Power Supply are there any silent SFX PSU?

[Marzipan]

by silent I mean that I prefer it to be fanless, but something with fans that's known to be pretty darn close would be considered.

 

[tinyitx]

I am aware of this fanless SFX PSU only:- Silverstone Nightjar NJ450-SXL 450W

I have heard that Corsair SF450 is quiet too. But I suppose when it is under heavy load, its fan will spin at max speed and may produce some audible noise. Even if using a passive PSU like the Silverstone above and under heavy load, the case fans will probably spinning quite fast (as the system is under heavy load) and thus producing some aduible noise too, which might just cover up noise from the PSU. My 2 cents.

 

[ignsvn]

I use Corsair SF450 Gold.

To me it's darn silent that sometimes I think the fan is faulty & never spins at all.

However, my load is indeed considered low. CPU TDP is 84w and GPU TDP is 95w.

 

[smitty2k1]

There are countless happy owners of the Corsair 600w and 750w platinum

 

[XcPNehVYlE4A3C]

i've never seen the fan on my SF600 platinum spin up. so for me its essentially fanless. load is pretty low though for my usage (no gaming, bursty productivity-type workloads)

 

[tifaff]

idk about corsair sf600 platinium, but the gold version is loudy and has a very noticiable coil whine i had one in the past

also i have the Silverstone Nightjar NJ450-SXL 450W and its beatiful 0 db and 0 coil whine

 

[rfarmer]

idk about corsair sf600 platinium, but the gold version is loudy and has a very noticiable coil whine i had one in the past

also i have the Silverstone Nightjar NJ450-SXL 450W and its beatiful 0 db and 0 coil whine

This seems to be very much hit and miss. I have had my SF600 Gold for nearly 4 years now, bought it right after initial release. It has always been very quiet with no coil whine.

 

[YESWEKEN]

Agree with all the corsair SFX comments so far. Assuming the rest of the cooling in the case is managed competently, the SF series, especially the platinum ones are extremely quiet. The fans do not even spin up until a certain load/temp is reached. Of course ymmv since is something slips past their QA, an occasional unit may display coil whine...

 

[Jello]

@Marzipan what would be the specs of the PC? If you can power it easily with the fanless 450W Silverstone unit, then there's no reason not to use it if you want the quietest PC.

 

[xumix]

idk about corsair sf600 platinium, but the gold version is loudy and has a very noticiable coil whine i had one in the past

Here is my setup with SF600 platinum, very notisable coil whine, also the fan is not silent at 350W load.

 

[rainmaker33]

I think like what some mentioned, it's a hit or miss with the Corsair SFX power supply. I have the SF600 Gold for about 2 months. It is dead silent. The fan doesn't spin at all unless I am gaming for about 40min or more. Even if it spin, it's still much quieter than the GPU fan.

 

[Tuscany]

I guess I am from the unlucky users - mine has both coil whine and also the fan starts 5-10 minutes after boot without even touching the PC and never stops. Using Sliger SM550 which we know is very ventilated.
Granted, it spins very slow and I don't hear it at all.

 

[MarcParis]

Well I had 2 Corsair SF600 Gold PSU, 1 Corsair SF450 Gold. Basically they tend to be pretty noisy in warm environnement. Corsair is using BS 92mm fan inside their SFX PSU...that could be really loud.
Fan on Corsair SFX PSU are starting/stopping following load OR internal temperature.

Basically everytime I was launching a game, SF600 fan start spinning, quite fast & noisy...but while gaming, it's ok. However when I was shutting down game, SFX PSU fan is still spinning (almost forever) fast & noisy while on idle...so very very distracting & annoying!

However I found best mod (really easy one) : replace psu fan by Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM (spinning around 1000 rpm)

Since this mod, SF600 is just running smoothly and silently..
Plenty of of SF series psu also did this mod.


After on SFX-L size, I love my SX800-LTI...as you have a true fanless mod, only related to load. Above 160w load, fan is starting to spin...and it's going back to sleep once load is over.

 

[Mark13]

I am aware of this fanless SFX PSU only:- Silverstone Nightjar NJ450-SXL 450W

I have heard that Corsair SF450 is quiet too. But I suppose when it is under heavy load, its fan will spin at max speed and may produce some audible noise. Even if using a passive PSU like the Silverstone above and under heavy load, the case fans will probably spinning quite fast (as the system is under heavy load) and thus producing some aduible noise too, which might just cover up noise from the PSU. My 2 cents.

The NJ450-SXL 450W is what I am building my unit around - expensive but very well made.