PSU to use with a P180 for a 939 system

preacher man · Post by **preacher man** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:16 am

Firstly I would just like to say hi all. I have been lurking about reading articles and threads for a couple of months just learning about silent techniques, but its time to make a post.

I have a P180 case arriving tomorrow (after reading lots about it on here), and I am hoping to buy a new PSU in a few weeks.

First the background.

My pc is about 2 metres from my bed and i need it as quiet as possible so it can be left on at night.

At the moment its only a passive Nforce2 mobo and a 2500XP CPU.
I have a 19db cooler, so thats pretty quiet.
My Graphics card is a Radeon 9500Pro, and I have seen how to do the trick using fan mate to slow the GPU fan when its full power is not being used. As I dont really play games that should be all the time

In the summer when the Socket AM2 comes out im going to upgrade to socket 939 (hey it will have come down in price) so it has to be able to cope with that and a possible further upgrade.

Here are the likely components I have all will upgrade to so the PSU is going to need to run.

Athlon X2 chip
Nforce 4 mobo
Gforce 6600 passively cooled (eventual upgrade to 2x)
1GB DDR 400 (eventual upgrade to 2GB)
Audigy2
Hauppaunge Nova-t digital TV card with remote
Raptor 74gb HD (when left on overnight it should only be my storage drive being acessed)
250gb storage drive
3x tricool fans set on low.

there will be little things plugged into it such as a card reader, mp3 player, webcam etc.

I would like some extra capacity to upgrade further such as a 2nd graphics card and so its not running at full capacity constantly as my pc is rarely turned off. Well when the girlfriend isnt staying (she complains about the noise

)

I cant reall afford £100 for a PSU but anything quiet that would suffice for around £60-80 would be great.

Sorry for such a long post and hello again.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:58 pm

Have you bought your mobo yet ?
If not think VERY carefully before you buy an SLI board as to whether you want - or need an SLI setup . If you don't need SLI buy a non-SLI board . SLI setups are prone to issues with compatabily with PSUs the non-SLI NF4-ultra chipset mobos do not seem to be as fussy.
With an SLI machine it's a case of which PSU will work with your mobo.
With a non-SLI machine you have many other options - I personally like the Phantom 500 (it worked ok in my machine until I upgraded to SLI 7800GTs and just will not post with that configuration ) but it is out of your price range . So I would suggest a Seasonic S12 with a cable extender for the motherboard cable . I have, on my machine a Silverstone 650 watt PSU but although it is totally trouble free it is noisy (very noisy)
See thread :- http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=29968
Your mileage may vary - but I found that SLI = problems all round

preacher man · Post by **preacher man** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:26 am

Thats a beast of a system Pony!!

I had read about that issue with SLI but Im not buying the raptor, graphics card, mobo and cpu untill later in the year so I was kind of hoping SLI problems would have been ironed out.
But thinking about it that will be changes to the PSU not the mobo most likely so I can happily go without SLI as Im not really a gamer!

I was thinking that the PSU wouldnt get a shot in the P180 so the fans wouldnt ramp up fully, is this true?

The seasonic is the obvious choice but its just out my price range. Im stretching my budget to go to £80 so I really can go above that!!

I thought about the Tagan with its fan configuration being suited to the P180 case but it seems to be a love hate relationship with it??

I have seen....

Antec True Power II 550W for £70

Hiper 550W for £60 - know people say its not the quietest and I have concerns over its poor efficiency and modular connectors getting in the way of the fan.

OCZ ModStream 520W Modular for £70

Enermax Liberty 500W Modular

I cant find much out about noise levels though??

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:28 pm

I have had a Tagan in a P4 a couple of years ago (P4B-533/VM ) it worked ok
But others on the ABX (Asus boards at the time) had issues it seems they were either very good or very bad .
I have not had a P180 but it looks like you will need a PSU with long cables .Antec true Power is good quality reliable and quiet but nowhere near silent - a good buy none the less . Can be fan Swapped though . Same with Enermax Quality is almost universally good but sometimes they are a little less than quiet (Silence again is just a fan swap away ) either of these would be an excellent reliable PSU (unless you are unlucky enough to get a dud - the RMA).

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:09 pm

Just happened to see a post about an HEC 480W psu at badcaps.com -

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1146

It has inline fans (good for a p180) at a reasonable price and is supposed to be fairly efficient and quiet. I think the HEC brand is more readily available in europe than the states.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:03 pm

Just happened to see a post about an HEC 480W psu at badcaps.com -

That would have been a better soloution than the Silverstone I am using - looks to be pretty good according to that forum. Don't get me wrong the Silverstone is good - just a bit loud .
I don't know if HEC is readily available in AU - but could be worth a look .
With all the compatability issues buying a PSU hase become a mine field. Are they not testing this stuff before they market it - I hate paying to be an Alpha tester they should pay me!
Good luck with your PSU - post back with what you get and what it's like.