Antec EA-380 noise?

[bsoft]

First, a little background.

My primary system is a Q9300 (95W) system with an Radeon HD 3850, 8GB of DDR2 800, and a WD6400AAKS. It's in an NSK3480 case.

I just built a new system for a friend. It has an E7300 (65W), Radeon HD 4850, also 8GB of DDR2 800, and also a WD6400AAKS. It's in an NSK4480 case.

Both systems, according to my Kill-A-Watt, draw around 150W from the wall while gaming. His system has a lower power CPU but a higher power GPU, so the net is that they are about the same.

The thing is, his EA-380 is dramatically louder, and it also seems to be moving a lot more air.

My question is, does anyone know if newer EA-380s have a different (louder and/or higher speed) fan? Or if the fan controller has been tweaked for more cooling? My EA-380 is around 15 months old; his is brand new.

[pony-tail]

I do not know about the older ones , but the current ones have a somewhat whiny fan that , on my machines ( I have two ) are annoying . They are quiet but the sound signature is unpleasant . I am looking at having another go at changing the fans . I have tried a Nexus 80mm the result was that the fan does not cool the PSU adequately . The original fan seems to spin at about 2500 or more RPM at 12v (out of the PSU) but at around 1200 or so in the PSU and a bit higher under load . The Nexus fan starts at just barely spinning and ramps up to about where the other one starts , The result is that the psu gets hot - it did not blow though . I also tried a Panaflo ( NMB-MAT) medium fan but it had a grittiness to it on this PSU , So to make it quiet I would need a ~2000+ rpm fan that has a smooth character and undervolts to be very quiet . A big ask for an 80mm fan.

[speedkar9]

My question is, does anyone know if newer EA-380s have a different (louder and/or higher speed) fan? Or if the fan controller has been tweaked for more cooling? My EA-380 is around 15 months old; his is brand new.

I once had an EA-380, and man it was loud! The noise was mostly a whooshing coming from the fan spinning (at idle), although not much air could be felt passing through the PSU. Even with the green and black wires shorted with no mobo attached, just sitting on my desk it was quite loud. When playing games this thing would really ramp up and cause a racket. The exhaust air was only slightly warm in an Antec 300 case. Ducting it to the front made the problem worse.

Not wanting to void the warranty, I ended up upgrading to its 120mm twin: the S12II-380. Much better. I just can't trust Antec's meaning of "Quiet computing" after this experience.

[pony-tail]

Mine are in NSK 3480 cases and with my load ( one has a Phenom 9850 and a Radeon - Sapphire HD3850 ultimate , passive cooled and a Seagate 80gig hdd the other has a 6000+ , onboard graphics and a Seagate 80gig ) and with these combos the air out of the back of the PSU is pretty hot . That said the temp in the room was 38 Celsius ( Summer has started Downunder ) The fan was spinning like a turbine . Although I am not sure I do not believe you can run a PSU with a 120mm fan in the 3480 without modifying the case .