Power Supplies - Requirements
 

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'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.

The few hours I spend gaming are done on my desktop ... :)

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]

If you aren't using a power-mongering graphics card, or planning to do any real overclocking on your PC, 550W is much, much more than you need. You could probably get away with 350W or less.

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.

I use a 450W supply in my HTPC which runs two 1TB HDs, HD4650, Xonar HDAV1.3, overclocked athlon, several big fans plus the usual jazz and it has plenty of power to spare. 550W will definitely do you fine.

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

Okay, then I should be fine ...

Many thanks,

Regards,

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 ...