Loud Antec TruePower 550

[iLLWiLL]

I've had this p/s for a couple years now, and from day 1, this thing tends to get loud, really LOUD (like when i have a WMP video running, or a real flashy website)


is there a way to QUIET this thing??? I did not find any setting within my ASUS mobo's bios...but maybe i wasn't looking in the right place :confused:

[redcolours]

you can try and CHANGE THE FAN ITSELF in the PSU.

but that may not be advisable.

[DarkFury]

If it is still under warranty... why not contact ANTEC? Maybe you can get a brand new one to replace it from them. :D

[redcolours]

you can buy something like an attenuator for mobo fans (not sure if thats the correct word for it).

its basically a simple circuit made of a potentiometer or a switch, and a capacitor, and a female/male 3-pin plug. it goes between the the fan and the 3-pin fan connector on the mobo. in this case you may have to open the PSU to check if its fan uses a plug-in connector to the PSU's circuit board. Thing is, most of the ones ive seen in the past have the fans hardwired/soldered directly on to the PSU's circuit board.

if youre feeling adventurous, you can get an attenuator and solder it between the fan and the PSU's circuit board.

but IMHO, thats a lot of work.

alternatively, you can just get a newer PSU thats rated to be quieter. Some of these PSUs even have the attenuator built-in. as usual, google is your friend. :)

[TruckStuff]

I love how people buy a giant-ass PSU that is *totally* unneccessary then complain about how loud it is... :rolleyes:

[DarkFury]

I love how people buy a giant-ass PSU that is *totally* unneccessary then complain about how loud it is... :rolleyes:
Not all "giant ass PSUs" are loud...

If it is defective... then that is what it is. BTW... with today's power hungry CPUs, video cards, and multiple hard drives, you just can't get by with a 350W PSU anymore.

[Jeffbx]

with today's power hungry CPUs, video cards, and multiple hard drives, you just can't get by with a 350W PSU anymore.


Sure ya can - I have 3 HDs (including a 10k RPM Raptor), 2 optical drives (DVD & DVDRW), 3.4GHz P4, 2 network cards, firewire card, and a Radeon 9800 Pro with additional molex power connector -

All running with a puny 250W PS. 3+ years and counting!

System builders lead you to believe that bigger is better with a PSU - I say not always. If you get a decent quality lower power PSU, it'll last just a long, run quieter & pull less power than a big beast of a PSU.

[DarkFury]

Sure ya can - I have 3 HDs (including a 10k RPM Raptor), 2 optical drives (DVD & DVDRW), 3.4GHz P4, 2 network cards, firewire card, and a Radeon 9800 Pro with additional molex power connector -

All running with a puny 250W PS. 3+ years and counting!

System builders lead you to believe that bigger is better with a PSU - I say not always. If you get a decent quality lower power PSU, it'll last just a long, run quieter & pull less power than a big beast of a PSU.
You must be a "lucky" one... because my system had random shut downs and "hiccups" whenever I tried to connect all my stuff to less than a 400W drive. (P4 3.4 GHz, 2 optical drives, 5 HDs, GeForce 7800GS, and enough USB device connections to power a small office.) Plus it gets REALLY bad when you have split and then split again the leads coming off of the PSU with all the fans, monitors, and other misc devices attached.

But then again, I have more stuff in my main box than the average person.

I even had a SFF PC that only had a Pentium 2.4, 1 optical drive, 1 HD and a GeForce 6800 that couldn't hang with the 235W PSU that came with the Shuttle box. Those same components run just fine in a new case with a 400W Ultra PSU now. The video card was the beast... plug it in and the box would only run for about 15 mins before it shut itself down, unplug it and use the onboard video and the SFF box ran all night no problems. So yeah, the PSU DOES make a difference.

YMMV.

[kame]

seriously. You must be running a fusion psu!

250 that is pretty amazing. Once I start plugging in the USB stuff it just shuts off with my 350....

But i agree with you, why put a ferrai engine in a honda civic... the wheels will just fly off.....

[Jeffbx]

To be fair, it's from a server box (PowerEdge 400SC), but I have to say it's more than met my expectations.

[TruckStuff]

BTW... with today's power hungry CPUs, video cards, and multiple hard drives, you just can't get by with a 350W PSU anymore. This is one of the myths of modern computing, and its total BS. I learned this when I started silencing my system about a year ago. The quality of the PSU is much more important than the wattage on it. Unless you are running something silly like 10 HDDs and 10 optical drives, your system is never going to draw more than 200-250 watts, even at peak load. In fact, energy savings is one of the hallmarks of modern CPUs, not being "power hungry."

The problem is that cheap PSUs do not supply consistent amperage on the rails. Mfgs came up with the marketing gimmick that "more watts == better supply," when in reality all they have done is raised the max amperage in order to compensate for the fact that they are not supplying *consistent* amperage. A 550W PSU and a 250W PSU are equally likely to kill your gear if they fail to supply consistent amperage on the rails.

My system at home has been running on a 300W PSU for the last couple of years running an Athlon 2200+, GeForce 6800, three HDDs, optical drive, and fans and has never had a hiccup. Also, most Dells these days ship with 250W-300W PSUs, but they ship with quality PSUs so there are no hiccups in the real world.

You are much better off to buy a quality 300W PSU that supplies solid voltage/amperage then to buy a cheap 550W PSU that doesn't. If you buy a quality 550W PSU, well... you're just throwing your money away. ;) Smaller quality PSUs also run more quietly than the giant PSUs, which makes your system run quieter.

[Markel]

Also, most Dells these days ship with 250W-300W PSUs, but they ship with quality PSUs so there are no hiccups in the real world.
Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, my experience has been that Dell power supplies are crap and tend to die about 6 months after the warranty expires.

[Jeffbx]

I have probably 200 Dell desktop PCs in my building (anywhere from brand new to 6 yrs old), and I can recall one or maybe 2 power supplies that have died on them. Maybe I'm just lucky...

[redcolours]

the power graphics card from NVIDIA and ATI will need that juice. other than that, what jeffbx and truckstuff are saying equates to one thing (and im repeating them): its the quality of the PSU.

theres a reason why jeffbx's PC is still runnning all these years with a "puny" PSU: its a SERVER.

Dell cant take a chance making crappy servers for businesses (where they make their money), and that will have to include a PSU that can run for YEARS and take heavy loads during that time.

the same cant be said for home computer desktops they make. Even workstations they provide businesses. Our company uses dell, and ive sometimes walked along aisles that smell like burnt PCBs. wouldnt you know it? the damn PSU blew up.

and the same cant be said for the same wattage PSUs you can buy at retail stores.

[DarkFury]

This is one of the myths of modern computing, and its total BS.
How can it be a myth when I have living/running PROOF of it.

YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY... just leave it at that. Just because YOUR system doesn't do it, others might.

I speak from what I have SEEN... are you calling me a LIAR?

All of my PSUs have been Antecs... until my recent upgrade to an Ultra 500. My PC would shut down for no reason (probably because of the Video Card/Hard Drive/USB load I have on it) but those problems have gone away with the recent increase in power.

Antec's rail system is fine.. they make good PSUs, therefore your claims above do not apply universally. If it works for you.. fine, but it didin't work for me.

Take that for whatever it is worth to you (which I assume is nothing... based on what you have said above.)

[johnnymk]

I would take the gamble and install a new fan, as long as you discharge the capacitors or try not to touch them.

[johnnymk]

Take a look at PSU power requirements:
http://www.3dcool.com/PWC.php

Other than certain CPU's like Prescotts and High end Video cards, the requirements are really not that great for a typical computer.

Even with multiple optical drives, generally either one or two are just running at the same time. And unless you are utilizing RAID or transferring between hard drives, the remaining hard drives are at idle with even less power requirements.

[DarkFury]

Take a look at PSU power requirements:
http://www.3dcool.com/PWC.php

Other than certain CPU's like Prescotts and High end Video cards, the requirements are really not that great for a typical computer.

Even with multiple optical drives, generally either one or two are just running at the same time. And unless you are utilizing RAID or transferring between hard drives, the remaining hard drives are at idle with even less power requirements.
I ran my main box through that website... (they didn't have a GeForce 7800GS listed so I used the GF6800 setting instead)

"Your Recommended Minimum Power Supply is 585 Watts!!"

[kame]

Yea.

I'm with the dark guy. If you play pc games and using the ATI 1800x or SLI solution 550 is where you should be at. If you got 2 8800gtx sli, forget it, 650 at least....

For real business work load, no 250 will do...

[Jeffbx]

Sure it does. Despite the fact that the 3DCool link tells me that I need a 450W PSU, I'm running all day long w/250.

I've also got a box at work with a similar setup running an X1950Pro - I WAS worried about bringing that guy up on the 250, but no problems so far, and that machine runs 24x7.

Like DF says, YMMV, but I'll put my money on higher quality rather than higher power rating any time.

[DarkFury]

Like DF says, YMMV, but I'll put my money on higher quality rather than higher power rating any time.
Personally, I'd like both...

If I really could afford it, I'd use PC Power and Cooling PSUs... but they are just ungodly expensive.


BTW.. how much stress do you REALLY put on your server PCs? Do you game on them? If not, then that might partially explain why you can continue to run and not see many problems with being "underpowered".

When I game, the temps of my PC rise about 8 to 10 degrees Celsius and the activity lights on my memory (I have the Corsair with the LEDs) go nuts.... You can tell that it's drawing alot more power at those times than when doing regular office tasks and such.

[Jeffbx]

Yeah - my home 'server' is my primary desktop machine & I do a lot of FPS gaming on it. The work machine is for CAD, so it gets stressed as well, but not as much as the home one.

The thing is, there's rarely a time when everything is being taxed all at once. If I'm gaming, it's the CPU, video & 1 HD. If I'm burning a DVD, it's the CPU, burner & HD. I imagine if I found an instance where I was running a 3D app, burning a DVD, installing something on the hard drive, copying pictures off of the camera, etc. all at once, then I wouldn't be surprised to see a blue screen from bad power, or have the machine just power down on me.

Funny you should mention PCPower - I was just looking at the Silencer 410 in case I found the cash for a X1950 for the home PC. At that point I *would* be worried about the load - it takes 2 molex connecters to power it, for crying out loud.

[DarkFury]

Check out the recommendations from PC Power and Cooling...

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/



Power Supplies: How Much Power Do You Need?


Component Requirement
AGP Video Card 30W – 50W
PCI Express Video 100W – 225W
Average PCI Card 5W – 10W
DVD/CD 20W – 30W
Hard Drive 15W – 30W
Case/CPU Fans 3W (ea.)
Motherboard (w/o CPU or RAM) 50W – 100W
RAM 15W per 1GB
Pentium III Processor 40W
Pentium 4 Processor 80W – 125W
AMD Athlon Processor 80W – 125W

For overall power supply wattage, add the requirement for each device in your system, then multiply by 1.5. (The multiplier takes into account that today’s systems draw disproportionally on the +12V output. Furthermore, power supplies are more efficient and reliable when loaded to 30% - 70% of maximum capacity.)


Using their guide and multiplying by 1.5 (as they recommend), i would need a 825 watt processor to supply my need (at the top end of their scale)

GeForce 7800GS (50W)
NEC DVD Burner (30W)
Toshiba DVD Player (30W)
WD 75GB Raptor hard drive (30W)
Seagate 300GB hard drive (30W)
WD 250GB hard drive (30W)
WD 200GB hard drive (30W)
WD 160GB hard drive (30W)
4 120MM Fans + 1 80MM fan (15W)
Asus P4C800E Deluxe mobo (100W)
2 GB of Corsair RAM (30W)
3.4Mhz Pentium 4 Processor (125W)
Asus TV-PCI card (10W)
SoundBlaster X-Fi Sound card (10W)

Add all of that up together: 550W x 1.5 = 825W max power needed.


Yeah.. I can handle all of that with a 350W power supply (not including any attached USB devices.... NOT!!!! :2far: :D )

[iLLWiLL]

wow, my question sparked a whole new debate


i probably should have noted that it truly only gets REALLY LOUD when playing games (first-person shooters) -- most everything else it's pretty quiet. It is still under warranty. But i really think this is the how loud it is supposed to be.


for the record, this weekend i tried going back to the original 350w PSU that came with my coolermaster case. Ironically, while it was MUCH quieter while playing videogames, it was generally MUCH LOUDER during normal computing and even while in IDLE. What's worse is that while playing Far Cry, the game would mysteriously "lose focus" and get minimized, bringing me back to the desktop -- WTF??? Not long after i switched back to my Antec 550 and i'm back to playing Far Cry without any "hiccups"...