Hello all. Today I bring to you something that maybe is impossible. I am looking to purchase or build a silent PC. The intended user of this PC suffers from middeling Autism and has sever problems when it comes to “whirring” and “buzzing” sounds, so fans are out of the question. We have been to every major retailer (In Norway) and they were unable to help us. I have been laughed at in stores and over the phone. So I am starting to lose hope.
The PC will be placed in the persons living room as space is at a premium, and the TV is going to be used as a monitor. The intention is for the user to be able to play Minecraft and Fortnite with his friends, also we hope to encourage the learning of skills like programming. The budget is unfortunately very low. about $500. Also everything has to be bought new, so that I can document the purchase and also for warranty (5 years in Norway). We were hoping to get something from one of the large retailers but again, they were unable to help us. I have not built a PC in years and I do not know where to start regarding parts. Any help is appreaciated. Thank you.
Silverstone and Seasonic have high quality fanless PSUs, CPU can be cooled with a Nofan cooler. Use an open bench as a case or maybe a rack case and leave the top off. Also remove any kind of plastic crap from the motherboard that is just for looks and leave the I/O shield in the box.
GPU is gonna be tough though. I’ve tried to go completely fanless on that but it just doesn’t work. The morpheus II cooler is your best bet, put two noctua fans on and at a couple hundred rpm it’s gonna be inaudible.
I wouldn’t worry so much for fanless things, the hardest thing you will have is avoiding coil whine from the PSU and Graphics solution. Regarding the latter, it may be possible to to use integrated graphics on a ryzen series APU, or you may need to discuss with your chosen parts supplier whether they accept returns for such orders as a case of the equipment not being fit for purpose. You probably also want to use an air cooler as it won’t have pump and water noise like most AIO liquid coolers.
I’m guessing if this is going into a personal space, we might have to consider the ability to turn off the lights that most motherboards have for diagnosis too, as some have LEDs showing standby voltage etc.
What resolution is the tv? Is it HD or UHD?
I’ll have a crack at a list later when I’m not half asleep.
Was going to say, coil whine is probably more an enemy than a fan would be. So even if you ended up with a fanless system you still have coil whine to deal with. Unfortunately that can vary from part to part and there’s no guarantee that a product won’t have it.
The TV is some Sony Full-HD thing from 2015 or there abouts. Yes it is going into a personal space, someone mentioned a bench case or rack case? I don’t know what these are, are those silent?
There are some parts labeled out of stock but they have a green and yellow triangle, I think that means they expect more to come in is that alright if I pick those?
The PSU has Fan/Low Fan/Fanless option and seasonic tend to use high quality parts
The ram kit is a decent size and speed will be a permanent part that won’t hold the system back from future upgrades of other parts
The CPU is a little weak comparte to the rest of the line up but uses so little power that it can be ran fanless and play minecraft which are the only two things that you want it to do
This motherboard will let you upgrade the CPU in the future and won’t hold the system back
500GB is a decent sized storage solution, fast, silent, and no cables its as simple as putting in ram
this case is CHEAP since the current system doesn’t gennerate maybe 40w of heat you don’t need to worry too much about it, if you upgrade parts in the future and need a different case you can take comfort in the fact that its so cheap you won’t even worry about it
Monsterlabo, a completely silent custom case. No idea if they make another run right now, but worth looking into. However the case is very expensive, but perhaps an itx card with rest of components salvaged from old PC parts work?
The ASRock Deskmini coupled with a ryzen 3400G, 16 GB 3200 MHz RAM, 512 GB M.2 SSD and an aftermarket low noise Noctua or BeQuiet cooler. Should work and should be upgradable to the Navi APU whenever it arrives. Only fan is the CPU.
Ah, I am sorry but everything has to be bougth new, you see the buyer has something called a economic guardian, who controls his finances. The guardian needs to approve every large purchase/bill and needs a recipe to document what the money has been spent on. Also everything needs to come with warranty in case something happens. So unfortunately anything used is out of the question.
Ok, thank you for all your help so far. Is there anything special I would need to do to make it run as quiet as possible? continious buzzing/whirring is very traumatic and triggering for the user, unfortunately.