joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Thinking about a getting a quieter PSU, current one has two fans, and is the loudest thing on my Antec P180 case, depsite it having two large fans of its own.

My setup is this:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Kit

I'm running two optical drives, but rarely use them together anymore, and I have once SATA HDD and two IDE drives.

I don't even have a graphics card ATM, but if onboard fails, or bluray drives become cheap enough I'd go for something PCIe. Nothing lairy, as I don't play games.

Thing, is most manufacturers claim super quiet or silent PSU's, I think the one I have now says it is quiet. So where do I look? the Decibel figure posted? Whats a good figure? Would also like something with some energy saving characteristics.

Any recommendations for some thing the good side of 60 to 80 quid. Or is it not possible for what I'm asking?

ChefDude

i'd stick with antec or tagan psus. i have an 880w in my pc and it's pretty quiet.

remember your psu will be quieter if it isn't stressed, so get more watts than you need.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Think mine is 480w, will check. I thought that may have been too much anyway, considering I'm not running a graphics card.

What wattage would you reccommend for my set up?

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Some things mentioned that I need to know about.

Modular: I take it this mean you can remove the cables you DON'T use, as they plug into the PSU, thus saving room. Seems like a good idea.

% Efficiency. Seems to see it in the 80's. Whats that about?

and 12v Rails? Some say one, some have 2. Whats that about?

ChefDude

efficiency refers to the power retention in the transfer from 240volts to 12/5/3v - above 80 is pretty good.

the trick to good psu'ing is to balance the power load of your devices between the available cables.

If you have 4 hard drives, don't put them all on 1 'cable' - 2 on one and 2 on the other.

you'll see when you change your psu.

i'd say a hungry mobo is worth 100w
new quad core chips 100w
stick of ram 2w
a hard drive uses only about 10-20w, but it spikes to 30w on spin up - you need to allow for that. for safety sake, treat the IDE drives the same.
a meaty graphics card will be up to 150w, the new gtxs a lot more.

I'd say a 600w will do you for a few more drives and a replacement decent graphics card quite easilty

Go read the tech reviews on PSUs though - they're pretty dry, but they will say what the *real* power is they got from them.