The importance of house's power delivery for PSU

[Ohma]

Hello everyone,

 

I've been having issues with getting a good PSU for my new (silent) system.

First I tried a Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 12 1500W, but this was a faulty unit that was as loud as a vacuum cleaner. (admittedly, that's a slight exaggeration, but it was loud.)

Second I tried a Corsair Ax1600i, which worked perfectly fine but had a coil whine (probably) that made my head hurt after 30 minutes to an hour.

Both were returned and reimbursed, and in the meantime I've been thinking on my next step.

 

Researching on the web has told me that "dirty power" in my house can both decrease the longevity of a PSU and be the cause of whine issues.

When testing the Ax1600i in both my house and my neighbors, I could hear the whine clearly in my own house, and not or hardly in theirs.

But that might also be because my house is quiet, while theirs had significantly more environmental noise.

Either way, I thought it might be a good idea to have this checked out before I try another PSU.

 

 

However, this is not something that's easily researched. Local electricians either don't have an oscilloscope that would allow them to check for it, or are booked for months.

I can possibly borrow an oscilloscope myself from work, but it's also booked for at least 3 weeks.

(And considering my limited familiarity with electronics, trying to do things myself might not be the best idea.)

I can also find 'Stetzerizer' measurement devices and filters (which can be borrowed for reasonable prices) that would show and get rid of 'Dirty power".

However these look more like homeopathic scams than genuine electronics devices to me.

 

I'm now thinking of just trying another PSU and hoping for the best. (And maybe booking an electrician for later, just to be sure.) 

 

I'm also not 100% convinced this "Dirty Power' would likely be an issue, as my house was built fairly recently. (2016)

Although I can find some "Dirty Power is bad" references here-and-there on forums/reddits, it's something that is hardly mentioned elsewhere.

And from those few mentions I saw, I get the sense it's mostly about older houses, although I suspect a newer house might also have badly set-up electrics delivery.

 

 

Is it worth it to properly have possible "Dirty Power" investigated in my house?

Is it an issue I should concern myself with in the first place?

Or should I just try buying a PSU a few more times and see if I have better luck? 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

 

 

[bezza...]

coil whine is normal and dirty power should not change anything. probbably just a gimic you yourself even said that there was a higher noise floor at your neibours.

[Aaron_T]

A good pure sinewave UPS would, in theory, provide cleaner power. If you have a friend that has a nice UPS from CyberPower or APC you might be able to test it.

But I tend to agree that "dirty power" is likely a very minor scaler to coil whine if at all.

[RollyShed]

The first thing a PSU does is change the input AC to DC. This DC is filtered. Transistors (or FETs) change the DC to high frequency AC running a transformer to put out the lower voltages the computer requires. The way the transistors are run/controlled to actually produce the required output voltages can be messy so that output is filtered before going to the computer components.

 

It would be hard to see how "dirty" power in would cause a problem.

[Ohma]

Thanks for the replies. 

 

I thought the dirty power going in would introduce frequencies into the system that it (or at least the first conversion stage) isn't designed for. But from the replies I suspect this is going to be a minimal issue, if any at all. In that case it's just a matter of getting a PSU that performs according to spec. If I keep having issues, I might see if using a UPS improves things, but I sadly don't know anyone I could borrow one from, so I'll postpone such measures until I'm truly at the end of my rope. Thanks again.