Diablo 3 silent build?

[Ail]

Hey all, over the years I have slowly moved away from PC gaming to the console world and thus my upgrades are not as frequent. Eventually a must have game comes along and gives me an excuse to put a new rig together, this time it's Diablo3.

Knowing that it isn't the most GPU demanding game I am hoping to put together a quiet/silent rig that will be able to run it 1920x1080 at full settings. I only use the PC for storage, some light PS work and video playback, so no other big considerations. I would like to future proof it a bit and will probably want to give the new sim city or other PC exclusives a shot but with the amount of use it will get I don't need a huge powerhouse going to waste.

Located in the US, would prefer to stay under $1000, lower cost the better but not a requirement, just need enough to get the job done but always willing to spend more for quality where needed.

Not a fanboy for any brand, I have jumped between AMD, Intel, and a couple long forgotten brands since 386 days. Same thing for video cards, ATi or nVidia whichever is better at the time.

My current HTPC(ish) setup: (2009 with a couple add ons :\ )

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz
MB: GIGABYTE GA-G33M-S2H Intel G33 MATX
RAM:2x 2GB PNY 64b0qjthe-hs PC6400 DDR2
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 4890 Xtreme 1GB

Drive 1: Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB (SSD)
Drive 2:WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB
Optical: ATA Lite-On DVD / CDR (super old but quiet and hasn't died)

Case: Antec Solution Series NSK2400
PSU: Antec Signature SG650 650W Modular
Cooling: 2x Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm

OS: Win7 Home Premium 64bit
Monitor: 40" Samsung 1080p TV


New build?

CPU: ??
MB:?? mATX with good built in sound if possible
RAM:??
Video Card: ?? Passive or close? 4890 is a jet engine.

Drive 1: Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB (SSD) -- Still viable?
Drive 2:WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM -- I don't need more
Optical: ?? Already have a PS3 so blu-ray not required, maybe a sata DVD?

Case: Antec NSK2400. I'm wanting a htpc or small case for entertainment center. It's warm in there and the 2400 vents to the side, a rear vent would be better if possible.
PSU: Antec Signature SG650 650W Modular?? Pretty good PS but enough power?
Cooling: 2x Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm if needed?

OS: Win7 Home Premium 64bit - havnt looked at options but can buy a new copy if needed.

Monitor: 40" Samsung 1080p TV

Open to any suggestions and thanks for reading. I have some ideas but I'm not committed to anything specific preference on low noise and small form factor.

Thanks again

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Just change your CPU MoBo and RAM.

i3 2100
H77
8gb ram
7770?

 

[oynaz]

I actually think your current rig can run Diablo 3 just fine.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Your rig is pretty much better than mine in every way for D3 and I played the beta for months without problems. If you're itching to upgrade however there's plenty of things you could change up but your current system will run it with no problems with just about every piece of eye candy on max (I think I had to lower shadows but everything else was max).

 

[gevorg]

first, bookmark this site: www.silentpcreview.com, and make sure to checkout the hard drive silencing section, which commonly becomes a major source of noise/vibrations once you take care of CPU and GPU fans.

Major question to answer: do you want silence at idle only, or even at load/gaming? I'm a silence freak myself (see sig) and pretty happy with ~25dBA system noise at load/gaming, and >15dBA at idle. Very low noise at load is possible but harder to achieve, and usually comes with performance limitation.

To get a sense of how silent you want your system to be, open up the case, and temporarily stop the fans and turn off hard drives. Then start them one by one and observe/listen how much noise each component adds (you might need to restart your machine a few times). This will give you a pretty good idea of what are the loudest components in your system.

Also, it seems your current rig has several reusable components for your new build, which makes $1000 plenty to achieve what you want.

 

[richaron]

I would just buy a new video card & heatsink/fan for your cpu; probably your two biggest noise polluters. If you find the rest of the system can't keep, you wont be down $much because you'd be buying them anyway.

Edit: depends on their age, but new case fans with squishy rubber mounts might help too (also reusable).

 

[DigDog]

all i have to add here is that a E8500 can do 4.0

not grade point average. gigahertz.

upgrade needed? no. overclock needed? yes.

 

[mfenn]

I would just buy a new video card & heatsink/fan for your cpu; probably your two biggest noise polluters. If you find the rest of the system can't keep, you wont be down $much because you'd be buying them anyway.

Edit: depends on their age, but new case fans with squishy rubber mounts might help too (also reusable).

Agree 100%. The current build has plenty of power for Diablo 3, and can be made a lot quieter.

Something like the Noctua NH-C12P has a chance of fitting (measure your clearances to be sure) and will cool a lot better/quieter than the stock Intel HSF.

As for the GPU, D3 will not be a graphics beast, so a relatively low-power dual-fan card like this 6850 would do just fine. Like gevorg said, it depends on how quiet "quiet" is for you as to whether or not you need to go crazy on exotic cooling.

 

[Ail]

Thanks for all the thoughts/comments so far. I did some playing around today. Upped the clock to 400mhz so its now running a 3.8ghz. I bumped up the video card a bit too just to see what it looks like.

This is what I am working with.

Innards.

In entertainment center

there is just over an inch of space on the right hand side. I have the two 120s as intake vs exhaust like it comes. Lots of room in the back for the air to flow out. Closing the front door of the cabinet only raises idle temps a couple of degrees.

Here are some stats after a few hours of starcraft 2 (ultra settings). Let it idle for a few and took the shot. Low on GPU is inflated, I had the fan set at 50% so at idle it got cooled more than normal, turning it back to automatic it idles as shown, low more like 61.

It is pretty far from quiet at idle, if i could get silent/close to it at idle I would be happy. Gaming is not as important but I would still like it to be somewhat in check. I hate when a tense moment happens and the sound goes down to 0 and all you can hear are the fans blowing at max.

Would not mind moving to an i3 or i5 If there are more quiet options for that socket or if the boards have a better layout.

Do you think I should get a newer case with filters / rear fan spots? I don't think my temps are too bad and if I move to a different video card I might get some more flow while removing that 4890 scorcher.

Looks like I wasn't giving the rig enough credit, Thanks again for all the input. Will start looking at fan and card options.

 

[mfenn]

You should experiment with running the PC with the case open to figure out what fans are the loudest. Stop each one in turn with a pencil (or your finger if you're brave!) and note which ones result in the greatest decrease in noise. That should be where you focus your energy and money.

While you're in there, bust out a tape measure and figure out the exact dimensions you have in the socket area. Just eyeballing it, it looks like you can fit a pretty big top-down cooler in there.