Quiet Power Supply

I want a quiet power supply and fans for my PC. But I’m just not sure how to go about it. Here’s the rub — I don’t own this box. It’s a Gateway P4 that I picked up on a computer lease about eighteen months ago. I’m not sure if it will void anything if I install a quiet power supply myself. I’ve done a bit of searching for quiet power supplies and the industry finally gets it … there are lots of quiet power supplies and fans.

This Gateway seemed quiet enough in the early days. But it’s gotten louder over time. A lot louder. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s the power supply fan, case fans, or the hard drive … I suspect one or all of the fans, but I just can’t say for sure. Problem is, the box is covered by a service contract. When I asked Gateway support to send someone out months ago to swap out the fans, they refused to send anyone. They wanted me to trouble-shoot it myself. (Which got me thinking, why did I bother getting a service contract in the first place?)

The noise is tough to describe, but I’ll try. It’s like metallic cicadas have invaded the Gateway’s case. The noise is fairly high-pitched and falls somewhere between ringing and buzzing … it’s an incessant yingyingying-kinda thing.

There’s no need to go to an extreme in my case (pun intended). I’m not looking for something exotic like a water-cooled system … a quiet power supply and some nice quiet case fans will do just fine. I’m need to check with Gateway to see if they’ll allow me to simply swap out the case fans with quieter units myself. If they’re going to make me go through the trouble of troubleshooting, I reckon I might as well put in the good stuff while I’m at it.

Here’s something I don’t understand. While the aftermarket quiet power supply choices abound, it doesn’t seem like the major PC manufacturers have caught onto quietness as a marketing tool. Although the smaller boutique manufacturers have picked up on the quiet trend, it doesn’t seem like quiet is a priority for Dell, Gateway, HP, and the like.

Apple, on the other hand, gets it. The whole quiet thing fits into their high-end design niche. Apple’s dual-processor G5 tower has in the neighborhood of seven fans, and yet the box seems exceptionally quiet due to its thoughtful case design and fan management system. The iMac is extremely quiet as well.