Quiet PSU - Should I overestimate capacity?

[Keith__]

Hi,

I'm looking for a new PSU after my old one gave up the ghost last week.

My build is: ASROCK pro3, Intel 4690k, 970GTX, 2 SSD and 4 HDD (purely storage).

PSU estimating sites (I know they vary) say I need between 400w and 500w at load. My old one was 630w, but I've no idea if it ever got close to full load.

The front runners are:

Corsair RM550X
Be Quiet Straight Power 600

Price is much of a muchness (can get both for around £63), and while both being modular is nice, it's not really a deciding factor for me. I'm leaning towards the Corsair due to Japanese caps.


However I've noticed in tests for PSUs that the sound understandably peaks at load (e.g. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/corsair-rm750x-power-supply,review-33336-5.html). So I'm assuming that a 550w drawing 500w, could be considered similarly to a 750w drawing 700w?

Therefore. should I be looking at 550w/600w as a sensible capacity? (No plans to go SLI currently).

Or would I be better off looking at something around 750w that never has to really break a sweat? If I want to keep the sound down.

Thank you

- Keith

 

[badboyrog2]

a good psu are : seasonic/xfx/evga b2-g2-gs/antec hcg or edge

 

[C12Friedman]

Any quality PSU of 550W or greater will power your PC fine. Your total load (with overclocks) I'd put in the 400W - 450W range. Ideally you want your PSU to be running at about 50%-70% draw (my own made up numbers but, it'll be more efficient, run cooler and should last longer in that range). To expand some on BadBoyROG2's answer, this list may help you decide on your next PSU http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[Bearmann]

If you get something like a gold rated PSU, it's around 90% efficient from 20%-100% of load, so the old rule of thumb of running it a 50% load for better efficiency is not so important anymore. I have an i5 6600K overclocked to 4.6, 32 GB RAM, 3 HDD's, 1 SSD, 960 GTX, & a sound card. In Realbench stress testing I was unable to break through 300 watts (assuming my Cyperpower UPS LCD readout is accurate). Some people who want a super quiet PC say damn the efficiency, get a huge PSU that operates in semi fanless mode, and run it at 5-10% of load so that the fan never turns on. The tier list in the above post is a good place to start looking.

 

[Keith__]

Thanks all.

I've split the difference and gone for a Corsair RM650X. It only ended up being £5 more than the 550, and gives me a little bit more future-proofing without going crazy.

There were plenty of good options from the above suggestions, but that seemed to be the best value deal I could find.