Going crazy in search of a silent PSU

[Asi9]

Hey everybody! Long time lurker and first time poster of the forums, and hoping the community can offer me some guidance here. 

 

I thought I was finally going to complete my custom loop build that I started a couple years back after water blocking my GPU. GPU temps were OK on air, but far too noisy for myself (I could easily hear the system using my open back headphones at a good volume) and especially the girlfriend. I thought finally getting the air cooler off the GPU was going to do the trick, and after I had the loop filled and bled, I was ready to sit back and enjoy my low temps and little to zero noise build. 

 

Well... while I was certainly happy with the temps, and the rad fans were all still basically silent even with what I considered a pretty aggressive fan curve, I was still getting crazy amounts of noise when firing up pretty much any game. It was then I realized just how much noise had been coming from the PSU fan this whole time. I guess I just never noticed how bad it was due to how loud the FTW3 cooler could be under load. I figure it's most likely having to kick up the fan so high as it's an older unit (Corsair HX850) and 850W is probably pushing it for the hardware I'm running. 

 

"Alright, time for a new PSU. No big deal. I'll just look up some recommendations and pick one up", I thought. I happened to find the PSU tier list on the forums and got to looking around at reviews, and it seems to be more of a headache than I thought it was going to be. 

 

I don't have a watt meter, but figured I'd have some decent headroom if I went for a 1000W unit, and most likely look towards brands I've had luck with in the past. Namely Corsair, EVGA, and Seasonic. At first I was a bit taken aback by the stock and pricing situation, but was willing to pay a bit more for a quality unit. Then I got to looking at reviews, and saw how the newer units of most brands are pushing 35-40db+ once you get a decent load on them, and most recommendations are to grab older units for better noise performance. Most of such units I've found to be out of stock, no longer manufactured, or selling for absurd prices if you find them. 

 

I admit I'm ignorant when it comes to PSU quality, and I haven't been this stumped when it comes to PC hardware in forever. So I'm hoping the community has some light they can shed here. I want this build to be as silent as possible, but I'm also hoping to not have to spend crazy money on an older unit, or grab something in the 1200W+ range to get it done by brute force of headroom. So I'd be extremely grateful for any and all insights, experiences, and recommendations to take a look at. 

 

For overall power requirements, here's what I'm currently running:

 

9900K @ 5.0GHz - 1.35V on an Aorus Master Z390 board

3080 FTW3 w/BIOS from the EVGA forums for increased power limit

4x 8GB DIMMs of Trident Z RGB 3600 

1x 970 Evo Plus M.2 drive 

2x 870 Evo SATA SSD's

1x 7200 hard disk

8x Corsair LL series 120mm fans, EK RGB CPU and GPU blocks as well as pump/res, and a few phanteks LED strips

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

Hey everybody! Long time lurker and first time poster of the forums, and hoping the community can offer me some guidance here. 

 

I thought I was finally going to complete my custom loop build that I started a couple years back after water blocking my GPU. GPU temps were OK on air, but far too noisy for myself (I could easily hear the system using my open back headphones at a good volume) and especially the girlfriend. I thought finally getting the air cooler off the GPU was going to do the trick, and after I had the loop filled and bled, I was ready to sit back and enjoy my low temps and little to zero noise build. 

 

Well... while I was certainly happy with the temps, and the rad fans were all still basically silent even with what I considered a pretty aggressive fan curve, I was still getting crazy amounts of noise when firing up pretty much any game. It was then I realized just how much noise had been coming from the PSU fan this whole time. I guess I just never noticed how bad it was due to how loud the FTW3 cooler could be under load. I figure it's most likely having to kick up the fan so high as it's an older unit (Corsair HX850) and 850W is probably pushing it for the hardware I'm running. 

 

"Alright, time for a new PSU. No big deal. I'll just look up some recommendations and pick one up", I thought. I happened to find the PSU tier list on the forums and got to looking around at reviews, and it seems to be more of a headache than I thought it was going to be. 

 

I don't have a watt meter, but figured I'd have some decent headroom if I went for a 1000W unit, and most likely look towards brands I've had luck with in the past. Namely Corsair, EVGA, and Seasonic. At first I was a bit taken aback by the stock and pricing situation, but was willing to pay a bit more for a quality unit. Then I got to looking at reviews, and saw how the newer units of most brands are pushing 35-40db+ once you get a decent load on them, and most recommendations are to grab older units for better noise performance. Most of such units I've found to be out of stock, no longer manufactured, or selling for absurd prices if you find them. 

 

I admit I'm ignorant when it comes to PSU quality, and I haven't been this stumped when it comes to PC hardware in forever. So I'm hoping the community has some light they can shed here. I want this build to be as silent as possible, but I'm also hoping to not have to spend crazy money on an older unit, or grab something in the 1200W+ range to get it done by brute force of headroom. So I'd be extremely grateful for any and all insights and experiences. 

 

For overall power requirements, here's what I'm currently running:

 

9900K @ 5.0GHz - 1.35V on an Aorus Master Z390 board

3080 FTW3 w/BIOS from the EVGA forums for increased power limit

4x 8GB DIMMs of Trident Z RGB 3600 

1x 970 Evo Plus M.2 drive 

2x 870 Evo SATA SSD's

1x 7200 hard disk

8x Corsair LL series 120mm fans, EK RGB CPU and GPU blocks as well as pump/res, and a few phanteks LED strips

i have a GX850 from seasonic and its fan doesnt even spin but you need more than 850w so i say go for the gx1000

i have a similar pc to yours and it runs fine on 850w

 

 

https://seasonic.com/focus-gx

[Spotty]

10 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

I figure it's most likely having to kick up the fan so high as it's an older unit (Corsair HX850) and 850W is probably pushing it for the hardware I'm running. 

There's been a few revisions of the HX850 from Corsair. Which one do you have? The 80+ Platinum model, the 80+ Gold model, the 80+ silver...? If you're unsure which one you have see http://www.jongerow.com/Corsair_PSU_hierarchy/index.html

 

12 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

Then I got to looking at reviews, and saw how the newer units of most brands are pushing 35-40db+ once you get a decent load on them, and most recommendations are to grab older units for better noise performance. Most of such units I've found to be out of stock, no longer manufactured, or selling for absurd prices if you find them. 

Which units were you looking at? Older models aren't necessarily known for being quieter than newer power supplies, unless you're referring to a specific model that has been revised under the same model series name.

 

11 minutes ago, Lyrix_m said:

i have a GX850 from seasonic and its fan doesnt even spin but you need more than 850w so i say go for the gx1000

i have a similar pc to yours and it runs fine on 850w

 

 

https://seasonic.com/focus-gx

It's only quiet if the fan isn't spinning, once the fan kicks in it gets loud.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

There's been a few revisions of the HX850 from Corsair. Which one do you have? The 80+ Platinum model, the 80+ Gold model, the 80+ silver...? If you're unsure which one you have see http://www.jongerow.com/Corsair_PSU_hierarchy/index.html

 

Which units were you looking at? Older models aren't necessarily known for being quieter than newer power supplies, unless you're referring to a specific model that has been revised under the same model series name.

 

It's only quiet if the fan isn't spinning, once the fan kicks in it gets loud.

why would the fan spin? for me it doesnt spin really and even when i manually turn it on it isnt loud at all

[Juular]

45 minutes ago, Lyrix_m said:

i have a GX850 from seasonic and its fan doesnt even spin

It is a pretty quiet PSU sub 500W load (for a 850W unit) but past that it's really not. Probably still quieter than (supposedly) Corsair HX Gold but calling Seasonic GX a quiet PSU is an overstatement.

@Asi9What are you doing on this machine anyway ? Gaming ? Rendering ? Where you are from ? What's your budget ?

Judging by your willingness to spend hundreds of dollars for a custom loop to get rid of the noise instead of just getting a good AIO, slapping a few intake fans and tuning the GPU's fan curve down i suppose you want nothing short but the best and quiet PSUs on the market, in that case look at Corsair HX(-i) (Platinum) and be quiet! Dark Power 12 Pro (not the non-Pro which is basically just a fancied-up SP11 Plat., not worth it), but something like Corsair RM-x/-i (2018 version of the RM-x is quieter than 2021 past 70% load), Fractal Design ION+ Platinum, or dare i say Seasonic Focus\PRIME Platinum (no hope for Titanium being cheap enough), would be just as quiet and still pretty good for the money (if they're actually cheaper).

PS: As much as i'd also want to recommend be quiet! Straight Power 11, Bitfenix Whisper M or Enermax Revolution DF, they're strictly multi-rail, which is with power-spiky nVidia Ampere GPUs, especially paired with overclocked Intel CPUs might be problematic. Corsair HX and bqt DP12P can be switched to single-rail mode if needed.

[IIIIIIIIII]

53 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

Well... while I was certainly happy with the temps, and the rad fans were all still basically silent even with what I considered a pretty aggressive fan curve, I was still getting crazy amounts of noise when firing up pretty much any game. It was then I realized just how much noise had been coming from the PSU fan this whole time. I guess I just never noticed how bad it was due to how loud the FTW3 cooler could be under load. I figure it's most likely having to kick up the fan so high as it's an older unit (Corsair HX850) and 850W is probably pushing it for the hardware I'm running. 

What is the old HX? HX Gold? Then my recommendation is the new HX Platinum

[Asi9]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

There's been a few revisions of the HX850 from Corsair. Which one do you have? The 80+ Platinum model, the 80+ Gold model, the 80+ silver...? If you're unsure which one you have see http://www.jongerow.com/Corsair_PSU_hierarchy/index.html

 

Which units were you looking at? Older models aren't necessarily known for being quieter than newer power supplies, unless you're referring to a specific model that has been revised under the same model series name.

I have the HX850 80+ Gold model. Believe I bought it around 2014, hence why I thought there has probably been some degredation in capabilities by now. 

 

And the main one I was looking at picking up right off the bat was the Corsair RM1000X. Though the 2021 model seems to be quite a step down from the 2018 in terms of noise, and it's not been easy to find a new unit that isn't way over MSRP. 

38 minutes ago, Juular said:

 

@Asi9What are you doing on this machine anyway ? Gaming ? Rendering ? Where you are from ? Judging by your willingness to spend hundreds of dollars for a custom loop to get rid of the noise instead of just getting a good AIO, slapping a few intake fans and tuning the GPU's fan curve down i suppose you want nothing short but the best and quiet PSUs on the market, in that case look at Corsair HX(-i) (Platinum) and be quiet! Dark Power 12 Pro (not the non-Pro which is basically just a fancied-up SP11 Plat., not worth it), but something like Corsair RM-x/-i (2018 version of the RM-x is quieter than 2021 past 70% load), Fractal Design ION+ Platinum, or dare i say Seasonic Focus\PRIME Platinum (no hope for Titanium being cheap enough), would be just as quiet and still pretty good for the money (if they're actually cheaper).

PS: As much as i'd also want to recommend be quiet! Straight Power 11, Bitfenix Whisper M or Enermax Revolution DF, they're strictly multi-rail, which is with power-spiky nVidia Ampere GPUs, especially paired with overclocked Intel CPUs might be problematic. Corsair HX and bqt DP12P can be switched to single-rail mode if needed.

It's mainly for gaming, and I suppose I should have clarified that I am in the US since I have noticed units can react differently depending on input voltages. 

 

And while yea, I am willing to drop a decent chunk of cash to keep it quiet and satisfy the angry girlfriend, it doesn't need to be dead silent and I'm hoping to not have to drop 500-600 plus on a PSU unless it's absolutely necessary. I can certainty handle a little bit of low fan noise, but if it can be heard over our TV a few feet away, then I start getting the girlfriend complaints haha. 

 

And agreed, I've wanted to avoid something multi rail due to how spikey Ampere can be. I'll have to look into the HX model and see if I can still find them if they have a lower fan noise. I was looking at the RM1000X as a first choice since I've had good luck with Corsair PSU's in the past, but the 2021 version seemed to get way too noisy in the upper wattage range, and the 2018 version seems to be getting expensive/difficult to find from a reputable seller. I've seen that a lot of models are only being sold by 3rd party vendors, are marked up quite a bit, and have spotty track records for shipping defective units. 

[IIIIIIIIII]

7 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

And agreed, I've wanted to avoid something multi rail due to how spikey Ampere can be. I'll have to look into the HX model and see if I can still find them if they have a lower fan noise. I was looking at the RM1000X as a first choice since I've had good luck with Corsair PSU's in the past, but the 2021 version seemed to get way too noisy in the upper wattage range, and the 2018 version seems to be getting expensive/difficult to find from a reputable seller. 

Where do you buy a PSU?

[Spotty]

Just now, Asi9 said:

And the main one I was looking at picking up right off the bat was the Corsair RM1000X. Though the 2021 model seems to be quite a step down from the 2018 in terms of noise, and it's not been easy to find a new unit that isn't way over MSRP. 

You should still be able to find the 2018 model in stores if that's what you want, I don't believe they've been discontinued yet...? High wattage PSUs (1000w+) tend to be in short supply these days anyway due to mining so it might just be temporarily out of stock.

 

2 minutes ago, Asi9 said:

And agreed, I've wanted to avoid something multi rail due to how spikey Ampere can be. I'll have to look into the HX model and see if I can still find them if they have a lower fan noise. I was looking at the RM1000X as a first choice since I've had good luck with Corsair PSU's in the past, but the 2021 version seemed to get way too noisy in the upper wattage range, and the 2018 version seems to be getting exoensive/difficult to find from a reputable seller. 

The HX/HXi can toggle between multi rail and single rail modes. For the HX 80+ Platinum models it's a switch on the PSU and for the HXi it can be toggled on/off in Corsair iCue software.

[Elisis]

10 hours ago, _DeXTeR_ said:

nothing under silver 80+ efficiency

...Why?

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Asi9 said:

 

9900K @ 5.0GHz - 1.35V on an Aorus Master Z390 board

3080 FTW3 w/BIOS from the EVGA forums for increased power limit

4x 8GB DIMMs of Trident Z RGB 3600 

1x 970 Evo Plus M.2 drive 

2x 870 Evo SATA SSD's

1x 7200 hard disk

8x Corsair LL series 120mm fans, EK RGB CPU and GPU blocks as well as pump/res, and a few phanteks LED strips

Does the fan not kick into high gear if you turn all of your RGB off?