Project: Silent and powerful gaming machine. Looking for advice.

[tingies]

It's time for me to build a new gaming machine. My current one is pretty old closing in at almost 3 years. It has started to give me troubles for about a month now and I've been edging to upgrade for a while now.

My goal is to build a machine that is very silent and has enough horsepower to last me 2-3 years. My main priority is to make it as silent as possible. Horsepower comes in second. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of horsepower for low noise.

I'm the kind of guy who likes to build a machine and then never bothers with it again unless there is a need to. As long as it works well I won't bother with it.

I haven't really followed technology since I built my current machine so I don't really know what's hot currently. Hence I am writing here looking for any piece of advice. Keep in mind that for now I haven't set a budget yet. I'm looking to get an idea of where technology is at these days and then slowly start deciding on parts and stuff. I'm open to anything so throw me what you got!

With that, I ask you, what do you guys recommend?

 

[DSF]

Have you read the stickies at the top of the page? Start there, and post the answers to the questions in your thread. If you do that I think you'll find that you get more responses.

 

[tingies]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming of course.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread.
I'm willing to spend up to 3000 not including a monitor.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
U.S.A.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
Never been a fanboy, I always go with the performance.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
No parts to be reused.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have and I've got roughly an idea.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
This one I'm not sure. I might overclock if that means no additional noise.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Late April/Early May.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: tingies
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have and I've got roughly an idea.

And what are you thinking?

 

[Davegod]

gaming on the quiet for $3000? On that kind of budget water seems the obvious answer except of course that you say "I'm the kind of guy who likes to build a machine and then never bothers with it again unless there is a need to." Though TBH maybe these kits have become maintenance free since last I looked at them.

tbh I'm not sure what you mean by "silent" because there's literal & everyday meaning of silent and then there's PC "silent" which these days merely means not irritatingly loud.

If it's the latter just go for a good aftermarket HSF like a TRUE with a good 120mm fan (PWM if possible), a good case maybe Antec P190 (comes with 3 so-so fans, I'd maybe suggest swapping them for 1 or 2 good aftermarket ones), a good PSU, and pick a videocard with good 3rd party cooling (going for the top model is always going to make life harder but the second from top usually is cooler). For hard disk I have a WD1001FALS and hardly hear it.

edit: oh and motherboard that has passive cooling, those tiny little fans are always awful.

 

[imported_wired247]

Silent case on air cooling = stay at stock settings to keep temps down and run a fan controller to adjust the fans below the audible level.

 

[zerogear]

i7, DDR3, everything water cooled. If you have 3K, go for it.

 

[tingies]

By "silent" I mean so quiet that you cannot tell if it's turned on at idle, or as close I can get to that.

 

[ViRaLRuSh]

Water cooling, SSD storage etc....

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: tingies
By "silent" I mean so quiet that you cannot tell if it's turned on at idle, or as close I can get to that.

well you've got quite a job ahead then, I suggest www.silentpcreview.com

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: ViRaLRuSh
Water cooling, SSD storage etc....

OP is going to need a bigger budget...

 

[zerogear]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: ViRaLRuSh
Water cooling, SSD storage etc....

OP is going to need a bigger budget...

I think any WD Green drives will be fine. Spinpoint F1 is also pretty quiet.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

silent all the time, or just when you aren't gaming?

 

[faxon]

well for starters pick a case that comes pre insulated. Antec P180/182/183/190 come to mind, as does the Coolermaster Sileo 500. Get yourself a 120GB or 250GB OCZ Vertex for boot drive and space for some games (size depends on how much leftover cash from other stuff), use WD Caviar Green drives for storage (low power, variable RPM, virtually silent), make sure your hard drive mountings have rubber/silicone fastening points to minimize vibrations. for your video card, try and get something you can replace the stock cooler on with something aftermarket that can be run fanless with adequate case airflow on low speed nexus fans or yate loons. CPU, get an i7 920 and OC it up to 3.6GHz, thermalright ultra extreme 120 CPU cooler (TRUE), and a board that can be run with entirely passive cooling (Gigabyte boards are good for this, EX58-UD4P is reasonably priced, as is the UD5. Asus P6T Deluxe V2 is also a good pick). get at LEAST 6GB of ram. if you plan on doing things like multiboxing MMORPGs get 12GB. i have 6GB of ram and i dualbox EQ2. i easily put a full load on my 6GB i have in my system right now.

other ideas:

1: Water cooling is an option, though it will need maintenance every few months (check water level, clean the system out, ect), and some pumps may not be quiet enough to your liking depending on what type of a system you build.

2: Ducting your entire case could help keep airflow to a maximum so you can use lower speed fans to get the same results. make sure you can set it up so you can vent air directly inside and onto your CPU cooler, this can give a push/pull effect on it with only 1 fan mounted directly on the cooler, and gives you a higher CFM, which some coolers crave more than others to operate at peak performance.

questions:

what resolution is your monitor you plan on using? with your budget you are probably going to have enough left over for an insane graphics card, but if you are gaming on a crappy monitor i would honestly recommend upgrading this.

comments:

you will probably have enough money left over for an audiophile grade soundcard (http://www.head-fi.org/forums/...-guide-no-56k-226975/), sweet headphones, and a discrete amplifier to go with them. consider looking into an investment in your ears.

DO NOT BUY A BIGFOOT NETWORKS KILLER NIC. you might as well mail that section of your money to me so i can get an SSD sooner than later!

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: tingies
By "silent" I mean so quiet that you cannot tell if it's turned on at idle, or as close I can get to that.

That shouldn't be too difficult to do, even aircooled.

Antec P180/P182/P190/P-whatever
random x58 chipset SLI mobo
random 6GB DDR3 RAM kit
whichever Core i7 CPU you can afford
random ginormous heatpipe heatsink with 120mm fan support
a pair of GTX 285 without too high a factory overclock
VelociRaptor 300GB for boot/apps
WD 1/1.5/2TB "green" drive for data if you need the space
A power supply known to be quiet, efficient, good quality and at least 800W

Assemble the system. Set all fans to low (IIRC Antec uses fans with 3-speed controllers). Set CPU fan to temp-controlled ("Smart fan" in BIOS) if the fan is a 4-wire PWM design. If the fan that comes with the cooler is not a 4-pin PWM fan, or it didn't come with a fan, purchase a low speed 4-pin PWM fan to fit the heatsink.

The system should be fairly quiet already, but if you need it more so, then start replacing all the 120mm fans with Yate Loon low speed models, and get some kind of fan controller to undervolt them. If possible, undervolt the CPU a bit in the BIOS and further reduce the speed of the CPU fan using Smart Fan, if it has adjustable settings beyond "enabled."

At this point the idle noise should be fairly low, and at stock speeds the CPU/GPUs should be able to withstand quite high temperatures so you shouldn't need to crank up the fans. Just don't obsess about temperatures and you'll be fine.