Antec Earthwatts 430 $30 after rebate, free shipping newegg

[edlight1]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371006

rebate ends 8-31-08

[DonQ]

I have owned a Silverstone ST30NF, two Antec 430 NeoHEs, a couple of Seasonic 430s, a Corsair 520 HX, an Antec Earthwatts 380, and a few other PSUs. The 430 NeoHEs have been the least efficient of the bunch I mentioned (I have a Kill A Watt) but I find it (the one I'm currently using, anyway) to be the quietest - other than the ST30NF, of course. The Earthwatts 380 was unacceptably loud.

Does anyone here know whether the Earthwatts 430 is about as quiet as the NeoHE or is it closer to the Earthwatts 380?

[edlight1]

The Earthwatts 380 was unacceptably loud.

Is your rig low enough wattage not to speed it up much?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article763-page5.html

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page4.html

[jhhoffma]

My EA430 ramps up when playing certain games. Bioshock and Transformers make it ramp up. Crysis (strangely enough) and Psychonauts did not. I did play with a PSU duct when playing Crysis and with that it never ramped up. At the time, I was awaiting another Slipstream 1200rpm for my exhaust and was making do with a undervolted Y/L.

I have no doubt though that if I created another duct, it would work just fine. But I don't like having the door of my SLK3000B open, especially with my beige drives.

[edlight1]

My EA430 ramps up when playing certain games. Bioshock and Transformers make it ramp up. Crysis (strangely enough) and Psychonauts did not. I did play with a PSU duct when playing Crysis and with that it never ramped up. At the time, I was awaiting another Slipstream 1200rpm for my exhaust and was making do with a undervolted Y/L.

I have no doubt though that if I created another duct, it would work just fine. But I don't like having the door of my SLK3000B open, especially with my beige drives.

The beauty of the Antec Solo case is the air intake slots in the door, all around it except on top. Thus, you can put the DVD in the 2nd from the top and you've created a duct on top of it all the way back to the end of the DVD. Then you can continue it with whatever material to the psu if needed. (PS: taking out the filter in front of the HD's makes them freezing cold.)

[edlight1]

I've built people 2 pc's in Antec NSK4480's that come with 380's in them, and they were silent for all intents and purposes. But that's without really low ambient, old ears, and pc's that idled at 35W and peaked at 59W.

[DonQ]

The Earthwatts 380 was unacceptably loud.

Is your rig low enough wattage not to speed it up much?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article763-page5.html

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page4.html

Hmmm. Maybe not. Currently I'm idling at 114 W, according to Kill-A-Watt.

NeoHE 430, 3850 VGA, 750 GB WD Green, 200 GB Hitachi 2.5" drive, two optical drives, Hauppauge HDTV card, M-Audio sound card, card reader and floppy drive.