PSU sound volumes...is there anywhere to find these specs?

YOu can try SilentPCReview.com , IIRS they only list the Antec NeoHE as passing their specs. However Seasonic has a new set of PSU's that are modular (As you like the S12) called the M12 I imagine it'll ahve the same noise factor. Not sure when availbility will be but it shouldn't be too long...

http://www.seasonicusa.com/m12.htm

I think SPCR kind of likes Seasonics (and Antec, which they have a business relationship with, one raised eye-brow on that). I have one, and it's been goo so far, nice and quiet, practically never ramps up (of course, I have a 120mm fan right in front of it, Antec P180 case, which kind of helps). Had to use an extender cable in one case, due to the inverted setup on my case, so could have used longer cables, but mostly it worked fine.

That all said, I know modular connectors are all the rage, and probably for good reason, it's getting tricky to route all the cables properly, at least if you care about air flow, so if you don't need a cable, you don't put it in. And I suppose if you need a longer one, as I did, then you go get a modular variant. But I have to say I kind of have designed this stuff for a living, and we always, always tried to keep the connection count down. Aside from just the various drops and so forth to worry about, the main thing was reliability. Wires are pretty reliable, at least for power, but anywhere you have a connector, you have a potential point of failure. And modular, while convenient and helping with neatness and air-flow, adds connectors. They look nice and beefy and unlikely to fail, and perhaps the useful life of a PC these days is only 3-4 years, so who really cares, but you do have to wonder about real (as opposed to advertised, which is pretty hiper-inflated these days, especially in hard drives) MTBF. Just seems another potential failure point, given thermal cycles, vibration, and potential for corrosion, etc.

One thing I would worry about on the Seasonic M12s, is that they have that 2nd. fan. I know the web-site says that the 2nd. fan is super-quiet, but it is a 2nd. source of noise, it looks like a small one that probably has to spin up into the wrong noise range to be useful, and so you just have to wonder a little bit. I notice also that the efficiency is not bad, but a tad less than some of the other Seasonics, maybe that's the fan, but again it goes somewhere, noise+heat.