Silent (okay quiet will do) PC

[tomars]

Hello, I am currently in the process of giving my whole system an overhaul. The only things I will keep are soundcard, hard disks, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Everything else needs to be replaced.

I was just wondering, does anybody have any tips for building a silent/quiet PC? As I will be using this as a DVD player and will be leaving it over night occassionally.

The only thing is, I am on a bit of a budget. I don't really want to spend more than £600 on the whole system, maximum £800.

May not seem like a really tight budget but when you think about it, cpu - 150, gfx - 120-150, mobo-100, dvd burner 40, etc..

Anyway, anyone tried to build a silent PC before? Got any info on good products? I did a bit of a google search but most of the pages are either selling stuff (so i cant really trust the sales pitch) or are really out of date.

Thanks

[Zxian]

The most important things to consider when building a quiet computer is (a) the case, (B) the PSU, © the CPU heatsink, and (d) fans.

Zalman heatsinks with the fans on silent mode do really well. As long as you're not looking into overclocking the system, they'll do fine.

Antec makes good quiet cases. I've got the 2650, and the 120mm case fan is **** near silent.

Dunno much about quiet PSUs... the one that comes with my case is quiet as well.

Fans, just look for low dBa levels. Anything below 25dBa should be fine.

It's not much, but it's a start... Hope this helps!

[ripken204]

just like zxian said, the most important thing is the case. if u want a truly silent case then plan on investing 150-250$ on a top of the line case.

800euro is about 1000usd just to let you guys know

where do you plan on buying this stuff from so that i can price it better?

a sataII hdd wouldnt hurt either, 60 bucks for and 80gig

dvd burner-nec 3540

mobo-dfi nf4 ultra

cpu-3000 venice(3200 if u can afford it)

gfx-6800gt (6600gt if u cant afford or 7800gt if u can afford more)

psu-ocz powerstream 520 or 600

if u need a case then the antec p180 is a good one, and if you want to pay 50-100$ more for a lian-li case u can

what else do u need to get?

[rikgale]

Lian-Li cases rock!!

I have 2, PC-v1000 and PC-6077, both worth every penny, esp the v1000. However the pc-v1000 will probably set you back about a 1/3 of your budget.

[rendrag]

I have a pretty quiet PC.

Case: Antec Super LanBoy. I don't go to LAN parties or anything, but it's a fairly compact (good for me) and well built case. Antec's site says the dB of the fans is nearly 40. To be honest, they seem half that. Both 120mm fans are super quiet, and keep the air circulating which helps keep internal temps down, which helps with the CPU cooling.

On my CPU I have the Thermaltake SilentTower Heatpipe Cooler.

It's kinda big, and I was a little nervous it would break off my mobo or something, but as long as you're not playing football (american or otherwise ) with the case it's in, you'll be fine. I love it. Fan speed is based on CPU temp, yet even under full load, this thing is barely audible over a low hum.

I've used power supplies by Antec, Enermax, and Vantec and they were worry-free. My current PSU is one used by Ultra. It's an X-Connect modular power supply (review here). I have had 0 problems, and I love only using the cables I need, and not having to worry about hiding the extras. I don't hear a thing out of it.

one thing you might want to budget in if you don't have one already is some kind of UPS (battery backup + surge protector). Especially if you're going to be dropping the kind of cash you are, you don't want to see it all go down the drain if a surge blows our your PC.

I swear by APC UPSs. They've saved an old PC and monitor a couple years ago when my power company blew a transformer doing maintenance. Everything that was plugged into it was saved except the UPS itself, which I could easily live with.

[LiquidSage]

I usually recommend Thermaltake's SilentTower as well. IMO the best silent heatsink you can buy. Not overclocking, I don't even have a fan on it, just a 120mm at the back on the case as exhaust. I'm well within resonable temps under load,

As for fan's and noise....

-Ball bearing is the worst, however at least you know your fan will die soon once the noise gets bad.

-Sleeved fans are in the middle,. Quiet, and last fairly long. Howver, they will die w/o any warning noise. (Always expect this when you leave on vacation and you keep the comp on. )

-Ceramic sleeved fans are at the top for killing noise.

-If your PSU is loud, cut out the metal grill in the back where the fan is to kill some noise.

-The cheap method (what i would do) is to buy a high quality fan and replace the one inside the PSU. You can also grab aluminum tape and tape the edges where the two pieces of metal connect. The little gaps do create a whine and reduce the PSU's ability to suck air in onto what needs to be cooled.

-You can run 120mm slower (quiter) than smaller fans and still get the same amount of air pumped in/out.

-Never put a fan in front of another to help air flow.....instead stack one on the side or top of the other.

Hard drivers are actually a major source of noise. Mainly the vibrations passed off them cause the entire case to act as a amp.

Good thing is it's easy and cheap to silence if you have a free 5.25 bay. All you need is strong elastic bands that can be found at any sewing shop. Once suspended , the elastic will absorb the vibs and since you care about the hard drive i'm sure you will have a slow 120mm fan blowing air on it to keep it cool. I put my HD near the bottom intake so i don't need an extra fan.

Some people sandwhich their HD between sheets of aluminum. If you do this as a precaution, DO NOT put the aluminum on the top & bottom! Put it on the sides where the screws are. The disk produces sig. more heat on the sides than the top.

-Google decoupled HD or silent HD mod for a guide. You'll find one.

-Plan your layout. I've seen hard OC rig's running cool and silent with just 4-5 fans. (PSU,VGA,CPU, 1-2 extra). More is not better...usually adds noise plus pockets of hot dead air.

-Try to get a steel case, and tighten the screws! Also, try to get heatsinks that use heatpipes (if they can run out of the case through a free pci slot for ex. would be an extra +) due to their abilty to disperse heat over a larger area than a standard heatsink.

-If your computer is next to your face, put it under your desk (so simple yet works so well ).