Silent Project

[SneakyStuff]

I'm going to be building a pc this spring/into early summer (before June 7th) , and although I have decided to wait for prices to go down, and for VIA to release their AGP/PCI-E chipset, Some things I do know, I will be getting an AMD Athlon 64, and will be using my current PNY, Verto FX5700u. Now, that being said, one of the main reasons I am building a new pc is to reduce noise (caused by my dump truck dell) My pc is in the room I sleep in, so I want it be as quiet as possible. I would love to hear about your experiences with cases, fans, and Athlon 64 coolers. I was thinking about a case with just a 120mm fan, and a single PSU fan, to keep things quiet, temperature really isn't an issue, seeing as how I only lightly OC my graphics card, and that's covered. Speaking of the graphics card, I know I can shut that up at night by putting the system on standby, but is there a fan controller for graphics card fans? If any of you have a setup you really like, i'd love to hear it, thanks! :beer:

 

[klah]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/, for the scoop on which case, psu and hsf to get.

Zalman has a fanless video card cooler for $30.

 

[SneakyStuff]

how hard is it to take off the stock heatsink? verto it's front and back.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.dansdata.com/foam.htm

so don't try going foam.

don't make noise to begin with. research quietest drive possible, buy that. hd noise is bad.

get fan speed controller and low rpm fans. get a zalman passive cooler for video card, some come with the bracket fan that blows down... one can fan speed control that. its not entirely necessary in the first place for the passive cooler. fanmate1 for cheapo internal control, or simply use external bay controller...a better idea. get quiet psu and heatsink cooler and ur done.

i've fan speed controlled all my fans and psu. all i hear are my loud western digital hd whines... quite annoying, but i don't feel like throwing away perfectly good drives.

 

[GnomeCop]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i've fan speed controlled all my fans and psu. all i hear are my loud western digital hd whines... quite annoying, but i don't feel like throwing away perfectly good drives.

I got the same problem with my WD drives. I saw some seagate 80gb drives for 40 bucks after rebate and couldnt resist replacing them though. The WD drives will find themselves into a server at work.

 

[Dman877]

Antec Sonata sounds like a good candidate, 120mm exhaust and 380 watt single fan psu. It's reviewed at silentpc. One of the nice things about the A64 is the Cool and Quiet, with fan-only connectors changing voltage to fans based on load on the psu, having the cpu drop to 800 mhz during idle will significantly reduce noise. IMO, for cpu coolers grab a zalman or any 80 heatsink and throw a panflo L1A on it (I use a TT Venus 12 w/L1A, temps from 28@800 mhz to 39@full load/2.0).

Like the others said, if you are sensitive to high freq noise, make sure you pic your HD carefully.

Can't help ya with vga coolers, my 9700 Pro stock cooler is silent though.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Alright, so i'm going to go with the Antec Sonota, and a Zalman CNPS7000A copper CPU fan. Thanks for the input, and I never realozed that the HD's made that noise, i'll be sure to check carefully, thanks!

 

[GnomeCop]

the thing about the antec sonata is that having the 120mm fan in the front and back means having a big 120mm hole in the front and back from which noise escapes easily. Definitely pick quiet HDs and components if you are going for a sonata

 

[Dman877]

Only need 1 120mm in the Sonata. Front fan really isn't necessary. With just the rear fan and my hand at the front vent, the air being pulled into the case is significant. It doesn't seem to change much when I do install a front fan as well.

 

[psiu]

The front fan on the Sonata would be something to add afterwards if you feel like it. The one in the back should be more than sufficient. If you haven't put your hand by a 120mm fan blowing before...WOW! Those suckers can move some air.

The power supply (as noted above) is the single fan version of the True380. Nice case, also has rubber grommets included for the hard drives. Check out the Seagate drives, those seem to be fairly quiet.

You'll still get some noise, but it should definitely be something you can sleep too (assuming you can sleep with a bit of noise--like having a ceiling fan spinning slow--personally, I prefer a little white noise).

Good luck

 

[0roo0roo]

well mostly cuz the front fan would just make a lot of noise for very little airflow, its ventilation there is pretty shoddy.