Antec True Power 380 upgrade

jaimemitche · Post by **jaimemitche** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 6:57 pm

I currently have the antec psu, when on full load its monitored fan reports 1700 rpm, the rpm goes as low as 1500 although its still noisy. Its the psu with the dedicated fan outputs which run at 5v most of the time. Is it worth me replacing the psu with a FSP350-60PN(PF) £55, will it be much quieter? I have read through all the relevant posts I can find and am stll undecided. I brought an enermax fma 300W only to find it was noisy with the fan on low, so I upgraded to the antec when I went to a p4 setup and although slightly less noisy the antec isnt as quiet as I wanted. So before I buy another psu I want to be sure its going to be wroth it.

System is:
p4 2.4 ghz with zalman cu 7000 cooler on lowest setting
1gb pc2700
passive radeon 9700 pro
2 80gb barracuda IV and a 160gb seagate 1604n
audigy platimum, cdrw, dvd

Thanks for any replies

Jaime

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 8:29 pm

I've got exactly the same PSU and I was thinking about doing something to make it quieter.. I don;t really want to replace it because a) it wasn;t cheap and b) the quality of the output is pretty good I think.

What I'm thinking about doing is swapping out the fans.. there's one 80mm (41cfms at 34dBA,2900rpm) in the back and a 92mm (48.3cfms at 35dBA,3000rpm) in the bottom. more info about the fans here.

Since they're only running at about half speed then thats about 20cfms and 24 cfms, a noiseblocker or a papst could handle that quietly (probably not plugged into the PSU thermostat though). Maybe an S3 with the pot turned down a bit?

I may also duct my HSF out the back of the case to stop too much heat getting into the PSU.

I'm not saying this is the best solution for you, I don;t know if it's a good idea for me since I haven;t done it yet.. I'm just saying there are options other than replacing it.

What do other people think? I know since buying this unit PSU manufacturers have gone quiet mad and there are loads of new quieter (better designed) PSUs out there.

DonP.

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 10:59 pm

My suggestion for a mod would be to somehow eliminate the intake restriction. Since intake restriction makes much more noise, moving the fan so that the restriction of the PSU innards are at the out take can drastically reduce noise. I've got 2 PSUs here that I flipped the fan around 180 degrees to blow the other way (no case to worry about airflow in). they used to drown out the 12v vantec stealth CPU fan, but now the situation is reversed... a great improvement to say the least.

jaimemitche · Post by **jaimemitche** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 5:14 am

DonP wrote:I've got exactly the same PSU and I was thinking about doing something to make it quieter.. I don;t really want to replace it because a) it wasn;t cheap and b) the quality of the output is pretty good I think.

What I'm thinking about doing is swapping out the fans.. there's one 80mm (41cfms at 34dBA,2900rpm) in the back and a 92mm (48.3cfms at 35dBA,3000rpm) in the bottom. more info about the fans here.

Since they're only running at about half speed then thats about 20cfms and 24 cfms, a noiseblocker or a papst could handle that quietly (probably not plugged into the PSU thermostat though). Maybe an S3 with the pot turned down a bit?

I did consider this, however as the PC is on 24/7 including when I am out I want something that I know isnt going to burn out and catch fire due to a dodgy fan connection or the wrong fan etc..

So I am really after a stock solution.

Is the 350W FSP 350Watt ATX PSU (35060PN(PF)) AMD/P4 Approved that theoverclockingstore.co.u sell any good? The many threads seem to suggest it might be loud under load (I want to encode divx at night sot hats probably not going to be any good), or what about the Auroa version?

Thanks

Jaime

lazybum131 · Post by **lazybum131** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 11:21 am

since your seem already set to spend money on another powersupply

what about opening up that Antec PSU and simply taking out the 80mm fan at the rear?

the 92mm is already recessed inside your case, which will make it quieter. If there is significant improvement, then you might think about swapping the 92mm fan with something quieter.

if you do this, block the rear vents on the PSU so that the only intake the PSU has is from the 92mm fan hole and all the air is forced into the exhaust at the now empty 80mm hole.

jaimemitche · Post by **jaimemitche** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 2:29 pm

Its not that I'm worried about killing the psu, just the consequences if that happens, also I was going to sell this psu for hopefully about 1/2 - 1/3 what the replacement will cost.

I really like the sound of the new seasonic 400 w, as looking at the figures as I leave my pc on 24/7 the increased efficiency of about 15% should pay for the psu over 2 years anyways or soemthing like that.

Any idea of uk avaliability though?

Also could anyone hazard as a guess the sound rating of the antec under load/idle as they dont seem to publish this information. So that I can then compare new supplies with the one that I have.

Thanks

Jaime

energy · Post by **energy** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 2:19 pm

I believe the antec truepower is rated at 33dB maximum.

Antecs I've modified have seemed to run hot (with Panaflo L1A and Papst 3412L 92mm fan), with an FSP PSU (which are usually loud) you can be pretty sure it will not die/burst into flames when modding it, unless you go very extreme on it. Panaflo L1A is a popular mod for those PSUs.