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Is it possible to have a "silent" pc?

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dn7309

Senior member
I've saw video on youtube of people claiming they have a "silent" pc (Linus for example). Is this even possible?

My 350d got two Corsair AF140, AF120 and the a Noctua U9B over the 4770k with the LNA spinning at 800-900 rpm and I still hear noise coming From my PC. Am I missing something? My PC is not exactly loud like an Xbox 360, but it hardly silent.
 
You can have a PC that is for practical purposes silent (i.e. never hear it or pay attention to it) even if you have fans installed. You just need them to be very very low RPM, about 400-500RPM is low enough in my experience. At that point having no spinning disks makes the biggest difference. If you use a high performance gaming graphics card, you can't really cool it passively... but some branded coolers like TwinFrozr or DCII are quiet enough, and installing an Arctic Cooling Accelero is even better.

I have four BeQuiet 140mm PWM fans spinning at 370RPM according to HWinfo64, the loudest components are my graphics card's idling fan and my two WD Blacks, but given the PC is under my table which blocks much of the noise, it's practically silent.
 
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My fans are quieter than a Hard drive, removing the HDD noise I find that the PSU is the biggest noise contributor at load. So its pretty quiet, at a few feet its barely audible. Its not actually silent however, silence only comes from no moving parts, no HDD, no fans. You can get silence but not at power levels of a high end PC, you have to cut the power consumption down to something that can be passively cooled, which with watercooling can be around 300-400W of consumption total.
 
BrightCandle said:
My fans are quieter than a Hard drive, removing the HDD noise I find that the PSU is the biggest noise contributor at load. So its pretty quiet, at a few feet its barely audible. Its not actually silent however, silence only comes from no moving parts, no HDD, no fans. You can get silence but not at power levels of a high end PC, you have to cut the power consumption down to something that can be passively cooled, which with watercooling can be around 300-400W of consumption total.
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watercooling will only be silent if your pump and fans are in another room.

For the most part, modern silent PCs are built inside heatpipe cases, where you use the in-CPU GPU, and the CPU cooler is attached to the case via heat-pipes, and the entire case acts as a radiator.
 
I can't hear my pc power up at all anymore. I have 8 fans below 800rpm running on low fpi rads, one pump and one mechanical drive. Unless I stick my head inside of the case I can't hear any noise. If I defrag the mechanical drive, I can hear it twitch, but with my pump decoupled and running at 1600rpm, silent.

This only works for normal email, web, messing around. Once I start to game, my pump ramps up and I can hear it's gentle hum.

It's subjective...but dead silent, only with a fully passive system.
 
You can have an entirely passively cooled system that will be silent (if you don't have mechanical HDDs or optical drives).

I am wondering if a set up of two passively cooled PSUs could work, rather than a single, high powered unit. Even ones that don't use a fan until heavy load would work.
 
"Near-silent" is about as good as it gets.

In other threads, I have -- and will -- distinguish at least two (maybe more) types of fan-noise. Water-pumps also make noise, and water-cooling aficionados complain about it. While water was an approach originally promoted to reduce noise (particularly from CPU fans and coolers), effective water-cooling requires more fans now than effective air-cooling -- if significant thought and planning are put in to the latter.

Folks I've seen here at the forums often lean toward fans that are very quiet but have low airflow output. And it is easy to want a fan that runs at its top-end silently, so you can just connect it directly to the PSU and fah-get-about-it.

Here's some things that can make a computer -- for most intents and purposes -- manageably silent:

1) Learn about your motherboard PWM and 3-pin fan pinouts, the motherboard BIOS and the bundled software that will provide fan-control and allow you to create custom fan-profiles. Cheaper motherboards are likely to have fewer ports and maybe less in the way of refinement to these features, but you need to find out.

2) Determine your cooling and fan-selection strategy, and count on the possibility of some noise when the computer is "working hard."

There are two -- maybe three types of noise:

-- Noise from the fan motor -- often a whine or hum at different speeds, which may increase in pitch and volume as fan speed increases.

-- Noise that is set up by the the design of the fan-blades. If such a thing exists, I've found it hard to determine whether it is the blades or the motor.

-- White-noise from air-turbulence when some types of fans are pushing their maximum air-flow.

Of all these, the most tolerable is the "whoosh" sound of the white-noise. It doesn't have an identifiable tone; it may sound like a nearby air-conditioning vent on a hot day; it might be attenuated by removing obstructions to airflow -- such as the screen-vent panel of your case, but this requires cutting part of the case away, and raises issue about safety and fingers.

The other noises can be attenuated to this or that degree by applying a noise-deadening material to the fan-housing, like Spire Acoustic foam. Best avoid putting the Spire rubber panels all over your case interior, because the adhesive is so good that it is difficult to remove. Best bet for this less-focused approach: cut a foam-board panel the size of the Spire pad you want to apply; stick the SPire on it; use dabs of silicone adhesive or Pit Crew's Choice adhesive to apply the foam-board side -- congratulations, you just increased the noise-deadening capability of the Spire alone and made it easy to remove.

Just as an afterthought, if you can cut the tips off the ends of a child's 5-inch-long "Nerf" football, you could glue the proper diameter of same to the fan hub side that is fixed to the fan frame and shroud. Or just cut some circles from a Spire pad and stick them on there. I tried this, and I THOUGHT I heard "improvement." You'd have to decide yourself. But at least the Spire pieces are easier to remove from a fan hub than an entire case side-panel.
 
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BonzaiDuck said:
...effective water-cooling requires more fans now than effective air-cooling -- if significant thought and planning are put in to the latter...
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I disagree...if you put as much attention into your water cooling solution as one would with their air cooling solution, I believe water will win every time when it comes to effective thermals with nearly "silent" operation.

I run 5 fans total, 3 @ 500rpm and 2 @ 600rpm across 660mm of rad space. IBT will not hit 60c, gaming hits low 50's and both GTX 760''s never go north of 38c...which is not going to happen on air.

My pump is decoupled and I can't hear it until it breaks 2600rpm or so, and then it's a gentle noise at that. I run everything off the MB Headers with PWM profiles. I cam to water just for this reason, silence!

So there it is, the battle between air and water continues!!!

Op, see what you started!!!
 
Tweakin said:
I disagree...if you put as much attention into your water cooling solution as one would with their air cooling solution, I believe water will win every time when it comes to effective thermals with nearly "silent" operation.
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I DON'T DISAGREE -- water will win every time. But I've seen all these posts recently, from complaints about pump-noise, to complaints that the fans on a radiator are too loud. Even so -- per the number of fans: I'm (obviously) using air-cooling with the (now old) NH_D14, and I only have four fans -- one of which is likely unnecessary if I make some minor adjustments for its removal. If I did that, I'd expect to get the same thermal results under IBT that I had with all four.

Since you brought it up, though, I can run IBT with "air" and a "pretty-darn-good" overclock, with temperatures that don't break 70C. but I'm pretty sure I'm not just 10C "behind," but probably 15C. It could be 20C. We'd have to have a p***ing contest with screenies.

But that's really not the point of it. Perhaps OP should ask two questions: "What does 'silent' mean for air cooling?" and "What does it mean for water-cooling?"

If you revisited my update for the original post on "Gentle Typhoon," it's pretty obvious that I could spend way too much time seeing how much noise I could eliminate from my high-output fan, but I DID get results. Even so, if my computer were perpetually loaded 24/7, I'd live with "white-noise." I compared it to a nearby AC vent on a hot day. You wouldn't have that situation with water-cooling, but for all the trouble I took, the white-noise is a pretty small annoyance with air-cooling.

I'd still wager -- if we weren't running IBT or LinX bench tests, my rig is likely as silent as yours. You can't hear much of my rig -- "tone" or white noise -- to maybe 60C under load. If we were running those bench tests -- you win! but my system isn't noisy under that situation in a way you'd call "annoying."

And truth be told -- I really promise -- I'm going to use water-cooling in my next system . . . provided desktops haven't become obsolete by then. Next year! Maybe a little earlier.
 
Sorry for the double-post here, but I have to show my "idle-state" sensor readings:

3-18-14%20idle%20sensor%20readings.jpg


The fan spinning at 1,500+ is my Gentle Typhoon exhaust fan. At that speed -- it is totally inaudible. The yellow indication for the fan at some 300+ RPM is probably due to a setting in the BIOS, but it's "just a color." No alarms going off. That speed setting seems ample to keep the fan spinning.
 
The PC I just built the wife is causing her a little concern because she can't hear it. Using stock i5-4570 cooling fan and default 120mm [Corsair 4300R] case fans. Because she isn't loading the system and it is Haswell, plus using an SSD the system is quiet except upon initial boot.

And I doubt the case fan are even needed.
 
BonzaiDuck said:
..We'd have to have a p***ing contest with screenies...
Click to expand...

That would be fun!!! Honestly, I don't know anyone else who devotes as much time and thought to their system with regards to efficient operation, which is a blend of thermals and acoustics then you do.

Just so you know, my current build will jump up to 720mm of rad space and I'm hoping to decrease the rpm's a little more.

Now back to the original question...

Op, as you can see and I think we all agree, true silence is by design and would require a totally passive system. However, with some diligence and effort your system can be so quiet you only hear it when it is working hard.

I'm a lot like Bonzi in that we are both constantly tweaking our systems to lower the acoustical signature...and we have both gotten to the point where we can no longer tell if it's on or not, and that to me is silence.
 
Tweakin said:
That would be fun!!! Honestly, I don't know anyone else who devotes as much time and thought to their system with regards to efficient operation, which is a blend of thermals and acoustics then you do.

Just so you know, my current build will jump up to 720mm of rad space and I'm hoping to decrease the rpm's a little more.

Now back to the original question...

Op, as you can see and I think we all agree, true silence is by design and would require a totally passive system. However, with some diligence and effort your system can be so quiet you only hear it when it is working hard.

I'm a lot like Bonzi in that we are both constantly tweaking our systems to lower the acoustical signature...and we have both gotten to the point where we can no longer tell if it's on or not, and that to me is silence.
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That's about it. Folks need to inform themselves better about "motherboard thermal fan control" options -- if they build their own systems. There are some good (and expensive) fan and pump controllers available, but they're another complication and can be unnecessary. I think over time, I'd spent as much as $150 total for those things and maybe didn't need to if I'd done my homework.
 
BonzaiDuck said:
The fan spinning at 1,500+ is my Gentle Typhoon exhaust fan. At that speed -- it is totally inaudible.
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I don't understand how you can claim that. No fan is going to be inaudible at 1500rpm. Unless maybe you are talking about the fan itself and not the airflow it generates. Moving air = sound.

OP, a performance pc can be very quiet during idle. But you need to regulate the fans down to their lowest possible rpm. During load it's the gpu('s) that will generate the most noise. Watercooling solves that but it's probably not possible to get it as quiet during idle as aircooling can be.

Passively aircooling high end gpu's is possible but you will need to do some modding: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=255863
 
coffeejunkee said:
I don't understand how you can claim that. No fan is going to be inaudible at 1500rpm. Unless maybe you are talking about the fan itself and not the airflow it generates. Moving air = sound.
Click to expand...

I know! I know! And I wouldn't expect everyone to just run like Lemmings to my "Gentle Typhoon 4250RPM/117CFM" thread to reexamine my last twenty-page edit appended to my initial post, query -- request for comment. It is entitled "Ducting for Decibels."

I can adjust that fan down to 1,250 RPM, limited by a 20% duty-cycle floor on my fans. But lets face it: some noises are so non-distinct, of such a low frequency and low decibel volume, that you only might hear them by closing doors, windows -- putting up Styrofoam insulation -- while you smoke something to create a Carlos Castaneda "Giant Fly" perception.

What I hear at idle is a sort of summary combination of all the fans spinning, and this is at a very low decibel level. It has a vague pitch, somewhere in the lower registers, but you have to listen carefully for it as it is very faint. And except for the pitch, you'd think it is a very faint white-noise. The Typhoon is non-distinct: I can't be sure for focusing on its approximate location in the case, and trying to "hear" it.

Maybe you'd only need to look at the pictures in the op of that other thread. Another title: "What people should know about the targeted, disciplined application of Spire foam rubber."

It ain't pretty, but it's neat. An' it works!!
 
Yes it is possible to have a silent PC. Passively cooled components and SSD's have made this easily achievable.

The real question is do you want to? For a low watt internet/general purpose PC it's fine. For a high power user it's more difficult. Passive cooling goes away. That means fans. Then it's a matter of how big and slow you can get your fans.
 
my wifes machine only has a the antec 200mm big boy running at low, no other fans in the system

it makes noise, but its quieter than ambient in our house
 
monkeydelmagico said:
Yes it is possible to have a silent PC. Passively cooled components and SSD's have made this easily achievable.

The real question is do you want to? For a low watt internet/general purpose PC it's fine. For a high power user it's more difficult. Passive cooling goes away. That means fans. Then it's a matter of how big and slow you can get your fans.
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The only way to get rid of white-noise is to eliminate airflow obstruction. With a heatpipe cooler, the fins are relatively obstructive to airflow and you can't get rid of them. They also transmit sound -- echoes -- from a high-power exhaust fan that wasn't absorbed by noise-deadening strategies. This sound then gets transmitted to the motherboard -- and the right case-panel. So? You stick a square of art-board with Spire stuck to it on the inside case-panel with four dollops of Pit Crew's Choice.

Then -- there is your exhaust-fan vent. You could cut away the perforated portion -- definitely improving airflow there, but you maybe don't want to cut a hole in your case -- or like me, you don't want to freaking trouble yourself to remove the components. I think it could be done with the components in place, sealing off the vent with tape to catch anything, and using a pair of dikes (I think they're called) -- heavy-duty wire snips. Maybe you'd want to rubberize the barbed edges that you leave -- just for personal safety.

Or you could port a 4" diameter hose to your exhaust port -- maybe wrap the first 6" of it in foam rubber.

But do you really care if you hear air-turbulence, when you're trying to land your FA-22 Raptor on a carrier off Camp Pendleton?

I'll have to do a couple IBT runs again and report back. I have it set to spin up to 3,600 RPM maximum.
 
OK . . . . I'm putting my CPU temperature at just below 70C . . . I adjusted my peak setting for ~65C from 3,600 RPM to ~3,000 RPM. With LinX, when load is lower between iterations, it travels to 2,400.

Most of the white-noise seems to come from the rear exhaust -- and due to the screened vent as an obstruction. So that's the source I'd attack first -- with a pair-a-dikes. . . . But in fact, the temperature hasn't increased, and I can probably drop it to 2,800.

I'd sooner do the latter. Point is: It doesn't even ramp up to that with a Fright Stimulator . . . Just proves need for two profiles: One for stressing and benching, the other for regular usage and even games.
 
Zargon said:
my wifes machine only has a the antec 200mm big boy running at low, no other fans in the system

it makes noise, but its quieter than ambient in our house
Click to expand...

It seems bizarre to see those things spinning in a case. I think the clear-plastic LED units look better. They just seem . . . large. But some of them will push a rated 140 CFM, between 900 and 1,300 RPM. They don't make a lot of noise. I just wish someone would make them as PWMs. They won't, though, because the speeds are already so low that people would just run them at top-end. Top speed for a CM 200mm case-fan is 600. A BitFenix LED -- 900. NZXT -- 1,300.

It's all mostly white noise -- if they don't moan. I don't think any do, but after a while the CM fan will have bearing-noise -- a periodic scratchy variety.
 
If you're not OCing the crap out of it yeah you can put a huge cooler in passive of course and no fans.

Noctua fans are nice but a bit pricey, I use a lot of those.
 
dn7309 said:
I've saw video on youtube of people claiming they have a "silent" pc (Linus for example). Is this even possible?

My 350d got two Corsair AF140, AF120 and the a Noctua U9B over the 4770k with the LNA spinning at 800-900 rpm and I still hear noise coming From my PC. Am I missing something? My PC is not exactly loud like an Xbox 360, but it hardly silent.
Click to expand...

Replace those Corsair fans for Noctua fans such as the NF-S12A PWM or NF-A14 PWM and you will be good to go. Corsair fans are loud which is why I don't run them in my build.
 
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