Hi,
I have not seen any discussion of powersupply requirements for an Audio PC. Other than that it must be QUIET ...
What power does harddrives require, does a CD-Writer/DVD-Writer add significantly to this requirement.
Thinking along the lines of 2 HDD's a CD-writer/DVD-Writer and a few fans ...
Would a quiet 550Watt unit be sufficient?
Russell
I have not seen any discussion of powersupply requirements for an Audio PC. Other than that it must be QUIET ...
What power does harddrives require, does a CD-Writer/DVD-Writer add significantly to this requirement.
Thinking along the lines of 2 HDD's a CD-writer/DVD-Writer and a few fans ...
Would a quiet 550Watt unit be sufficient?
Russell
I'm Using a 550W supply for a full blown HT PC without any issue at all... I'm using a Seasonic S12 550+ It is really quiet (mechanically) and should be more than enough for a music PC. You really only need more grunt if you are into gaming with very high end (sometimes multiple) graphics cards.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/ is a good site to check out if you are wanting to build a quiet pc, which is important for Home theater or a music server if you are going to have it local to your listening area
Tony.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/ is a good site to check out if you are wanting to build a quiet pc, which is important for Home theater or a music server if you are going to have it local to your listening area
Tony.
The few hours I spend gaming are done on my desktop ...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/ is a good site to check out if you are wanting to build a quiet pc, which is important for Home theater or a music server if you are going to have it local to your listening area
It is already reasonably quiet, but is running a "el-cheapo" power supply at the moment, came "free" with the case, but a quieter power supply, and fans must still be sourced ...
Thanks for the URL, will check it out ...
Russell
Tony.[/QUOTE]
Well the ones being advertised as being "QUIET" seem to start at 550 watts at the local computer dealers ...
No, I am not a fan of over/under clocking, so it seems that I'll be fine with a good 550 watt unit, rather have more than enough power available, than have periods with too little, likley to do less harm sound wise that way ...
Thanks ...
Russell
Well, sucks to be living in an area with few choices of components.
Underclocking (more importantly, undervolting) is good in that you can make the fans run slower by reducing power consumption.
Do consider buying online if possible, and if you would mention the brand of your "el-cheapo" so that bros here can see if it's worthy of a fan swap.
For info, a 250W PSU is enough to power a system with integrated graphics. A good quality one, I have to add.
Yeah, it sucks, like I ordered a IDE/Compact-Flash adapter (ZAR120-00), it cost me (ZAR180-00) to get it to me via courier, they don't do postal service ...
The current power supply is an A-Open 350 watt unit, in a PIII-1GHz box, with a 160Gig. HDD, a Matrox G200 8Meg. VGA adapter, a USB - Firewire add in card (PCI), a CD-ROM-Writer, and a M-Audio AP192 audio interface...
Oh, before I forget, I have 2x USB external HDD's that I sometimes use ...
It will probably get another 160Gig. HDD later ...
Later I want to upgrade the hardware to a new box ... , tho I have no idea when that will happen ...
Russell
So how difficult is it to replace the fans, and what do good quiet fans usually cost?
I have "junked" a few power supplies over the years because the fans, where totally buggered - (seized up), but the supplies themselves where still fine ...
A good part of A-Open PSUs are by FSP (models starting with FSP-) and it's a good manufacturor, those that aren't by FSP are pretty reliable also. Definitely a candidate for fan-swapping especially for your low-power system.
Swapping a fan is pretty straightforward - a few screws to remove the PSU top-cover, 4 screws that secure the fan to the exhaust hole, cut the power wires and connect them to the new fan the way one joins two wires, that's it. Though if you're not comfortable with that, buying a new PSU is still good. And a new PSU will be quieter.
Shouldn't spend more than $7 on the fan, or maybe $10 if it's a 120mm fan. Get a 12V fan with a similar amperage rating compared to the original, 0.10-0.25A are common for 80mm, while 0.2-0.4A are common for 120mm.
And the HDD, get a new replacement, HDDs during that era had noisy motors, who knows maybe the noise is from the HDD and not the PSU instead.
Have junked many also, some even in working condition. Most of them are extremely lightweight that came free with the casings, I'm not risking them blowing up any system.
Before the fans seize they spin slower and noisier, which is why fan swap works in old power supplies. Or the fan are just noisy to start with in low-quality supplies.
Swapping a fan is pretty straightforward - a few screws to remove the PSU top-cover, 4 screws that secure the fan to the exhaust hole, cut the power wires and connect them to the new fan the way one joins two wires, that's it. Though if you're not comfortable with that, buying a new PSU is still good. And a new PSU will be quieter.
Shouldn't spend more than $7 on the fan, or maybe $10 if it's a 120mm fan. Get a 12V fan with a similar amperage rating compared to the original, 0.10-0.25A are common for 80mm, while 0.2-0.4A are common for 120mm.
And the HDD, get a new replacement, HDDs during that era had noisy motors, who knows maybe the noise is from the HDD and not the PSU instead.
Have junked many also, some even in working condition. Most of them are extremely lightweight that came free with the casings, I'm not risking them blowing up any system.
Before the fans seize they spin slower and noisier, which is why fan swap works in old power supplies. Or the fan are just noisy to start with in low-quality supplies.
Will look at a power supply, seems it is do-able from your description ...
Will check around and see what fans are available ...
The Seagate I have is quiet, not dead quiet tho, the power supply fan, and the CPU fan make noticeable noise, but one needs to make an effort to hear the HDD's ... , when I replace the HDD, I want a 500Gig'er or a 1-Terabyte drive ...
Thanks,
Russell
So do I, but, I will have to win the LOTTO first, and it will help if I buy a ticket once in awhile ...
Water-cooling isn't too bad...but I wonder what the reliability is for 24/7 operation.
I had problems keeping the water pump quiet. Unlike fans it produced low-frequency vibrations which were impossible to damp in my case.
I tried passive cooling a few years ago - the technology at the time did not work really well for that era of power hungry pentium D9xx series processors.
Today it might be more possible with a lower power E series processor or even a mobile chipset.
I went through many power supplies before finally finding ones that were quiet enough for me. many had low db ratings, but the noise they did make was annoying.
I ended up using Corsair HX & VX series supplies in the 500 watt range (I think they are made by Seasonic also?) and surprisingly an Antec TPQ-1000 with an 80mm fan - you would expect it to be louder, but under reasonable current demands it is inaudible. I remember trying and returning Ultra X-1000, Enermay Galaxy DX.
For reference, my work/media server PC has 9 SATA 7,200 rpm hard drives (on a PCI RAID controller), an E8500 CPU, 4GB RAM and a radeon 4870 GPU. On an external power monitor it has never crossed the 500 watt input mark and idles around 180 watts. It has the 1000 watt PS but clearly would work with a smaller one.
I use the Ninja Scythe passive CPU coolers in my HTPC and the above work/media server PC. Just a little bit of airflow from 1 or 2 120mm fans at a really low speed moving air through the case will keep it cool. In both of my machines the GPU is the only thing that needs additional cooling - and keeps the machines from being virtually silent other than hard drive seek noise. I am planning to upgrade both machines to the newer Radeon 5850 or 5870 cards to lower the idle power draw by about 60 watts. That should result in much less heat and noise when I am not gaming (97% of the time).
I don't know what effect PSU electrical noise has on audio output, but I imagine it is pretty minor compared to the noise made by the CPU and VRM's.
Today it might be more possible with a lower power E series processor or even a mobile chipset.
I went through many power supplies before finally finding ones that were quiet enough for me. many had low db ratings, but the noise they did make was annoying.
I ended up using Corsair HX & VX series supplies in the 500 watt range (I think they are made by Seasonic also?) and surprisingly an Antec TPQ-1000 with an 80mm fan - you would expect it to be louder, but under reasonable current demands it is inaudible. I remember trying and returning Ultra X-1000, Enermay Galaxy DX.
For reference, my work/media server PC has 9 SATA 7,200 rpm hard drives (on a PCI RAID controller), an E8500 CPU, 4GB RAM and a radeon 4870 GPU. On an external power monitor it has never crossed the 500 watt input mark and idles around 180 watts. It has the 1000 watt PS but clearly would work with a smaller one.
I use the Ninja Scythe passive CPU coolers in my HTPC and the above work/media server PC. Just a little bit of airflow from 1 or 2 120mm fans at a really low speed moving air through the case will keep it cool. In both of my machines the GPU is the only thing that needs additional cooling - and keeps the machines from being virtually silent other than hard drive seek noise. I am planning to upgrade both machines to the newer Radeon 5850 or 5870 cards to lower the idle power draw by about 60 watts. That should result in much less heat and noise when I am not gaming (97% of the time).
I don't know what effect PSU electrical noise has on audio output, but I imagine it is pretty minor compared to the noise made by the CPU and VRM's.
I've also got a Seasonic supply and can attest to their overall quality. It's a 430 watt device with a 120 mm fan and it powers a Q9300 and GTX260 with no problems whatsoever. But most importantly its as good as silent. I've had it for a few years now and its still silent.
I've got third party coolers from Xigmatek and Arctic Cooling on the CPU and GPU. Using both speedfan and Rivatuner to set up my own fan profiles, the PC is as good as silent. The noisy bits are the hard disks.
And just as CBRworm said, you can literally remove the fan from the CPU cooler if you want. As long as you've got a decent flow of air through the case the CPU should be kept within reasonable limits.
I've got third party coolers from Xigmatek and Arctic Cooling on the CPU and GPU. Using both speedfan and Rivatuner to set up my own fan profiles, the PC is as good as silent. The noisy bits are the hard disks.
And just as CBRworm said, you can literally remove the fan from the CPU cooler if you want. As long as you've got a decent flow of air through the case the CPU should be kept within reasonable limits.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.