New Power Supply Seems Very Loud

Question

I just purchased a new 550W power supply for my PC. It's a dual fan one and it seems really loud to me.

Typically asking, are there ways to controlling a Power Supply's fan? Say like, slowing it down or turning it on when a certain temp is reached?

Answer 1

Of course, the best way of handling excess heat is to not have it there in the first place, so looking for a 80 PLUS PSU is a good start. But units will never be 100% so there will always be some excess heat and a fan is needed. The contol of this fan is generally (always?) done internally in the PSU (I do not know of any externally controlled ones, but that does by no means mean that such units does not exist, I am not an expert in PSUs). Your best option is to do a little research and get a PSU that have good characteristics, like for instance Corsair HX620:

Cooling is handled by a 120MM ADDA fan. But the impressive cooling characteristics of this power supply have more to do with the fan controller than it did the fan. I have to say that I never worked with a power supply that adjusted the fan RPM so precisely, to such subtle changes. When temperatures increased, the fan was quick to spin up, but when things cooled back down, the fan spun back down to a lower RPM. The fan never spun any faster than it needed too. I've gotten used to fan controllers that waited "too long" to spin the fan up, and then spun the fan up to full RPM leaving me with "all or nothing" fan noise.

That review is from 2006 and I think they have stopped making that model, but there is a newer HX650 model.

Answer 2

No, not unless it has a built in fan controller, which I assume it does not, there would be a knob somewhere on it to turn the fan speed up or down. Return it and do some PSU research before you buy the next one.