Need help building a small, quiet PC

[INGlewood78]

Hi everyone,

It's about time for a new PC and this time I'm interested in building a small case PC that is as silent as possible. Looking into SFF (shuttle, etc). Anyone out there that can give me some suggestions? This computer will be normally used as a gaming rig.

TIA

 

[Operandi]

Almost every machine I build that is for residential use is "near silent" so I'll give you a few suggestions.

I would start with this mATX Silverstone and replace the fans with two 120mm Yate Loons. You can run the Yate Loons off the motherboards system fan header (assuming you get a good board) to reduce their speed since there is a fair amount turbulance noise when running the Yate Loon's at full 12v.

For the PSU go with a Seasonic S12; the 380 watt version will be enough for any single CPU non SLI system you could through together.

Since you didn't mention a preference for AMD or Intel, or a budget I'll refrain from making further recommendations.

 

[INGlewood78]

Thanks Operandi !

My budget is around 2k and I prefer Intel...namely core 2 duo (is that what the newest core is called?)

 

[Operandi]

Yeah, Core2 Duo is the latest, but Core2 Quad CPUs are will be out soon also.

I'll come back later with a Intel build in line with your budget.

 

[Talcite]

If you want to go even smaller, you could try the silverstone SG-01 evolution and the NT-06 cooler with it. However, it only takes 80mm fans, so you'd have to throw some nexus ones in there. I'd imagine it's slightly louder, but not by much. SLI might be hard to do in that case.

I almost forgot to mention, SLI and a mATX board is rare, so if you want SLI, try looking into ATX systems.

 

[Operandi]

Along with the case/fans and PSU I mentioned above....

Board: Asus P5B-VM -- The AMD platform actually seems to have better mATX that are based on nVidia chipsets but this Asus/Intel board looks pretty good. It looks it has just about every feature one would look for including Asus's Q-Fan for reducing fan speeds.

RAM: 2GB Geil DDR2 800 -- Good quality RAM with fast timmings for the price.

CPU HS/F Zalman 9500AT -- Higher performance and quiet. The 4 pin PWM fan will keep sound levels at minimum at idle and increase speed under load automatically. It would be a good choice for any of Core2 CPUs available.

Video Card: Gigabyte 7900GT -- The 7900GT offers good performance for the price. This Gigabyte card comes stock with a Zalman VF-700 making it very good choice for low noise applications.

CPU, hard drive, and optical drive choice really comes down to how much speed and capacity you need. I will say that I've had good experience with Samsung optical drives in terms of overall use and noise.

 

[INGlewood78]

Originally posted by: Operandi
Along with the case/fans and PSU I mentioned above....

Board: Asus P5B-VM -- The AMD platform actually seems to have better mATX that are based on nVidia chipsets but this Asus/Intel board looks pretty good. It looks it has just about every feature one would look for including Asus's Q-Fan for reducing fan speeds.

RAM: 2GB Geil DDR2 800 -- Good quality RAM with fast timmings for the price.

CPU HS/F Zalman 9500AT -- Higher performance and quiet. The 4 pin PWM fan will keep sound levels at minimum at idle and increase speed under load automatically. It would be a good choice for any of Core2 CPUs available.

Video Card: Gigabyte 7900GT -- The 7900GT offers good performance for the price. This Gigabyte card comes stock with a Zalman VF-700 making it very good choice for low noise applications.

CPU, hard drive, and optical drive choice really comes down to how much speed and capacity you need. I will say that I've had good experience with Samsung optical drives in terms of overall use and noise.

Operandi, thanks for taking the time to help me out!

 

[Tikker]

I'll also toss out a big thumbs up for samsung drives. good quality and very quiet

 

[aigomorla]

SFF + Very quiet = almost impossible.

Im sorry i dont care what people have to say and what advice they give, but its JUST NOT POSSIBLE to completely silence a SFF. My reasons are listed

1. not enough room to drop in a high CMF with low DB fan. Only a few SFF cases even support a 120mm fan in the rear.

2. Limited space so you can add the super quiet after market cools. Not to mention good luck on most of the tower coolers which have proven there performance.

Ive worked with the Silverstone, the Aspire, Aopen, and Shuttle

You want a uber quiet SFF, get a imac. It will be quieter then all the given computers in SFF.

You dont like macs? then get a Shuttle. Hands down shuttle will pwn all the other SFF's in quietness. But dont expect high overclocks

Still insistant on getting a uber quiet SFF. :\ Here is my latest creation of my friend who wanted a super cute little SFF thats uber quiet.

The Build:
Aspire Q-Pac. Case

Fan: 120mm Yate Loom + 2 x 80mm Coolermaster inside front helping air across the power regulators and ram.

Mobo: your choise make sure its MATX

CPU : again your choice make sure u match the CPU with the board

Hd: Seagates 7200.10 series. <--- best quiet / performance ratio hands down

PSU: Seasonic M12 or Antec Neo 500W <Modular PSU's arent as great, and theres plenty of studies on this fact. But in a SFF, without modular, your gonna have one hell of a mess inside>

Video: Almost anything except a 8800GTX or 7900GTX series. Your gonna hvae card length issues with the Qpak since it uses a Full PSU

Ram: Doesnt matter, just match your board

Cooling: Corsair Nautilius 500 External Watercooling with DD Maze4 GPU block + DD Maze NB Block.
<This kit only costs 149.99 with and the 2 extra blocks are 49.99 + 29.99 respectively> its a 200 dollar cooling option but the box is small enough to fit on top of a shuttle even and with quick release, transportation isnt so much of a hassle.

You could try to custom a setup inside your qpack. And i recomended Qpack because IVE tried and failed HARD and putting H2o in a silverstone. The Qoack also has enough room inside to put a Swiftech Premium Kit, if your okey with 1 optical. But ur gonna need some experience in h2o if you want to put put the entire kit inside and not have it external.

<The external is almost noobie proof cuz corsiar did a good job in this kit>

<your not going to get quieter then this unless you decide to watercool a shuttle instead>

Cuz its on water, you should get decient overclocks. And it will perform better then a tuniq tower if your cooling the CPU only. Replace the CPU block with the new Dtek fusion or Apogee GT <--- i promise u'll cool better then ANY AIR COOLERS PERIOD. THERE IS NO CONTEST PERIOD.

My friends Comp booted at 2.4ghz on a E6300 Othros Stable with coretemp's never breaking 50C on cpu, and her 7900GT never broke 40C oc'd to 550. I did however replace the CPU block the kit came with to an Apogee so your performance may be slightly lower.

She only plays WOW at 1280x1024 so she didnt need anything more powerful then a 7900GT. Also 7900GT's still has one of the best power/heat/performance raitio out of all the cards out there.

Ummmmm all in all, get a P180 and go air for the same price as going SFF on water. It will cost the same if not a little less, produce the same noise, but u'll have more room in the case do whatever u want.

My .01 cent

 

[Zap]

Tsk tsk. Silent = very difficult no matter what size computer, but relatively quiet isn't too difficult with smart component choices without having to resort to water cooling.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Zap
Tsk tsk. Silent = very difficult no matter what size computer, but relatively quiet isn't too difficult with smart component choices without having to resort to water cooling.

not if you use a full 11bay tower.

2 120x2 yates or AF12 up front
1 120x1 Same in rear
Quiet Tower HSF
Quiet PSU


with lots of room and 3 + 1 psu fan pushing air. How is that hard?

And the op has gaming in mind which means most likely he will OC. Thats very hard if do with AIR on a SFF because you cant use any tower coolers. A Waterblock weighs less then half of what the big towers weigh with less torque and provides better if not extremely close to a tower HSF on 120x1 radiator setting with a GPU block attached. Almost impossible to do with AIR :\

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
And the op has gaming in mind which means most likely he will OC. Thats very hard if do with AIR on a SFF because you cant use any tower coolers.

Don't need a tower cooler to overclock. Besides, AMD processors don't run too hot and on the Intel side there aren't any high overclocking mATX boards (yet?).

Originally posted by: aigomorla
7900GT never broke 40C oc'd to 550

I don't see any huge benefit from those temps. As long as card is stable, should work perfectly fine at much higher temperatures. If card isn't stable, most likely lower temperatures won't help. I just checked and my 7900GS has a setting in drivers to lower core speed if temps go above 130º. That's in Celcius. It's currently idling at 58ºC and in games hits maybe in the 70ºC range. The cooler? Passive. No fan whatsoever, just heatsinks on both sides connected by heatpipes. Fans are the stock 120mm in my Fortron FSP400-60GLN "Green" PSU, an undervolted 120mm Yate Loon and two undervolted 92mm Evercool Ever Green fans. CPU uses a Scythe Ninja and is a 3800+ overclocked to 2.4GHz. No fan on it either.

Yes, those are in a tower case, but it isn't much of a stretch to put things like that into a much smaller case with good results, even with an overclocked 7900GT (I have one of those too in another system).

Originally posted by: Operandi
I would start with this mATX Silverstone and replace the fans with two 120mm Yate Loons. You can run the Yate Loons off the motherboards system fan header (assuming you get a good board) to reduce their speed since there is a fair amount turbulance noise when running the Yate Loon's at full 12v.

Such a setup would be really small and really quiet, especially with a Scythe Ninja and heatpipe GPU cooler, both run passively.

Alternately in an X-Qpack style case (though I'd use the longer MicroFly) without case mods the heatsink won't fit, so you'd have to go with something like the Zalman 7000 series (which does fit) and undervolt it. Even overclocked the CPU will still run cool enough to be stable.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Operandi
Almost every machine I build that is for residential use is "near silent" so I'll give you a few suggestions.

I would start with this mATX Silverstone and replace the fans with two 120mm Yate Loons. You can run the Yate Loons off the motherboards system fan header (assuming you get a good board) to reduce their speed since there is a fair amount turbulance noise when running the Yate Loon's at full 12v.

For the PSU go with a Seasonic S12; the 380 watt version will be enough for any single CPU non SLI system you could through together.

Since you didn't mention a preference for AMD or Intel, or a budget I'll refrain from making further recommendations.

Excellent sugesstions but that still doesn't stop HDD vibration. I'd buy the Antec solo with same fan and PSU recommendations.

Video Card: Gigabyte 7900GT -- The 7900GT offers good performance for the price. This Gigabyte card comes stock with a Zalman VF-700 making it very good choice for low noise application

Why not buy the XFX 7950GT with heat pipe, silent and faster.

 

[imported_wicka]

Anandtech just did a roundup of three SFF mATX cases, the Antec Aria was one of them and though it was quite hot they said it was pretty quiet.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: INGlewood78
Operandi, thanks for taking the time to help me out!

No, problem.

Most of it is a variation of machines I've built in the past so it boiled down finding the links on Newegg for the most part.

Originally posted by: Zebo
Why not buy the XFX 7950GT with heat pipe, silent and faster.

I just looked at it; honestly the heatsink looks a bit inadequate for something like a 7950GT, I personally wouldn?t trust it.

The VF-700 on the other hand is a sure bet and definitely very quiet. If the OP wants more performance Gigabyte also makes a 7950GT with a ALCu variant of VF-700.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: aigomorla
And the op has gaming in mind which means most likely he will OC. Thats very hard if do with AIR on a SFF because you cant use any tower coolers.

Don't need a tower cooler to overclock. Besides, AMD processors don't run too hot and on the Intel side there aren't any high overclocking mATX boards (yet?).

Originally posted by: aigomorla
7900GT never broke 40C oc'd to 550

I don't see any huge benefit from those temps. As long as card is stable, should work perfectly fine at much higher temperatures. If card isn't stable, most likely lower temperatures won't help. I just checked and my 7900GS has a setting in drivers to lower core speed if temps go above 130º. That's in Celcius. It's currently idling at 58ºC and in games hits maybe in the 70ºC range. The cooler? Passive. No fan whatsoever, just heatsinks on both sides connected by heatpipes. Fans are the stock 120mm in my Fortron FSP400-60GLN "Green" PSU, an undervolted 120mm Yate Loon and two undervolted 92mm Evercool Ever Green fans. CPU uses a Scythe Ninja and is a 3800+ overclocked to 2.4GHz. No fan on it either.

Yes, those are in a tower case, but it isn't much of a stretch to put things like that into a much smaller case with good results, even with an overclocked 7900GT (I have one of those too in another system).

Originally posted by: Operandi
I would start with this mATX Silverstone and replace the fans with two 120mm Yate Loons. You can run the Yate Loons off the motherboards system fan header (assuming you get a good board) to reduce their speed since there is a fair amount turbulance noise when running the Yate Loon's at full 12v.

Such a setup would be really small and really quiet, especially with a Scythe Ninja and heatpipe GPU cooler, both run passively.

Alternately in an X-Qpack style case (though I'd use the longer MicroFly) without case mods the heatsink won't fit, so you'd have to go with something like the Zalman 7000 series (which does fit) and undervolt it. Even overclocked the CPU will still run cool enough to be stable.

Well i did say if it was worth the investment. I gave a approximate cost in parts and gave him an outline. If he wants the headroom to overclock, or he expects his room to get a bit hotter, there is no way air cooling in a SFF or small case for that matter can match Water.

Water has 10x more thermal transfer then Air. So dont debate me on this.

My Load Temps after 30min Torcher on Both Video and CPU

Prove to me Water isnt a good investment if done correctly, cuz all my rig's are on water.

As i said, its up to the op to merit which is most cost effective. But he wanted small, and i think he was thinking along the lines of SFF and not mini tower. Either way, if the budget is within grasp, water is always a better option then air as long as you have some idea on what your getting. (in the ops case he has me who has worked with that product) Ummm The cooling kit i use isnt the nautilius, so your temps arent going to be as great as mine. But u'll still cool better then AIR if you cool CPU only and might perform a tad bit better if not on PAR with a tuniq tower, if you cool the GPU as well.

And i should of said G71 chipset card instead of 7900GT. Yes the 7950GT is a better card due to more ram. I just ment a 7900 variant family card over a ATI X1900 Variant.

Better?

EDIT: i forgot to mention the loudest parts on my computer is the yate looms fans. The other are AF12's which are quieter then my yates. total fans = 4 + PSU fan, which is a silencer 750. I cant hear the thing from 2 feet away, and i definitely cant hear the thing when someone is watching a movie or playing games. But hey its a media center, thats what its ment for.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
Water has 10x more thermal transfer then Air. So dont debate me on this.

My Load Temps after 30min Torcher on Both Video and CPU

Prove to me Water isnt a good investment if done correctly, cuz all my rig's are on water.

Two things...

1) External water cooling makes a SFF bigger.

2) Spend the extra money on faster parts and run them at stock. At stock speeds parts (like CPUs) seem to tolerate high temps with no problems.

#1 is the real reason why I wouldn't use external water cooling on a SFF because it negates some of the reason for building a SFF to begin with - "small."

 

[dampeal]

I didn't see anyone mention Noctua, they make THE quietest fans available today. They are excellent, quiet and move quite a bit of air, even on full speed they are barely a whisper.. I have a few of them and love them, plan on outfitting all my systems with Noctua fans..

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: aigomorla
Water has 10x more thermal transfer then Air. So dont debate me on this.

My Load Temps after 30min Torcher on Both Video and CPU

Prove to me Water isnt a good investment if done correctly, cuz all my rig's are on water.

Two things...

1) External water cooling makes a SFF bigger.

2) Spend the extra money on faster parts and run them at stock. At stock speeds parts (like CPUs) seem to tolerate high temps with no problems.

#1 is the real reason why I wouldn't use external water cooling on a SFF because it negates some of the reason for building a SFF to begin with - "small."

Your talking about a box thats messures a about 20cm on each side, which can fit very nicely ontop of any SFF, and ontop has added quick disconnects for fast transportation too big? Also, 129.99 for the kit + 39.99 on GPU cooling. Vs. roughly 100 dollars on air counterparts for CPU + GPU... uhhhh... the difference wont get u a upgrade in CPU and GPU in stock parts.

Okey, i think a lot of people could live with having a little box ~20cmx20cm ontop of there SFF to get cooling better then what most full Tower AIR desktops could do.

One review of the product

Anyhow i dont want to get into a heated discussion about it. If you want supreme quiet, do as he says. Go passive on a lot of systems and try to run things on cool mode. If you want to get some decient overclocks on both cpu and GFX cards, (which most gamers want, and sorry Zap, your CPU would get a stroke b4 it could get anywhere near mine), i recomend that corsair nautilius kit as a little box addon that sits on top of your SFF.

Originally posted by: dampeal
I didn't see anyone mention Noctua, they make THE quietest fans available today. They are excellent, quiet and move quite a bit of air, even on full speed they are barely a whisper.. I have a few of them and love them, plan on outfitting all my systems with Noctua fans..

Yikes... there also hella expensive at 19.99. :X

Personally i like the AF12's from artic cooling. There FDB, and not ball, whisper quiet. Has one drawback tho, it only pushes air. but there only 9.99 at newegg.

 

[dampeal]

I have the Arctic Coolings (12l,8l) as well, and the Noctuas are much quieter.. well worth the price though.. they come with silicone gromments, fan adapters etc, nice package actually..