Quietest PSU under hours of heavy load?

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StupidComputers

StupidComputers

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Feb 15, 2014
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I'm looking for what the title says, but trying not to break the bank. I game AAA titles (BFx, soon PUBG) for hours at a time.
At idle etc, I don't care about this semi-fanless/passive jazz as they produce a lot of heat and tend to cost more. If it's not noticeable against my HAF 932, R9 390 and technically NH-D15 (not noticeable lol) then it's quiet enough for me - AT IDLE.

The thing is everywhere I look everyone cares about how silent a PSU is, and the reviews add as and after thought if at all; for example with the EVGA 850 G3, after singing it's praises, "it’s that at really high load the fan supposedly gets a little louder than some competiting models." -ign. Supposedly? They didn't check, no one I've found does.
The reason I'm looking for a power supply? My trusty Antec ea750 is 8-10 years old, not a complaint in the world, until I'm gaming for about 15 minutes.. Even when it was new it gamed kinda loud, but now, oh man, I'm waiting for my ears to start bleeding,they already hurt. It drowns out the leaf blower 390. It pierces the surrounding walls..

So ya, I care mostly about prolonged heavy load usage noise. I can hit mute on the game sounds, or turn them down. I don't like having yelling conversations over my PSU roar. So I'm looking for as quiet as I can afford, basically not trying to help the roar of the 390 as I'm trying to toss that too, so let's ballpark $130+/- and.. 750W? I know I don't need it right now, but I might and it's better not to be pushing a PSU at it's limits, especially for hours at a time! Lol.. how is the antec still alive..

I hope some of you lovely people have first hand knowledge :)

i7 4790K w/ NH-D15
Asus max vii hero
XFX R9 390
HAF 932 (3x230mm fans+)
SSD+3HDD
PSU: ea750...for now

Oh on a side note, do PSUs normally drop much on black friday? I could wait.. maybe

Thanks !
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
So, no reviews of the G3 650, but the ones on the 750 are terrific and I'd expect the 650w model to be pretty similar. I'd be surprised if it wasn't.
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Should be EVGA G3 instead. They have been caught cheating with the G2 model, getting better/fake hold up time by allowing under voltage outside ATX specification.
 
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Those are all good units, but they are also ALL over 100 dollars if you remove rebates or add shipping costs. If keeping the price/performance relationship isn't a factor then there are certainly better options. And if that's the case, then this might be the unit you want as it has Titanium efficiency, which means it's going to produce less heat (Which generally means quieter operation) than Gold models, and Aris said this about the 850w version (Can't find any reviews of the 750w model):

Currently, this is the most efficient PSU we've ever benchmarked. Besides that, the 850 T2 is also the quietest power supply in our lab, passive models excluded.
Click to expand...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA T2 750W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.89 @ B&H)
Total: $149.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-29 17:21 EDT-0400

 
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I don't live in the states, in canada that model is minimum $50+tax and the shipping I didn't have to pay :) more than the hx750. Looks real nice tho lol
 
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I looked before and I can't cancel the order anymore lol. There's also a $20 rebate i noticed in the states I can't get 🙁 But the guys at Jonnyguru actually recommended Corsair rm550x, I just went for a bigger more effecient one for expansion ability. They haven't reviewed the new hx750 yet but they did the hx750i which got 10s across except value was 8 ending up in 9.6, and the i version only difference is the corsair link capability and is $50 more...
Is there a reason u don't like corsair? Tbh my opinion of them wasn't very high before this current PSU search.
 
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I should hope so lol. I get that the EVGA's are superfower designs, but the apparently cwt makes good stuff if you're willing to pay for it 😉
 
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Any of the OEMs are capable of quality workmanship, it just depends on who orders what. Andyson for instance has made some real junk yet have also made on of the best psu's around. Corsair opted for real quality in the higher end units and mediocre quality in their budget lines to keep cost/prices down. It's mainly due to massive worldwide sales of their budget stuff that they got a mediocre rep, when really they get some of the best. Their high end cases, ram, psus etc are worth every penny. Seasonic just happens not to be desperate for work, so can afford to be picky as to what goes in a psu, they won't turn out junk and ruin their reputation for quality, just to make a buck. But they've also been making psus longer than most OEMs.
 
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Corsair has aggressive fan profiles on all of it's newer power supplies, simply due to the fact that they had a LOT of premature failures on what should actually have been decent units, units that tested well initially on most review sites but still failed in droves in the real world, from their last "generation".

That means most of them are not going to be among the more quiet units, which is what I thought you were shooting for. So if you'd already ordered that unit, which IS a good unit, but is certainly not going to be as quiet as any of the three units I outlined, then it's a moot point anyhow.
 
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I'm not sure there's anybody out there except maybe for Delta, that's been making consumer PC power supplies longer than Seasonic, is there?
 
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That antec that's super loud was made by delta. But on the other hand, it's 8+ years old and still alive so..

Anyway, I was able to call and cancel the hx750, and I'm probably about to sell that 390 monster. But also unsure.. at's got a lifetime warranty and I would only be sidegrading..
 
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Don't EVER use Newegg or Amazon reviews as a measuring stick. It's ok to use them to verify what you've already determined based on professional reviews, or in lieu of professional reviews if there are none, and there are more than two hundred reviews of something on one of those two sites and the majority of the reviews is either good or bad, you can probably believe that the consensus is accurate.

Beyond that, I would rarely lend any weight to any of the specifics or complaints contained in reviews on those sites. Most of the users you will encounter there have no idea what they are talking about for starters, many are trolls, others may have simply gotten the rare bad, or rare good sample. If 75% or more of an item with more than 200 legitimate reviews is either mostly all good, or mostly all bad, it's probably for a good reason. Aside from that, ppphhhhhh, take them with a shaker full of salt.

Yes, I'm pretty certain you were just being snarky, but I still thought I'd put that out there for the unitiated that might come along and not realize that.
 
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Does any actually read Newegg or Amazon reviews? :heink:

Just kidding, I know some people do. LOL
 
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While I do enjoy bein snarky, I was actually referring to the product description. It turns out to be the same graphical marketing on EVGA's own site and the reviewers are all using it for their noise statistics, so if anyone is lying it would be EVGA.. though I'm not sure how that helps 😛 (<-snarky lol)
 
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I definitely read them, though more for analysis than opinion. Like I forget what I was looking at recently but the you know how companies reply to negative comments, on product had replies where the rep technically spoke english, he/she was using etiquette while trying to say adequate.. compounded with the other reviews and responses as there were several, it was easy to determine that this product was immediately a write-off requiring no further investigation lol.

Also sometimes you'll see 4 of 5 eggs and find out someone rated 1 star because a rebate started 3 days after they bought the product and they weren't able to benefit from it. So that's really 5 eggs y'know?

And once in blue moon, there's actually an articulate and informative review that helps.. it's not just a myth!
 
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I think it's just a higher power 550 or all 3 are the same thing, their fan curves are the same.. which I don't really understand as they go by load % and not temperature, and each unit would have a different different wattage per load $
 
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Sometimes I will write a short one on Newegg, not all the time though.

 
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Exactly right.
 
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I rarely do, if something is really bad or really good but after a while enough time to know (if i remember hehe).
 
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It's pretty sweet, I have no complaints, I may even write a review 😉 I hear nothing at idle, and after an hour at high load it sounds like a solid breeze. I can hear it when the GPU fans spin down between battlefield maps - I can hear the GPU fans spin down now!

I know it seems like it would make more sense to go 550w or 750w, but the pricing yesterday made sense. Today it's $20 more than yesterday and $5 more than the 750w..? Go figure. I guess it could comfortably support two GPUs as long as one wasn't high powered - here's hoping Mgpu (using any GPUs together, see Ashes of the Singularity game) matures before too long. It's like they know it's only good for two mismatched cards since it only comes with one 8-pin PCI-E cable and one 2x 6+2pin cable. Both cables in use for safety's sake on that beast 390 lol.
 
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Many gpus in the range that psu should be powering can come with just a single 8pin power need, my Asus gtx970 is one such. So a single lead with an 8pin would be a clean and tidy wire. But there's also cards that can require 2x 8pin or an 8 and 6 or 2x 6pin,si the other lead accommodates them too. It's not a bad arrangement really.
 
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No not bad, but it can't run 2x 8+6pin cards, so unless it's two single plug cards they can't be the same. My last two have been 8+6, tried to exchange it for 750w but Newegg wanted 30% return fee! And they made it sound like they were doing me a favor..
 
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