Building A Quiet Gaming Computer

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vexion

Weaksauce
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Sep 20, 2008
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I've been throwing together a tentative, post-Thanksgiving build for a while now, and would like a bit of casual input.

The computer I use right now was ordered off ibuypower.com, and I use it for moderate gaming. It's been a great, incredibly stable system. My only complaint is that I can hear it from across the room. I cracked the case open, and just by putting my ear up to it, the loudest component is the water pump. The builder installed a water-cooling system with an MSI waterblock. I don't know anything, really, about water cooling, but considering the acoustic benefits, having the water pump be the loudest part of my system is upsetting.

So with this new build (which I'll be building myself) I've always had silence in the back of my mind. My priorities are thus:
  1. High-end gaming ability at 1600x1200
  2. Relative silence
  3. Price point under $1000 (by Thanksgiving, including Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals and such.)

The build so far is thus:

Case - Cooler Master Centurion 5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068)
PSU - Corsair VX550W or Corsair HX520W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001)
Video Card - Radeon HD4850 or Radeon HD4850 x2 Crossfire or Radeon HD4870
Motherboard - ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299)
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core E0 Stepping (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037)
Cooling - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 w/ Retention Bracket (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233012, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019)
Memory - G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145)
Hard Drive - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB 7200 RPM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102&Tpk=spinpoint%20f1)
Optical Drive - Lite-On Black 20X DVD+R Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106073)
OS - Windows Vista Ultimate x64

I guess I'm just looking for feedback two months out. Does anyone see anything that stands out as good, bad, overrated, particularly loud? Anything I should be aware of that I've overlooked?

Thanks in advance!
 
You should revisit this thread about a week or two before you order everything. Having said that, I'll offer a few bits of advice:

- If you want relative silence, then the Centurion 5 is a poor choice. Its mesh front, plus space in the front for only one 80mm case fan, makes it a bad purchase (IMO). The Antec Sonata III case and the Antec Solo case are two choices if you want relative silence. (Ideally, you'd want a steel case with at least two slots for 120mm case fans -- one for the front and one for the rear of the case -- but cases are a matter of personal taste.)

- Get either an Asus or a Samsung optical drive, as they operate quieter than other brands. Lite-On drives, though they are very good, are notoriously loud.

- If you don't need the BitLocker Drive Encryption or the networking/security features of Vista Business (or you can't get Vista Ultimate through a college deal), stick with Vista Home Premium.
 
I'm getting Vista Ultimate for free through the University.

Thanks for the case and optical drive tips. Those were two items I was still really undecided about. There are just way too many cases out there to choose from.
 
Another quiet gaming case is the Antec P182. Hell it was one of the first cases (in recent memory) designed form the ground up to be a quiet case.

Anyway, I concur with Tiraides: A week before you order, come back to the forums and ask for feedback again. A lot can happen in two months and I'm fairly sure that you don't want to overpay or pay at all for outdated or outperformed tech.
 
Your build is very similar to the build I put together for my brother with the biggest difference being the VGA. I got him an HD 3870 OC and he's running a Corsair 450VX on the system using a Centurion 590. Due to the PSU's placement at the bottom (It has less vibration than some other cases).

It's whisper quiet with the loudest part being his graphics card fan and stock HDT-1283 heatsink fan. You can swap out that stock fan for a Scythe fan of your liking for even quieter operation.

I'm very sensitive to sounds when sleeping but when he turns on his new system now, I can continue sleeping without being bothered (1 feet away from my head when sleeping).

Oh by the way, think about getting a Pioneer DVD-RW which advertises noise reduction technologies like disc rotation throttling and tilting motors for reading discs.
 
Wonderful. Thanks for the input, nice to find a really relevant comparison system. :p

I checked out all the Antec cases suggested, and while I'm now definitely leaning towards one of the above, I'm not sure which. The P182 seems difficult to build in, but worth it in the end. It's also $50 more than the Solo, though.

I think I will buy a 120mm Scythe for the HDT-1283.

As for graphics card... I had a bunch of options listed because I'm still undecided. I'm working on a sub-$300 price point on the GPU. I'm leaning towards a single-GPU solution, for one reason because the P5Q Pro is a tight fit over some of the SATA ports with the second PCI-E 2.0 slot filled, and also because of the occasional crashes and errors associated with SLI and Crossfire. So right now I'm trying to decide between an HD 4870 and a Geforce GTX 260, I guess.
 
You can get a Corsair tx750 for the same price as that HX520. If you want it silent you are going to want some aftermarket coolers on those video cards. The Scythe S-flex fans are great for heatsinks.. 1200 or 1600 rpm model that is under volted on fan control is very quiet and strong when needed.
 
I just built a similar system and I also became obsessed with silence shortly thereafter. Here are some observations:

1) The Corsair 550VX was at one point the loudest part of my system. It uses an ADDA fan that is not the quietest fan ever and also has been known to rattle. I replaced it with a Scythe Slipsteam and now it is silent but just something to keep in mind. 450VX or one of the HX models might be a better choice for silence.

2) The 4850 is silent at idle. Once the fan spins past 35%-40% it starts to be become loud. I can definitely hear it while gaming although it's not distracting.

3) I have a Lite-On DVD burner and as stated above it is extremely loud. I put some duct tape on the mounting brackets and that killed some of the noise but damn it still sounds like a 747 taking off when I put a disc in the drive. I leave the drive empty for this reason and at idle it makes no noise at all.

4) The case and fans are very important. P182 would be a great choice for silence. Scythe fans are also really good for noise reduction. Before I was using Panaflos and although they more a lot of air they also made a good amount of noise. Replacing all my fans with Scythe Slipsteams/S-Flex has really helped noise. At idle my PC is nearly silent, basically sounds like air moving.

Hope this helps! :)
 
Fenix793 said:
I just built a similar system and I also became obsessed with silence shortly thereafter. Here are some observations:

1) The Corsair 550VX was at one point the loudest part of my system. It uses an ADDA fan that is not the quietest fan ever and also has been known to rattle. I replaced it with a Scythe Slipsteam and now it is silent but just something to keep in mind. 450VX or one of the HX models might be a better choice for silence.

2) The 4850 is silent at idle. Once the fan spins past 35%-40% it starts to be become loud. I can definitely hear it while gaming although it's not distracting.

3) I have a Lite-On DVD burner and as stated above it is extremely loud. I put some duct tape on the mounting brackets and that killed some of the noise but damn it still sounds like a 747 taking off when I put a disc in the drive. I leave the drive empty for this reason and at idle it makes no noise at all.

4) The case and fans are very important. P182 would be a great choice for silence. Scythe fans are also really good for noise reduction. Before I was using Panaflos and although they more a lot of air they also made a good amount of noise. Replacing all my fans with Scythe Slipsteams/S-Flex has really helped noise. At idle my PC is nearly silent, basically sounds like air moving.

Hope this helps! :)
Click to expand...


Good advise and I also ran into the same clicking fan issue the with the VX550.
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys! After a bit of research I've revised my case, optical drive and HDD choices and have settled on a video card. The new (still tentative) build is:

Case - Antec P182 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129025&Tpk=antec%20p182)
PSU - Corsair HX520W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001)
Video Card - Visiontek Radeon HD4870 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129113)
Motherboard - ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299)
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037)
Cooling - Xigmatek HDT-S1283 w/ Retention Bracket (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003&Tpk=xigmatek)
Memory - G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145)
Hard Drive - Samsung Spinpoint F1 320GB 7200 RPM and Spinpoint F1 750GB 7200 RPM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152096, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152096)
Optical Drive - Pioneer 20X DVD+R Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129032)
OS - Windows Vista Ultimate x64

Now I have two questions:

  1. Anyone see any problems with this build offhand?
  2. Which parts should I hold off till Black Friday on buying, and which should I jump on if there's a good deal today?

I know that a lot of components typically see huge markdowns come Thanksgiving, and some, not-so-much. Anything that's perenially discounted that I should know about specifically?

Thanks in advance!
 
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