What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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Happy Hopping
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What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Happy Hopping » Sat Jun 01, 2013 3:10 am

I am leaning on the EA-380D or EA-430 from Antec. However, their EA-650 review make me pee my pants: 44 bad review of it caught on fire.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371044

So I was thinking of trying Coolmax ZU series, it's very quiet, but the review shows a lot of them pops after a few mth. of usage:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... alParent=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... alParent=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... alParent=1

And yet, their Coolmax ZX series has good review and it's cheaper

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo

and I don't know how much wattage I need on these PSU, as I sell quite a few of them, it's the Gigabyte

http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/product ... id=4315#ov

connects to 1 DVD burner, and 1 x SSD.

I am sure the 430W is enough, but how much do I really need? Can I go down to 380W?

Assuming in the future, some of them might need to add a 6 pin PCI E powered video card

CA_Steve
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by CA_Steve » Sat Jun 01, 2013 6:27 am

Seasonic G 360.

You don't mention the CPU, so let's assume it's a 77W Ivy Bridge. Your system's stressed load power will be under 130W.


blubberhoofd
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by blubberhoofd » Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:10 pm

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Nexus_Value_430

I've been using one since 2010 and I'm still very happy with it.
you can also find it in the table of the article that was linked to earlier
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1297-page4.html

Seasonic G360 is very loud by comparison.

Sadly the Nexus was discontinued and is now hard to find but there is currently a sale on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-VALUE-430-A ... B0025YWKMA

Happy Hopping
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Happy Hopping » Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:45 am

http://www.seasonicusa.com/G-series-360.htm

I think it's CPU 2 x 4 pin, it says that on their website, although I like website that clearly shows a photo of the 2 x 4 pin connectors, that way, I know for sure.

I won't mind knowing the dB of their fan, even it did say "Smart & Silent Fan"

How come this new G series is so inexpensive? It gives Japanese capacitors tested at 105 deg. C for the street price of $59?

anyhoo, that's great find, thanks, I'll go with it

Blubberhoofd, I think Nexus is only 2 yr. warranty vs. 5 yr. by seasonic

Abula
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Abula » Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:43 am

Happy Hopping wrote:I think it's CPU 2 x 4 pin, it says that on their website, although I like website that clearly shows a photo of the 2 x 4 pin connectors, that way, I know for sure.
From the JonnyGuru review has written 4+4 pin EPS/ATX12V, and even though the photo is not that big, i see the 4+4 next to the 24pin.

Image

Another pic from PCer review,

Image
Last edited by Abula on Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

blubberhoofd
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by blubberhoofd » Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:44 am

Happy Hopping wrote:Blubberhoofd, I think Nexus is only 2 yr. warranty vs. 5 yr. by seasonic
BMW... nah I'll go with a Daewoo, it has a better warranty ;)

Happy Hopping
Posts: 254
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Happy Hopping » Sun Jun 02, 2013 4:18 am

thanks. The system I'm installing weekly compose of:

1 Pentium G2020, 4 GB of RAM
gigabyte B75M-D3H motherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4150#ov

plus 1 x SSD, 1 X DVDRW

So w/o using the PSU calculator, I would agree that 360W is enough

IN the future, there is the possiblility of a GT video card for those who seriously need 1, using 6 pin PCI E, but that would be rare, not to mention the PSU does support a PCI E 6 pin plug anyway

torp
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by torp » Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:57 am

Happy Hopping wrote:thanks. The system I'm installing weekly compose of:

1 Pentium G2020, 4 GB of RAM
gigabyte B75M-D3H motherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4150#ov

plus 1 x SSD, 1 X DVDRW

So w/o using the PSU calculator, I would agree that 360W is enough

IN the future, there is the possiblility of a GT video card for those who seriously need 1, using 6 pin PCI E, but that would be rare, not to mention the PSU does support a PCI E 6 pin plug anyway
I built a system with the exact CPU, a B75M-D3P (should be close enough), 8 G ram, spinny HDD, optical drive *and* a geforce 650. It's running on a Seasonic G360, draws 45 W at idle and maybe 110 W in gaming load. Basically any quality PSU you can buy is overspecced :)

Another data point for the OP: Core i7 3770K, 16 G ram, 2 spinny HDDs and a GeForce 660 draws 70W-ish in idle and 170W-ish in gaming loads.

Happy Hopping
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Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Happy Hopping » Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:06 pm

I just re-check the spec. of the Seasonic G-360, its dB level is 22 dB. How quiet is 22 dB? I know with 12 dB on a cooling fan, you can't hear it. So what about 22 dB? Can any1 gives me an e.g. of 22 dB is like?

Also, is there a wide range of quality control from this brand, as I read this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo

some said it's quiet, some other said coil whine. ANd I have read other seasonic PSU, they also complain about coil whine.

Can I assume if my load (the above configuration) is so low, that I shouldn't need to worry about coil whine? Or is seasonic quality control has such a wide swing that you'll get coil whine depends on what batch of shipment you get. Which is it?

Alternatively, wouldn't this be better?

http://www.enermaxusa.com/psu_enp450ast.php

it's the Enermax NAXN 350W to 450W PSU
Last edited by Happy Hopping on Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Abula
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Location: Guatemala

Re: What's a good silent 400W PSU that is high quality?

Post by Abula » Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:59 pm

I have a seasonic X660 and X400 and both are fine no coil at all. I just did a couple of builds with Seasonic G550 no coil either. My guess is a combination of hardware that does it, and seems more prevalent on seasonic than other brands atm. Still its not an issue for all, but if you want to avoid it, you could go with Rosewill SilentNight-500, reveiwed by SPCR also, Rosewill Silent Night 500 Platinum 80 Plus, its the same as the KINGWIN STR-500 Stryker Fanless Power Supply and has great user review also.

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