today, without asking me for permission, my EES400AWT died on me.
It was housed in a HTPC (z68, i5-2500k, 8 gigs, green hd, no vga).
That unit suited me well because of
1. being appreciabily quiet
2. being rel. inexpensive
3. being compact. 14cm max depth is a necessity,
because of the aerocool m40 cabinet.
4. eight-pin connector for the mobo (i can't remember the right name)
I searched a bit around and in this forum, that's what I understood so far:
- as usual, we europeans have much fewer options than others
- it won't do any bad *if i can* save a few bucks more (italian here, you know the story)
new Enermax-es:
- the EESxAWT is not manifactured anymore.
- a replacement could be the triathlor line (385/450 models), but if i get it correctly, that it's not that silent when under heavy load compared to other similarly priced units ( from a comparison review with a bequiet e9 and others, i cannot find the link anymore, will add it as soon i find it again...)
- enermax units are quite pricey for this range.
Be-quiets, german brands and other more-than-12cm fans:
- unfortunately bequiet L9s won't likely fit. 14 cm depth max.
Be quiet is new to me (as the other germany-based brand that gets distributed here in italy, LC-power) so you might be able to suggest some quiet compact model maybe?
Same for Rasturbo, I don't know them or their reliability.
Seasonic:
- good old S12II could fit the bill, but I'd need at least the 430W model because of the eight-pin connector. could be found in italy but not easily (=> higher prices)
XFX ProSeries 450W (P1-450S-X2B9):
this is intriguing. priced reasonabily, afaik it's built by Seasonic.
The problem is: I don't know how it actually fares against branded Seasonics, especially in the noise department.
Protection grill looks suspiciously "squared", it seems that it's possible to push the cables against the internal fan (??).
The usual presence: Corsair CX430 v2 builder series.
Reasonabily priced, it seems that it's quiet but not as much as the old cx400 was. I have a tight budget but I can be very picky.
To sum up:
* being in italy (less options), max depth at 14cm and the presence of the 8-pin connector are the main non-noise restrictions
* noise from the ErPro was ok-ish to my ears
* would like to spend something around 50-60 euros (feel free to think "dollars")
what do you suggest?
thanks a lot in advance!