Fan Speed
When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario.
In my experience the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used.
- Below 800 RPM – Inaudible/Silent
- 800 to 1000 RPM – Barely audible
- 1000 – 1200 RPM – Audible but still quiet
- 1200 – 1400 RPM – Moderately noisy
- 1400 – 1800 RPM – Noisy
- 1800 RPM or higher – Intolerable
Under 320w load this PSU is very noisy. Why should it be in the 80%-100% region when it’s at just less than 50% of it’s rating?
Why is because the typical system with peaks that high, will have idle/average wattage at less than 50%. Granted I’m only idealizing, practically speaking we know the efficiency is going down.
I just got an EVGA SuperNOVA G2 and it’s like night and day. I went from a computer that sounded like a hovercraft to one that has a completely silent PSU. XFX TS is a horrible PSU for noise.
Maybe your specimen has a bad fan or it’s doing what it’s supposed to, increasing fan speed with heat because the case isn’t ventilated enough. Mine is quieter than the CPU or video card fans. I can only hear it if I drag it out from under the desk and put my head behind the case.
Then again, quiet by itself seems nice but isn’t always better. PSU temperature quite directly relates to its lifespan. The top three reasons for PSU failure, which are 1) Capacitor venting 2) Fan bearing lubrication decrease , and 3) transistor overheat/short, are all heat sensitive components.
I had two of them and they both did it. The case is brand new and has 5 case fans. Even when the PSU was external from the case it was loud.
The G2 is completely silent.
Night and Day.
Will never go anywhere near XFX PSU’s again.
Then it’s good you have choices, but mine is still quiet so something is strange. Wait. You don’t have those 5 case fans, most of them, exhausting do you? That’s going to reduce airflow through the PSU, and frankly, it’s a terrible design. No case needs 5 fans. Any more than two is just silly, maybe 3 if a high powered gaming system and all intakes have low micron filter panels that reduce airflow but I have such panels on mine and still only need two.
Anyway, if all these PSU were tried in what is still considered a new case, then you haven’t a long enough usage period to know yet if the quieter PSU will have good lifespan. I consider any PSU that runs for less than 8 years to be junk, but then if one had a noisy fan I wouldn’t even bother to replace the PSU, would just put a good dual ball bearing fan in instead as it’s not worth the time to pull it out of a system, hassle to ship one back and buy another then install and test again. A fan swap takes 5 minutes, 10 if a different connector needs to be put on.
My case is under positive pressure. Question, when you say yours is silent.. under what load (in watts)?
Don’t know, haven’t measured since the last video card and CPU upgrade (don’t care).
The reason I’m asking is that if it’s quiet for you under very little load, it’s not really demonstrating anything useful.
Mine was audible but quiet at idle (56w).. started to become annoying at 180w.. and became really loud when gaming at 280w-320w which is half of it’s capacity.
What CPU and GPU are you using?
Oh, well I know it was operating past 250W during gaming and was still inaudible under the desk.
Is yours the gold version (shown in this article ) or the bronze version (shown in this link):
http://cdn.agilitycms.com/xfx/MediaGroupings/291/1400789332650ts-4.jpg
Apart from having different efficiency ratings, they are physically different around the fan. Notably the gray plastic around the fan in the bronze version.
Why is because the typical system with peaks that high, will have idle/average wattage at less than 50%. Granted I’m only idealizing, practically speaking we know the efficiency is going down.