SPCR

I was shooting for modular cables also and active PFC, but that narrows it down way too much, can't find ONE that has all those. I was looking at the coolermaster real power 450w but it looks like it'll be a bit noisy. I am NOT noise conscious at all, but I do have ears and it gets hard to sleep sometimes when my laptop is all noisy and the 40mm fan in the external enclosure holding the dvd burner spins like crazy. You guys say 30dba is borderline, maybe it's like 32dba for me. If it only gets noisy on higher loads(200w), it doesn't matter how noisy it gets because the shooting action and everything will drown it out. Web-surfing and idle should be quiet.

This? It comes in a 450W version.

You'll have a lot more choice if you forget about the LED, get the best power supply for your needs, then crack it open and swap the fan. Voids the warranty though.

I was thinking about that, but it seems that most PSU's have a 2-pin fan connector and the fans I can buy online ANYWHERE have 3 or 4 pins for power. I haven't heard of such thing as a 2-pin to anypin adapter, so if you could guide me to some fan swapping in PSUs that'd be great.(I already read the psu modding sticky and it doesn't help answer my question, how I should just plug in a standard 120mm fan in a PSU. About the warranty, do PSUs have the same trend where if it doesn't break within a week or two, it's gonna last at least a few years? Because if that is the case, I would stress it for about a month then if it seems fine, crack it open and do a fan swap. Warranty wouldn't matter then since it's going to last.

Seems like a lot of hassle just for some looks. I understand some people pay attention to them, but it seems it would be much much easier to just use a standard quiet PSU and get a LED 120mm exhaust fan...

I already plan to use some 120mm led coolermasters which get very bright, but having a blue led on top, in the power supply would provide a nice angle of illumination. Some people might suggest cold cathodes, but if I wanted that, I'd do it in a heartbeat. A bar of light is a lot less cooler than leds next to a spinning object.

i don't mind my coolermaster much at all. it's not really loud. it isn't SILENT, like my seasonics, but it's very quiet. i can't hear it running in my htpc over the projector's built in fan, or over any kind of music or a movie playing. however when the room is silent and everything is off and i'm sitting next to it on the couch, i can certainly hear it, but it's not noticably louder than my AC NV silencer 5 rev 3 + TT big typhoon

actually, i just now decided to check it again;

i tried to hear it while on my laptop typing, but the laptop was too loud. so i moved away from the laptop and put my ear directly next to the front of the case, with the side panel open and the front bezel down. i could hear it by the single air ionizer fan and laptop were kind of drowning it out (these are NOT that loud) I turned off the ionizer and could here it more clearly, just a soft 'whooshing' sound coming from my htpc, with a steady clickity of my raid 0 2xseagate bcuda sata hd's. This is while I'm running rosetta @ home 24/7, so high cpu load. i closed the side panel and the front bezel and it's now very quiet. not very noticable at all when right next to my head while watching movies.

In other words I highly recommend the coolermaster realpower 450.. it's not a seasonic, but it's not a bad psu at all. my only 'compromize' was it's not modular, but i get passed that as soon as i'm finished building the computer .. either way, i'm happy with my purchase. Don't think i'll even bother swapping it out with a seasonic, i'll save those for the bedrooms that need them more.

Btw, the Active pfc on the coolermaster is nice, because with my old 370w psu my UPS would often BEEP BEEP BEEP give me over-voltage warnings, (I have my expensive hk stereo and infocus projector plugged into it to prevent sudden shutdown)
since i replaced that psu with the realpower, it no longer does this. I know this could be also because of better efficiency but I believe that it's moreso because of the APFC.

My system specs are:
AMD Athlon 2400+ (1700 mhz) barton XP-M 35w
Oc'd to 2.7 ghz
Running at 46-48 C on full load with Thermaltake Big Typhoon @ full speed (wow is that sucker quiet)
1 gb Corsair valueselect ram dual channel 1:1 with CPU @ 212mhz fsb (424mhz)
2 seagate 7200 SATA 80gb raid 0
nvidia AGP 6800GS 256mb GDDR3 with fanswap AC NV S 5 rev3.0
all in an old generic ATX case
with Coolermaster Realpower 450 apfc
no drives other than HD. no floppy/cd/dvd/etc
hercules Game theatre XP w digital outputs to HT via breakout box

there are no distinctive 'rough' fan noises aka bearing or coil noises etc from any fans in my system. the only distinctive noise is the gentle clicking of my hd's and that's only with ear up to the case

It's pretty quiet.

Can't wait to build my next PC for my room, i'll be going all out for silentquest on that one.

let the games begin

The coloured version of the Hiper Type R's have LEDs, modular cables and APFC and depending on your airflow through the case can remain relatively quiet. It depends on your definition of quiet though, I'd recommend trying to hear one as the 120mm fan has what sounds to my untrained ear like bearing noise (could just be mine) but the 80mm really is quiet. I guess a fan swap could be done easily enough if you're not worried about the warranty.

There are 'issues' with this PSU though. They double up the cabling on the connectors (which are already bound to be fairly inefficient compared to non-modular designs) - ie, the 6 pin PCI-E cables only have 3 connectors at the plug. I don't know much about electronics but I doubt that's a great idea. I've also managed to get mine to shut down on me, running a stock P4 630, Intel D915GAG mobo, 1Gb ram, X800XL, 1 DVD-RW, one SATA drive and 1 120mm case fan. I have the 580W version so shouldn't be making it struggle.

The noise ramps up considerably under load, and I'm having trouble keeping the speed of the 120mm fan down now I've moved to watercooling and fitted a passive graphics card. My case temps are through the roof, meaning it's constantly running fast (and noisy) - I didn't have this problem with an air cooler.

I'm unimpressed with mine, but I have high standards. Once I decide what my upgrade path is going to be, and what sort of power I'll require I plan to get rid of it and replace it with a genuine low noise model. It does seem to tick all your boxes though.