"silent" build recommendations

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duoflea

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Jul 25, 2011
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hey so i am building a "silent" build.
with that in mind, i need some recommendations the planned setup

the setup so far has an
asus crosshair iv extreme,
amd phenom x4 9600 (planning to replace to x6 in the future but same idea),
2x 2gb radeon 5870s,
2x 60gb ocz agility 3 ssds,

i need recommendations for cooling and a power supply.

keep in mind i am trying to make this system as silent as possible even if it means underclocking these and reducing fan speed.
 
Have you considered water cooling? If set up correctly, water cooling can lead to a nearly silent system.
 
Get a large case with large fans and a large heatsink. If you want to make sure your graphics cards remain silent, look into watercooling.
 
Like it has already been stated, you should go with a large case with ample airflow like the Cooler Master HAF (the cases 230mm fans are nearly inaudible). At that point you could look for passive cooling solutions for the CPU and GPU. Make sure you look at a high end efficient PSU with a large fan as well.
 
I'd reccommend a fanless GPU if you really want silence. I have one in my HTPC and it's great. But, like others have said, you need adaquate airflow and cooling because fanless cards can get incredibly hot.
 
Passive cooling is overrated. 500-1000 RPM fans are virtually silent, and provide much better cooling than just passive cooling.
 
Ginormous low RPM fans are the way to go; looking at your build it appears you aren't sacrificing power in order to achieve silence, so you probably can't get a passive PSU. I have one of these http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=SNUyTt7oLK_UiALj3JW6CA&ved=0CFQQ8wIwAA and it ran flawlessly in my media center but it was only running an x1650, also fanless. Buff computers gen heat, heat = dead computers, solution = cooling, cooling = noise. A Reserator would be the best option, as it is a fanless water cooling system. I don't know a lot about it or just how much heat it can handle, might not be beefy enough for you either. Could always put the system in an aquarium and submerge it ... http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php
 
Nick2253 said:
Have you considered water cooling? If set up correctly, water cooling can lead to a nearly silent system.
Click to expand...

yeah, i know what u mean. the problem is i need to liquid cool everything. the crosshair iv is just too loud... same with the 5870s... i think i could get by without liquid cooling the processor even. most of the sound is from the damn motherboard.
 
It may be optimal to liquid cool the GPUs (of course if you're doing that, it'd be easy enough to WC the CPU as well). I'd use a universal GPU-only block (I like the EK-HF and Koolance blocks for higher flow, and the swiftech mcw-82 is a great performer) so that the cooling setup can be re-used in future builds. It's often possible to maintain the use of portions of the stock video card heatsink (not the portion on the GPU itself).

Failing that, an aftermarket heatsink would still be a quiet option for the GPUs. They're just not as universal as a GPU-only water block + complementary heatsinks (and some thermal tape)

Sub 1000 RPM fans would be the way to go. You can still get good performance out of the Swiftech MCR radiators at 1K RPM, and they're inexpensive. The Arctic Cooling F12 and Yate Loon SL from Petra / Sidewinder are decent, inexpensive fans that work well at low RPM (you may want to pick up a fan controller). If you want what I feel is the best, then it's the Scythe GT AP-13 (1150 RPM).

Even with these low RPM fans, if you can direct SOME flow over (or even somewhat parallel to) the motherboard, then it's certainly possible to remove any noisy stock mobo fans. I do this on my hot X58 setup, and the temps are good.

I wouldn't use a full-speed pump. Something like the D5 at setting 3 or 4, or the mcp350 (DDC 3.1) - right around that speed/power would be very quiet. Martin's recent pump-isolation tests provide some great pump-mounting vs noise data (egg-crate foam worked well, and I suspect that suspending the pump by the tubing works well). Pumps have changed slightly since I last checked, and different models are out now.

You can still use a regular heatsink for the CPU. The Thermalright HR-02 was made for passive cooling, but it will work well with 500-800 RPM fans. Approaching 1000 RPM, I think a few other heatsinks may perform slightly better...not sure which ones... NH-D14 is a consideration, but I'm betting someone here knows something.


A quiet, high-efficiency PSU would be a good idea. On that note, I'd say that the SandyBridge setups are more power-efficient for the performance. If I wanted to make a quiet build right now, I'd definitely start with that platform (or see how Bulldozer turns out).
 
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