headfinoob
100+ Head-Fier
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When considering a PSU purchase, what do we look at regarding electrical ripple/noise? I also wanted to get some opinions of acceptable ripple and noise levels.
How much ripple is too much and which rails are the most critical to have low noise?
1. What rail voltages are actually powering the sound card, do sound cards even make use of the 12V rail at all?
2. Are the traces directly from the PSU or are the rails being filtered/regulated/converted by the motherboard first?
4. Do PCI and PCI-E sound cards differ in regards to which power supply rails they use?
5. Do sound cards have DC-DC converters on them to get the voltages they need?
A sound card with 2.0Vrms output would have to peak-peak output of 5.656V, I would think the sound card would utilize the 12V so it wouldn't have to step up the voltage.
Any info or opinions are welcome, I'm trying to put the puzzle pieces together.
These two fan-less power supplies, the Seasonic X-Series SS-460FL, and the Seasonic X-Series SS-400FL are the two that stand out above rest I've seen, with very low ripple for an ATX power supply:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3962/seasonic-x460fl-460w-fanless/7
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/seasonic-silverstone-fanless_4.html#sect6
How much ripple is too much and which rails are the most critical to have low noise?
1. What rail voltages are actually powering the sound card, do sound cards even make use of the 12V rail at all?
2. Are the traces directly from the PSU or are the rails being filtered/regulated/converted by the motherboard first?
4. Do PCI and PCI-E sound cards differ in regards to which power supply rails they use?
5. Do sound cards have DC-DC converters on them to get the voltages they need?
A sound card with 2.0Vrms output would have to peak-peak output of 5.656V, I would think the sound card would utilize the 12V so it wouldn't have to step up the voltage.
Any info or opinions are welcome, I'm trying to put the puzzle pieces together.
These two fan-less power supplies, the Seasonic X-Series SS-460FL, and the Seasonic X-Series SS-400FL are the two that stand out above rest I've seen, with very low ripple for an ATX power supply:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3962/seasonic-x460fl-460w-fanless/7
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/seasonic-silverstone-fanless_4.html#sect6
