I give up...

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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jaydeesan
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I give up...

Post by jaydeesan » Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:14 am

So I don't know if I'm just having incredibly bad luck, or my hearing is THAT sensitive or whatever it is, but it seems that there is no such thing as a quiet power supply for me...

Right now, I have 2 (or 3, depending on how you feel about Antec) highly rated, supposedly quiet PS's in front of me, and they all suck:

* Antec Earthwatts (an older one) 380 - sounds like a fax-modem in action
* Corsair HX520 - sounds like a farm tractor, and whines to a lesser degree
* Seasonic S-12 430 - squeals and whines and buzzes with any change in power draw by CPU (so basically any activity)

The Seasonic was supposed to be powering my new, very quiet work box (which I just put together because of a whiny MoBo in the first place) - it's a perfect fit power-wise, and also physically for my modded Qpack2... major disappointment.

I don't really know what to do. I have spent the money on this upgrade despite the fact that I'm completely broke just to get rid of that infuriating mobo whine. :(
(All that on top of buzzing monitor, noisy speakers, 3 WD laptop HDDs that click like crazy, and a brand new WD Scorpio that seems way louder than it should be (for a single-platter, 5400rpm drive)) *sigh*

mentawl
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Post by mentawl » Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:26 am

Just a quick thought on the Seasonic - are you 100% sure it's the PSU? My PC has serious squealing/whining issues if I leave the power saving features of the CPU enabled, and that issue vanishes when I turn them off. I know it's not an option for everyone, but just putting it out there :).

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:11 am

Hello,

This problem can be caused by an interaction between a motherboard and/or video card. And it might be those components to begin with?

xan_user
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Post by xan_user » Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:00 am

Dirty power, possibly combined with the the above?

Lets hear your setup, starting from the wall...(UPS?>{3 different PSU's}>mobo>chip>cpu>gpu>add on card>over/under clocked/volted?>wireless devices?>fans/controllers>monitor...)

frenchie
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Post by frenchie » Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:08 am

I had a Nexus 430W PSU that whined REALLY loudly in some games with my setup (at the time, P5N-E, E7200 at stock speeds, 9800GTX+). Yet, it was dead quiet most of the time.
Now, with the same GPU (different mobo) I have an enermax PSU, and I've never heard it whine (touching wood !).

SebRad
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Post by SebRad » Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:46 am

I have a GTX260 that whined quite a bit till I fixed it. The NeoHE PSU I originally had whined a lot with the GTX260. Sadly the patient didn't survive the anti-whine surgery :( I used a Seasonic S12II 330 that whined slightly with the GTX260 and I now have a Signature 650 that, fortunately, doesn't seam to whine at all.
Neither the Seasonic nor NeoHE whined at all with the previous HD4670 video card. The GTX2xx cards are notorious for having coil whine or inducing it in the PSU. Other high-end Nvidia cards and even some AMD ones can also have the issue. I also found referances to "coil whine" on some i7 boards too!
When I was looking for a replacement PSU I couldn't find any references to Enermax PSU whining either.
Good luck, Seb

halcyon
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Re: I give up...

Post by halcyon » Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:12 am

jaydeesan wrote:So I don't know if I'm just having incredibly bad luck,
I know how it can be. I feel for you.

However, if you really are sensitive to noise, like it looks like you are (you're here after all), then you must keep on trying - and offering your dollars to the Silent God :)

I have also a lost count of monitors, drives, drive silencers, insulation/mounting kits, air tunnels, cpu coolers, fans, etc I have bought that did not turn out to be quiet enough.

But in the end you will get there, unless it bankrupts you first :)

BTW, my Nexus 430W is very quiet on a low power draw system. No coil whine yet either (knock on wood). Hope your next unit is a good one, whatever your buy.
Last edited by halcyon on Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wayne Redpath
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Post by Wayne Redpath » Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:16 pm

jaydeesan

It sounds like you have very good hearing like many young and/or female people. I'm blessed with crappy hearing. The advice given above about carefully checking for the culprits and/or interaction problems is good advice.

My understanding of the test results at this site is that they are A-weighted and therefore are valid for most people with average hearing. Perhaps readers who can hear higher frequency can be valuable sources of advice to you.

But, as an electronics technician, I can verify that what spcr says is so true:

"There are too many variables in PCs and too many possible combinations of components for any single test environment to provide infallible results. And there is always the bugaboo of sample variance."

Perhaps one or both of the offending devices will make lots of smoke before your time for getting a swap runs out.

jaydeesan
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Post by jaydeesan » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:41 pm

mentawl wrote:Just a quick thought on the Seasonic - are you 100% sure it's the PSU? My PC has serious squealing/whining issues if I leave the power saving features of the CPU enabled, and that issue vanishes when I turn them off. I know it's not an option for everyone, but just putting it out there :).
That was actually the first thing I tried - disabled C'n'Q. It made no difference whatsoever.
NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

This problem can be caused by an interaction between a motherboard and/or video card. And it might be those components to begin with?
Yeah, true. But I had the PS separated from the rest of the comp to make sure - it's definitely coming from the supply. I can make it squeal like crazy just by moving the mouse around. That still leaves the possibility of interaction, but...

---

Sorry, I was in a hurry before so I skipped some details on config and all... coming shortly.

jaydeesan
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Post by jaydeesan » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:58 pm

xan_user wrote:Dirty power, possibly combined with the the above?

Lets hear your setup, starting from the wall...(UPS?>{3 different PSU's}>mobo>chip>cpu>gpu>add on card>over/under clocked/volted?>wireless devices?>fans/controllers>monitor...)
I'm not sure what's behind the wall ;) but I'm running off of an APC XS-1300 UPS. Not that it matters because it makes no difference whether I plug into the UPS or the wall directly.

Hardware-wise:

the new system:
- Asus M4A785TD-M EVO + Athlon 2 X2 + 4GB of OCZ Gold (LV)
- onboard HD4200 w/ sideport
- WD Scorpio Blue 250, Samsung DVDRW
- 2x Noctua 120mm fans
everything at stock

the last whiny mobo was Gigabyte G33M-DS2R (talk about one hyped-up board), with E6750, 2GB OCZ Platinum, with ATI X1600xt and Evga 8800GTS at various times, and a few different 3.5" and 2.5" HDDs and DVDRWs, nothing unusual

also have an Asus A8N-VM CSM (currently my TV) with another Scorpio Blue, Hauppauge card and not much more

have a couple of old Asus P3V4Xs kicking around too, one in a server with a P3 :)

... so yeah, tested with quite a bit of hardware

jaydeesan
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Post by jaydeesan » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:22 pm

and while I'm at it, this picture should explain why that Seasonic is such a good fit there - it has the cables coming out on the "other" side so it doesn't interfere with the DVD drive + there is that empty space to keep the unused cables in... *sigh*

(yes that's masking tape, work in progress :) )

Image

Wayne Redpath
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Post by Wayne Redpath » Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:21 pm

Good Luck...

javitxi
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Post by javitxi » Wed Jan 20, 2010 7:54 am

jaydeesan wrote:and while I'm at it, this picture should explain why that Seasonic is such a good fit there - it has the cables coming out on the "other" side so it doesn't interfere with the DVD drive + there is that empty space to keep the unused cables in... *sigh*

(yes that's masking tape, work in progress :) )

Image
Probably you could get a try on a picoPSU 150W + 150W brick like this one on ebay. The only noise would come from the electricity transformer in the AC-DC power brick (I'm waiting to have the money transferred to pay-pal account in order to buy the previous picoPSU for my HTPC project)

Also, seeing your case, why don't you buy x1-x2 1,5TB Caviar Green Western Digital replacing all the HDDs you have? Less space, less power consumption, less noise =)

On the ohter hand, you could get a try on Corsair VX 450W, altough it might be extremely overkill for your system. I have it on my Gaming-All day tasks-PC which consist on that PSU + Thermaltake Armor Jr + Asus P5Q-E + e8500 Notcua NH-C12P passive (I'm making some tests over temperature) + ati 4850 from Asus + WD Velociraptor, 500gb 24/7 Caviar black + 1TB Caviar Green, at 50cm of where I sit to do PC tasks. I can assure you that without the pannel of the case, with no fan turning, replacing the graphics card for a Nvidia 8400GS passive cooled and with only the 1TB HDD, in order to hear the Corsair VX 450W you have to put your hear at 2-3cm of the PSU to notice the noises of the electricity transformer.

Hope to had been of some help :)
Last edited by javitxi on Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

lm
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Post by lm » Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:50 am

Maybe you can return your PSUs to the store?

If that does not work, sell them - they are probably perfectlygood for non-silencers or even silencers with other set of components than you.

Either way you should get some money out of them, which you could then put to something excessive like Seasonic X series PSU or the new Enermax Pro87+ series PSU. Those would basically power up your system eyes closed and their right hand behind their back, which should make them pretty quiet?

jaydeesan
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Post by jaydeesan » Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:32 am

javitxi wrote: Also, seeing your case, why don't you buy x1-x2 1,5TB Caviar Green Western Digital replacing all the HDDs you have? Less space, less power consumption, less noise =)
that system is only using that one laptop HDD

javitxi
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Post by javitxi » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:05 pm

jaydeesan wrote:
javitxi wrote: Also, seeing your case, why don't you buy x1-x2 1,5TB Caviar Green Western Digital replacing all the HDDs you have? Less space, less power consumption, less noise =)
that system is only using that one laptop HDD
I thought you have the other HDDs mounted on. Well, I shall insist then that it would be a great idea going into a WD Caviar Green. The 1,5Tb is the best space/money ratio. Also, if you are concerned so much about noise the series EADS does 25dBa (as they say) while doing nothing and 27dBa while working (32mb of cache), meanwhile EARS does 25 to 29 (although it has 64mb of cache). Well, my WD Caviar Green is EACS which means 16Mb cache and as I have commented before, it is very quiet and I have it mounted by screws on the HDDs bay of the Thermaltake Armor Jr. Notice the review here on SPCR about WD Caviar Green 1,5 Tb and 2Tb version.

Furthermore, as far as I can see, you have the WD Blue one (Scorpio?) on a 3,5" adapter at the place of a 5 1/2" bay, so it would be a good idea to have a 3,5" suspended on the 5 1/2" bay you have (a WD Caviar Green) or just suspend the HDD of 2,5" that you already have.

Anyway, do you have any not integrated graphics card on your motherboard? I'm asking this because as I've said, it would be a great idea going into picoPSU if your system and your money can.

Also, take a look to SPCR recommended PSUs :)

Hope to have been helpfull :)

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