Sjurdur

So I bought a XFX Geforce 260GTX and I installed it and it works good and all but when I start a game the Power supply starts making this weird "hiss" sound.

Does anyone know what this might be?

My PSU is a "Energon" (i think that's the brand) gaming power supply 650 Watt.

I think this is the on: http://www.checkmate.gr/products.php?pid=10203

Phædrus2401

Ugh, never buy an off-brand power supply. The quality control is usually crap, they have low efficiency, lots of noise, both electrical and physical, they usually won't deliver the rated wattage, and when they die (as they often do, usually shortly after the warranty expires) their short circuit protection is usually poor so they can take down the rest of the computer with them (happened with an old eMachines of mine back around 2002, it was not pretty, nothing was recoverable but the CD drive, and that developed odd problems later on).

If you can I would return that power supply for a refund, say it was faulty or something. We recommend the brands listed in my signature. PC Power and Cooling and SeaSonic make the best power supplies out there, but they're expensive. Corsair is usually the best quality for the money, I have a Corsair tx750w in my computer. If you're on a budget you can go with an OCZ PSU, they usually have decent quality for ~20% less cost than Corsair.

Try one of these:
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750w: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703019 - $119.99
Seasonic S12 SS-650HT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151028 - $129.99
Corsair tx650w: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005 - $99.99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341018 - $89.99

Sjurdur

I can't turn it back in for a refund, I bought it from a local computer shop, one of the best in the country and I'm pretty sure that they'll test the PSU if I return it, I used to work for them.

And are you sure that my PSU is low quality? because while I worked there I don't think that we ever ha a costumer complaining about it.

And Im pretty ure that it delivers enough watt / voltage because I can play Crysis Warhead and Age of Conan on the best quality with about 30-40 FPS (crysis sometimes goes lower but thats the average)

Thanks for the reply.

-Sjurdur

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to start a discussion on wether or not my PSU is good or bad, I just want to be sure.

Phædrus2401

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure it's junk. I haven't heard of Energon PSUs, it sounds familiar but they obviously aren't a name brand, and from what I can find through Google it looks like a mid-range unit at best. This is the best spec sheet I could find, it's in German but most of it is fairly obvious: http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=us
There are four +12V rails, which is far from an ideal configuration, especially since there's no way to know what rails go to which components without either a circuit diagram or doing a dissection of one of these. We usually recommend a single +12V rail with at least 32A for the GTX260. Hopefully at least two of those rails are providing power to the graphics card. It has active PFC, which is a plus and suggests that it isn't a complete crap unit. However there is no word on its efficiency rating, and we usually don't suggest a unit for high end graphics cards unless it's 80+ certified, since a high efficiency means less wasted energy means less heat and electrical noise on the rails and thus a more stable system.

If a power supply is making a hissing noise, and it isn't coming from the fan, that indicates it may be overstressed, that there's possibly too much power being drawn on one of its rails. Over time that can cause the unit to degrade, and eventually fail.

If it's working for you now that's fine, but if the hissing isn't, in fact, the fan and it gets worse as time goes on, that's an indication you may want to get a new unit.