PSU rankings - If you want a new Power Supply Unit

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088


Exciting stuff if you are in the market for a new PSU or maybe just want to see how yours compares.

In fact, my new PC is going to be sporting a 'Tier 1' PSU - a SilverStone Zeus ST75ZF 750W PSU.

Why did I switch from the Tagan Dual Engine 700W? Well, the Zeus is an 'nVidia Certified SLI-Ready Power Supply'. However, it is not just a standard certification - it is 8800GTX certified. Plus it is slightly cheaper than the Tagan.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html#certified_powersupplies

I like silentPC's stuff. They have comprehensive reviews, and rankings for quality components to use in silent/Quiet quality PC's

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

they have a couple of newer PSU's in the reviews section, plus a lot of info about what to look for in a PSU. There's a lot more to PSU's than just the basic specs.

There's a lot of noisy inefficient rubbish out there.

Heh, my new PSU (Seasonic S12 Energy+ 550/650) is the highest-rated PSU with fan listed on that page... Only the fanless ones are quieter (and also significantly less powerful).

(It is indeed very quiet, and rock solid. Tons of connectors, too. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat, the only downside I've seen is that the cabling isn't modular)

If a PSU is nVidia SLI ready, would it be ATI crossfire ready as well?

Not sure. However, it would probably be a good guide though.

SLI ready sounds like a marketting gimmick. A psu is either quality or its not.

Most of the SLI powersupplies also have 2 six-pin connectors on them that are used by the higher end video cards -- non-SLI ones typically don't.

I have a silent PC PSU too, it's good.

I have one of these: http://www.northq.com/products/powersupply/nq4775-1000.html

It works nicely and is pretty quiet, especially with this case: http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product&p_serial=RC-730&other_title=+RC-730+Praetorian%20730)

my previous system sounded a bit like a vacuum cleaner.

So did mine -- with my latest upgrade I pretty much went low-noise wherever I could. high-efficiency PSU with a large thermal controlled fan, antec solo case with sound dampening paneling, suspension-mounts for HD's and a large tri-cool case fan at its lowest setting. A good Thermaltake speed-controlled CPU fan (which typically runs at ~350rpm) with arctic silver thermal paste, a fanless X1650XT PCIe video adapter, two quiet 500GB samsung HD's, etc. The difference is night and day -- the old one sounded like a jet engine, while the current one is almost completely silent even though it's just two feet away from me.

At 350 RPM my CPU fan manages to keep the temp of my Core 2 Duo E6600 (2x2.4GHz) at 42C. If I force it to its max speed (~2700RPM) the temperature drops to 29C, but it it's definitely audiable then.

Yes, it's more expensive to pick the quiet parts, but it's so worth it... I currently have my old 600MHz laptop running on the other side of the room, and it's making a whole lot more noise than my desktop does.

I have an older system, but have a quiet antec case, PSU, and zalman copper coolers for the CPU and GPU. The biggest noise difference was swapping the CPU cooler for the Zamlan.

Not only does it cool better than the stock unit, but it does it at the 5v silent mode with OC'ing. So my Vram can be overclocked by 250mhz thanks to the Vram heatsinks that came with the cooler, and the GPU by about 40mhz.

I also have a very quiet Samsung drive.

With the Overclocked GPU its asteady 42c when not under stress, the CPU is 32c and the system temp is 25c.