Quietest 800W+ PSU?

[Cookybiscuit]

Been using a fanless Seasonic PSU for a long time but I'm putting another build together with higher power requirements. Noise is really important to me but sadly there are no fully passive PSU's rated higher than 520W.

 

What's the quietest PSU rated above 800W? Most of the review sites just say "it's silent" or "near silent" but I've bought PSU's in the past that were said to be quiet which really weren't. I note units like the EVGA SuperNOVA P2 and Corsair's AX series offer semi-passive modes too, would the 1000W versions of these remain passive under moderate loads?

 

Thanks.

[Max_Settings]

What do you need 850W for?

[Shiv78]

What hardware are you putting in that you actually NEED 800 watts

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Cookybiscuit said:

Been using a fanless Seasonic PSU for a long time but I'm putting another build together with higher power requirements. Noise is really important to me but sadly there are no fully passive PSU's rated higher than 520W.

 

What's the quietest PSU rated above 800W? Most of the review sites just say "it's silent" or "near silent" but I've bought PSU's in the past that were said to be quiet which really weren't. I note units like the EVGA SuperNOVA P2 and Corsair's AX series offer semi-passive modes too, would the 1000W versions of these remain passive under moderate loads?

 

Thanks.

As said what components are you planning on powering, I would suggest to go for a semi passive mode with a higher wattage PSU. It depends on the PSU unit when the fan turns on either from load or a certain temp. 

[Shiv78]

Anyone tried a beQuiet PSU? are they really *quiet*?

[Cookybiscuit]

Probably two 1080Ti's with overclocks and an overclocked CPU. 

 

I really don't care about a build like that probably being fine on a 700W PSU or less, the price differential between a 700W PSU and a 1000W one isn't enough to warrant skimping and I'd much rather have a lower stressed PSU if it's quieter for it.

[RadiatingLight]

2 minutes ago, Cookybiscuit said:

Probably two 1080Ti's with overclocks and an overclocked CPU. 

 

I really don't care about a build like that probably being fine on a 700W PSU or less, the price differential between a 700W PSU and a 1000W one isn't enough to warrant skimping and I'd much rather have a lower stressed PSU if it's quieter for it.

So you do need 800W then.

 

There are no finless 800W PSUs, but EVGA G3 PSUs are fanless at idle, and really don't make much noise under load.

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, Cookybiscuit said:

Probably two 1080Ti's with overclocks and an overclocked CPU. 

 

I really don't care about a build like that probably being fine on a 700W PSU or less, the price differential between a 700W PSU and a 1000W one isn't enough to warrant skimping and I'd much rather have a lower stressed PSU if it's quieter for it.

With those components then a higher wattage PSU would stay in fanless mode for longer as temps permit it. You can get PSU's such some of the corsair link enabled units which allow you to configure fan curves if it does need to turn on. 

[Cookybiscuit]

Thanks for the answers, probably just going to get the EVGA one.

[Daniel644]

I'm using a 1080ti and a 6700k, when both are overclocked (2Ghz on the 1080ti and 4.5Ghz on the CPU) and I can maybe just barely feel airflow coming through the PSU when running benchmarks, but it may well be just the heat "stack effect" as it rises (I couldn't see the fan spinning, but I need to actually put a light on it) and this is on a Corsair RM750x, you could probably do the RM1000x and never have the fan kick on.

[quan289]

6 hours ago, Cookybiscuit said:

Probably two 1080Ti's with overclocks and an overclocked CPU. 

 

I really don't care about a build like that probably being fine on a 700W PSU or less, the price differential between a 700W PSU and a 1000W one isn't enough to warrant skimping and I'd much rather have a lower stressed PSU if it's quieter for it.

You have to take into consideration that a higher wattage unit may require a more powerful fan to effectively cool the unit at 100% load. This can cause unit to be louder overall once the fan start to spin due to the higher required startup voltage and max RPM. For example, the Corsair CX600M uses a Yateloon D12SM-12 fan that a max RPM of 1650, while the CX750M has a D12SH-12 that goes up to 2200RPM (the M and H denotes whether it's a medium or high speed fan).

 

So what you doing may end up being counter-intuitive, if your PSU goes out of passive mode anyways during your more demanding loads. In that situation, it may be in your best interest to look for something that have a relax fan profile overall, rather than looking at the lower side in a high-end, overclocked SLI setup. Also, by trying to extend the passive mode time because the higher wattage unit may have a thicker heatsink, you are also putting your usage right at the threshold of the fan turning on and off. This can have even more of a negative impact on noise as well as longevity of the fan depending on the type of bearing. Many companies are using FDB fans in their PSUs to reduce bearing noises, but the initial spin-up often create a lot of wear (longevity) due the greater friction (bearing noise) due to the oil not yet being well-circulated, and since loads are dynamic, this can happen rather frequently so it may be better to just have the fan spin constantly but at low RPM.

 

Anyways, the EVGA G3 may not be the best choice as it is louder than it's predecessor - the G2 (don't get the 1000G2 and above though, as they are not semi-passive and have high startup RPM). Other options you can look at are the Corsair RMx / RMi / HX / HXi and the Seasonic Prime Titanium.

[Cookybiscuit]

On 6/7/2017 at 8:38 AM, quan289 said:

So what you doing may end up being counter-intuitive, if your PSU goes out of passive mode anyways during your more demanding loads. In that situation, it may be in your best interest to look for something that have a relax fan profile overall, rather than looking at the lower side in a high-end, overclocked SLI setup.

Yeah, I ended up going with the EVGA Supernova T2 1000W. After using the single 1080Ti I got for a while it's became pretty obvious SLI-ing them at 1440p would be a total waste as it's CPU bottlenecked in everything.

 

If anyone else is in the same situation as me and is wondering, yes it remains totally passive. Even with 100% GPU load at 2000Mhz, and pretty high-loads on an overclocked CPU, the fan never comes on unless you press the Eco switch into off.