Antec EA380D not quiet enough

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

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jcoffin1981
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:39 pm

Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by jcoffin1981 » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:07 pm

Hi all! This is my first post. After doing some research and wanting an efficient, quiet, and cost effective PSU I decided on the Antec EA380D. It is certainly quieter than my stock generic PSU, but I've now decided that this is not quiet enough and I want silent! Another model I was debating on was the Seasonic S12II 380, but that was around $65 vs the $41 or so I spent for the Antec. My case fan is the Noctua NF-R8 and it is virtually silent. I may swap do a swap, OR return this for the Seasonic. The Seasonic is the better product, but will it be louder than the Antec with the upgraded fan? Also the Noctua doesn't push a lot of air. What does everyone recommend doing and what are your experiences with fan swaps? If I buy the new fan then I've about laid out what the Seasonic would have cost anyway.

psyopper
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Re: Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by psyopper » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:03 am

I have both of these power supplies. The Antec uses a rear facing 80mm fan, the Seasonic an upward facing 120mm fan; the Seasonic is a quieter power supply. I opted to do a fan swap for a Nexus 80mm into my Antec because I case needed front/back flow in the Antec NSK-3480 with hdd suspended in an upper 5.25 bay.

In other words, there are variables to consider. What are yours? Case? Cooling capacity requirements?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:19 am

jcoffin1981 wrote:The Seasonic is the better product, but will it be louder than the Antec with the upgraded fan?

It could be far louder: usually I cool these EA380 with those R8 running at 700rpm or so, driven thorugh a motherboard's header (I use SpeedFan to raise the voltage on heavy loads, if in case).
That way they are literally silent, almost no match for any PSU on Earth in my ambient, and I have had no issue in about two years and more.

Driving the R8 with the EA380 own controller is another, IMO less happy story: whichever fan you will use, check the starting current and voltage to match the ADDA's ones, or it won't start reliably.

jcoffin1981
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:39 pm

Re: Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by jcoffin1981 » Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:11 pm

psyopper wrote:I have both of these power supplies. The Antec uses a rear facing 80mm fan, the Seasonic an upward facing 120mm fan; the Seasonic is a quieter power supply. I opted to do a fan swap for a Nexus 80mm into my Antec because I case needed front/back flow in the Antec NSK-3480 with hdd suspended in an upper 5.25 bay.

In other words, there are variables to consider. What are yours? Case? Cooling capacity requirements?
It is a roomy eMachines case. CPU is OC'd and even under max load everything stays VERY cool. So I imagine I just need to move some air to prevent any problems. I have heard of people using these Noctua fans in this PSU without any problems, and I know they are silent. I don't think I have another fan controller on the mobo so I will have to use the PSU board. I'll take the 80mm Noctua case fan and swap it with a 92mm Noctua, and use the 80 for the power supply. I think this is fun :)

psyopper
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Re: Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by psyopper » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:10 pm

The Antec PSU has a 2 pin fan header. Not rocket science, just connect the red and black pins on the fan connector and leave the yellow one off to the side.

jcoffin1981
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:39 pm

Re: Antec EA380D not quiet enough

Post by jcoffin1981 » Wed Mar 16, 2011 5:02 pm

Just wanted to give an update. Right before I was about to take apart the PSU, I wanted to try one last thing... unplug the HD. So I did, and most of the noise that I thought was coming from the power supply was actually coming from the HD; it stopped. Sort of a electrical whinning/humming. I took off the noisy Nexus fan on the CPU and replaced it with the Noctua. I then put the stock Foxconn fan on the case and with the voltage regulator adapter from another fan this thing is pretty quiet. You know, I'm listening to this PSU and it's pretty darn quiet. Not so sure it's worth the labor of swapping the fan. Here's the weird thing... the hard disk stopped making that noise after being unplugged and plugged back in. Overall my PC is pretty quiet. More so than ever! I may get the Noctua 92mm for the case anyway. Just to be safe I ran Prime 95 for an hour and my case temp peaked at 43 and the cpu at 53. I stopped the program and in 2 min the temp of the case and CPU dropped back down to 38 degrees or so. I may do some more tinkering to fine tune it but I'm very happy! Thank you all so much for your help and input. Hope I can be of assistance next time. :D

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