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Archive 2016 · Quiet, reliable power supply?

  
 
hugowolf
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


[Pretty weird forum, color management and retouching discussed with computer parts. About time for a split?]

I am looking for a PSU with a minimum of 350 watts, preferably 450 W or above, that is quiet and reliable for my home build. My studio machine takes the brunt of my work. Any suggestions?

One Antec VP 450 W died after a couple or three hours, the second started cutting in and out after only minutes. The unit was remarkably quiet, even when running, but clearly not reliable.

After looking though reviews, and with some analysis, it looks like the Antec unit has about an 8% failure rate. All the other similarly priced units are still in the 4-5% failure rate range (close to one in twenty). A PSU used to be one of the most reliable parts, what has happened?

Seems like a power supply tester is now a necessary kit part for any build.

Brian A



Jan 13, 2016 at 09:58 PM
newhaven
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


EVGA seems to be making the best power supplies these days.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438053
Seasonic is also very good.



Jan 13, 2016 at 10:54 PM
Greg Campbell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


Same motherboard? Perhaps it's drawing far too much power?


Jan 14, 2016 at 12:52 AM
Paul Mo
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


http://seasonic.com/product/s12g-450/

Or something similar from Seasonic.



Jan 14, 2016 at 07:40 AM
redcrown
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


A year ago I bought a custom "desktop" build from Puget systems. Amoung my many requirements was quiet and clean. The system sits on a carpeted floor under my desk. I literally sit right on top of it. The old system was loud (mostly fan noise) and dirty. Dust and spider webs accumulated, had to clean it out often.

Puget sold me a system in a "Fractal Design Define" case with a EVGA 750w power supply.

When I first turned that system on I thought it was not working. Absolutely silent. The only indication it was on was the LED on the power switch.

I've popped it open a few times now, and after 1 year it is also perfectly clean inside.



Jan 14, 2016 at 01:37 PM
hugowolf
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


Greg Campbell wrote:
Same motherboard? Perhaps it's drawing far too much power?


Same motherboard, but by the time of the second one I had bought a power supply tester. The first one showed nothing but +5 VSB, no ±12 V, no ±5 V, no +3 V and no PB. The second one went from complete output to nothing within a few minutes, then would power back up, and repeat the same. The second one was never mounted.

Brian A



Jan 14, 2016 at 03:09 PM
hugowolf
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


Thanks guys, I will take a look at Seasonic and EVGA. Unfortunately I think a high failure rate has become endemic in the industry.

Brian A



Jan 14, 2016 at 03:14 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


I've never had a noisy power supply. The noise always comes from the case, cpu, and/or video card fans.
I have half a dozen builds with EVGA modular supplies and they are silent. Modular power supplies reduce cable clutter. My spare EVGA power supply in the closet hasn't made any noises, yet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438018



Jan 14, 2016 at 08:50 PM
hugowolf
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


dgdg wrote:
I've never had a noisy power supply. The noise always comes from the case, cpu, and/or video card fans.
I have half a dozen builds with EVGA modular supplies and they are silent. Modular power supplies reduce cable clutter. My spare EVGA power supply in the closet hasn't made any noises, yet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438018


Yer, well, one shouldn't have to pay $140 for what is basically an AC/DC converter to get reliability. It was never that way in the past. Something has changed. This is the first time in many builds that a PSU has gone down, and now I have two.

I have a machine that I am using as a file server that is fifteen years old, with no problems.

Brian A



Jan 14, 2016 at 09:51 PM
slrl0ver
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


I would suggest a fanless SeaSonic such as SS-400FL2 or one that's similar :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151097

Being fanless it's 100% silent, modular (cable management is easy) and reliable ; I've built many Core-i7, SandyBridge / Xeon machines with them and zero issues after years of continuous use. They're very efficient so they produce low-heat.

And before you comment on 400W not being enough, modern machines idle (with spinning disks) around 50W. My current machine is a SandyBridge/Xeon E3-1240, 16GB of ECC RAM, two spinning HDDs (150GB 10K Raptor, 500GB 7200 WD), PCIe Firewire 800, PCIe USB2.0, nVidia GT430 w/2GB of RAM and the whole setup *idles* at <=60W. Under load I never saw it go above 125W, measured with a high-quality clamp-style current probe.

- slrl0ver



Jan 14, 2016 at 10:27 PM
jancohen
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


slrl0ver wrote:
My current machine is a SandyBridge/Xeon E3-1240, 16GB of ECC RAM, two spinning HDDs (150GB 10K Raptor, 500GB 7200 WD), PCIe Firewire 800, PCIe USB2.0, nVidia GT430 w/2GB of RAM and the whole setup *idles* at <=60W. Under load I never saw it go above 125W, measured with a high-quality clamp-style current probe.


Interesting build, the Xeon coupled with a GT430. How do you like it?

Been thinking about a new Sandybridge setup myself.




Jan 14, 2016 at 10:54 PM
15Bit
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


Seasonic. I don't buy anything else nowadays, as they are the best made and most reliable. A little more expensive though, but you get what you pay for.

I currently have a G450 (450W) powering my home server (a 95W quad core with 6 HDD's and an SSD) and an X560 (560W) running my workstation (95W quad with GTX 970). At less than 20% the X560 shuts down the fan to be totally silent.

As mentioned above, if you aren't running a gaming graphics card (or 2) you don't need a high power output PSU. Just try to find a good quality unit at 400W or so.



Jan 15, 2016 at 04:34 AM
slrl0ver
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


Hey jancohen,

jancohen wrote:
Interesting build, the Xeon coupled with a GT430. How do you like it?

Been thinking about a new Sandybridge setup myself.



Probably a bit more detail here than you wanted, but that's the engineer in me .

The setup has worked quite well for me. It was hard to find a microATX motherboard that supports x16 PCIe for the graphics and ECC, I ended up selecting the Asus P8B-M. The dual GigE (Intel) also works well for me, I have a direct link to my network attached storage with one port and a second port connects to my home network.

I actually run OSX Mavericks on this Xeon-E3-1240 and once I got things setup, it's more or less been problem free. The Xeon-E3 CPUs are same as Sandybridge/IvyBridge/Haswell except for the inclusion of ECC and some CPUs have the integrated graphics disabled (hence PCIe x16 available for graphics).

When I built the machine a few years ago (2012), Apple's Xeon offerings were limited to the older CPUs that were a bit too power hungry for my tastes. Now the "trashcan" Macs are out, for myself I'd consider buying one of those. ECC support on RAM is a big factor for me.

Last year I tried to build a Linux/Win7 machine with a Xeon-E3-1240 V3 (Haswell) and went Supermicro(X10SLM+-LN4F) for the motherboard ; similar specs to the P8B-M, microATX, 4xDDR3 with ECC and PCIe x16 for graphics. That motherboard turned out to be unstable, so I went to a non-ECC Asus (Z97M-PLUS) same CPU (Xeon) and with non-ECC DDR3@1333 everything's been peachy.

I'll note, I've used Supermicro quite successfully in the past and have been building machines for over 20-years and had a career in IT at one point. My last experience with the Supermicro/X10SLM felt anomalous, but the motherboard was definitely not stable.

- slrl0ver



Jan 15, 2016 at 09:40 AM
15Bit
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


slrl0ver wrote:
I'll note, I've used Supermicro quite successfully in the past and have been building machines for over 20-years and had a career in IT at one point. My last experience with the Supermicro/X10SLM felt anomalous, but the motherboard was definitely not stable.
- slrl0ver


That does seem anomalous. I haven't used Supermicro boards for a few years, but in the "good ol' days" it was always Supermicro or Tyan when i wanted stability.



Jan 15, 2016 at 10:02 AM
aubsxc
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Quiet, reliable power supply?


eVGA Supernova 550GS. 80+ Gold and designed to be silent.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438049&ignorebbr=1

I have used several eVGA PSUs and have not had any issues. But then again, I have used a bunch of Antec PSUs and have not had any problems with them either. I have a 2004 build with an Antec in it that is still going strong after 11 years.



Jan 15, 2016 at 02:48 PM





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