Noisy Power Supply?

[Nooyawkah]

I recently finished building my first computer. I had originally bought an Enermax 350 Watt power supply with manual speed adjustment. Unfortunately I realized it was defective just when I was ready to power up my newly built masterpiece. So 10 minutes before the store closed I rushed over to CompUSA and bought their standard 400 Watt model.

Okay, here's the question: the system is a bit noisy. I guess I'm used to my old Dell that was whisper quiet. Is the power supply the guilty party? Could it be something else? There is nothing rattling in the case.
Any suggestions appreciated.

[mjc]

what did yo do with that Enermax?

If you have it and are not going to try and get it replaced under warranty then why not grab on of the fans from it and drop into the "standard" 400W, they are a much higher quality fan and quieter than those in the standard garden variety psu.

Or if you are going to replace it under warranty then can you live with the noise until then...because most likely it is either the psu or the CPU fan, that are the noise makers (case fans can be noisy too...so check them out)

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Nooyawkah]

I returned the Enermax to the vendor (full refund...amazing). The CPU fan is a Volcano 6cu (not the +). I'd be willing to replace the CompUSA power source if it would help.

[mjc]

No matter what breed the Volcano is one of the noisier coolers on the market, so that is part of you noise, the CompUSA psu is probably the majority of it....so yeah I think you could do better on the noise end replacing it. But without both noise makers it would probably be tolerable.

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Nooyawkah]

Thanks for the response. Any suggestions as to quieter power supplies?

As for CPU fan, I'm a little hesitant to replace the cooler after my "scrape the gunk off, smear on the arctic silver" experience. But I would if I could feel safe in not screwing up the works and killing my Athlon XP 1800+ CPU.

[mjc]

Actually you really wouldn't need to replace the cooler, just be aware that you won't get a really quiet machine with it. You could probably just replace the fan. Some of the Volcano series can be really loud, but the plain vanilla 6 is about medium on the scale of loudness....

Now if I could just find the link again...one of the overclocking sites has a large number of coolers recorded in mp3 format so you can hear what they sound like.

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[YODA74]

this one ??? http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html
this has regular fans you can hear but no cooler fans
------------------
Death has come to our windows.

-- Jeremiah 9:21
(undoubtedly a Biblical reference to a Microsoft product!)

YODA74@carolina.rr.com

[This message has been edited by YODA74 (edited 03-09-2002).]

[mjc]

Not the one I had in mind...I guess I'll go looking later.

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.