Very basic PSU question

[Jazzman]

Hello all

My PSU fan is noisy, and I'm looking at silent replacements. I have Amazon voucher credit which I want to use up, so I'm looking at this product and the range it's in:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colors-350W-Sil ... IOQNRPV59F

My question is this - does it matter if it's 350w, 400, 480 etc? Naturally I'm drawn to the lower (electricity bills would appreciate it!) but I don't know if using a higher voltage has any innate advantages?

I currently use a 350W and it seems ok. But my computer is slowish at the mo, so that tells me nothing.

Any help appreciated

Many thanks

Jazzman

[Gecko]

[cking]

I agree with Jazzman, with a 400w psu you will have the ability to expand. If your computer is currently using close to the 350w the strain of extra equipment powered off from it (hard drives, AGP / PCI cards etc) in the future could cause it to either hang or more likely not come up. Think of it like this your computer will have the ability to use up to 400w but will only use the 345 that its currently using so the effects on your power bill assumeing nothing else changes should be slight if any.

[icecube]

Jazzman

Usually you have to pay more for a quiet PSU. I've noticed that a noisy psu can be caused by age. The more dirt and dust the noiser they get.

Sometimes it's the CPU fan making the noise and not the Power Supply

[Jazzman]

Thanks guys great advice. I'll be paying the extra for the 400w.

Yes I'm sure the noise isn't the CPU fan as I've tried putting my finger on that briefly to stop it and it didn't make any noticable noise difference.

The main cause of the noise appears to be the hard disk, but internal hard disk cases are increasingly hard to come by, and not cheap at all. So I'm solving the other noisy bit, the crappy PSU. Really I need to do both, but I'm hesitant to spend so much on it this thing(slightly tempted to save up for a good lappy).

Many thanks

Jazzman