Help on PSU and Case

[Reverate]

Hi All,

Im new to the scene and i need some advice!

My current system is running pretty hot, and I think that it is mainly my case to blame... its pretty small with restricted air flow. In my battle against heat i thought that i may as well battle against noise too. From a silence/performance point of view which is the 'best' one to choose? I was thinking about an Antec P160, then the P180 was put forward <which i found on SPCR, great review>. Which got me thinking about a lian-li case! Price is a bit of an issue but im guessing that the P180 would compare to a top lian-li... I would love to hear your thoughts on the cases, or suggestions...

And then the issue of power supplies.. I currently have a generic '400W' power supply, and have been getting a few 'insufficient voltage' errors on my ASUS probe, mainly on the vid card. I want a PSU that will last me a while if im going to get a good one so i was thinking one with ATX12V 2.0, the Antec NeoPower is my current pick, but at max power the numbers say 44dB... How often do you think the PSU would reach that level? Would the duct in the P180/lian-li V1000 amplify this?

Any suggestions are welcome, case/PSU related or not

Great site , really learnt heaps from reading reviews and forums.

[teejay]

Hello Reverate, welcome to SPCR!

As much as I'd like you to get a V-series from Lian Li I must warn you as well. Lian Li means aluminium, and aluminium cases have a nasty tendency to resonate, usually at a very audible frequency. Do a search for "aluminium hum" and you'll see what I mean. I'm not saying it can't be quieted, but it needs quite some work. The P180 hasn't hit the shops just yet (I have no idea on their ETA), but have you considered the Silverstone Temjin TJ06 (SPCR link)? Looks aluminium but is in fact steel.

As for the powersupply: there are many good suggestions to be found here, but my advice would be to select a case first. Some cases form an optimal combination with a 120mm fanned psu while others might benefit more from an 80mm model. Good models include the Seasonic Super Silencer of Super Tornado (high efficiency, although the SS needs a fan swap IIRC), the Nexus 4090 and the Enermax Noisetaker series. Read up on the various recomended sections. Antecs are not the quietest or most efficient units out there. My only Antec experience is with the one that comes with the Sonata (Truepower 380? Not sure) but the SPCR review of the Neopower seems to confirm this. Also, the disconnectable cables are a nice feature but they may not fit the V-1000/V1100 cases because of the limited dimensions of the psu compartment.

Finally, motherboard voltage measurements are often off quite a bit, regardless of the software you use to read those measurements. If you haven't had any stability issues your voltage is probably fine... but you could get out the old multimeter and find out for real.

[Reverate]

Thanks for the welcome and the info, ill look into the availability here in Australia.

That silverstone has an interesting design...