For me, PCs are like real estate QUIET, QUIET, QUIET. Intel or AMD?

[bupkus]

For me the top 3 factors for building a new PC are QUIET, QUIET, QUIET.

I've been using a friends old pc while waiting on a new mobo for my new pc.
It's old and slow, but it's quiet. I love it. Its an old P2 350MHz with a quiet cpu fan and just a ps fan.

Then...
I just finished building my friend's new pc with 4 80mm LED case fans, a 2100+ Tbred with a Thermalright SK-7 HS and a Zalman F1 fan w/o the resistor installed.
Now this part is funny... he got this Enermax case with a spot behind the front panel for a 120mm fan. We got this cheap $6 or $7 knock-off of the YS-Tech called a YL-Tech and ran it for a total of 5 minutes... way too loud.

Now...
what do I do? I've got my 2100+ Tbred 'b' with an SLK-900U and a Zalman F2 (92mm) fan and another 92mm panaflo 'H' just in case. I may get some 80mm panaflo's 'L' if the price is right. I was also thinking of a 120mm cut into the roof with a speed controller.

Here's the question. If quiet is so important to me, would I be better off going with Intel? I may not get the same bang for the buck, but maybe less 'bang' is what I need?

 

[chizow]

Get yourself a Rheobus to control your fans. Take a look at the Sunbeam rheos found at SVC.com (3-pin) or Xoxide.com (tailed). Also, focused airflow and exhaust are important as well. Stick a blowhole above your VGA, CPU and NB and you'll see much cooler temps on those traditional hotspots, which will allow you to run the CPU fan at a lower rpm. Good exhaust in that area will keep temps cooler in that area.

Chiz

 

[Budmantom]

If your into quite and you want to do it the lazy way, check out the hot deals section Dell's 4550, 2.66ghz, 60gb hd, etc.. for less the $400 shipped AR. If you want to build your own... cool nothing wrong with that. For $400 it can't be beat.

 

[mooseAndSquirrel]

Check out quiet PC.

 

[ElFenix]

key to quiet is a really large heatsink and a really low RPM fan. you can do that with either a p4 or an athlon.

 

[HokieESM]

bupkus -- check out Silent PC Review... lots of tips on silencing your computer.

It takes a LOT of effort past a certain point... but it can be done. You should minimized the number of fans in your system--and believe it or not, your PSU might be the loudest thing. The people at SPCR are pretty good about giving advice--join the forums and ask away!

 

[GnomeCop]

i have to admit, my current intel system is a LOT quieter than my previous amd, don't know about the bartons or thourobreds though.

my system has only 2 fans.... 3 if you include the radeon fan.

1 on the zalman psu
1 on the zalman cpu heatsink
1 on the radeon

my temps are OK too. my room is usually hot because its on the 2nd floor and faces west. My idle temps are in the 30 degree celcius range and under load its in the mid 40s .... high 40s is its really hot. I dont think I've ever seen it reach 50 yet

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
i have to admit, my current intel system is a LOT quieter than my previous amd, don't know about the bartons or thourobreds though.

my system has only 2 fans.... 3 if you include the radeon fan.

1 on the zalman psu
1 on the zalman cpu heatsink
1 on the radeon

my temps are OK too. my room is usually hot because its on the 2nd floor and faces west. My idle temps are in the 30 degree celcius range and under load its in the mid 40s .... high 40s is its really hot. I dont think I've ever seen it reach 50 yet

What kind of fan is on your zalman hs? Is it a zalman and how big and if it is a zalman, do you have the resistor inline?

 

[ahsia]

It's not a question of AMD or Intel, but whether you plan to overclock or not. Noise issue usually happens when people overclock and require heavy duty cooling. I would say either build a machine with stock parts, no overclocking, or get a Dell machine since there are some good deals out there.

 

[bupkus]

I was just reading the hot deals forum about the dell deal.

 

[Batman5177]

you have to remember: the cpu itself does not make noise! given that, the sound coming from an intel cpu or amd cpu will both be 0 decibels!

the thing that makes noise is the fan that is used to cool the cpu.

given that you want a quiet computer, you are most likely not looking to overclock.

therefore, for an intel OR amd cpu, you can just put one of those Zalman "Flower" heatsinks on it.
for non-overclockers, this will sufficiently cool your cpu, even without the fan.

so in this case an intel cpu AND amd cpu both run at the same noise level: ZERO DECIBELS!!!

 

[GnomeCop]

my zalman is the new copper cnps7000cu or something like that, it looks like a huge orb style cooler, I just recent;y installed it. I used to have an intel stock fan that was fairly quiet, but it did get loud when I played games. The new Zalman I put in is quiet all the time, It comes with a fan mate 1, and I just keep it on the lowest setting all the time.

my rig is in my sig.

 

[Sahakiel]

Take a high-end 333FSB Athlon.
Drop the bus down to 200.
Drop the voltage as low as you can go (<1.5 would be ideal).
Slap a large aluminum heatsink on your CPU.
Use a quiet dual-fan PSU to draw in air off the heatsink.
Take fan off heatsink.

Find a fanless GF4MX or GF3ti200, or some of the Radeons might be fanless.

Use a Seagate Barracuda IV (or V, dunno how those are, though)

Take out CD/DVD (man, those things love to scream), FDD.

Shove it all into a microATX or mini-tower.

Have fun.

Or, if you seriously don't care about power, build one around a Via C3; the ones <733 that run fanless, or just use your monstor AMD sink.