Silent PC

[WyteWatt]

What hardware is recommended for a good silent pc that will do gaming very well still ? Is it best to go with all quiet compents or use damping material only or both ?

 

[Bar81]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/index.php
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ what Bar81 said. Also if you don't mind spending $279 for an nv 6800 plain video card, Gigabyte makes a fanless heatpipe cooled model (AGP).

some suggestions:
Zalman -alcu CPU cooler, silent power supply (Zalman 400watt is one choice), Antec SLK3000 case, Antec or other thermal-controlled or fanmated 120mmx25mm exhaust fan, Samsung Spinpoint hard drives. If you want an intake fan, Nexus 120mm are silent but not much airflow -- good for adding a little cooling to the hard drives.

 

[Erssa]

I think it's the combination of both dampening and quiet components. Even good components can be spoiled with bad case choise and vice versa. Most cases reviewed at Anandtech are made with gaming in mind. They feature excessive amount of case fans. Adequate cooling is necessary, but it can be achieved with much less noise and fans... I would start the process by picking a decent case. My case is nexus breeze. http://www.nexustek.nl/breeze.htm I am not sure if it is available at USA, but I bought mine for 160 euros here in Finland. It has an excellent silent 400w psu that alone is worth 90e it is very quiet and power efficient. Consider the price as dollars. Euro is more valuable then dollar but our prices include 22% VAT so it levels things down. Back to the case (pun intended)... Also the case has innovative cooling, having a 120mm intake fan at the bottom of the case. Basically it is the only air hole besides the exhaust of psu. So there aren't holes for the sound to get out of the case. It also features dampening foam, wich I really need since I still have some pretty loud components like ball bearing hard drive. It won't stop all the noise if the component is really loud, but I guarantee it makes a hell of a difference. You won't buy/build a case without dampening after having one, there's just no turning back. I'm not sure just how much higher my temps would be if I had new hardware, but I bet the cooling with this case would be enough. Current temps: Cpu athlon xp (palomino) 1470@1611 52c idle 54c when gaming. Cooler is glacialtech igloo silent 2, pretty silent but not effective. My HD is at 31c according to d-temp. And according to my bios my motherboard/ambient is 33c. I have fanmate2 attached to my case fan and it is running at 5v. Motherboard is epox ep-8kha+. I am guessing I will have pretty much same healthy temps with my new hardware. And don't say these are high since I use to run my comp for over a year with cpu @70c and motherboard @40c in my first case.

Back to the topic... Next thing I consider is the layout of the motherboard. The most important piece here is that it either has a passive chipset cooling solution or it has room for zalmans NB47J heatsink. That rules out boards like DFIs SLI and nf4 Ultra boards. I know for a fact that you can install that heatsink to Asus A8N SLI boards, so it will propably be my choise of motherboard when I will upgrade. I would also rule out any intel motherboards at this point because we were talking about gaming pcs and A64s run cooler then intel. Dothan's sonoma chipset isn't available to desktop yet and eventhou they would be otherwise exellent. I wouldn't recommend them over a64 because the price is pretty steep when compared. A64 motherboard MUST support cool n' quiet.

Also the motherboard must have room for a better graphics cooler with the passive northbridge solution. For graphics I would recommend Zalman's VF-700cu cooler. It runs really cool and silent compared to all stock coolers except HIS Excalbur ICEQ 2 models. They feature an Artic Cooling solution wich is a bit more efficient then Zalman, but also a bit louder. So I would pick Zalman over it.

For CPU cooling I would choose, you guessed right, Zalman. The model depending on motherboard. Feel free to disagree, but imo zalman 7000 and 7700-series are the most silent (air) cpu coolers around and also very very effective. There are couple of reasons why the older and smaller 7000B is preferable over 7700.
A) There isn't any room around the cpu socket for the 7700
B) Motherboard has a layout that makes 7700s ambiet cooling benefits less effective. For example in asus a8n-sli deluxe the bigger fan wouldn't help cool northbridge (grapics would be on the way), but it would help cool memory modules. Personally I don't consider memory cooling that important anyway because silent computing and extreme overclocking dont't walk hand in hand anyway. If you are planning extreme overclocking, keep in mind that 7700 is slighty noisier then 7000 at high speeds, but still silent compared to others.
C) Price: You can find 7000B models a bit cheaper now. 7000 and 7700 are equally good at cooling the cpu so.

Reasons to pick 7700 over 7000B.
A) Pretty similar price. (Price shouldn't be an issue anyway if aiming for silent computing.
B) Cooling benefits for northbridge, capacitators, memory and for the whole case. I have seen some via based a64 mother boards with passive cooler below cpu. Makes 7700 top choise for these motherboards.

Hard drives used to be an issue a while ago, but now pretty much all the drives have fluid dynamic bearing so the noise isn't such a big issue. There are two stand outs in hard drives. Seagate being my favourite and Samsung coming second. At this point Samsungs 250gb 7200.8 model has the best price/side/performance/noise ratio. I haven't heard WDs raptors in action, but I guess that they (the 74gb model with fdb) would be virtually silent inside a case with dampening like my nexus.

Reasons why I didn't go through water cooling? Price and the fact that they do use fans so and water pumps so don't expect miracles with them. Altho a good water cooling combined with a good case can be virtually silent. I also carry my computer around alot so water cooling would be a bit troublesome for me.

I think these were the most important parts. After I upgrade this summer my computer will be a silent gaming machine.

Asus a8n-sli deluxe, replacing stock northbridge fan.
Athlon 64 3000+ cooled with Zalman cpns7000b-alcu
2x512MB Crucial Ballistix pc-3200
XFX gf6600Gt (Silver editor's choise here at Anandtech. I believe it is the cheapest card with dual dvi to go with my two 19" Hyundai L90D+ lcd monitors. I am going to cool it with Zalman's vf-700-alcu cooler.)
WD 74GB raptor for operating system and Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB for storage

I have been hearing stuff that Asus wouldn't be too good for overclocking but I am planning to oc to 1800@2411. 268x9 @ 1:1 ratio. I have seen 3000+ going further, but this would bring the RAM to DDR536 wich was Crucials best memory performance (and not even close to their best memory speed of DDR594) at Anandtechs AMD memory test. Also I'am not interested pushing the cpu as far as it goes. For the sake of thermals, stability and noise. If all goes well this set up will combine decent performance and near to silent performance, especially idle when c&q kicks in. These components alone would make a computer silent, but combined to a case with dampening... I can't wait to see it...

Here's a picture from these forums of what it will basically look like http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/ptr-tool/151_5170.jpg http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...&STARTPAGE=5&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear here's the same thread.

 

[Bar81]

Sorry, you obviously have never had a quiet system in your life. Your recommendations are *way* off base. To the OP, as I said before head on over to the links I gave you and begin learning about the Silent PC (and watch your head explode with all the new knowledge )

edit: I just finished looking over that Nexus "Real Silent" TM case and what a joke. It's not as if Nexus has any clue how to make anything even near silent. I LOVE how they quote PSU dba in IDLE mode!?! wtf is that? Nexus PSUs have never been quiet and they probably will never be as the company, much like Seasonic, and Zalman when it comes to PSUs simply doesn't get it. I've tried them all and if you're looking for less loud then they're okay but if you're looking for near silent, then you have only one option, SilenX.com

And as a final aside, if you have fans ANYWHERE in your system, you DON'T have a silent system.

edit2: And more on the PSU, that thing is a piece of crap. You do realize that those 120mm fan models SERIOUSLY skimp on the heatsinks as they rely on the fan to cool the PSU and guess what kind of air the fan is bringing into the PSU, that's right HOT air from your inadequately cooled "silent" system which should lead to at the least performance WAY below spec and if you're unlucky, one dead PSU.

edit3: They charged you 160 EUROS for that!!!! :Q Dude, you could have bought a better and quieter power supply, your choice of case with Zalman fanmates, and Acoustic lining for less than that.

 

[DaveSimmons]

For less fanatical "quiet" computing rather than "true fanless silent" , Nexus makes very nice 120x25mm case fans, and their 300 PSU was also very quiet. Zalman's quiet line of PSUs are both quiet and efficient (less waste heat generated than many PSUs).

There's a range of quiet-to-silent, different people are willing to tolerate different amounts of noise in a quiet PC. You can set up a quiet PC just by buying the parts I listed from Newegg, attaining "true silent" requires more work.

 

[Bar81]

lol, when you try to build a near silent system (gave up on the silent as I wanted the cutting edge juice) and go through as many parts, discussions, etc as most on the SilentPC forums have you tend to become just a touch fanatical, especially when you see poor or incorrect advice being given. That's why I told the OP to read for himself as only he can decide how near silent he needs his system to be as you are very right in suggesting that a lot of people are deaf and have no concept of silence or even the ballpark it resides in; or conversely don't really want a quiet system, just a quieter system.

edit: Silent or even near silent computing is a sickness. I started out just wanting a system that would let me think in peace but the quieter it got, the louder it seemed. At every stage, quieting one part revealed the sound of another part that had been masked by the formerly louder part. And on and on until I was sitting up at 2AM with a noise floor approaching <5dba sticking my ear up to the case and trying to figure out what that slight noise was from. In the end you have to take a step back and draw the line somewhere esp if you want a cutting edge rig. I drew it at fanmating 11dba Papst 80mm fans. I'm Bar81 and I'm a Near Silent PC addict.

 

[DaveSimmons]

LOL, the first step is admitting that you have a problem

 

[mooncancook]

Silent is a relative term. What you want is get something as quiet as possible without breaking your budget. Start with cases that use 120mm fans. In my Super Lanboy case, i felt that both 120mm fans are too loud so I connect the front one to a fanmate to turn it down, and mod the rear fan connector to use 5V from the molex instead of the default 12V. These significantly quiet down the fans while still maintaining good cooling. Next get a quiet HSF such as Zalman 7000 series and set the fan speed to a setting where you feel it's quiet. Next is the graphic card. You don't have to go fanless, but don't use stock cooling coz most are loud. Replace the stock unit with something like a Zalman VF700. It's practically silent in my opinion. Lastly, get a good PSU with 120mm fan and adjustable fan speed, or a fanless PSU.

 

[Erssa]

Bar81: We were talking about a silent gaming system. Not totally noiseless. And I can tell you that this nexus power supply is really noiseless. In idle and at load. For me idle noise is much more important, since I never turn my computer off and I sleep in the same room with it, that's when my computer needs to be at its silent, when it is idle at night. Even at daytime with my current case my computer is unaudible when I am either watching tv, listening to music or gaming. Besides when you are gaming you basically have either headphones on music turned so loud that the sound from the power supply isn't an issue least of all the power supply fan. My speakers are logitech z-680 and they make a small sound all the time when they are on. It's so "loud" that I can't hear my computer from under it. Still most people wouldn't even notice it.

I consider that 160 euros a bargain. It includes a 400W power supply worth 90e, a case fan worth 20e. So that leaves 50e for the case + dampening. Mind you that these prices include VAT so you cannot just compare them to parts in the USA. But it should be more or less the same for european countries. Your acoustipack deluxe dampening costs 45e alone then add a case, case fans and quality power supply that will cost over 200e and that 160e starts looking cheap. I don't live in states so I can't just order anything I want from newegg. My setup is silent enough for all except the most fanatic audiophiles. Most people are even satisfied to Antecs sonata even without dampening, even though the psu included in it is way too loud imo, two of my friends have antec sonata, both said they were sorry they didn't wait a bit and buy Nexus Breeze after they heard, or better didn't hear it. One friend of mine has bought one and has a P4 2.6@3.2 in it and the wholes system running with water cooling and it is the most silent system I have seen. Anyone except the 0.001% of people would be pleased with it. The only negative thing I can say about nexus is the looks. I prefer more simpler look. The plastic covers on top of the metal covers are a bit ugly, but I tolerate them because they have an isolating role. Not only does Breeze isolate noises inside the case, but outside too. Keep in mind that the PSU has a improtant role in the cooling of the Breeze, so it won't be suitable for everyone. I don't know what happens if you use a different power supply. But 400W is the most powerful they ship. It should be powerful enough for most people, certainly for me.

I don't appreciate you claiming that I don't have a clue about silent computing. I am pretty familiar with it aswell with the sites that you recommended to the original poster.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article204-page3.html Let me quote "The Nexus NX4090 is a significant improvement on an already good quiet PSU. Efficiency is much better than the earlier NX3500, and its increased power capacity and ATX12V v2.0 compatibility are welcome. Its distinctive orange colored fan remains the smoothest, least obtrusive 120mm fan I've heard in a PSU. The Nexus NX4090's fan noise characteristic puts it among the quietest of power supplies we've tested." "The Nexus NX4090 has no obvious weaknesses and many strengths:

*Very smooth, quiet fan
*Pretty high efficiency
*Good stability and voltage regulation
*Good self-cooling
*Good directed airflow design

It certainly deserves our recommendation."

Certainly it looks like you don't read your own sites? I quote again "Its distinctive orange colored fan remains the smoothest, least obtrusive 120mm fan I've heard in a PSU" I know that people have their favourite brands. Some prefer thermalright, some zalman some other. But none of the products I recommended are bad in the silent computing point of view. In fact most of the components I mentioned are recommended by silentpcreview, quietpc.com and other sites specialized at silent computing. Besides they are good value and bang for the buck in perspective of silent computing. Just looking at your signature gives away that we have different perspectives to this. Your memory alone costs 499e in Finland and the rest of the parts are really excellent and expensive too. I don't know how much it cost for you but I would guess between 2800-3500$, that's a pretty small part of the comminity. Let's keep in mind that anandtech forums are among the top10 biggest in the world and we have all sorts of people with different budgets and goals here. I am just putting in my 2 cents and actually giving advices instead of just posting couple of links. I stand 100% behind my recommendation and I bet that if I would post that set to forums.silentpcreview.com they wouldn't tell me that my "recommendations are *way* off base".

Just to give prices for my rig: Case + psu: 160e, memory 220e, cpu + zalman 140e + 40e, graphics + zalman 200e + 27e, motherboard + zalman 160e +7e, seagate 250gb 135e = total 1089e. That's less then a 1100e for a quality silent computer without optical drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and operating system.

And more on the topic. I haven't actually tested my self but I have heard nothing but good about acoustipacks dampening kits by http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/acoustipack.asp They have models that fit straight cases like Antec Sonata, Antec SLK 3700 and some Chieftec cases. Whether you are going for top of the line most inaudible computer or just a silent computer you want the dampening in your case.

 

[Erssa]

I won't admit that I am silent pc addict though couple of my friends would propably disagree on that. It is a point of view I guess. Some of my friends buy the cheapest, some of the most expensive stuff. I go in the middle and try to get most silent with a decent value. I guess the biggest problem isn't the fact that noisy computers disturb me. I think it's the time you use on finding those best parts for yourself from internet. It has taken far too many hours to get to know what you excatly want and then to actually get them. The best parts usually have the lowest availabilty and if moneys is an issue you just can't order the best hard drive enclosure from across the world and pay half the amount of the product in mailing costs. Sometimes it goes so far that the dampening product would cost even more then the product that you want to make less noisy. I agree with Mooncancook only one can make up his own mind what he his goals are. But sometimes it is just a bit easier and faster just to be told what direction to take and what to buy. Unless you plan the building from a scrach you will most likely just end up replacing parts from your computer and at one point you have changed them all. I changed my case, psu, cpu heatsink and northbride cooler before I finally realized it was my ball bearing hard drive that was whining at night when everything else was quiet. It still whines in a high pitch tone. But I rather tolerate it for a while and build a decent rig from scratch so I won't have bottle necks in my system... But again, that's just me.

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: Erssa
Bar81: We were talking about a silent gaming system. Not totally noiseless. And I can tell you that this nexus power supply is really noiseless. In idle and at load. For me idle noise is much more important, since I never turn my computer off and I sleep in the same room with it, that's when my computer needs to be at its silent, when it is idle at night. Even at daytime with my current case my computer is unaudible when I am either watching tv, listening to music or gaming. Besides when you are gaming you basically have either headphones on music turned so loud that the sound from the power supply isn't an issue least of all the power supply fan. My speakers are logitech z-680 and they make a small sound all the time when they are on. It's so "loud" that I can't hear my computer from under it. Still most people wouldn't even notice it.

I consider that 160 euros a bargain. It includes a 400W power supply worth 90e, a case fan worth 20e. So that leaves 50e for the case + dampening. Mind you that these prices include VAT so you cannot just compare them to parts in the USA. But it should be more or less the same for european countries. Your acoustipack deluxe dampening costs 45e alone then add a case, case fans and quality power supply that will cost over 200e and that 160e starts looking cheap. I don't live in states so I can't just order anything I want from newegg. My setup is silent enough for all except the most fanatic audiophiles. Most people are even satisfied to Antecs sonata even without dampening, even though the psu included in it is way too loud imo, two of my friends have antec sonata, both said they were sorry they didn't wait a bit and buy Nexus Breeze after they heard, or better didn't hear it. One friend of mine has bought one and has a P4 2.6@3.2 in it and the wholes system running with water cooling and it is the most silent system I have seen. Anyone except the 0.001% of people would be pleased with it. The only negative thing I can say about nexus is the looks. I prefer more simpler look. The plastic covers on top of the metal covers are a bit ugly, but I tolerate them because they have an isolating role. Not only does Breeze isolate noises inside the case, but outside too. Keep in mind that the PSU has a improtant role in the cooling of the Breeze, so it won't be suitable for everyone. I don't know what happens if you use a different power supply. But 400W is the most powerful they ship. It should be powerful enough for most people, certainly for me.

I don't appreciate you claiming that I don't have a clue about silent computing. I am pretty familiar with it aswell with the sites that you recommended to the original poster.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article204-page3.html Let me quote "The Nexus NX4090 is a significant improvement on an already good quiet PSU. Efficiency is much better than the earlier NX3500, and its increased power capacity and ATX12V v2.0 compatibility are welcome. Its distinctive orange colored fan remains the smoothest, least obtrusive 120mm fan I've heard in a PSU. The Nexus NX4090's fan noise characteristic puts it among the quietest of power supplies we've tested." "The Nexus NX4090 has no obvious weaknesses and many strengths:

*Very smooth, quiet fan
*Pretty high efficiency
*Good stability and voltage regulation
*Good self-cooling
*Good directed airflow design

It certainly deserves our recommendation."

Certainly it looks like you don't read your own sites? I quote again "Its distinctive orange colored fan remains the smoothest, least obtrusive 120mm fan I've heard in a PSU" I know that people have their favourite brands. Some prefer thermalright, some zalman some other. But none of the products I recommended are bad in the silent computing point of view. In fact most of the components I mentioned are recommended by silentpcreview, quietpc.com and other sites specialized at silent computing. Besides they are good value and bang for the buck in perspective of silent computing. Just looking at your signature gives away that we have different perspectives to this. Your memory alone costs 499e in Finland and the rest of the parts are really excellent and expensive too. I don't know how much it cost for you but I would guess between 2800-3500$, that's a pretty small part of the comminity. Let's keep in mind that anandtech forums are among the top10 biggest in the world and we have all sorts of people with different budgets and goals here. I am just putting in my 2 cents and actually giving advices instead of just posting couple of links. I stand 100% behind my recommendation and I bet that if I would post that set to forums.silentpcreview.com they wouldn't tell me that my "recommendations are *way* off base".

Just to give prices for my rig: Case + psu: 160e, memory 220e, cpu + zalman 140e + 40e, graphics + zalman 200e + 27e, motherboard + zalman 160e +7e, seagate 250gb 135e = total 1089e. That's less then a 1100e for a quality silent computer without optical drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and operating system.

And more on the topic. I haven't actually tested my self but I have heard nothing but good about acoustipacks dampening kits by http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/acoustipack.asp They have models that fit straight cases like Antec Sonata, Antec SLK 3700 and some Chieftec cases. Whether you are going for top of the line most inaudible computer or just a silent computer you want the dampening in your case.

Fair enough, you do know your silent computing. I will say that I don't agree with the site's recommendations and I still think they are too loud and not near silent. Like I said, I don't base my recommendations on reviews but actual use and I've owned them all and the SilenX.com PSUs are the only ones that even come close to quiet. But as you said everyone's definition of quiet is different, and I'm sure your setup is very quiet, it's just not what I would call near silent, but then again I have a near silent PC addiction so I'm probably in a very small group that demand near silent as opposed to quiet. Like I said, I buy the best, for example Papst fans at a ridiculously low 11dba, and I *still* fanmate them because they are too loud.

As you also said you're right in that I shouldn't give the impression that you have to go near silent as it's quiet expensive and libel to drive you to the brink of insanity (bwahahaha) The only problem I have with your recommendations for a quiet system is that case. Not only do I think it's overpriced (whether I'm right or not is a matter of opinion) but I find the PSU simply unacceptable for the reason I stated above. Again, that's based upon my own research and discussions with others.

The Acoustipack products are the best in the market imo and I have lined my case with them and am very pleased with their performance and ease of installation.

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: Erssa
I won't admit that I am silent pc addict though couple of my friends would propably disagree on that. It is a point of view I guess. Some of my friends buy the cheapest, some of the most expensive stuff. I go in the middle and try to get most silent with a decent value. I guess the biggest problem isn't the fact that noisy computers disturb me. I think it's the time you use on finding those best parts for yourself from internet. It has taken far too many hours to get to know what you excatly want and then to actually get them. The best parts usually have the lowest availabilty and if moneys is an issue you just can't order the best hard drive enclosure from across the world and pay half the amount of the product in mailing costs. Sometimes it goes so far that the dampening product would cost even more then the product that you want to make less noisy. I agree with Mooncancook only one can make up his own mind what he his goals are. But sometimes it is just a bit easier and faster just to be told what direction to take and what to buy. Unless you plan the building from a scrach you will most likely just end up replacing parts from your computer and at one point you have changed them all. I changed my case, psu, cpu heatsink and northbride cooler before I finally realized it was my ball bearing hard drive that was whining at night when everything else was quiet. It still whines in a high pitch tone. But I rather tolerate it for a while and build a decent rig from scratch so I won't have bottle necks in my system... But again, that's just me.

You have an excellent point about pointing people in the right direction; I was perhaps too overzealous in my response. And you're definitely right when it comes to the expense. It's a lot like high end audio gear. To get to 80% of perfect it's relatively cheap, but as you go higher the costs increase exponentially. To wit, I still can't believe I spent $20-25/each on the five Papst 80mm 11dba fans (four in my case and one spare) and *then* fanmated them. I definitely am close to nuts on this subject

On another note, things you might not think of when building a quiet computer also come into play, often overlooked is your DVD drive. If you plan on watching movies, listening to CDs/DVD-Audio then make sure the drive read speed can be controlled or purchase a Plextor.

 

[ORFJackal]

For my AMD64 3400+ and Radeon 9800 XT, I'm using a combination of Nexus Breeze 400, Zalman Reserator 1 (fanless watercooling) and Zalman ZM-GWB1 (water block for graphics card). Full specs are at http://www.orfjackal.net/pc.php

Right now the most noise comes from the hard drives (160+250GB Seagate 7200.7 UltraATA and 250+250GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA) and the PSU fan. The Nexus case is quiet, but not fully silent. In the night it is possible to hear the fans (distance to my bed is 2-3m) and the new SATA drives I bought are resonating with the case. I have not been able to hear the pump of the watercooler from a distance (it is under a table, behind the PC case, in a corner).

I haven't yet tried slowing down the 120mm fans it has. I'm planning on moving my hard drives to a file server in a different room, so that only one or two would remain in this PC.

 

[calyco]

Zalman, Vantec and Seagate comes to mind when I hear Silent PC