Quietest PSU recommendations?

[vladniko]

My PC sits in the corner of my room, between a wall, and my desk, so all noise it makes is amplified. I am sick of hearing my old EVGA B2 850W PSU, and want a change.

 

I looked at 750W Prime Fanless Seasonic Units, but there are complaints in reviews about performance sacrifices for fanless operation. 

 

I stopped gaming and mainly have heavy CPU tasks now, like having 40 tabs open at once, that sort of thing. I have build list below, its noctua DH15, 2 fans on it, and 2 bequiet fans that came with case. Those don't generate much noise, the PSU is making lots of whine and the fan is loud so looking for something better. Willing to put up $300 for a PSU if that means I can have my PC running all the time, without hearing it, and without any sort of loud fan / coil whine.

 

Appreciate any recs, PC part picker list here

[mr cheese]

Personal experience recommendation here, I have an EVGA Supernova G3 1000W with an ECO switch that only ever spins up its fans rarely, mostly just passively cooling off unless I'm pushing a lot of power (gaming, video editing, heavy photoshop loads) putting a large power load on my system. Occasionally I do hear it but it's one of those things where you think the air conditioner turned on and then after a few minutes it goes away until next month where it surprises you with it again. Surprisingly, checking just now I didn't even have that ECO mode on in the first place and I still barely hear it.

 

Unsure which PSUs have this ECO mode but I know it's an advertised feature so they shouldn't be hard to find. Happy with my Supernova G3. Honestly, with a 3080Ti it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in a 1000W PSU either, especially with an 80+ Gold/Plat rating for efficiency 

[mdk777]

never had a PSU be louder than my CPU and GPU cooling solution.

Fan settings on your entire PC case and above make a huge difference in fan noise.

 

That said:

these guys actually rate PSU on not only efficiency, but also fan noise.

 

Pick a wattage range and efficiency (I'm willing to pay for Titanium) and then look at the models that have A+ sound ratings and you can't go wrong

 

  https://www.cybenetics.com/index.php?option=power-supplies

[PDifolco]

Seems like marketing bs... A good PSU don't make much noise or use any unnecessary power, don't need eco mode 

Same for efficiency it's mostly irrelevant in itself, but it is indirectly a marker for build quality 

[OddOod]

I run a Seasonic 750W PSU (can hunt down the specific model if you need) in hybrid mode for my HTPC and it never spins up the fans.
On that same rig I have a Noctua U12 and an evga 3060ti with fan curves that mean unless I am actively gaming there is literally no moving part in the entire thing. Though, I do run it caseless

[mdk777]

https://www.newegg.com/super-flower-leadex-titanium-sf-1000f14ht-1000w/p/1HU-024C-00012

 

 

$200 

 

Well under $300. 

 

Re: eco mode

 

Yeah I just like to leave the fan running all the time. The turning on and off bothers me much more than a quality fan running at low RPM

 

To the OP,  yeah your old bronze unit with coil whine is really the problem.....MOST new high quality units will not have the problem.

 

I have the model listed above and don't use the eco mode switch....\

 

that said, I have never heard the PSU at all, even when running my computer at 65 eco mode on the cpu and fans set to 1000 rpm cooling

[mdk777]

3 minutes ago, OddOod said:

I run a Seasonic 750W PSU (can hunt down the specific model if you need) in hybrid mode for my HTPC and it never spins up the fans.
On that same rig I have a Noctua U12 and an evga 3060ti with fan curves that mean unless I am actively gaming there is literally no moving part in the entire thing. Though, I do run it caseless

Classy build.

No children or cats I take it.

 

I used to run something similar in the early years of FOLDING AT HOME.

 

But have a case now for conformity(wife).

 

 

[OddOod]

22 minutes ago, mdk777 said:

No children or cats I take it.

Nope, just 50lb huskos. Though, it's in the living room and even during ragers it doesn't get touched and there has never been a drink spilled into it. 
And thankfully my partner is willing to humor my wild aesthetic sensibilities in exchange for all the great things my tech enthusiasm brings us, one of which is 4k120 couch co-op

 

The original iteration of this build was all salvage parts from other computers. The only thing that has lasted to this build is the pegboard I stole from my dad's shop. And I've maintained the tradition of zip-tying the whole thing together. 

[Lurking]

I have a good platinum 400 W Seasonic PSU. It works great and stays cool. But:

- it needs to be bottom mounted with holes up. So top-PSU cases are out. One could say all good cases have bottom mount PSU. But I recently realized the famous Torrent has top PSU. So there may be a new trend ...

- I added an additional fan to keep the case cooler since the PSU heat now adds to the case. This sure wasn't necessary... But any noise the PSU saved got added by that case fan. 

- a modern quality PSU with large fan should be pretty quiet compared to all other fans. Some even are semi-passive and under low load turn off the fan or run it really low. 

- If a perfectly designed passive PSU has exact same quality components as a fan PSU, I bet statistical life of the fanless PSU will be shorter due to it being a few degrees warmer on average. Probably not enough to worry, though.

- A PSU takes air in from bottom and discharges to the back. That should radiate very little noise to the user in front. Especially compared to front intake fans

- IMHO, fanless PSU only makes sense in some completely open and fanless sytem. And that wouldn't be a high power system