Silent SLI system possible?

[Skullcrusher1.0]

Where I am really having difficulty is choosing the power supply. SeaSonic or Be Quiet? Fanless is only available up to 520W, however the SS Platinum have silent mode where the fan is not used/kept to minimum. Be Quiet have quad to single rail switch? First time I ever heard of that.

Cooler Master HAF XM
5 x 140mm fans
Best Dust Fan Filters?
Best Sound Dampening Foam?
??? Power Supply
ASRock Extreme4
Intel i5-3350P (69W)
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro (with 2 x Akasa Apache PWM 120mm)
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB x 2
LG Blu-ray ODD
ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB x 2 in SLI
Windows 8 Pro 64-Bit

Possible upgrades in future:

Ceton InfiniTV 4 Cable TV Tuner Card
HT Omega eClaro

I have been using power supply calculators like crazy trying to figure out what would be the quietest. Fanless would be nice but it's looking like 600W to 660W to play it safe? Sorry I am such a silence freak but I know AnandTech has the expertise to help. Thanks!

 

[Freddy1765]

I've got a Seasonic G Series 550W that I can't hear at all. Loudest part of my system is the two HDDs when computer is at idle. The 650W comes with 4 PCI-E connectors for SLI; might be worth looking into. Also, if you want a silent SLI system, I somehow doubt the PSU will be making the most noise. How do you plan to silently cool two GPUs?

 

[Skullcrusher1.0]

The GPU's @ 31dB LOAD will be the loudest. I am hoping that the sound dampening material will do the trick on left side of HAF XM but I have 2 140mm fans to use there too. I live in fear of getting a psu with coil whine. Thank you for the suggestion. I originally wanted to do GTX 750 Ti SLI but now I am waiting for GTX 850 Ti's!

 

[Nec_V20]

Where I am really having difficulty is choosing the power supply. SeaSonic or Be Quiet? Fanless is only available up to 520W, however the SS Platinum have silent mode where the fan is not used/kept to minimum. Be Quiet have quad to single rail switch? First time I ever heard of that.

Cooler Master HAF XM
5 x 140mm fans
Best Dust Fan Filters?
Best Sound Dampening Foam?
??? Power Supply
ASRock Extreme4
Intel i5-3350P (69W)
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro (with 2 x Akasa Apache PWM 120mm)
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB x 2
LG Blu-ray ODD
ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB x 2 in SLI
Windows 8 Pro 64-Bit

Possible upgrades in future:

Ceton InfiniTV 4 Cable TV Tuner Card
HT Omega eClaro

I have been using power supply calculators like crazy trying to figure out what would be the quietest. Fanless would be nice but it's looking like 600W to 660W to play it safe? Sorry I am such a silence freak but I know AnandTech has the expertise to help. Thanks!

Considering what you paid out for your two ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost I don't think that you would want to cheap out on a PSU.

I bought the Corsair AX860, it has a "Hybrid" switch which means that the fan will not kick in until it reaches 40% load and then the fan speed will gradually increase. So the fan will not kick in under 344 Watts (the power consumption of the ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost under load and in SLI would be 331 Watts, idle it is 90 Watts).

At about 50% load (430 Watts) the fan of the AX80 would be at around the noise level of the ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost at idle and at around 70% load (588 Watts) the fan of the AX860 would be about as loud as the fans of the ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost under load.

Basically what this means is that with the AX860 it will be silent (fanless) when your ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost SLI is idle (they draw about 90 Watts), at no time that I can see will the fan of the AX860 be louder than your graphics cards.

Personally I don't yet trust the Corsair AX860i, however it has a programmable fan and can be made noiseless to a higher load value than 40%, it also costs a lot more than the AX860.

I have the HAF XM case and if your main interest is quiet, why did you not go with a 200 mm fan in the side panel of the case instead of 2*140?

 

[Skullcrusher1.0]

Originally I did have a bunch of 200mm megaflows which move decent air but got noisy even after sewing machine oil drops. Then I looked at BitFenix Spectre Pro fans which have better airflow but either will or will not mount in CM cases. After witnessing the joy that is Akasa Apache PWM 120mm on my TT water pro. Now I am looking to German engineering for answers on keeping it all quiet! Them Akasas are hard to beat on quiet! Seasonics higher end psu's have the same hybrid thingy. My 1000W SS Platinum was the quietest I have ever owned.

 

[Nec_V20]

Originally I did have a bunch of 200mm megaflows which move decent air but got noisy even after sewing machine oil drops. Then I looked at BitFenix Spectre Pro fans which have better airflow but either will or will not mount in CM cases. After witnessing the joy that is Akasa Apache PWM 120mm on my TT water pro. Now I am looking to German engineering for answers on keeping it all quiet! Them Akasas are hard to beat on quiet! Seasonics higher end psu's have the same hybrid thingy. My 1000W SS Platinum was the quietest I have ever owned.

The AX860 is also a Seasonic, I have had the AX850 (Seasonic) running 24/7 in my i7-990x main system and the thing is nigh on silent.

One of the two AX860s I bought has been running in my NAS rig (which is in the HAF XM) for three months now and I am perfectly happy with it. I sit with my ear about a foot and a half away from the machine and I cannot hear it when it is running.

I know that the AX860 is overkill, however I saw an offer that was only a few pennies higher than the HX850 and only $43 more than the HX650 (I spend more than that in one evening in the pub) so I thought I would go with that considering the really good experience I have had with the AX850, its direct predecessor.

I got the AX860 cheaper than what I would have had to pay for the cheapest offers I saw on an AX750, AX760, AX760i or an AX850. My original thought however was to get a TX750 and only came across the AX860 offer by accident.

Although German I have gone with the Austrian Noctua fans (NF-F12) for my H60 (in the HAF XM case) and H100i (which I am building into my new system in a HAF XB case) Corsair watercoolers. My main machine (i7-990x) is in a HAF X case. I have also had two Noctua NF-P14 fans running on the H80 for about 3 years 24/7 and they are still as quiet now as the day I bought them.

If I find something that is good and works for me then I tend to stay with that manufacturer.

Don't get me wrong I am not a Corsair fanboy, I just like the CoolIT pumps for the watercoolers and the Seasonic PSUs that are the OEMs for Corsair (although I must say that the fans they supply with both the H60 and the H100i badly suck - absolutely terrible design and loud as hell). I am also somewhat miffed by the stinginess of Corsair with screws for their watercoolers and their cases.

 

[Skullcrusher1.0]

I was thinking more along the lines of Nanoxia, Noctua is too ugly for me, though performance wise they have amazing stuff. The Rosewill Capstone are rebranded Super Flower psu's that are quite a bargain for the performance and silence they offer too. In the past I have had a Corsair H50 on a i5-2500K and a Corsair H100 on i7-3770K which I did not like at all. I will always dedicate the top for the only exhaust fans since heat naturally rises. When I tried the TT Water 2.0 Pro, it blew the H50 and H100 away as far as temps and silence. The installation was weird but I would not hesitate to buy the Water 3.0 Pro! The H50 was a solid little cooler though.

 

[Nec_V20]

I was thinking more along the lines of Nanoxia, Noctua is too ugly for me, though performance wise they have amazing stuff. The Rosewill Capstone are rebranded Super Flower psu's that are quite a bargain for the performance and silence they offer too. In the past I have had a Corsair H50 on a i5-2500K and a Corsair H100 on i7-3770K which I did not like at all. I will always dedicate the top for the only exhaust fans since heat naturally rises. When I tried the TT Water 2.0 Pro, it blew the H50 and H100 away as far as temps and silence. The installation was weird but I would not hesitate to buy the Water 3.0 Pro! The H50 was a solid little cooler though.

It looked to me like the OEM for the TT Water 2.0 Pro was the same as the one for the Corsair H70 so I checked and right enough they are both from the company Asetek.

I have the H60 bolted to the inside of the top of my HAF XM exhausting out of the case and on top of that I have the 200 mm fan. With the Noctua NF-F12 turned all the way down on my fan controller (1200 RPM) the temperature of my CPU (AMD A8-5600k) running Prime95 with max CPU load option and four videos running to give the GPU part of the APU something to do was one degree Centigrade higher than the Corsair fans running full whack at 2700 RPM.

Running the Noctua fan at top speed (1500 RPM) the temperature is four degrees cooler than with the Corsair fans running at 2700 RPM.

The fan Corsair supplies with the H60 is round, then it has some rubber around the mounting points which raises the fan from the cooler. Now what you want if you are using a radiator is a fan that effectively makes a seal around the fan and the square frame of the radiator so that the air being sucked into the fan has nowhere to go except through the radiator. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise this.

Not so however Corsair. Their fans have a round frame, and being raised a bit off the cooler by the rubber around the mounting points they defeat the purpose of having an SP120 fan (SP in this case stands for "Static Pressure") supplied with it. A lot of the airflow generated will take the path of least resistance which is outwards and around rather than through the radiator.

I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

The way I describe it is; if you give me a block of granite and asked me to chip away everything that didn't look like an elephant then that is exactly what you would have, a shed-load of granite chips and nothing whatsoever resembling an elephant

So I don't really notice the colour of the Noctua fans one way or another.

 

[Skullcrusher1.0]

TT Water 3.0 Pro Radiator Dim. 151mm x 120mm x 49mm

TT Water 2.0 Pro Radiator Dim. 149.9mm x 119.9mm x 48.8mm

Corsair Hydro H70 Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 50mm

Corsair Hydro H80 Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 38mm

Corsair Hydro H80i Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 38mm

and if you need any FM2 parts, I got a bunch for sale soon!

 

[Nec_V20]

TT Water 3.0 Pro Radiator Dim. 151mm x 120mm x 49mm

TT Water 2.0 Pro Radiator Dim. 149.9mm x 119.9mm x 48.8mm

Corsair Hydro H70 Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 50mm

Corsair Hydro H80 Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 38mm

Corsair Hydro H80i Radiator Dim. 152mm x 120mm x 38mm

and if you need any FM2 parts, I got a bunch for sale soon!

The pumps used on the H80 and H80i are from the OEM CoolIT.

This was the first time ever in 30 years that I have built up a system for myself based on an AMD processor.

For the job I want it to do - run my NAS and act as a backup system if my main one were ever down for any reason - the A8-5600k is just absolutely perfect. An Intel i3 would just not be up to the job unless I added a graphics card which would defeat the purpose of having a silent NAS, and without the card I would be severely limited with regard to using it as a backup system.

I am building another system at the moment and my favourite so far for CPU/Mobo is the i7-4770k with a Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H.

 

[Skullcrusher1.0]

While I am sure that it will be a great processor and motherboard, for myself I have not been able to justify Haswell in general, especially for a guy trying to keep things quiet!

The i3's in September might change my mind but I kind of doubt it.

Intel needs to create better than Sandy Bridge chips as far as wattage and overclockability for me to ever want a K chip again.

i5-2500K to i7-3770K to A8-5600K to i5-3350P to i7-8770K!