Hi all.
My psu has occasionally been making funny noises recently, which makes me think it's days are numbered.

I was looking for ideas for a replacement. What I want is:
-Silent (so you can't really tell ur machine is on by hearing the psu)
-no lights (because I sometimes need to sleep with my machine on)
-Not too expensive
-Sata compatible

I was thinking about this ThermalTake one. Any suggestions?

tia

Shueb.

Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W is super cheap, super quiet and super reliable. The Thermaltake looks nice, however should you go to 64bit PCIe most board manufacturers will specify 480W or greater for warranty claims.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article226-page1.html
//Danne

That thermaltake has a pretty wimpy 12v rail for a power supply that size, not to mention thermal take isn't exactly the best. Antec and seasonic (the two already recmended) are both good as are enermax, ocz, and fortron. I couldn't tell you which are quiet though (noise never really bothered me).

"Market Price
~US$100 "

I am more thinking about £30.

I also want to get one from www.microdirect.co.uk because they are based in Manchester and it is easier to buy and return things because of this.

I may just take a risk with one of these:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...8991&GroupID=9
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...7047&GroupID=9

You might want to take a look at the Tagan powersupplies. They come for a good price and offer quite a nice performance. Another brand I am quite satisfied with is Levicom, I just don't know if those are sold outside Germany. I bought my Levicom 550W (that's a real 550W PSU, not like Qtec etc!) for about €75... 18 months ago! A typical case of getting a good PSU for an interesting price. I guess it has to do with paying for brand names etc

You should look for more specs on them, you need atleast 18 amps on the 12v rail.
Don't cheap out on your ps

You would be making a big mistake going with a cheapo power supply like the two you linked to, especially the generic one. The power supply is one of the most important parts of your computer. If you go with a low quality one, best case senerio, it provides unstable voltages which reduces the life of many of the parts in your system and may make it prone to unexplained crashes, hardware and software problems etc, worst case senerio, it dies and takes half your system with it. The wattage claims of these lower quality power supplies is often very exagerated (a little bit of creativness in the methods they use to test the output). A good 350 watt power supply is actually beter than a cheap 500 watt power supply.
About the cheapest power supply that I know of that are decent are fortrons (they also make some higher models that are not cheap, but the lower end no frills models are still well built, provide the power they promise and stable voltages). The microdirect company you linked to carries them. They also seem to carry the tagan Dee-ehn recomended. I have no idea how tagan compares price wise as they are not avalable here in the US but it wouldn't hurt to check them out too. There seem to be some fortrons pretty close to the price range you wanted.
Take my word for it (and everybody elses word here), a power supply is not a component that you want to cheap out on. A poor quality hard drive or dvd burner or add on card just may not work that well and or may die. You only risk the part itself. A cheap power supply effects every part in your system and it risks the saftey and stability every part in the system.
Here is a power supply calculator to get an idea of what your system uses.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp
I always recomend going resonably larger than the power supply calculator recomends, not only because they only give average values (some of the parts in your system may use more power than the calculator says they will), but because it gives you room to upgade. At least go a little larger.
Its not cheaper to go with a cheap one now anyway. Cheap power supplies often don't last that long, especially if they are heavilly loaded. A good quality one (even some of the less expensive ones) will last longer (sometimes quite a bit longer) so in the long run it will be cheaper. How cheap will that power supply be if it dies in a year and you have to buy another one?
Good luck in your decision.

looks like http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...7939&GroupID=9 is the more likely option. The 3 year warranty means it probably cost a similar amount to the cheapo ones (i bought a 550W un branded which has lasted about 1.5 years)

If you want to go cheap...
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=308626&cks=PRL
It's decent but I wouldn't recommend it for SLI rigs ;-)
//Danne

It looks Like the fortron that DiiZzY recomended is a little cheaper at microdirect (where he wanted to order) than at komplett though I didn't look at shipping. About the tagan, Like I said, I'm not farmiliar with them (not avalable in the US) but asuming it is a good one like Dee-ehn says, even though the waranty is three years, thats not how long it is going to last. Good power supplies have a good probability of lasting till they are out dated (should get 5 years or more). In 5 years, computers will probably have changed enough requiring diffrent conectors and or diffrent power requirments that it might not be usable in a new system or with new upgrades (and then again, maybe it will still be usable) but a good power supply will probably still be working. My point though is that in the really long run, the beter power supply will be cheaper (a lot cheaper if you have ever had a cheap generic power supply die in 6 months like I have). Good power supply's usally don't just up and die like cheap ones (most of them anyway, there will always be a few defective ones, even on the best there are due to mass production). With good ones, only a few will die early and most will last quite a long time (you are guarenteed 3 yrs with the tagen but it will most liklly last longer if it is good). With cheap ones, a few might last a long time (probably because they were never loaded very much) but most will die early. The odds are strongly in favor of good power supplys being cheaper in the long run not to mention safer for your system and more stable.

Fortron/Source aka FSP are widely known, about any branded computer have a PSU made by FSP. Anyhow, it's pretty much the same as http://www.silentpcreview.com/article106-page1.html except no LED and 400W instead of 350W.
//Danne

Does anyone know if they are quiet (the tagans)? The one i have how is comfortably auidible but then again it was quite cheap.

My dad is trying to make me go for a cheap one with a high rating. He normally gets his way in these issues.

Any cheaper than this: http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4455906
Antec 500w power supply for $50.00

Not the most silent on the planet, but very acceptable

Anything that uses "Dual Fan" isn't quiet as for that matter, if noise is an issue I wouldn't look at anything else than PSUs with 120mm fans.
//Danne

Or those passive cooled PSU. They don't come cheap though...

One more thing about the silent PSUs: don't forget that there are other noise producing parts in your system that may produce more noise than your PSU does. In that case, it really doesn't matter that much wether your PSU is ultrasilent or not.

Antecs tend to run quiet even with dual fans (at least the ones I have used). They have tempature sensors that keep the fan speed down untill the power supply gets too hot. Its good if you want quiet but kind of sucks if you want your power supply to serve as an exaust fan. Also you kind of pay for the name a little so they are not the cheapest.

I can tell that by far at the moment my PSu is making the most noise (when the HDD isn't scrambling around) - any light noise from the CPu fan or Graphics card is fine with me - i am not interested in pay lots of £ for an ultra silent PSu - but a quite quiet one would be good (and would almost certainly be an improvement on what i Have - i don't know how to objectively explain to you how load it is)

editWhat does 22dB sound like when we are talking PSUs? Is it almost silent?
Does a graphics card make much noise (a decent one i mean - i was thinking of getting an x800 gto)?

A decent PSU using a 120 mm fan shouldn't/doesn't make much noise.
Afaik no video cards comes with "silent" cooling except those labeled silent.
//Danne