If you was building a pc and money wasn't a factor which parts would you pick to keep the noise as low as possible?
I live in the UK and have been saving since last christmas in order to build a PC. I would like it to be as quiet as possible without sacrificing performance. Thinking of going for a i7-3770K but may drop down a bit and go for an i5-3570K with 8GB ram, a SSD and a single graphics card (GTX 670/680 maybe). Thats about all I've decided so far. It would just be for games I don't do rendering or anything like that, can't even find a case I find aesthetically pleasing yet.
Thanks in advance! Oh and I don't want any fancy lights on the fans either, reason I want it quiet is so that my girlfriend can sleep in the same room.
And try and get something like a DirectCU II card, so the fans are quiet and of quality.
Or go passive... But that's lower end.
My new HDD, Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM doesn't make that much noise but if you insist on silence go with SSD's.
And something like the Fractal Design Define R4 for a case, if you want a quiet machine i'm guessing you don't want to see it either so that case will be nice under a desk.
Oh! And don't use the stock CPU heatsink :) Hope this helps
H100i with Noctua fans and don't overclock (its overkill but you'll only hear them on start up). A quaity PSU that only uses the fans when needed. Agree with the DirectCU II card. SSD and HDD combo with the OS on the SSD. I've got some of that in a Corsair 650D and my laptop is louder by a huge margin.
I was originally planning to go for a SSD HDD combo, would a HDD make noise when not reading or writing data?
Is there any air cooling CPU heatsink which could match the H100i at the same noise level? I know it is unlikely but I just have a really bad feeling about liquid being inside a machine.
I was under the impression that Nvidia is better for some games and AMD is better for others.
A good cpu air cooler if you want low noise is the Havik 140. It runs at 25db, and has fantastic cooling performance. Logan made a review of it. http://teksyndicate.com/reviews/2012/12/11/nzxt-havik-140-hsf-review
If you want the most bang for your buck with a high end gpu, the 7970 is probably your best option. It has better performance that the 670, and keeps up fairly well against the 680.
And I definitely second ItsAnArse's case recommendation. The Define R4 is very quiet, sleek looking, and has great airflow.
How about phonic isolation, Nexus cases are well made and quiet and some isolated, Akasa sells pax mate, sheets of foam. Liquid cooling is a good idea unless the pump is noisy, there are big external radiators a viable option. Also soft membrane keyboard or soft mechanical keyboard and Nexus clickless mouse look into that.
I can estimate the noise from my PC to around 50-70 db inside, fans med. 1 intake 1 outake with a tube between, pretty silent PSU, still the isolation makes it about 2 times quieter from the outside so it's important. (I don't see my case's sides nor care about lights too)
Get the i5, it's cooler and cheaper, and serves pretty much the same for games (multithreaded performance and multicore processing).
For games I'd reccomend going as silent as you can for a video card, I can't really endorse anything because most high end are noisy unless you fix yourself a liquid cooling system. Reference coolers are always loud, small fans high rpm too. On air, get the best heatsink you can find (HIS made good coolers, the top cards might be good search that). Don't get recirculating fans (non-exhaust-type fans). I went from exhaust to dual fans on a 4870 that stays idle at 60, top at 75, always, and there's a huge increase in case temperature, and it's the only thing I don't like from it.
Don't waste power and life on overclocking and bad idle settings, make sure drivers are fine, fans are dynamically adjustable, underclock 2d clock speeds, underclock (not even necessary on new intels) when in idle, undervolt (same here i suppose)
I would have thought having that front door would really restrict air flow. I do like the look of it though, especially being able to cover the unused fan slots, looks like it will be too big to fit into the desk I ordered unfortunately. Will have to measure it when I set it up on Monday.
I really liked the look of the havik when I saw it before so will grab one of those. Also think I will get an Asus GTX 660ti 2GB with the Direct CU.
Just a power supply, mother board and ram to pick now I think. Oh with the havik would the thermal paste it comes with be good or would you suggest getting some arctic silver I think it was called?
That's what I first thought of as well, but according to most reviews I've seen, air flows through the case without a problem. Also, keep in mind that the Havik is a HUGE cpu cooler, but it should fit in the R4, as it's quite a bit wider than most mid-tower cases. The 660ti you chose willl perform great, and stay nice and quiet (you could also give it a nice overclock, as the DirectCU II cards run ridiculously cool). And the thermal paste that comes with the Havik will work fine.
While browsing through videos for a motherboard I realised I've almost copied Logan's Build the Best $1300 PC - december video. I'm pretty sure everything is compatible but if someone could just double check for me I would appreciate it.
I am also thinking of adding a 140mm fan to the front of the case while leaving all the sound dampening majigs on the side and top of the case to create positive air pressure.
Just a nice 120hz monitor to find now and I think I am done!