Need quiet PSU, must handle G80/R600

[skyguy]

I've read the PSU guide to familiarize myself with some particulars as far as 12V rails, etc, and I'm looking for a decent PSU that will handle a DX10 card and good CPU overclocking, but it must also be rather quiet.

I know the final power specs aren't released for the DX10 cards, but the tentative results over at DailyTech indicate they're not as bad as originally thought. Am looking at a Thermaltake Armor Jr/Aguila case since I need something mid-tower.

Suggestions as to quality PSU that's relatively quiet? I'm thinking of getting 600W, that should do the trick according to DailyTech specs. Here are my options so far, feel free to critique or offer new suggestions in various prices ranges. Best overall reviews for efficiency and noise are below (must be available in Canada):

-OCZ GameXstream 600W
-Seasonic M12 or S12 600W
-Enermax Liberty

Enermax is pretty expensive but top notch in efficiency, etc.
OCZ extremely efficient but dunno about noise
Seasonic is rumored to be virtually silent but am concerned about efficiency and output.


Any of you experts here have some advice/suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate any input.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

The Corsair 620 is highly rated and should do the trick. It seem to be quiet.

The Seasonic are really nice piece of hardware, they're extremly quiet, but apparently they get noisy when they reach ~500W of load, wich I dont expect you should reach but still something to keep in mind. And also they actually have 2 Rails with something like 36Amps on each and a 48Amps combined(for the 600W) that should be enough for any DX10 card!

OCZ:

It's obvious that despite this units light weight that this unit isn't a... well... light weight! It's was amazing how it putted along putting out nearly 700W of power and never really got hot. The voltage stood up, we have active PFC and the efficiency was pretty darn good. The only real problem was the excess ripple which exceed the ATX specification. If FSP and OCZ can get together and solve this problem, they'll have a power supply that all other manufacturers will have to use as a benchmark.

Enermax

Overall I would go with Corsair/Seasonic/ Enermax seem pretty good too

 

[jaguarskx]

The Corsair 620 is highly rated and should do the trick. It seem to be quiet.

The Seasonic are really nice piece of hardware, they're extremly quiet, but apparently they get noisy when they reach ~500W of load, wich I dont expect you should reach but still something to keep in mind. And also they actually have 2 Rails with something like 36Amps on each and a 48Amps combined(for the 600W) that should be enough for any DX10 card!

The Cosair is basically a rebadged Seasonic M12. Seasonic is my preferred PSU manufacturer.

 

[skyguy]

I actually read that about Corsair.

The Thermaltake Toughpower rates quite well and is affordable, but is apparently louder too.

What about the Enermax Liberty? Not cheap, but highly rated. Is it quiet?


Thoughts?

 

[jaguarskx]

The Eneramx Liberty is fair in terms of noise according to the following reveiw from www.silentpcreview.com:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article279-page4.html

They stopped measuring the dBA at a 200w load because the PSU became too loud at that point, 30dBA.

Seasonic S12 PSUs are quieter which is why I bought my Seasonic S12 500 last summer:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article247-page4.html

At a load of 250w the noise was measured at 28dBA.

I was considering the Enermax Liberty as well, but decided to drop it from my list because of there wasn't a review for it at the time I was buying a PSU. Although Seasonic is relatively expensive, they are the PSUs I recommend if you can fit it into your budget.

 

[jaguarskx]

Here is review of the Seasonic M12 700 (modular), it is quite expensive, but it is even quieter than the Seasonic S12 series:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article676-page5.html

Definitely not for the faint of heart, or a tight budget. But I actually may consider a M12 for my next HTPC if they make one that is less than 400w.

 

[skyguy]

Well, I was thinking that dropping an extra $50 isn't much on the total system cost, and should last me a long time. My first couple of builds have been on the cheap, but I have some quality parts for my next build and would like to put something together that corrects some of my past "mistakes"......one of which is a good and quiet PSU. I'd rather drop the extra $50 than get a piece of garbage that's noisy and unstable

Seasonic M12 is looking good, I must admit Not sure if I'll need the 700W though, may go with the 600W, but will have to confirm after the 8800GTX specs/reviews are released.....

 

[clue69less]

Here is review of the Seasonic M12 700 (modular), it is quite expensive, but it is even quieter than the Seasonic S12 series

Yikes! 46dB at a 600 watt load for the M12 700. The highest spl for the S12 550/650 was 43dB.

 

[jaguarskx]

Here is review of the Seasonic M12 700 (modular), it is quite expensive, but it is even quieter than the Seasonic S12 series

Yikes! 46dB at a 600 watt load for the M12 700. The highest spl for the S12 550/650 was 43dB.

Oh.

I didn't read the reviews of the new Seasonic S12 Energy Plus Series.

 

[jaguarskx]

Here is review of the Seasonic M12 700 (modular), it is quite expensive, but it is even quieter than the Seasonic S12 series

Yikes! 46dB at a 600 watt load for the M12 700. The highest spl for the S12 550/650 was 43dB.

Oh.

I didn't read the reviews of the new Seasonic S12 Energy Plus Series.

Still, Seasonic makes some of the quietest if not the quiest PSU with fans.

 

[clue69less]

Here is review of the Seasonic M12 700 (modular), it is quite expensive, but it is even quieter than the Seasonic S12 series

Yikes! 46dB at a 600 watt load for the M12 700. The highest spl for the S12 550/650 was 43dB.

Oh.

I didn't read the reviews of the new Seasonic S12 Energy Plus Series.

I don't know the Seasonic units from personal experience but have been trying to find all the info I can. They look to be excellent. I was surprised at the SPLs because they are known for quiet operation. I've measured over a 600 watt load on my game box but only when the graphics cards are OC'ed near their max so they would probably drown out a 46dB PS. Some folks diss the OCZ/FSP/mushkin units for their ripple under load but I've got four of them and they are very stable under a big load, like 50-60mV. And the mushkins are very quiet - but like the Seasonics, they aren't cheap.

 

[clue69less]

Still, Seasonic makes some of the quietest if not the quiest PSU with fans.

Hey, have you seen the JonnyGuru review of the M12 700? Interesting comments on the non-quad rail design and also the temperature/spl discussion. For some stuff, I think SPCR is a decent source but I look elsewhere for gaming, performance or overclocking rig info.

 

[korbin44]

Hey, if you want to future proof your computer and not have to upgrade your PSU for the next 3-5 years, you have to go with the best. And the best is PC Power & Cooling. I have the Silencer 750 and it has absolutely no noise! It is also one of the most efficient power supplies on the planet. Check out the website here: www.pcpowerandcooling.com. It may cost you $200 bucks, but the power savings, silence, and longevity of this unit is worth it in the end.

 

[Doughbuy]

Only Johnny talked about the GameXStream's ripple, while a lot of other review sites said it was fine... not sure if the unit he got had issues or other review sites made a mistake, but I still consider the GameXStream a top tier PSU...

However, browsing through some of the reviews, they all said that the fan worked well, but was fairly noticeble... don't know how that compares to the Seasonic or Enermax though...

 

[jaguarskx]

Hey, have you seen the JonnyGuru review of the M12 700? Interesting comments on the non-quad rail design and also the temperature/spl discussion. For some stuff, I think SPCR is a decent source but I look elsewhere for gaming, performance or overclocking rig info.

Interesting... I agree with Johnny that the lable should be updated since it is not a true 12v quad rail design. I actually didn't know that the M12 has a 60mm fan in it. That would explain the louder than norm noise for a Seasonic PSU.

SPCR's main focus is silence and quality build. They don't really do game performance testing. Overclocking isn't a major topic at SPCR because that generally creates more noise. However, there are several threading in the forum about mild overclocks with silence in mind.

 

[skyguy]

Well I see OCZ gets some great reviews, and I know JonnyGURU is the guru and extremely thorough. I also doubt that I'd be pushing my system so hard that ripple would cause problems.....I mean, all those other users can't be wrong, no?

I figure a C2D that's OC'd, an 880GTX, 2 hard drives, and a few LED case fans would be my draw......I assume a 600W PSU wouldn't have to stretch very hard to push those components.

The OCZ is also signficantly less expensive than the other options. Now, I don't mind dropping an extra $50 for something "better", but then I would expect it to be really quiet or something to be worth the extra. Otherwise, why would I bother? I'd rather put the money into something else.

The S12 and GameXstream are looking like good options at this point.....

 

[clue69less]

Only Johnny talked about the GameXStream's ripple, while a lot of other review sites said it was fine... not sure if the unit he got had issues or other review sites made a mistake, but I still consider the GameXStream a top tier PSU...

Agreed. I've looked at stability and ripple on just one GamEx but three mushkin 650s. The ripple at moderate load on the mushkins were clearly lower than the OCZ but the OCZ was only 80 to 90mV PTP typically at 400 watts. People talk about those two, the FSP and the PCP&C being made at the same factory, but if you look inside, you do see some differences, like caps and a few details. But my GamEx has handled the load well - I typically just have a stock clock 1800XT in it but have run two 1900XTs OC'ed to ~700GPU/820RAM, 4400+ at 2.6, 2 opticals, 5 HDs, RAID card, sound card, etc. No problems, no sagging voltages.

 

[skyguy]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I'm looking at an OC'd C2D, 2 HDDs, maybe an 8800GTX and a few LED fans. The 600W GXS should handle that I would think?

It looks like the Seasonic Energy S12 series is newer and improved on the "old" S12 series, so it's looking like the S12 and OCZ are the contenders. Big difference in price though........wonder about the noise difference? S12 gets rave reviews there.......can the OCZ compete?

 

[Doughbuy]

Worse comes to worse, you can try a PSU baffle, but that would be up to you... 600W should be fine for what your doing, just don't go SLI... I'm going 700W myself, but I'm not even sure if that will be enough for SLI + TEC cooler...

The OCZ... doesn't seem obnoxiously loud, it's probably average soundwise, guess it depends on how quiet you want it and if your willing to pay that much for the extra quietness..

 

[clue69less]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I'm looking at an OC'd C2D, 2 HDDs, maybe an 8800GTX and a few LED fans. The 600W GXS should handle that I would think?

It looks like the Seasonic Energy S12 series is newer and improved on the "old" S12 series, so it's looking like the S12 and OCZ are the contenders. Big difference in price though........wonder about the noise difference? S12 gets rave reviews there.......can the OCZ compete?

That GPU will run at around 300 watts under load at stock clock. I don't have any idea if the DX10 cards will have much OC headroom anyway. Depending on which C2D and how much OC, you will probably be around 100 watts under load, give or take. So under a big load, you'll be looking a little over 400 watts, maybe 450. The S12 should handle that fine but at that point, it will no longer be real quiet. I'm betting it will be playing second fiddle to the 8800 though.

 

[skyguy]

LOL true enough, I suspect the 8800 won't be much of a whisper

The OCZ seems like a great deal for the performance though.....I guess the 600W would do fine, don't plan on SLI/CF so that should work.

 

[Guest]

Apparently it is!!!
Thread

Ok maybe not whisper but apparently its pretty quiet!

 

[skyguy]

Well my 7900GTO is silent and runs cool.....so if the 8800 can come close then I'm impressed. Might also make aftermarket VGA coolers not-so-necessary

Either way, it looks like 600W will do the trick no problem. Seasonic....OCZ.....expensive......affordable.......

Choices, choices :?

 

[Doughbuy]

Hot damn those are some nice scores and pics... and the wattage doesn't seem that high also...

 

[jaguarskx]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I'm looking at an OC'd C2D, 2 HDDs, maybe an 8800GTX and a few LED fans. The 600W GXS should handle that I would think?

This is my estimate of the power consumption on the 12v rails:

E6700 @ 4.0GHz............................................96w CPU Power Consumption Chart *
GeForce 8800GTX..........................................175w **
2 300GB Hard drives........................................40w
4 LED 120mm fans...........................................28w
DVD Burner.....................................................14w

Total Power Consumption on 12v rails...............353w

Total Amp Consumption on 12v rails..................29.4a

* For every increase of 0.27GHz assume an increase of 7w of power consumption. That's based on the xbitlabs' data.

** I read somewhere that the GeForce 8800 requires 450w PSU. Since the GTX version is more powerful, I will assume a minimum of a 500w PSU. Since ATI and nVidia do not know exactly what components are in each PC they make very conservative power supply recommendations. I will make a very conservative estimate and say that it draws 175w of power under full load. I'm very confident that it will consume less than that though, but I'll have to wait until www.xbitlabs.com does a power consumption test on it.

Under full load I estimate this beast to consume 29.4 (or 353w = 12v x 29.4a) amps on the 12v rails. As a safety margin I would recommend a PSU that can provide at least 34 amps on the 12v rails.