best silent PSU available

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

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neojack
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:25 pm

best silent PSU available

Post by neojack » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:47 pm

Hello,

I am in the process of building a gaming PC.
I already watercooled it entierely with ton of rads (5x180 + 1x120), suspended dual pumps, etc

My GPU is a R290x (I plan to add another), and my CPU, an AMD FX8150 (I plan to upgrade too)
This PC powers a 3x 1920x1200 eyefinity system wich is delightfull on games :)

My PSU now is a Cooler Master 1000 Silent Gold, wich produce a ton of coil noise while gaming
Currently the PSU tis the main source of noise when im in game

I am searching for the best PSU for around 300$

here is what i have found :

- EVGA SUpernova 1600 : (model from 2014) fanless untill 700w from my research. but after that the fan kicks in, and the fan profile is pretty aggressive.

- Seasonic Snow Silent 1050 watts : (model from end 2014) found only one test. they said it was fanless until 600w, and after that, the fan was near silent. this would be my best bet. but hard to find one. plus it's a limited edition.

- FirePower Silencer MK III 1200W 80Plus Platinum : (formerly Power PC and Cooling, model from 2012) : did not see a lot of reviews but on newegg.com, people seems happy with it
reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan.

- Cooler Master V1200 : reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan. The PCI button bugs me though.

- Best of the best would be corsair AX1500i, but it's like 500$

Maybe i should wait for the next Titanium generation ? but i would wait like one year before it reaches the 300$ range i guess

since this forum is the main spot in the internet for silent computing, i am all ears on for advices.
do you know a way to know wich is the most silent ? anyone here has one of these PSUs ?
Also no reviews talks about the coil noise !

CA_Steve
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Re: best silent PSU available

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:43 am

Welcome to SPCR.

If you were to take your current system and add another 290X, the stressed load would be 800W or less*; heavy gaming load in the 700W range. All of those radiator fans plus pump noise means you probably wouldn't notice the difference between a passive mode PSU and one with a quiet fan....so, the 1500W type PSUs might be a tad overkill.

* unless there's also some overclocking/overvolting going on, too.

You didn't list a country in your profile, so I don't know what's available in your country. In the US, I see many sources for the Seasonic Snow Silent.


Also, are you sure it's the PSU and not the Gfx card causing the whine? Is the whine consistant at all loads or only occur during games? Does it only happen with certain games?

neojack
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by neojack » Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:18 pm

Hello,

thanks for answering !

I live in canada.

My case is a silverstone FT-02. the 3 bottom fans are undervolted to a minimum, same for top fan. the 2 pumps are undervolted and suspended.
I did my best for this build to reduce the noise to a bare minimum and it's quite good !

I am positive about the coil noise coming from the PSU. I may take a video.
The Graphic card itself produces absolutely no noise at all now with it's waterblock. no coil noise even in game. i was really suprised !


Before this graphic card I had a 6850. I could hear a smal "clic clic" noise from the PSU. I thought it was the fan. I opened the psu and changed the fan, but the noise was still there.
Since I upgraded the graphic card for the eyefinity setup, the coil noise get way bigger.

thanks for the pointer on the seasonic snow silent. It's my first choice too. I searched it on amazon.ca, ncix.com, newegg.ca, but did not find it
Usually shopbot.ca is very efficient to find stuff. But i think it's not available yet in canada.
http://quebec.shopbot.ca/m/?m=seasonic+snow+silent

Well I may buy the MKIII Silencer (amazon.ca) or the Coolermaster V1200 (newegg.ca), wich are available here for around 300$CAD

CA_Steve
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Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:25 pm

A couple of others to consider:

Rosewill Tachyon 1000W - from Newegg.ca, based on the same Superflower platform as the Kingwin LZP reviewed here.

FSP Aurum PT1200 - also at Newegg.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:41 am

neojack wrote:I already watercooled it entierely with ton of rads (5x180 + 1x120), suspended dual pumps, etc

I'm just wondering what you will do of a silent PSU with five 180mm fans: I'd hope you have upgraded to the AP182, as the original 180mm Air Penetrator was (is) not that quiet.

neojack wrote:My GPU is a R290x (I plan to add another), and my CPU, an AMD FX8150 (I plan to upgrade too)

As said by CA_Steve, you don't need a 1200-1600W unit, power-wise, particularly if you're upgrading the CPU soon with a more performing Intel one (I'd add that maybe an AMD CPU can bottleneck a 290X CF), and with a single card even a good 600W (like a Platimax) is more than fine (you didn't mention OC, btw).

neojack wrote:- EVGA SUpernova 1600 : (model from 2014) fanless untill 700w from my research. but after that the fan kicks in, and the fan profile is pretty aggressive.

Never heard of: the 2014 SuperNOVA 1600 G2 is not semi-fanless, and pretty loud although. The 1600 P2 is much more quiet, but fan should kick in higher, around 1000W, and the profile shouldn't be that much aggressive with reference to SuperFlower track on Platinum-rated units (although the 1600 is a new platform, not the current Leadex Platinum, so that I never see a complete fan profile of this unit up to now from any reliable source, maybe you want to point out where you saw it). The SuperNOVA 1600 T2 has never been reviewed (up to now), and above all it retails for US $449.99, not 300.

neojack wrote:- Seasonic Snow Silent 1050 watts : (model from end 2014) found only one test. they said it was fanless until 600w, and after that, the fan was near silent. this would be my best bet. but hard to find one. plus it's a limited edition.

Seasonic Snow Silent in Canada. Please note, the special (40 CAD discounted) price ends today, 21st january.
Anyway, I can't say anything whether it is less prone than other Seasonics to coil-whine (usually Achilles' heel of their contemporary production runs).

neojack wrote:- FirePower Silencer MK III 1200W 80Plus Platinum : (formerly Power PC and Cooling, model from 2012) : did not see a lot of reviews but on newegg.com, people seems happy with it
reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan.

The original unit was a SuperFlower Golden King Platinum, virtually identical to the SPCR tested Kingwin Lazer Platinum 1000 (except, maybe, for the fan), so you may refer to that review. I don't know which platform is used currently, manufacturer's reliability is maybe a bit questionable. Usually SuperFlower is better regarded than Seasonic with reference to coil-whine and their older Golden King Platinum is usually a bit quieter than current Leadex Platinum (EVGA P2 1000-1200 and SuperFlower-branded units).

neojack wrote:- Cooler Master V1200 : reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan. The PCI button bugs me though.

It's mostly a rebadged Seasonic Platinum 1200, so I don't think it can run fanless up to 600W, maybe up to 100W, although it sports a less conservative fan profile than contemporary Seasonic Platinum (set aside the Snow Silent, which should retain the original, SPCR tested, XM1 fan profile).

neojack wrote:since this forum is the main spot in the internet for silent computing, i am all ears on for advices.
do you know a way to know wich is the most silent ? anyone here has one of these PSUs ?

You forgot the Corsair HX1000i, among the quietest high powered unit around, as well as the SuperFlower-based eVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000 and 1200 (the 1000W is comparatively quieter than the 1200W unit), which are the one you may look at along with the freshly released Snow Silent.
And if you can find an original Seasonic SS-1050XM (NOT the current SS-1050XM2), there are still units on the shelves, that one would be also extremely good too, sound-pressure-level-wise.
Eventually the Corsair RM1000 would be a viable option where the price were right (I mean, noticeable lower than HXi or similar higher quality PSUs).

neojack wrote:Also no reviews talks about the coil noise !

Because it's a fault: whether a PSU whines, it's faulty and it should be RMAed (if that fault is under the warranty coverage).

CA_Steve wrote:A couple of others to consider:

Rosewill Tachyon 1000W - from Newegg.ca, based on the same Superflower platform as the Kingwin LZP reviewed here.

I made a similar mistake not too much ago: personally I'd avoid, fan and fan profile are different, more probably that not it's louder than the original SuperFlower Golden King, more probably that not it's actually louder than the above quoted Silencer MK III 1200W. It may worth to note the Tachyon is EOL: that means you may see very good offer on it (as it was during black fridaty/cyber monday), so do not pay too much for it, in case.

CA_Steve wrote:FSP Aurum PT1200 - also at Newegg.

Not the quietest unit around, for sure, but with a rational approach to cooling, probably unobtrusive but I've never tested its fan (even if that fan looks promising). Almost surely better than the Tachyon 1000, noise-wise.

neojack
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by neojack » Wed Jan 21, 2015 9:57 am

Thank you ! you are really really helpfull and knowledgeable ! Maybe you should make a blog about PSUs or something :)

i completely missed the special price for the snow silent on ncix !
i just ordered it

many thanks to you

i will answer your other questions this evening.

neojack
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by neojack » Wed Jan 21, 2015 8:11 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:I already watercooled it entierely with ton of rads (5x180 + 1x120), suspended dual pumps, etc

I'm just wondering what you will do of a silent PSU with five 180mm fans: I'd hope you have upgraded to the AP182, as the original 180mm Air Penetrator was (is) not that quiet.
I have the AP181, they have an included switch wich i have set on "low". With my fan controller, i can further reduce the RPM at idle only
While gaming, I set the switch on "low" and the fan controller 12Volts. it seems to be good enough for the temps (CPU < 55C in game, )

You can see my build log here (will update when i have the new PSU)

http://www.overclock.net/t/1535931/buil ... -that-fits
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:My GPU is a R290x (I plan to add another), and my CPU, an AMD FX8150 (I plan to upgrade too)

As said by CA_Steve, you don't need a 1200-1600W unit, power-wise, particularly if you're upgrading the CPU soon with a more performing Intel one (I'd add that maybe an AMD CPU can bottleneck a 290X CF), and with a single card even a good 600W (like a Platimax) is more than fine (you didn't mention OC, btw).
I like overkill :)
and i prefer to have a bigger PSU that is able to run fanless / silent most of time
and I may buy an AMD processor as an upgrade, or overclock this one. Or buy the new low powered FX, and overclock it just before launching a game. (people say it can overclock at 5Ghz easilly)
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:- EVGA SUpernova 1600 : (model from 2014) fanless untill 700w from my research. but after that the fan kicks in, and the fan profile is pretty aggressive.

Never heard of: the 2014 SuperNOVA 1600 G2 is not semi-fanless, and pretty loud although. The 1600 P2 is much more quiet, but fan should kick in higher, around 1000W, and the profile shouldn't be that much aggressive with reference to SuperFlower track on Platinum-rated units (although the 1600 is a new platform, not the current Leadex Platinum, so that I never see a complete fan profile of this unit up to now from any reliable source, maybe you want to point out where you saw it). The SuperNOVA 1600 T2 has never been reviewed (up to now), and above all it retails for US $449.99, not 300.
Sorry I was talking about Platinum models only. I did not even take into consideration the Gold models since they have not hybrid fanless mode available.

I saw a test of the supernova 1600P2, it included the noise : http://www.kitguru.net/components/power ... -review/6/
and on this tes, I could see the load tests where the PSU was fanless : http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 3&reid=406

fanless at 850W charge ! unbelievable. Strange that not more people put emphasis on this !
Noise level is low even at high load.
Maybe I should have bought it, but it was more in the 400$ range than 300$
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:- Seasonic Snow Silent 1050 watts : (model from end 2014) found only one test. they said it was fanless until 600w, and after that, the fan was near silent. this would be my best bet. but hard to find one. plus it's a limited edition.

Seasonic Snow Silent in Canada. Please note, the special (40 CAD discounted) price ends today, 21st january.
Anyway, I can't say anything whether it is less prone than other Seasonics to coil-whine (usually Achilles' heel of their contemporary production runs).
For this price, the choice was easy :) thanks again !
I will let you know about the coil noise. I can take a video too if you ask
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:- FirePower Silencer MK III 1200W 80Plus Platinum : (formerly Power PC and Cooling, model from 2012) : did not see a lot of reviews but on newegg.com, people seems happy with it
reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan.

The original unit was a SuperFlower Golden King Platinum, virtually identical to the SPCR tested Kingwin Lazer Platinum 1000 (except, maybe, for the fan), so you may refer to that review. I don't know which platform is used currently, manufacturer's reliability is maybe a bit questionable. Usually SuperFlower is better regarded than Seasonic with reference to coil-whine and their older Golden King Platinum is usually a bit quieter than current Leadex Platinum (EVGA P2 1000-1200 and SuperFlower-branded units).
I though Power PC and cooling is a manufacturer, not just a reseller like corsair or cooler master.
You are right, since the last 2 yeas, the platform and the OEM could have changed for worse.
Good thing I wait a little before pushing the "buy" button
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:- Cooler Master V1200 : reviews says fanless untill 600w, then near silent fan. The PCI button bugs me though.

It's mostly a rebadged Seasonic Platinum 1200, so I don't think it can run fanless up to 600W, maybe up to 100W, although it sports a less conservative fan profile than contemporary Seasonic Platinum (set aside the Snow Silent, which should retain the original, SPCR tested, XM1 fan profile).
Its a rebadged Seasonic Platinum 1200 yes, but with a bigger fan running slower, and I compared the noise mesurements on reviews.
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:since this forum is the main spot in the internet for silent computing, i am all ears on for advices.
do you know a way to know wich is the most silent ? anyone here has one of these PSUs ?

You forgot the Corsair HX1000i, among the quietest high powered unit around, as well as the SuperFlower-based eVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000 and 1200 (the 1000W is comparatively quieter than the 1200W unit), which are the one you may look at along with the freshly released Snow Silent.
And if you can find an original Seasonic SS-1050XM (NOT the current SS-1050XM2), there are still units on the shelves, that one would be also extremely good too, sound-pressure-level-wise.
Eventually the Corsair RM1000 would be a viable option where the price were right (I mean, noticeable lower than HXi or similar higher quality PSUs).
thanks for all the recommendations. I guess it would help a lot of people !
I also looked at the RM series, but reviews on newegg are bad. lots of DOA. seems like there is a lack of quality control on those.
quest_for_silence wrote:
neojack wrote:Also no reviews talks about the coil noise !

Because it's a fault: whether a PSU whines, it's faulty and it should be RMAed (if that fault is under the warranty coverage).

I thought that only corsair consider it as a fault, and only on the "RM" series.
quest_for_silence wrote:
CA_Steve wrote:A couple of others to consider:

Rosewill Tachyon 1000W - from Newegg.ca, based on the same Superflower platform as the Kingwin LZP reviewed here.

I made a similar mistake not too much ago: personally I'd avoid, fan and fan profile are different, more probably that not it's louder than the original SuperFlower Golden King, more probably that not it's actually louder than the above quoted Silencer MK III 1200W. It may worth to note the Tachyon is EOL: that means you may see very good offer on it (as it was during black fridaty/cyber monday), so do not pay too much for it, in case.

CA_Steve wrote:FSP Aurum PT1200 - also at Newegg.

Not the quietest unit around, for sure, but with a rational approach to cooling, probably unobtrusive but I've never tested its fan (even if that fan looks promising). Almost surely better than the Tachyon 1000, noise-wise.


Thanks for all the hints.
Honestly you should update this page : http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html
because this topic has now all the information about silent high-end PSUs !

neojack
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: best silent PSU available

Post by neojack » Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:44 am

I received the PSU 2 days after my order, great service from ncix !

Best of all : I can't hear it at all ! if I put my ear on it, i can hear a faint "clic" noise from the fan. Very similar to a Noctua fan undervolted. can't hear it at 1m. NO COIL NOISE !!!

My FT-02 case offers me to use the PSU as an exhaust for the PC, or tor the PSU so it can take it's own air from the exterior.
Since I have a lot of intake fans, and a lot of rads inside the case, i decided that an additionnal exhaust would be better.
snow-silent-fan-case.jpg

Also, i decided to midify the loop, by suspending the pumps. I took the idea from the silent waercooling guide i saw on SPCR.
They used elastics, I tried but it was difficult to install.
So instead i simply used tie-raps
Looks hacked but the difference in noise is BIG !!! Now my 2 undervolted pumps makes about the same noise as a standard HDD. most quiet solution I could have from 2x DDC2.25
Suspended-pumps.jpg

Here is how it looks. Not the best looking build over there, but QUIET ! good temps too
general-end.jpg
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Last edited by neojack on Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

CA_Steve
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Re: best silent PSU available

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:36 am

Congrats!

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