was within ATi specs so why would I worry my head about it. But the speed-ups due to the high temp and very low basic RPM of the cooler really killed my silence-efforts. The Twin Turbo hardly helped with the noise (as in I could clearly hear it over the Nexus hum). Was thinking about the Accelero with a Nexus but then I got my PC gaming crisis and went with an Xbox Bought a passive HD4350 and I'm happy Maybe I'll get me a HD5870, need to see how quiet it is though (gogo SPCR! ). Btw. the Xbox gives me a headache after an hour... it's like a jet engine, seriously. Pump a stock HD4870 fan to like 80% and you know what an Xbox sounds... Thinking about modding the PoS stock case to a LianLi XB01... But the RROD warranty... decisions, decisions
yeah, my comment about temps was mostly just an observation, these cards are designed to be run with normal temps in the 70-90C range, I'm just spoiled because I've practically gotten into a habit of throwing on an Accelero S1 onto all of my cards (and S2 for lower end cards on some of my other builds)
I'm supposed to receive my 5850 sometime today and plan on throwing an S1 on eventually if not right away, not only for noise control but also to help overclock it to 1GHz as I have the ASUS model that allows for voltage control right out of the box. Apparently the S1 needs to be modded a bit to fit these cards due to the double stacked DVI ports getting in the way, although bending or trimming (nail clippers are said to work well) the fins in question is supposed to work which would make the mod incredibly easy.
As far as your Xbox goes, while modding it would void your RROD warranty, getting the system proper cooling to better control noise and temps should prevent RROD from happening in the first place