Best quiet power supply - or other ways to quiet down the PC

[Farley2k]

I have the computer in the same room as the TV so when I want to actually pay attention to the TV I usually have to turn the PC off. Now this is obviously the cheapest solution but I would like to find a way to simply quiet down the PC

I believe the power supply fan is the loudest part currently. It is always running and it is the only fan pointing outside the case (the CPU and video card fan are the only other ones and they are inside the case). So I am looking for a quiet power supply. I don't need more than 400 W and I would prefer if possible to stay under $100 (after all I can just shut off the PC)

When I go out looking for quiet powersupplies there are tons of them in about every price range but usually the specs don't list how loud they are so I cannot figure out a good way to compare two different models.

Do any of you have good recommendations?

Thanks

 

[BG4533]

Telling people the specs of your computer is a good place to start. What you need is determined by what you have. What is your processor, how many hard drives do you have, what is your current power supply, what is your current HS, what case do you have?

One good power supply that is moderately priced and reasonably quiet is the Antec Truepower series. You can purchase the Truepower 330 and the Truepower 430 from Amazon.com for $53 and $76 respectively. The Truepower 330 is enough for most reasonable systems running nearly any processor with 1 or 2 hard drives.

If you have a fan on your northbridge take a look at the Zalman Northbridge cooler

If your graphics card is unusually loud see if the Zalman heat pipe will work with your graphics card.

A heatsink recomendation will depend on whether you have an AMD or Pentium. For most AMDs I would reccomend a Thermalright SK7 with Panaflo L1A fan. Also use Panaflo L1As for case fans.

The above cooling system would be extremely quiet. To make it almost completely silent run the Panaflos or any other fans at 7V.

After all of this your HDs will start to be the loudest things. If you purchased everything I mentioned here it would not be much over $100. I would start with your PSU and work from there though.

 

[BG4533]

Also, check out Silent PC Review for more recommendations on quiet PSUs and other components.

Brian

 

[Farley2k]

Let me see. I have a MSI K7T Turbo MB, a AMD 950 Mhz Athlon (overclocked to about 1065), a GeForce 4 Ti, I have two HD, a CD-rom and DVD drive....that is it.

I have no idea what my case is...I bought one for looks and I have no idea about the model.

I am not sure what kind of HS I currently have. It is not the stock one. It is a square/tube, gold one with fans at both ends...is that specific enough?


In general I don't have any heat troubles. I know you can check it in the Bios and with some programs and I have run them occassionally but it always seemed well in the range of "safe" so I don't bother checking my temps much anymore.

Is that enough information? I can get more when I am actually at the machine rather than at work.

 

[Thraxen]

Check out the SilenX PSUs. They are kind of expensive (about $30 - 40 more than a comparable Antec), but they are quietest PSUs you can buy other than the ultra expensive fanless PSUs you see every now and then. The people at SilentPCReview (and their forums) seem to really favor the SilenX. You could always mod an Antec with Panaflos, but then you will void the warranty.

 

[BG4533]

The Truepower 330 will be fine for what you have. It is not audible in a carpeted room from more than a few feet away. By telling people what specific PSU you currently have you will give us a baseline of how quiet you want/need.

If you want a HS it depends on how much you want to spend. A Thermalright SK7 and NMB fan would be good and almost silent for about $23. For only $5 you could pick up a SVC GC68. It isn't as quiet as the other combo or the Truepower, but it is far from loud.

Brian

 

[Farley2k]

So which would make the most difference? A quieter heatsink and fan or a quieter power supply.

BTW the power supply is the 350 which came with the case. I can check it for a model/make but I don't know it off the top of my head.

 

[BG4533]

Try seeing what makes the most noise. Then replace what makes the most noise. It is not the best idea, but you can try to temporarily (only for a few seconds) stop the heatsink fan by unplugging it and see how much it quiets everything down. If you are willing to spend $100 pick up a Truepower and HS.

Brian

 

[Farley2k]

I think I will just buy both the "A Thermalright SK7 and NMB fan" and the "Truepower 330 " Between the two that should be a lot of help. The only fan left would be on the video card.

I guess there could be noise from the HD but I am not willing to buy a new HD. i would consider putting in paddng though.

 

[Thraxen]

I guess there could be noise from the HD but I am not willing to buy a new HD. i would consider putting in paddng though.

If you want to see how much noise your HDD is making, put your PC into standby mode. The HDD(s) should shut down, but all your case fans and PSU will still be running.

 

[Farley2k]

Good idea that is a good test. Thanks.

 

[BG4533]

My last response just timed out and I don't feel like retyping it so here is the short of it. What is your graphics card? It may be possible to use an old HS to replace the small HS fan already on it, but it can be risky. Second, Zalman produces a smaller version of the heat pipe below for about $15. It is the ZM-50 or something.

Brian

 

[Farley2k]

Wow! The PSU didn't help much, maybe 5% quieter but the new fan! Wow it dropped the sound by around 75%.


I came in today after work and I couldn't tell if my wife had the PC on becuase it was so quiet (that and I couldn't see the HD light ) I am very happy.

However my computer has started crashing after being up for 20-30 minutes of working. Now I don't know if it is overheating or not. I slowed down the clock speed (from 108 to 105) and I installed MBM. I am getting a reading of 59 degrees C. From other threads that doesn't appear overly hot so I wonder if that really the trouble, of course I don't know what it was running before I clocked it back so maybe it was a bit higher.


If it is overheating I may have to get a bigger fan. The NMB fan is only 80mm so I can get a quiet 120mm fan - now that I know it was the CPU fan I can tweak around to get enough air while staying quiet.

 

[BG4533]

Good to hear your computer is now quiet.

However, even with that NMB your temperatures shouldn't be nearly that high. The temps are most likely the reason you are crashing. Although your processor is rated to around 90c AMDs usually don't run over 55-65c. I would expect your temperatures to be about 20c lower at least. I have a XP 1700 (comparable heat output to your processor) with a worse heatsink (volcano 7) with a fan that is flowing less than the NMB and I have a case temp of aroun 27c and cpu temp of 32-35c. If you have no case fans I would expect your temps to be in the mid 30s, maybe even 40c. Have you any idea what they are? If they are over about 35c, I would look into adding at least 1 NMB as exhaust and 1 NMB as an intake.

Did you use some sort of heatsink compound? Not using anything can have a serious negative impact on performance.

And finally, you may want to check that your heatsink is level and flat on the processor. Even if it looks like it is, take it off and reseat it.

Brian

 

[BG4533]

Oh...and no you can't get a 120mm fan for your heatsink. I think 80mm is the largest it will fit, but you may be able to get a 92mm on there. I wouldn't bother with it though.

Brian

 

[pennylane]

I modded my sparkle 350 watt with a panaflo L1A with wonderful results.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

in the long run, case airflow will help decrease the audibility of your components. If your processor is overheating, you might try lowering the vcore a bit in bios, and adding an intake fan in the front or making a port in the side of your case. In regard to the true power PSU's, they're not really quiet at all. The fans in them are just plain loud. Also, over at silentpcreview, there have been several discusions over just how effective it is to have that 92mm fan sucking in air at the bottom of the psu.

Also, your gpu fan is most likely the source of a decent amount of noise (more than your hd's at least). It's probably very small and running at high rpm, which pretty much equates to noisy + low cfm. You might try using "speedfan" and connecting that and perhaps the intake to your MB fan headers. That will let you control the fan speed within windows. Basically you can keep it low until you're actually using the gpu (games or whatnot).

good luck.

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: Farley2k
Wow! The PSU didn't help much, maybe 5% quieter but the new fan! Wow it dropped the sound by around 75%.


I came in today after work and I couldn't tell if my wife had the PC on becuase it was so quiet (that and I couldn't see the HD light ) I am very happy.

However my computer has started crashing after being up for 20-30 minutes of working. Now I don't know if it is overheating or not. I slowed down the clock speed (from 108 to 105) and I installed MBM. I am getting a reading of 59 degrees C. From other threads that doesn't appear overly hot so I wonder if that really the trouble, of course I don't know what it was running before I clocked it back so maybe it was a bit higher.


If it is overheating I may have to get a bigger fan. The NMB fan is only 80mm so I can get a quiet 120mm fan - now that I know it was the CPU fan I can tweak around to get enough air while staying quiet.

Sounds like heat is the problem. I would recommend an 80mm panaflo L1A. It will do the job. Larger fans flow more air, but with less pressure so they don't work as well on heatsinks with thin fins really close together. And make sure the heatsink is seated correctly. Its all too easy to get one edge of it up on the socket so that it doesn't make good contact with the cpu.