hi all, these are the ONLY choices in my country, please help me choose which one is quieter:

-Antec BP500U
-Corsair GS500/600
-Corsair CX430/500 V2
-Corsair 650TX V2
-XFX Core 650

and just another alternative: move a 650TX (v1) from my gaming rig and replace it with a Corsair 850HX.

TIA!

The GS500 with a 140 mm fan would be my pick. The Antec is a blast from the past with an inefficient-looking cooling scheme, the CX and TX series from Corsair are to be avoided (some made by whoever, not on par with VX/HX/AX etc.) and the XFX uses an aggressive fan control scheme AFAIK.

PS. Turns out the XFX could be Seasonic inside, as per http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 7&reid=216. Still, the aggressive fan control is a turn-off.

thanks a lot for the feedback!
and totally OT, i noticed you have a P8Z77-MPRO, how's your experience with the board's fan control?

cheers!

No problem.

The board has treated me well, even if quite a few BIOS updates have come out for it. The fan control that Fan Xpert+ affords is sufficient for my use; the CPU fan header goes down to 20% and the case fan headers down to 40%, which is low enough to reach the lowest speeds I would spin my fans at anyway. The speed adjustments are unintrusive. Just have to match the fans with the board, as in don't use hi-speed models, and it works out just fine.

Are there any online retailers in Peru?

Agree that the Antec BP500U is a bad choice because the the 8cm fan has been measured spinning between 2100 and 3400RPM.

The Corsair old/original GS500/GS600 use a Yate Loon D14BH-12, 0.70A, dual ball bearing fan. Supposedly it has 'trouble' starting up below 1000RPM.
The new GS600 uses an updated platform which supports semi-fanless operation up to 15% load.

I would also steer clear of the CX series.

The TX650 V2 uses the same fan as in the GS500/GS600. Supposedly there are TXs with semi-fanless operation as well, but these are quite new.

The TX650 might actually be a good option, as it was positively reviewed both here and X-bit labs, who measured it's fan speed curve, which is quite impressive.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article813-page1.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/ ... html#sect0


Can I ask how you know what XFX's fan profile is like? I ask because I haven't been able to find much.
The XFX uses exactly the same internals as the Corsair TX650 V2. Except for the fan which is an ADDA ADN512UB-A90, 0.44A, dual ball bearing fan.

thanks for the feedback Garak!
Would it be too hard to replace a stock fan? I mean, do those use standard 3-pin headers? If so It would be easy to replace with a silent fan, yes?

I've come across the XFX on forums, so the information comes with a pinch of salt. It is indeed hard to find verified/review information on it, which makes it all the more suspicious, but if the review I linked is correct, the internals at least should be good quality (Seasonic).

The TX series contains both good and bad units, and has thus been very uneven in performance. SPCR relegated the TX650 review into the Retired list for a reason: it's been too long since the review, and current units may not match the unit that was reviewed back then (a good Seasonic one).

AFAIK most power supplies use two-pin leads for their fans, not the regular 3-pin or 4-pin. It's not too hard to mate the wires though, if you know how to strip and join them safely, so that's not a problem for a fan swap.

The GS are indeed hardly ideal themselves, more like the best of a bad situation.

Depends when he bought the 650TX (v1).

It's from the first batch that came to my country, which is vague. I'd have to remove it from my gaming rig to confirm this, not an easy task being in a P182 w/PSU cage