replacing my true power quattro

extrabigmehdi · Post by **extrabigmehdi** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:43 am

hi,
I'm not very satisfied by the noise made by my system.
It makes a slight high pitched sound , but I don't think it's a dysfunction (too low). I believe the psu is the most noisy part of my system.
Do you think it's worth to replace my true power quattro by a
more silent psu ?

My needs are about 400w according to the psu calculator.

Here's my current sytem:
case 3d gigabyte aurora 570 (3 fans of 120mm I think)
a 8800 gt Zilent , by MSI (zalman silent fan)
a zalman cnps9500AT for the fan of the cpu
motherboard: Ga-x48-dq6
my psu: antec true power quattro 850w
2Gb of RAM (gskill pc8500 or 1066 mhz)
E8400 for the processor

I hesitate between three psu:
- corsaire hx620w at 105 euros
- enermax modu82 at 150 euros
- zalman of 850 W at 180 euros

I'm affraid that the zalmann is too heavy and will distort my case : 3D gigabye aurora 570 .... Do you think there's a problem of weight
or place in my case ?

Although the psu calculator says I need 400w,
I don't know how much my system would need at idle ...
So tell me, if my sytem would be much more more silent if I change my psu. What do you think is the best choice for the psu (see my 3 choices) ?
I may upgrade my graphic card in future, so I hope I'll have enough remaining power.

Also I can't afford an RMA. So indicate me the most reliable choice.
I live in Morroco, and an RMA would be me almost impossible.

Thanks for any advice.

extrabigmehdi · Post by **extrabigmehdi** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:09 am

no opinion ?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:05 am

you do not need 400W. your current components draw 200W maximum. I would recommend Corsair VX450. if you will upgrade graphics, maybe Corsair HX520W. this is quiet up til 300W, even if your next graphics draws 2x more power than 8800GT, still less than 300W.

extrabigmehdi · Post by **extrabigmehdi** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:02 pm

you do not need 400W.

well that's what the psu calculator says.
With a capacitor aging of 30%...
Two hard drives.

I can hardly believe that my system draw only 200W...

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:08 am

Hi, a while ago I built a system with E8400 CPU, basic P35 Gigabyte motherboard, 2x2GB RAM, HDD, DVD and Radeon HD3450 video card. Yes the video card is much lower power than yours but at full CPU load this PC used ~100w AC, that is ~80DC from the PSU! (measured with a plug-in-the-wall power meter) The 8800GT is rated 110w max but that's more than it really takes. HDDs are ~10w each and fans 1-3w each so your system needs about 200w under load, unless you overclock the CPU a lot.
One Xbit test shows total system consumption in 3D mark 06 with 8800GT at 288w but that includes QX9650@4GHz. The CPU would be around 150w by itself!
I'd suggest a good quality PSU, from the SPCR recommended list of 380-500w as being ideal.
As RMA is very difficult you might consider warranty of little value and consider changing the fan in your existing PSU. Its 850w capacity is way way more than you need so there is plenty of room for a slower, quieter fan while still having enough PSU cooling. I would think a fan in the 2000-2500rpm range would be about right. If done carefully you could swap the original fan back in if it doesn't work out.
You can read about my PSU fan swap here.
Regards, Seb

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:49 am

extrabigmehdi wrote:
you do not need 400W.
well that's what the psu calculator says.
With a capacitor aging of 30%...
Two hard drives.

I can hardly believe that my system draw only 200W...

capacitor ageing is a bogus concern. any quality PSU (seasonic/corsair) has caps which continue to perform at a high level as long as the PSU stays within nominal temps and voltage.

extrabigmehdi · Post by **extrabigmehdi** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:19 pm

@SebRad

I'd suggest a good quality PSU, from the SPCR recommended list of 380-500w as being ideal.

well, following your advice, I took my ANtec Eartwatt 430w from my old computer, and then put it in my recent rig.
Result: computer just refused to start
Nothing was powered, as if psu was dead....
But I know the psu work, and checked many times all connections.
I think there's an incompatibility with my motherboard (Ga-X48-DQ6) and that psu.

So I'm less confident, when you are saying any psu from that list would be ok.

EDIT: tryed again, and finally it works well with the eartwatt.
The quattro, wasn't that much noisy, but there was a high pitched sound that drived me crazy.
Unless I manage to replace my quattro with a more silent one,
I'm still considering to buy a better psu (especially the hx610w)
That eartwatt look ugly in my case