Planning Next Build - Water or Air

[jleves47]

I'm waiting for Ivy Bridge E parts but I'm trying to start planning my next machine build.

I want the fastest machine I can build that is 1) as close to silent as possible and 2) won't be overclocked.

I've already decided on the Nanoxia DS1 for the case and I'll probably get the 2nd fastest IB-E processor.

Total budget will be about $2500.

For the quietest build, what's better - air or water? I can figure out the best to get in either case based on reviews on the main site. I just don't ever see them compared for noise on a non overclocked system.

Related question, I have Gelid fans in my current system and they are great - but they're also $25/fan. I imagine I will end up with 4 to 6 fans in the case so that becomes a significant cost. Is there an alternative that is close to the quietness of the Gelid with the amount of air they move at a lower cost?

Thanks in advance.

 

[nsafreak]

If you're not going to be overclocking then I would say that your best bet is going to be air. With a water system there are more parts that may generate noise such as the pumps and reservoirs. With an air cooled system you're working with just the fans and there are plenty of good quiet solutions out there. The Gellid fans are indeed quite nice but as you stated they are on the pricey side. You may want to look into the Cougar CF-V12HP fans as another solution as they also move a good deal of air while remaining silent and are a fair bit less than the Gellids.