PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

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

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Ozkar
Posts: 179
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Location: Queens, NY

PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by Ozkar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:16 am

I'm building a system with the following parts:

Core i7 2600k Processor (will be overclocked)
Asus p8p67 motherboard
8GB DDR3 1600 1.5v Ram
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB (I hope I can quiet this thing down)
128GB SSD drive (waiting for the C400 to be released)
Gigabyte 5770 Fanless Video card
Bluray Burner
Antec P183v3 Case

I need a PSU that will be enough for these components and that will be as quiet as possible. 95% of the time the computer will be used for non-intensive tasks.

lodestar
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Location: UK

Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by lodestar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:47 am

You don't mention a CPU cooler - the stock cooler is not likely to be quiet enough.

The Scythe Mugen 2 with its PWM fan is worth considering, as it would work well with the Asus BIOS fan controls.

As to PSU, the Seasonic X-400 fanless would be a fairly obvious choce.

Ozkar
Posts: 179
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 6:22 pm
Location: Queens, NY

Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by Ozkar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:54 am

lodestar wrote:You don't mention a CPU cooler - the stock cooler is not likely to be quiet enough.

The Scythe Mugen 2 with its PWM fan is worth considering, as it would work well with the Asus BIOS fan controls.

As to PSU, the Seasonic X-400 fanless would be a fairly obvious choce.
Oh yeah..I forgot to mention that I got the thermalright Ultra 120 Rev C Cpu heatsink. I will use a Nexus 120mm fan with it.

lodestar
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Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by lodestar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:09 pm

Given the degree of control in the Asus BIOS for PWM fans, you might want to consider the Scythe SY1225SL12LM-P as a potential alternative to the Nexus. It costs around $11 - see the SPCR review of the Mugen 2 for its acoustic performance http://www.silentpcreview.com/article961-page5.html - virtually the PWM equivalent of the Nexus.

quest_for_silence
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Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:36 pm

Ozkar wrote:I need a PSU that will be enough for these components and that will be as quiet as possible. 95% of the time the computer will be used for non-intensive tasks.

With those parts you won't ever pass the 270W when benching and ocing the 2600K around 4.4GHz: any PSU on the market may feed them, I guess.
The last 18 months PSUs have scored so (here on SPCR):

Code: Select all

               WATTS/DB
MODEL     90 150 200 250 300 
                               NEWEGG
AX-850   <10 <10 <10 11~13 12   190$
TP-750    12  12  12  14  15    120$
X-400FL  <10 <10 <10 <10 <10    130$
MODU87+   11  11  11  11  11   >130$
NX5000    11  11  12 12.5 14    100$
ECO80+   <11 <11  12  16  20     80$
X-650    <10 <10 <10 <10 <10    140$
CP-850    12  12  12  12  12    120$


Pick the one you may like and you won't regret: personally I would go for either a Nexus NX500R3 or a Seasonic X-560 (120$), but any X-400FL, MODU87+, X-650, CP-850 would be perfectly equals, I mean.

Ozkar
Posts: 179
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 6:22 pm
Location: Queens, NY

Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by Ozkar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:50 pm

lodestar wrote:Given the degree of control in the Asus BIOS for PWM fans, you might want to consider the Scythe SY1225SL12LM-P as a potential alternative to the Nexus. It costs around $11 - see the SPCR review of the Mugen 2 for its acoustic performance http://www.silentpcreview.com/article961-page5.html - virtually the PWM equivalent of the Nexus.
So the Nexus fan cannot be controlled with the motherboard?

quest_for_silence
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Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:22 am

Ozkar wrote:So the Nexus fan cannot be controlled with the motherboard?

It depends of the motherboard, to be fair, but usually yes, AFAIK it can be controlled by the mobo's fan header.

lodestar
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Re: PSU Recommendation for decent Sandybridge PC

Post by lodestar » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:36 am

Ozkar wrote:So the Nexus fan cannot be controlled with the motherboard?
Both the Asus BIOS fan control (Q-Fan) and the software alternative - Fan Xpert - only work with a PWM fan as far as the CPU fan header is concerned, if the header is PWM. I have found that Q-Fan and PWM fans actually work quite well. There is a choice of pre-set fan profiles of which Silent produces the lowest idle speed. You can in fact create your own profile using the Q-Fan manual option for maximum flexibility, this is the approach used by the Puget systems reviewed by SPCR. Q-Fan on the motherboard you're intending to use also has a Fan Speed Low Limit setting. This does not actually set a low limit, it enables you to set a limit such as 300 rpm or 'Ignore' to disable BIOS warnings about low CPU fan speed.

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