I'm preparing for my next upgrade. I've already decided on most components, but when going over my shopping list again, I started to doubt about my choice of power supply.

I initially went for the Seasonic S12II-380, as it's recommended here on the site and I won't need a lot of power anyway. My current built only needs 222W when stressed to the utmost maximum, and in my next desktop I won't even place a discrete GPU anymore. So it should drop under 200W.
The reason I started to doubt was when I'd read the Seasonic is a 5 year old design and it makes a minimum of 21db. I thought there would be more efficient and quieter PSU's around by now. Additionally, it only has a 4-pin ATX12V CPU power connector, while the motherboard I intend to buy has a 8-pin EPS connector. I know a 4-pin connector will do for not too power hungry CPU's, but it's still of small concern.
So I started looking around again.

In my current desktop I have an Enermax Pro82+ 425W and I'm quite happy with it. This PSU I'll pass on to my wife's desktop though, so I'll need a new one for myself.
Because of my current good experience with this PSU maybe its successor Enermax Pro82+ II 385W would be a good choice for me. It's a little more expensive compared to the Seasonic, but in return I get an 80+ Bronze certified PSU with a fan spinning at only 450RPM between 0-50% load. And it has an 4+4-pin CPU connector.

What do you guys think?
If someone has other suggestions, these are my requirements:
* good efficiency at low loads. My PC is powered on quite a lot, but CPU+GPU is mostly lightly stressed. No gaming at all. Highest load is Adobe Photoshop & LightRoom, but that's not too often.
* quiet (but not passive)
* not too expensive
* widely available on the European market (as I'm Belgian)

The S12II is quiet. I wouldn't worry about the 21dB measurement.

I run it on a Q8200, Radeon 4830, an SSD, 4 hard drives, and a blu-ray burner. The fan spins up based on temperature (which is driven partially by load). However because my case is quite warm on load because of the video card (older, passive, runs hot), it does spin up during loads, then slowly reduces speed as the case cools down. As minimum speeds, I doubt you will care about the noise; I can hear my 500-800rpm Noctua S12B fans over it, and they themselves are quite quiet.

So, you need to tolerate a louder but pleasant sounding fan when your case hits ~50C. Below 50C, it is difficult to hear.

As an aside, when Mike reviewed the S12, the anechoic chamber was not in place and the noise floor of his test setup was ~20dB.

I wouldn't call Seasonic S12II noisy(~850~RPM), but it is not the King of silence anymore. I found Enermax Pro82, LibertyEco is quieter than S12 ..... not day and night difference, but you can perceive it at midnight.

To tell the truth, I hope Seasonic will improve their low-end offerings when they unveil next generation S12 series. Rumor has it that new S12 will land on the market in the near future.