Lower my decibel!

K

Kwak

n00b
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
36
Hello,

I am still using my first-built pc from year 2003 so my hardware is outdated. It does everything that I need except play modern videogames. But the main and the only problem I've had with this pc is the decibel level.

With the next upgrades, I want the desktop to be silent. Please teach me how to select hardware components that will not increase any decibel.

Current Setup
  • Epox 8rda+ mobo and AMD Athlon cpu
  • Hard Drive: Maxtor 40gb 7200rpm
  • 2nd HD: 80gig 7200rpm
  • 2 fans to blow air out and 1 fan sucking air inside (standard size?)
I believe the above hardwares are producing all the sounds. So I'll be replacing those parts plus a new motherboard.



To build a silent pc, can I get an AMD cpu (retail) or must I get a Intel cpu?
Which 7200rpm hard drives are silent?
 
you don't have to get anything you don't want to, intel core2duo's run cool and fast. For your hdd get a seagate 320gb 7200.10 those drives are fast and quiet :) Grab yourself a good cpu cooler like the Scythe Ninja Plus which is silent. Seasonic psu's are quiet and good. Anyways check out http://www.silentpcreview.com/ for some more ideas :)
 
Antec P180 case
Motherboard with passive cooling
Corsair or Seasonic S12 PSU
Scythe Ninja CPU HSF

CPU choice won't affect noise level, but the Core 2 Duo chips have no equal, especially in performance per watt

any current hard drive will be fine in the P180, the aforementioned 7200.10 320GB are a good bang for buck drive

if you're a gamer, check out the passive XFX cards or the HIS ones with the IceQ3 cooling
 
yeah exactly the bigger the fans, the slower the RPMs need to be, the quieter your system will be.

you can get some powerful as hell passivly cooled gfx cards these days (including a slightly underclocked 7900GT).

hmm. but i havnt worked with a desktop in a while.....

as i recall, some of the dells arent even 12cm tall...
 
Thanks for the replies.
I'll check out the silentpcreview website as it contains many great info.
 
Get a case with 120mm fans. Antec cases are some of the best for a quiet pc, imho. The Sonata II is more affordable than the P180B, and not as huge. It also comes with a good, quiet PSU. They also have a P150, the SOLO, and any SLK***0BQE will be quiet as well. CompUSAs that are closing have the Super LanBoy on sale for $40. Seasonic makes the best silent PSUs. Antec's models are rather quiet, as well as Enermax noisetakers. As for the CPU fan, any Scythe tower should be fine (ninja or infinity), or a zalman CNPS7000/8000/9500, or an xp-90/120 w/ <28dB fan. Basically, you want to keep everything under 30dB as much as possible. Samsung HDD's are really quiet. LG Combo drives are really quiet. And like the others said, get a passively cooled vidcard and a mobo with a passively cooled chipset. What's your budget?
 
There are passively cooled power supplies. I think Fortron makes one.
The Scythe Ninja is a passively cooled CPU heatsink.
Some video cards are passively cooled.
Some new motherboards are passively cooled.

The BenQ 1655 is pretty quiet and so are the Samsung Spinpoint hard drives.

The only thing you need is the case fans. 120mm case fans are more quiet than 80mm fans. So, you could take a Coolermaster Centurion 5 case and take out the 80mm fan in the front since the Samsung Spinpoint hard drives are cool running drives. Now, all you have to do is use a Zalman fan controller to undervolt your 120mm case fan which is the only fan you'd have if you chose passively cooled hardware.
 
I'm using this case with the Antec 400 power supply, supposably should be quiet.
ACFCF7.jpg


The little fan attached to the videocard is rather small so it might or might not be producing any sound.

The 2 hard drives could be making loud sound?
 
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