NEW PSU Electrical CRACKLING

[Piliffo]

I bought a new power suply and installed it today, but when turned on the pc to see if everything was working I heard a really low, nearly inaudible, crackling sound coming from inside the psu. The fan was stopped so it can't be from there.

The PSU is a sharkoon silentstorm cool zero 650w 80 plus gold.

 

Should I get it replaced since I bought it on amazon? It is an upgrade from my old psu so it was really difficult to install the cpu connector I don't want to do it all again.

[Constantin]

If there is a problem with it of course you should get it replaced.

[Sir0Tek]

10 minutes ago, Piliffo said:

I bought a new power suply and installed it today, but when turned on the pc to see if everything was working I heard a really low, nearly inaudible, crackling sound coming from inside the psu. The fan was stopped so it can't be from there.

The PSU is a sharkoon silentstorm cool zero 650w 80 plus gold.

 

Should I get it replaced since I bought it on amazon? It is an upgrade from my old psu so it was really difficult to install the cpu connector I don't want to do it all again.

Crackling or sparkling sound? Why was it difficult to install the cpu-connector?

[Alex Atkin UK]

Does it smell bad?

[aisle9]

15 minutes ago, Piliffo said:

The PSU is a sharkoon silentstorm cool zero 650w 80 plus gold.

 

Should I get it replaced since I bought it on amazon?

Return it to Amazon for a refund and get something else entirely. There's absolutely no reason to muck around with a brand freaking new PSU that's already singing you the song of its dumpster-burning people. Look at this list and grab something off the A through B+ tiers instead, and make sure you actually need 650W. Most midrange gaming systems right now are fine with 500-550W, and that can equal pretty good cost savings.

[Juular]

From the looks of it's insides it looks like some CWT platform but i have no idea if it's bad or not, maybe @OrionFOTL can enlighten us here.

 

https://www.hardwareinside.de/sharkoon-silentstorm-cool-zero-650w-im-test-40215/

 

And aside of PSU quality questions i have a strong suspicion that you're mistaking "electrical clackling" noise for usual coil whine phenomenon, which is completely normal and will be there with any PSU to varying degree. Or maybe it's fan hitting some loose wire or a piece of plastic, which is not really concerning too.

[OrionFOTL]

3 hours ago, Juular said:

From the looks of it's insides it looks like some CWT platform but i have no idea if it's bad or not, maybe @OrionFOTL can enlighten us here.

 

Spoiler

 

 

https://www.hardwareinside.de/sharkoon-silentstorm-cool-zero-650w-im-test-40215/

 

And aside of PSU quality questions i have a strong suspicion that you're mistaking "electrical clackling" noise for usual coil whine phenomenon, which is completely normal and will be there with any PSU to varying degree. Or maybe it's fan hitting some loose wire or a piece of plastic, which is not really concerning too.

This is made by Sirfa. I don't know what's this platform called though, it's new. It's half-bridge primary side with an LLC resonant converter, DC-DC for minor rails, synchronous rectification, +12V rectifiers under main PCB, output power transfer by busbars to the modular board, Rubycon primary capacitor, Nichicon secondary capacitors and Rubycon for some minor ones... That's about it for what you can see from the photo.

[aisle9]

8 hours ago, Juular said:

From the looks of it's insides it looks like some CWT platform but i have no idea if it's bad or not, maybe @OrionFOTL can enlighten us here.

 

https://www.hardwareinside.de/sharkoon-silentstorm-cool-zero-650w-im-test-40215/

 

And aside of PSU quality questions i have a strong suspicion that you're mistaking "electrical clackling" noise for usual coil whine phenomenon, which is completely normal and will be there with any PSU to varying degree. Or maybe it's fan hitting some loose wire or a piece of plastic, which is not really concerning too.

Except that it's a brand new PSU. I wouldn't accept any kind of deficiency on a brand new anything, and this is the perfect opportunity to send it back to Hell from whence it came and get something better for a lower price. I have never seen a product made by Sharkoon that caused my first thought to be, "Wow, this is nice." They're the Logisys of the UK.

[Piliffo]

19 hours ago, Sir0Tek said:

Crackling or sparkling sound? Why was it difficult to install the cpu-connector?

I can't really tell the difference, but looking inside i didn't see any sparkle, so I would say more crackling. The cpu connector was difficult to install simply because there were no space for my hands to reach it, since it is hidden by the massive cpu cooler. But since I'm lazy and I don't have termal paste in hand I didn't wanted to uninstall and reinstall the cooler just to connect it, so I did it with 2 fingers.

[Piliffo]

10 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Except that it's a brand new PSU. I wouldn't accept any kind of deficiency on a brand new anything, and this is the perfect opportunity to send it back to Hell from whence it came and get something better for a lower price. I have never seen a product made by Sharkoon that caused my first thought to be, "Wow, this is nice." They're the Logisys of the UK.

Actually about the quality I'm pretty sure It is good enough, since I watched the video of the most influent psu tester in italy, looking at voltage regulation, protections and ripples and it was all ok. 

Anyway I don't think it was coil whine since It is really different from the one I heard from some GPUs, and it is consistent when increasing wattage, so it doesn't change for different loads, as coil whine usually do, for what I know.

 

Actually I asked amazon to replace my unit with a new one. If the next has the same problem I'll ask a refund. In that case which model were you referring to with "get something better for a lower price"?

[Piliffo]

19 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Does it smell bad?

No particular smell and not even smoke or similar. I've decided not to use the pc untill I get the replacement anyway.

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 minutes ago, Piliffo said:

No particular smell and not even smoke or similar. I've decided not to use the pc untill I get the replacement anyway.

If its actual crackling, like electrical noise, then that is very wise.

 

Although it depends on personal interpretation, it could possibly be coil whine if you aren't familiar with how that sounds, although that shouldn't happen if the PC is powered off and as the name suggests its kinda more whine than crackle.

[Piliffo]

15 hours ago, OrionFOTL said:

This is made by Sirfa. I don't know what's this platform called though, it's new. It's half-bridge primary side with an LLC resonant converter, DC-DC for minor rails, synchronous rectification, +12V rectifiers under main PCB, output power transfer by busbars to the modular board, Rubycon primary capacitor, Nichicon secondary capacitors and Rubycon for some minor ones... That's about it for what you can see from the photo.

I know the platform is custom made for this PSU serie. I'm not an expert at all but components look of a good quality since japanese, aren't they?

[Piliffo]

1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If its actual crackling, like electrical noise, then that is very wise.

 

Although it depends on personal interpretation, it could possibly be coil whine if you aren't familiar with how that sounds, although that shouldn't happen if the PC is powered off and as the name suggests its kinda more whine than crackle.

It doen't happen when it is turned off, but it is consistent when turned on, remaining the same at all loads I tried it

[Alex Atkin UK]

19 hours ago, Juular said:

From the looks of it's insides it looks like some CWT platform but i have no idea if it's bad or not, maybe @OrionFOTL can enlighten us here.

 

https://www.hardwareinside.de/sharkoon-silentstorm-cool-zero-650w-im-test-40215/

 

And aside of PSU quality questions i have a strong suspicion that you're mistaking "electrical clackling" noise for usual coil whine phenomenon, which is completely normal and will be there with any PSU to varying degree. Or maybe it's fan hitting some loose wire or a piece of plastic, which is not really concerning too.

I disagree, if its a fan hitting something then its definitely not normal and potentially will cause a problem later on.

 

I suspect its nothing serious in the short term, but its definitely cause for replacement IMO.

[Piliffo]

Thank you all.

Actually I asked for the substitution in order to see if it is a platfor issue or was my unit faulty. If the new unit will have the same noise, I think I'll ask for a refund and go for another model. If you have any suggestion for a good 650/750w at least gold certified and semi/full modular PSU it would be nice.

[OrionFOTL]

10 hours ago, Piliffo said:

Actually about the quality I'm pretty sure It is good enough, since I watched the video of the most influent psu tester in italy, looking at voltage regulation, protections and ripples and it was all ok. 

Can you link?

 

10 hours ago, Piliffo said:

I know the platform is custom made for this PSU serie.

How do you know?

 

10 hours ago, Piliffo said:

I'm not an expert at all but components look of a good quality since japanese, aren't they?

Unfortunately the most important components in a PSU are either not visible in the photo, or obscured by other components or photographed from too high angle.

Capacitors are a pretty minor thing in a PSU, and whether they're Japanese or not doesn't determine their quality. (And they aren't made in Japan, only by Japanese brands).

 

The technologies I mentioned in my post are all signs of a high end PSU though.

[Piliffo]

On 12/25/2019 at 10:11 PM, OrionFOTL said:

Can you link?

 

How do you know?

 

Unfortunately the most important components in a PSU are either not visible in the photo, or obscured by other components or photographed from too high angle.

Capacitors are a pretty minor thing in a PSU, and whether they're Japanese or not doesn't determine their quality. (And they aren't made in Japan, only by Japanese brands).

 

The technologies I mentioned in my post are all signs of a high end PSU though.

The video is in Italian, but here is the link https://encrypted-vtbn2.gstatic.com/video?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0DlsdcaqZ8xSnaTylHVMgzw_t9-TUg_yMf2VBk0AIk_EKKh8s

[OrionFOTL]

31 minutes ago, Piliffo said:

The video is in Italian, but here is the link https://encrypted-vtbn2.gstatic.com/video?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0DlsdcaqZ8xSnaTylHVMgzw_t9-TUg_yMf2VBk0AIk_EKKh8s

The tester was "looking at voltage regulation, protections and ripples and it was all ok" all in a 5 second 240p video showing a few frames of a blurry oscilloscope output, hosted directly via a direct link to gstatic? Wut?

[Piliffo]

1 hour ago, OrionFOTL said:

The tester was "looking at voltage regulation, protections and ripples and it was all ok" all in a 5 second 240p video showing a few frames of a blurry oscilloscope output, hosted directly via a direct link to gstatic? Wut?

Mmmmh ok something went wrong ahahah. This is the video 

 

[Piliffo]

In this video I tried to capture the noise of the PSU. Max volume you should be able to hear it clearly. It sounds as a refrigerator.

[AlexWinter]

On 12/31/2019 at 1:24 AM, Piliffo said:

In this video I tried to capture the noise of the PSU. Max volume you should be able to hear it clearly. It sounds as a refrigerator.

So what did you end up doing? 

[Guest]

On 12/25/2019 at 2:39 AM, Piliffo said:

Actually about the quality I'm pretty sure It is good enough, since I watched the video of the most influent psu tester in italy...

 

On 12/30/2019 at 7:58 AM, Piliffo said:

Mmmmh ok something went wrong ahahah. This is the video 

 

Maybe best in Italy... but far from a thorough review.

 

[akio123008]

9 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

far from a thorough review

I don't speak Italian but that appears to be quite thorough to me. What's missing?

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, akio123008 said:

I don't speak Italian but that appears to be quite thorough to me. What's missing?

Have you ever read a proper PSU review?

 

He's using a store bought meter to measure AC, know measurement on DC.  Using light bulbs as a load?  Are the probes properly coupled for reading ripple?  No component tear down whatsoever.  OrionFOTL provided more information about the PSU than that whole video.  What bridge rectifier is used?  Primary switchers?  Synchronous rectification uses, what?  How were the protections tested?  .......