Power Supply

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hey there, I have an old Packard bell tower pc that I want to use...now the PSU in it is really loud and I would like you guys to give me some advice on getting a new quieter one...not looking for anything to expensive (£30-40) I know you usually get what you pay for but I was just wondering if you guys had any good suggestions

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

HI,

I'm not a great advocate of cheap PSU's, but probably anything you can buy now will be better manufactured than what was installed originally.

You should be able to replace it for your price range - are you sure that it's an ATX standard though, and not some proprietary shape/size/fixture?

If you're happy that it's bog-standard, then I'd take a look @ Scan.co.uk in the non-modular 300-530W section. Any good name there; Antec; Seasonic; Zalman; Be Quiet; Cooler Master etc, should be OK.

Certainly look for the 80% and above efficiency rating.

HTH

 

Do old Packard Bells use standard PSUs? I thought not.

 

I'm doubting it, which I why I mentioned the possibility.

But hopefully so, or it's gonna be a bit of a pig to find one. Could always try to rehouse in a different case, but then that could come a cropper due to non-standard motherboard fixing-screw configuration...

 

Thanks for the relies lads...

So the main thing I should look for is 80% efficiency or higher?

 

Hey, there as a situation need to replace it of your reasonable price capacity. You found many brand's and company's power supply in the market.

 

Hey guys, still on the lookout for a psu...I want one that's as close to silent as possible, so I don't hear it when I'm in bed at night

 

Hi Johnd76.

A couple suggestions below. Remember these are not modular so take up more space, and check the specs to see if they have all the connections you require.

I've had experience with the coolermaster and find it quiet and very reliable. The OCZ reviews were equally as good but no experience with them so I can't comment too much. Both 30-40

Cooler Master Elite Power 500W
OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus'

 

Cheers dazzo!

Will have a look at those, need to get one soon! Sound trivial but it's "doin ma nut it"

Can i also ask...what is Power Factor control (PFC)?

 

Yeah I know, it gets confusing when you see all the options out there!

I think it's something to do with efficiency if I remember rightly, the higher the better I'm guessing there.

 

Fanless PSU

You can build a whole system fanless (passive), can also use micro ATX and HTPC parts, tends to cost more than an old desktop though.

 

I've never trusted fanless PSUs, just seems like asking for trouble to me. If you do go fanless you'll need to ensure there is a decent amount of free space around the case to encourage natural air movement.

I'd also advise moving the whole lot to a new case if you're looking at passive cooling as I can almost guarantee the airflow in the current one will be totally useless.

 

There are literally billions of consumer products that have passive power supplies and work without issue.

I would expect that if you don't need a lot of wattage and you are happy with lower end CPU's / GPU's then its less of an issue.

You need to leave space around a case anyway, you need airflow whether its active or passive.

The most important thing is that there is a temperature difference, which since the air in the UK rarely gets that hot there will be.