380W PSU not enough?

auszombie · #1 06-03-2006, 17:55

Hi,
I recently bought a coolermaster case which includes a CM extrem power 380W PSU. The PSU is said to have intelligent fan speed controller and super silent but the only noise i can hear from my computer is from the PSU.

My PC is running with 3 HDD, 2 dvd-burners, one 12V fan controller, one 9 cm and two 12 cm fans (on P4 1.6G and a crappy 128 Mb graphic card).

So the question is: is the 380W PSU not enough for my system and thats why the PSU fan is so loud because of high load?
If i change to another PSU (just a cheap one

) like thermaltake dual 8cm fan TR2 430W, would it lower the noise level significantly?

any help is appriciated

kosmiq · #2 07-03-2006, 05:37

Most bundled and cheap PSU's sounds much because of the cheap components used needs more cooling to stay alive. The PSU prolly is enough to keep it running but not at a quite level. Not sure any real cheap PSU will.

auszombie · #3 07-03-2006, 05:47

Thx Kosmiq
I guess i gotta live with it until i can afford somthing better then.
would you recommend the Coolermaster real power 450W as a silent PSU?

kosmiq · #4 07-03-2006, 16:49

I have no personal experience about Coolermaster PSU's. A good place to look at is http://www.silentpcreview.com/ as they are all about silent PC's. On the other hand most PSU's with a known name are mostly good. Antec's are great, same applies to Seasonic (even though they cost a lot). Search for some reviews about the Coolermaster PSU and see what reviewers think of it.

A good way to determine of a PSU is of good or bad quality is the hold it. If it feels heavy it is mostly good, if it feels light it is not as good.

EMPiRE · #5 08-03-2006, 04:41

@ auszombie

Your current PSU should be enough for the hardware you are running, replacing it for another one will not lower the temperature much as most is generated by the hd's & cpu

What you can do is just replacing the fan itself for one which runs more silent this would be the cheapest option

You could also add a resistor to the fan lead, instead of a fan controller, to make it run slower BUT this will increase the temperature of your PC.

If I build a PC I always have at least 3 fans in it (excluding vga fans), one in the PSU (default), one in the front of the PC, to get air into the PC and one at the back to get the air out again. Usually I add resistors to slow them down enough to get enough air in and get them to run silent (as much as possible)

Don't underestimate harddrive cooling as this is the nr 1 cause of dead for them! Have a look here to "solve" this problem: http://www.coolermaster.com/index.ph...ist&p_class=99

auszombie · #6 08-03-2006, 05:09

Thx for your helps guys

my case fans are all running at lowest rpm they can, my fan controller can also monitor the temperatures of 4 components at a time. Im pretty sure that my pc does not overheat so i only worry about the noise. If possible, i want to change the psu fan or get another psu.
But can the fan in the psu be replaced by a normal case fan?