Looking for a high quality but low wattage PSU

[Spork829]

I'm looking for a specific, I guess you could call it genre of PSU. I've been running a 500W OEM Delta unit in my home server/NAS for a little while now, but it's developed some nasty coil whine, which is driving me crazy. Since it's very low power and I don't want to spend a ton of money, are there any low wattage supplies (like 250 or 300) available that I can get for cheap, but are good enough quality to run in my always-on server?

[aisle9]

Seasonic makes some good quality 300-350W PSUs in their SS, SSP and SSR families. As much as I don't recommend going secondhand for PSUs, the Delta 305W units that you pull out of Optiplex 7XX series mini towers are quiet little tanks that last forever, and you can probably find them on the very cheap. I've never had coil whine issues with their lower wattage PSUs, but have with a 500W Delta OEM PSU, much like you're experiencing.

 

That said, those Seasonics can be found for under $30 if you look around, so it's probably worth just grabbing one of those instead of chancing it on a ten-year-old Delta.

[The_Denks]

Corsair CX series?

[AMDGrill]

You may look into this psu and the ones like it, ThermalTake has been about the Efficency market for a while as far as I know, their power ratings have multiple options and you may pick one you like.

[STRMfrmXMN]

28 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

I'm looking for a specific, I guess you could call it genre of PSU. I've been running a 500W OEM Delta unit in my home server/NAS for a little while now, but it's developed some nasty coil whine, which is driving me crazy. Since it's very low power and I don't want to spend a ton of money, are there any low wattage supplies (like 250 or 300) available that I can get for cheap, but are good enough quality to run in my always-on server?

The Seasonic SSRM sounds like your deal.

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, AMDGrill said:

You may look into this psu and the ones like it, ThermalTake has been about the Efficency market for a while as far as I know, their power ratings have multiple options and you may pick one you like.

Thermaltake PSUs are actually pretty poor value, and a lot of them (including the Smart series) are kinda crap. Not Logisys-level "blow up your computer and burn down your house" crap, but they tend to be very expensive for the mid to low-end units that they are. From the few examples of that particular PSU being on sale, it looks to be right around $55-60. For the price, the OP could get two Seasonic 300W/350W PSUs, each of which will perform at a higher level and last longer than the Thermaltake.

 

Not to knock TT too hard. I own three cases of theirs and love each, and their fans and coolers are also great for the most part. Their PSUs are poor values compared to the competition at each wattage level and price point, and the quality just isn't there to justify those higher prices.

[Spork829]

3 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Seasonic makes some good quality 300-350W PSUs in their SS, SSP and SSR families. As much as I don't recommend going secondhand for PSUs, the Delta 305W units that you pull out of Optiplex 7XX series mini towers are quiet little tanks that last forever, and you can probably find them on the very cheap. I've never had coil whine issues with their lower wattage PSUs, but have with a 500W Delta OEM PSU, much like you're experiencing.

 

That said, those Seasonics can be found for under $30 if you look around, so it's probably worth just grabbing one of those instead of chancing it on a ten-year-old Delta.

 

3 hours ago, UberGamerKing said:

Corsair CX series?

 

3 hours ago, AMDGrill said:

You may look into this psu and the ones like it, ThermalTake has been about the Efficency market for a while as far as I know, their power ratings have multiple options and you may pick one you like.

 

3 hours ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

The Seasonic SSRM sounds like your deal.

Thanks everybody for replies. I think I'll go with one of those Seasonic ones.