350W quiet PSU?

[therooon]

I don't know which 350W PSU available in USA market is the "best" under $70 dollars. My budget is not high. I just cannot stand my stock PSU's noise any more... I read some reviews but most of the products are either not sold in USA or they are well over 100 dollars... anyone got any suggestion? thanks

 

[Crashman]

I'd go with the Fortron Source 350W with the manual control on the back, it's around $40. Sparkle Power is another brand of these.

Tom's said the power supply is noisy, I say they were being retarded at the time. The reason: A fan control on the back of the power supply allows you to set the fan at various speeds from nearly silent to full "WHOOSH". But the thing also has a thermal override that kicks it up to full speed if it gets too hot (because the user set the speed too low). I've found that setting it at about half-speed provides good cooling with reasonably low noise, and haven't had it "kick up" at that setting.

Now, these things still go "WHOOSH" at startup, but settle back to the speed you've selected after a few seconds.

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[therooon]

Thanks! So the Fortron is not as noisy as Ott and Thon say in their review? The PSU seems to operate around 40dBA according to the review and that's prob just as loud as the stock hummning next me right now-_-... Is a close to silent (low 30 dBA) performance too much to ask for under 70? If it is, I can wait and save up for another month to buy a quieter and more expensive PSU.
I checked out newegg for fortron source and 2 models came up. One of them says: "Fortron 350W ATX12V Power Supply with 120mm Fan, P4 and AMD ready, Model "FSP350-60PN-R1"" and the other is the Aurora series. Is the first one the Fortron Source?
But at any rate, thanks so much for the input Hope to hear more ideas about quiet PSUs.

 

[etp777]

You can get the Enermax Noisetakers, 320, 370 or 420 in that price range. That's my new PSU of choice where volume is concerned, run the 420 here, and can't even hear it over other components, and everything else in my case is tuned for volume too. Can barely hear my case over someone whispering(and won't at all when I put vga silencer back on). And that's with an aluminum case wiht plexi panel, will be even quieter if I had a good solid steel case.

 

[category_five]

You can get a PC Power and Cooling Silencer ATX 360 Watt for $65.00 USD, <A HREF="http://pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/ultra_quiet/silencers/index.htm" target="_new"> Here </A>. PC Power and Cooling has the best PSUs available.

PSU output:
+5V @ 30A
+12V @ 21A
-12V @ 0.8A
+3.3V @ 26A
+5VSB @ 2A
+5V & +3.3V<200W
cont. power<360W
peak power<400W

 

[therooon]

thanks so much for the input.

I have done some more researches and I am still doing some researches right now. Seems like Fortron, PC Power, and Enermax are all pretty good companies. Now I only hope the noise level they advertise will match their reputation because I can't get any of these product from a local store (i can't ask to hear one in action). But here are their stats:

Silencer: Fortron: Noisetaker:
360ATX 350ATX 370ATX
+5V @ 30A 30A 32A
+12V @ 21A 16A 13A
-12V @ 0.8A 0.8A 0.8A
+3.3V @ 26A 28A 30A
+5VSB @ 2A 2A 2.5A
+5V & +3.3V <200W <220W <240W
cont. power <360W ? ?
peak power <400W ? ?
efficiency 75% 65% 70%
$$USD$$ 65.00 41.49 54.50

I gues those doesn't tell you too much information. I am not sure which one I should go for since all the PSUs would supply more power than I need for all voltages (the weak +12V for noisetaker have a max 20A output so I feel it's ok). The good thing is also that they all fall into my price range. So I guess the real deciding factor is the noise level at normal work load (I think I would be using less than 300W continuous xp2200, ti4400, 1 7500HDD, 1DVD, 1CD-RW, 1fan, 1pci lan, 1pci modem, and mobo).

Anyone got any ideas to the noise comparisons? Or are they pretty much the same considering I will probably be workign under min load? In that case I will go for the cheapest I can find. Otherwise I will definatly get the one that's the most silent

 

[JeanLuc]

Zalman do the best slient PSU's. One of which is a 350 watt psu.
In recent test don by Custom PC magazine the Zalman PSU was the only one to pass all stability tests.

 

[therooon]

Alright I think it's decided!! After researching and asking around and from ppl's comment, I have decided to buy the zalman zm300b-aps. Even though it advertises 300W, but the power for each voltage is perfect. Besides, my system isn't exactly very demanding anyways. I will tell everyone how I think about the product when I get it