I've found it difficult to generate much of an increase with powertune being changed from 0% to +20% really, I'll have to do some more tests. As far as I can tell though, it's always in the 'highest power' setting, not stuck in the limited setting, as performance tests from those programs seem to be...

Assuming the 20W idle rating is accurate, the maximum loading I can create on my HD6970s suggests their TDP maxes out in the real world at 238-242W. Using stuff like furmark, OCCT or the bitcoin miner the greatest difference I can create between idle and load power is 500-510W AC, between two cards....

Wow, I didn't know that. When did they do that? The VX450 unit my friend bought a year or so ago was still a Seasonic, well at least I think it is, as it's still very quiet and does not have the telltale CWT red-coated coils at the back.

Did they actually change the existing ones though? The VX450 was always a Seasonic, but the VX550 was CWT to start with. Likewise the TX650 was always a seasonic. but the 750/850/950 units were CWTs. Have they actually converted the seasonic units to CWTs as well now?

Yeah, is what I thought, a shame really, given how good the VX450, HX520 and HX620 were. Looks like the AX is the only quiet unit Corsair are producing besides the VX450 and TX650 now (which are still on sale, I presume the same quiet as before?) Is the Earthwatts green appreciably noisier than the ...

Well, it doesn't say much about the testing environment and what happens at what load. HDD manufacturers quote noise levels like 25dB for 5400rpm drives, but SPCR testing has shown they're much lower than that. Likewise, you can buy fans purporting to be 16dB when they're actually more like 20-30. A...

Too vague. Would like some wattage level measurements like with the CX400

Measured with what?

Yeah I'm well aware how bad newegg reviewers are, but you don't tend to see comments like 'blue flash and bad smell' about of a PSU unless people are telling the truth, and I seem to recall quite a lot of those. When I first saw them I thought 'ooh, new low-price Corsair units' then after reading so...

Seen plenty of appalling reviews of these units re:reliability. Every manufacturer has a lemon, except Corsair we thought, until now. I'm not using these in my recommended builds. Apart from being loud and inefficient, they seem pretty unreliable too. Bring back the 400W unit. It wasn't quiet, but a...

Something I considered, which is why I ran the PSU with my ear right up against the unit, and tested it immediately after the long period of heavy load, assuming there'd be at least some sort of cooloff period. Having tested at 550W DC with a very quiet card, I also did the same, and the unit honest...

As far as I know, no such product as the ZM850P/ZM1000P ever existed, it's the ZM1000-HP that SPCR tested, and the ZM850-HP I own. It was still on sale recently. The new more efficient model could be an interesting product to test. While I definitely think new PSUs should include open tests, I don't...

230V UK mains voltage here, that improves efficiency, which will reduce heat output and thus noise. At 599W DC output, the ZM1000-HP recorded 87% efficiency, thus 89W of waste heat. Not a lot for a 140mm fan and a heatpipe cooler to dissipate. I can't categorically state that the ZM850 I have is 14d...

No, that's what I was expecting. I'm well aware people have different opinions on what is 'quiet', but I assure you, I'm very strict. You missed my point on the AX 850 article. That 25dB figure is the same at 700W open, as it is for 400W hotbox. The ZM1000-HP scored 20dB in the live test room, at 40...

I'm not lying to you, this PSU is quieter at 700W than my Corsair HX 520W at idle. Look up SPCR's Corsair AX 850W review, and look at the difference between hotbox and open. The ZM1000-HP is 20dB at 400W. Apply the same 300W to that that the AX850 has, and you get 700W at 20dB. [That's in the live t...

If anything, the 850W choice was more a case of 'I refuse to cave to a kilowatt PSU'. I could afford one, but decided to go a bit lower. four figure PSUs are insane
Still, it's done pretty well so far, 2 years old next month, and I have yet to ever hear it make any noise.

A lot of it's down to the case. Using a HAF932 that vents at the bottom, My ZM850-HP is dead quiet [idle fan speed as far as I can tell] even when drawing 700W (800W mains). If you look at the hotbox vs open-air tests of some similar large PSUs, that isn't that surprising, as there's up to a 300W of...

A lot of it has to do with the layout of the card, you'll notice the VRMs on the GTX280 are very sparsely spaced, which makes the cards absolutely enormous, but allows for much better cooling of the VRMs as a large amount of surface area can be used: http://www.mygarage.ro/attachments/stiri/5498d121...

Well, certainly not if you put the same size heatsink on it. The HD5870 is 188W TDP whereas the HD6870 is only 151W, same as the HD5850.

A bit of googling suggests the VRM cooling for the Accelero 5870 is pretty poor, an increase of about 30-35ºC over the stock cooler, which is fairly typical of aftermarket coolers.

Well that's not really a correct analogy. You don't have to build the case yourself when you buy it, it's simply a case of plugging everything together. You aren't building anything. Any cooler that bends a card substantially should come with whatever is required to solve that problem unless you are...

Parappaman: it's possible then, that something was wrong with the unit I received, as I checked the install several times as being by-the-book and yet it required an enormous amount of force to attach, I was already extremely concerned about damaging the GPU before I'd even finished. Monkeh16: Perha...

It's an easy conclusion to draw, and it's one that I came to myself initially, before I read the reports. It's not difficult to google about all the problems with the accelero coolers, the 4870X2 and 5970 being the most notable examples as they're by far the worst. Despite the mishap with the S1 Rev...

This article doesn't really touch on the fact that Accelero coolers are renowned for destroying the cards they are installed to, even following the correct procedure. I fell for this with an S1 Rev. 2 on my HD3870 before it was fully known, but the 4870X2 version was widely publicised to have a 50%+...

Aerocool's fan controllers are awful, the coolpanel I had said it was 6-12V, it was actually only 7.5V-10.5V when I measured it. Get something like a Scythe KazeMaster, or if you don't mind being blinded by LED spotlights, a Sunbeam Rheobus. 1900rpm Scythes scale well, I run six of them (well 5 now,...

Fans like the Slipstream actually speed up exponentially with voltage. If you had 6V instead of 12V, the fan should really be below half speed. A common failing of software fan controllers is that they don't have anywhere near as much of a range as they say. A software controller I used to use claim...

I can't tell much of a difference between the 4-platter WD10EAVS/CS and the 3-platter WD10EADS if that helps. Single platter samsungs are meant to be better than their multi-platter counterparts though.

That first paragraph is exactly why I like SPCR, in addition to decibel readings, qualitative noise descriptions are given to get an idea and a good quality mp3 recording to hear for yourself. The seek of my WD10EADS is clearly obvious, but I have to remind myself it's in an aluminium case with stan...

Difficult one to judge, because my HD753LJ is quieter than my old HD400LJ (I think thats a T166) and it's still pretty noisy even on foam (but not in a silent drive) - as the vibration amazingly enough seems to penetrate the foam?

it's terribly biased, but seagate drives always have been and always will be noisy in my book, I've yet to see an exception to that. I basically only trust SPCR for noise readings as only they bother to do them properly. A 4 for vibration equals a loud drive, there's nothing more to it than that. It...