Looking for an absolute quiet PSU for the following setup, anyone has a recommendation? Preferable with a 120mm temperature controlled fan or even passive? Mucho thanks in advance!

 

Intel DP35DP mainboard

Intel Core2 Duo E6850 @ 3Ghz with Zalman CNPS7700 fan

ATI Radeon HD 3400 graphics card

OCZ SSD Vertex 30GB

LG GGC-H20L optical drive

VFD display

Multi-card reader

No other fans

got the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W

It's complete overkill for your system but:

SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W

 

The technical specs are amazing and the fan only runs if it gets too hot (and it's near silent when it does run). I have it in my main rig and I couldn't be happier.

This one looks really amazing! I looked for a less-than 650W version but there is only one more with 750W. Reading tests it looks like it is absolutely silent if operated at about 20-30% of its power.

 

Are there any other smaller but modular PSU's featuring fan speed management?

 

Enermax Modu85+ series.

 

nto cheap but quiet and with teh fan running allt he time. remember the psu fan is part of your chassis cooling. while a dead silent psu may be well for the psu it means teh rest o fyour system which relies on your psu to exhaust isnt.

 

try www.spcr.com for their top 'quiet' list.

 

the cnps7700 isnt very quiet, even at 4v (compared to the psu i mentioned), might consider something else

Nexus Value 430 maybe.

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article922-page1.html

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817610002

wow, that's a pretty good review from silentpc. I guess I should pick one up for my htpc.

Before you buy you should manage your expectations.

 

Silent or quiet are subjective terms. What i consider quiet many wouldn't as im used to sitting by racks of kit for weeks on end. dB figures are almost meanigless as they are very subjective too and unless independently tested probably made up.

 

Dont buy a passive PSU.

 

Buy a PSU with a high as possible 80plus rating.

 

Buy one with at least a 120mm fan from a good manufacturer.

 

And the cross your fingers

 

 

This one looks really amazing! I looked for a less-than 650W version but there is only one more with 750W. Reading tests it looks like it is absolutely silent if operated at about 20-30% of its power.

 

Are there any other smaller but modular PSU's featuring fan speed management?

 

 

That's a nice model.

54A single rail. I had to jump through a few hoops to find that information.

In any case it is here.

http://www.seasonic.com/pdf/datasheet/NEW/Retail/X-Series.pdf

Before you buy you should manage your expectations.

Dont buy a passive PSU.

Buy a PSU with a high as possible 80plus rating.

Buy one with at least a 120mm fan from a good manufacturer.

And the cross your fingers

 

 

No, don't cross your fingers....

Read many reviews.

Yes, It's all subjective, but if you have many complaints about noise, chances are you will be one of them too.

I was referring to the fact that if you read lots of shop reviews from customers you will invariably find people that are disappointed and talk about faulty hardware. Its all subjective.

 

All the review reading in the world isnt going to remove the subjectivity

 

I wrote a review a year back on a quiet PSU. About a month later someone posted very passionately that they were pissed of that I had said it was almost silent. Maybe im getting old but if you need to put your ear against a PSU to see if its on then its almost silent but thats just me, but its a good case in point.

I was referring to the fact that if you read lots of shop reviews from customers you will invariably find people that are disappointed and talk about faulty hardware. Its all subjective.

 

All the review reading in the world isnt going to remove the subjectivity

 

I wrote a review a year back on a quiet PSU. About a month later someone posted very passionately that they were pissed of that I had said it was almost silent. Maybe im getting old but if you need to put your ear against a PSU to see if its on then its almost silent but thats just me, but its a good case in point.

In many cases younger ears are much more sensitive to high frequency sounds than older ears.  So perhaps you are getting old. 

 

As you said, it is all subjective unless you bring in an SPL meter and calibrated microphone.

This appears to be a HTPC. Maybe one like this;

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=180486404642&Category=98805&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

 

I use this one with I think it is a Dell 19V supply. It's a good power supply and dropped the wall power by 10W compared to the case power supply. My Intel E6300/Zotac 9300-G-E HTPC idles at around 38W and uses about 68W at 100% CPU load with a HD movie playing. You should see similar except the graphics card might add around 20W to 30W more.

 

or this;

 

http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-150-XT-102-power-kit

 

Or the above with your own higher power brick. That one gets it's 12V power directly from the brick so increasing the brick size increases the 12V power.

 

Peter

 

 

Guys, bought today the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W. Marvelous! Reading all night reviews it heads almost every best-of-list. It is Corsair inside with fine tuning. The fan is a Sanyo Denki San Ace PWM with the ability to be turned completely off. It has variable speed too.

 

I'll definitely not need 650W, but using only about 20% means that the fan wouldn't be required at all most of the time.

 

PS: I already had something like the Nexus Value 430 PSU (I had the Chieftec 450W with a 120mm fan).

Guys, bought today the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W. Marvelous! Reading all night reviews it heads almost every best-of-list. It is Corsair inside with fine tuning. The fan is a Sanyo Denki San Ace PWM with the ability to be turned completely off. It has variable speed too.

 

I'll definitely not need 650W, but using only about 20% means that the fan wouldn't be required at all most of the time.

It's SeaSonic-made. I think you have it the other way around. Iirc, the Corsair 620HX, 450VX and 650TX were all SeaSonic OEM.

Guys, bought today the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W. Marvelous! Reading all night reviews it heads almost every best-of-list. It is Corsair inside with fine tuning. The fan is a Sanyo Denki San Ace PWM with the ability to be turned completely off. It has variable speed too.

 

I'll definitely not need 650W, but using only about 20% means that the fan wouldn't be required at all most of the time.

It's SeaSonic-made. I think you have it the other way around. Iirc, the Corsair 620HX, 450VX and 650TX were all SeaSonic OEM.

 

yup, corsiar use seasonic and channel well (cwt) cores.

Different model of a branded range can come from different PSU manufacturers even.

 

HX650 is a Seasonic

HX850 is a CWT

 

Very confusing....