Help balance silence with performance. Ultimate "Relatively Quiet" Gaming PC project!

[Highmodulus]

If you are moving it around enough to tear up the old case, you may want to look at the sweet new Lanboy Air case Antec just released.

 

[Karura]

If you are moving it around enough to tear up the old case, you may want to look at the sweet new Lanboy Air case Antec just released.

I did take a look! They look great, but I don't think I am going to move my new computer. It is going to stay safe in my basement/studio/computer room once I get everything running!

Right now I am considering the TJ10 or FT02, but I am still leaning on TJ10.

I've decided to scrap my build list and start over, taking in suggestions from this thread. I will post it later when I finalize it, so you guys can criticize it again!

 

[Karura]

New goal: Build a performance PC with the quietest efficient parts I can get my hands on.

New parts:

CPU: i7-950
-CPU Cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow with an extra 140mm fan
Mobo: ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Case: TJ10B-W
-Case Fans: 5 x Noiseblocker M12-S2 OR M12-S3HS (My last question regarding which fans to use is still unanswered!)
RAM: GeiL Black Dragon 3 x 2GB DDR3-2000
PSU: HX1000W
GPU: EVGA GTX 480 SuperClocked+
-GPU Cooler: Accelero XTREME Plus
Storage: OCZ Vertex 2 120GB (OS)
Some kinda large HDD for storage. I am a bit behind on HDDs, what are some good ones for downloading and/or backing up data?

How am I doing so far, am I getting there? I figured that since I'm using quiet fans, and my PSU isn't exactly a noisy one, I should be able to keep the noise level fairly low, yeah?

 

[Axon]

At the very least, in addition to purchasing the main parts, I plan to buy Noiseblocker fans. I just have some quick questions regarding which model.

http://www.noiseblocker.de/en/Multiframe120.php

I see atleast two solutions:

1. 2 x M12-P 2000rpm PWM fans for CPU cooling, which are at 29dBA max (what Axon recommended.)
5 x M12-S3HS 1800rpm at 27dBA for case fans.

or I could go slightly less fan power, less noise

2. 2 x M12-PS 1500rpm PWM fans for CPU cooling, which are 23dBA, significantly less noise than the M12-P, but less performance?
5 x M12-S2 1250rpm at 19dBA.

My NB runs at 1700 RPM max (really more like 1600ish) and is more than sufficient for my i7 920 @ 3.6 ghz. My recommendation would be option 2, or, if you can't shake your concerns, get yourself the 2000 rpm fan for the CPU and supplement with case fans at 1250 RPM. I find that, for cooling, intelligent positioning is far more critical than pure air movement.

 

[piasabird]

Anytime I see the term Extreme in a motherboard model name, it means you are paying more for it than it is worth. This is only my opinion.

 

[mfenn]

The Antec Performance series (P180 and related) are decent for keeping things quiet, but NOT for keeping things cool. To really quiet them down, you either have to go with low RPM fans and starve your components for air, or go with medium speed fans and deal with a bit of noise.

My FT01-BW is much quieter than the P182 that it replaced, and it moves a ton more air thanks to the 2x180mm fans and better internal layout. My FT02-B, with 3x180mm fans, was nearly inaudible while making the P182 look like a joke for cooling. That P182 had all of the stock fans replaced with Yate Loon D12SL's, and while it was very quiet, the CPU idled at ~50C. The FT01-BW is as quiet or perhaps quieter than the P182, and the CPU idles around 44C at the same ambient temperatures. On the other hand, when I upgrade the P182's fans to Scythe S-Flex F's, the cooling was a bit better but the noise drove me nuts.

The PSU you mentioned is the CP-850W. It's a much taller form factor, and ONLY fits the Antec P183, P193, and Twelve Hundred cases. Meaning, if you get that PSU and one of those cases, then upgrade the case later down the road to something from Silverstone, Lian-Li, etc., you have to upgrade the PSU as well. There are a few other rear-blowing PSUs available in the normal ATX form factor, such as the Antec Signature series and PC Power & Cooling Silencer (if it's still available). You'd probably be better off with a Seasonic X-series, though.

Did you swap the top fan to intake on your P182? I did and it worked wonders. My 860 idles in the mid 30's on a TX3. I have Noctua fans in there as well, so I'd say it's a pretty quiet case. Now I just have to justify replacing my GTX 260, which is like twice as loud as anything else in the rig!

 

[mfenn]

Anytime I see the term Extreme in a motherboard model name, it means you are paying more for it than it is worth. This is only my opinion.

Your opinion happens to be correct in this case.

 

[mfenn]

Could someone look at the website and let me know what you think?

Seriously, OP. Just try the stock fans. 5 of ANY fan is going to be louder than necessary.

Also, I am planning to setup Wake on LAN (WAN, to be more specific) on this PC; however, after reading about it, it seems like only a few specific NICs support this function, and the Intel one does. Maybe the onboard ASUS Rampage III Extreme (which also uses an Intel controller) NIC works too, but I don't know. Perhaps I will try it out first before buying the NIC.

Pretty much every mobo that I've used in the past 5 years supports WOL. And I don't buy "Extreme" branded parts either. Just download the manuals for the mobos you're interested in and look at the BIOS section.

 

[mfenn]

New goal: Build a performance PC with the quietest efficient parts I can get my hands on.

GPU: EVGA GTX 480 SuperClocked+

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

I should be able to keep the noise level fairly low, yeah?

I'm gonna go with "no".

OP, on a more general note, do you like buying overly expensive parts that provide no performance gain? The only decent value part in that entire list is the Vertex 2.

 

[jchu14]

New goal: Build a performance PC with the quietest efficient parts I can get my hands on.

New parts:

CPU: i7-950
-CPU Cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow with an extra 140mm fan
Mobo: ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Case: TJ10B-W
-Case Fans: 5 x Noiseblocker M12-S2 OR M12-S3HS (My last question regarding which fans to use is still unanswered!)
RAM: GeiL Black Dragon 3 x 2GB DDR3-2000
PSU: HX1000W
GPU: EVGA GTX 480 SuperClocked+
-GPU Cooler: Accelero XTREME Plus
Storage: OCZ Vertex 2 120GB (OS)
Some kinda large HDD for storage. I am a bit behind on HDDs, what are some good ones for downloading and/or backing up data?

How am I doing so far, am I getting there? I figured that since I'm using quiet fans, and my PSU isn't exactly a noisy one, I should be able to keep the noise level fairly low, yeah?

What's your reasoning for sticking with the i7 950 versus the i7 870 or the i5 760? I can't think of any scenarios in which the 870 will be inferior to the 950 in your usage.

The motherboard is extremely pricey. It's made for people who does extreme overclocking and have money to burn. Something like the This Asus Sabertooth motherboard would do everything you need it to do for a lot less money. The onboard Realtek network card is WOL capable.

And holy cow that's gonna be a lot money on fans! I would suggest you stick with the stock fan on the Silver Arrow for now. It's suppose to be of decent quality, and I am fairly confident that the fan on the arctic extreme will drown out any difference from swapping the stock fan to the noiseblockers anyways.

The RAM is expensive and it's 1.65v instead of the standard 1.5v. Unless your number one goal is to have awesome benchmark scores (nothing wrong with that, just a different goal), 1600 speed or 1333 speed will not be noticeably slower. Something like this mushkin kit for $109 AR will do.

Don't expect the computer to be quiet when you first plug in everything. I'd even wager that it's gonna be fairly loud. You will need to take some time to try various fan positions, fan speed profiles (through afterbuner/mobo bios/fan controler/speedan etc), and balance overclock/heat with noise. There's no magical combination of parts that will make a quiet computer. It's a game of compromises.