Air cooling = very quiet

sunama

sunama

sunama

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So, Ive been building/upgrading PCs for the last 9 years or so. I've developed my tastes so that I prefer a silent PC over a noisy one - delta fans saw to this. I was an early adopter of water cooling - long before water cooling parts were freely available. As an example I had to use tupperware containers for reservoirs and heatercores (from cars) as rads. The heatercores have shrouds on them made from cardboard, to which the fans are attached. The fans are controlled using rheostats. Its all very ghetto.

Anway, Ive been continuously upgrading over the last few years and always test out the cpu using the stock air cooler. Once everything is running fine, I replace the heatsink and fan units with the waterblocks and everything goes quiet.

Ive always found air coolers to be very noisy and nothing has changed my opinion of this...until now.

I built myself a new PC for my bedroom. It was designed to be able to play HD video, music and surf the net. To this end I needed a fast CPU, and basic GPU and everything to be as quiet as possible. I was not prepared to spend extra on watercooling, so I gambled on air cooling.

System spec:
Intel E2160
2GB ram
Gigabyte P31 DS3 motherboard (fanless)
Corsair VX450W (very quiet, almost silent)
Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler
Noctua 1200rpm fan
ATI HD2600PRO (fanless)
Samsung 501LJ 500GB

I put together this system and when I turned it on, I thought it wasnt actually working. The damn power light on the case was broken. It was so quiet. It was only when I plugged it into a monitor and everything was coming up on the screen that I realised that it was working.

I just wanted to say that no longer is a silent PC exclusive to those that run watercooled. Air cooled systems can be just a quiet. My water pump, 4 HDs, PSU fan and 4*120mm fans on my water cooled system actually make more noise than the new PC. (OK fair enough, my water cooled PC is more powerful in every department, but its impressive that an air cooled PC can run virtually silent).
 
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LOL. That was a brain fart.

Anyway, it was designed predominantly to deal with 1080p HD video. And it is oh so quiet. :)
 
I got the thermalright ultra 120 extreme too, and my case has 4 noctua fans in it, its pretty much silent (my gpu cooler is passive!), got my hdd in a smartdrive enclosure (highly recommend those)
 
I was using my PC yesterday and I found that the Samsung hard disk was overwhelmingly the loudest component. In fact, the vibration it was causing within the case was the only noise I could hear. I might just place the hard disk on the floor of the case, on some card board to solve this problem.

Ive heard that the hard disk enclosures, generally increase the temperature of the hard disk, unless they have fans, which increases noise any way, thus defeating the original purpose. Not sure about the SmartDrive enclosure you mention.
 
My beefy HTPC (Q6600 B3) is silent aswell, its completely inaudible, I use 2 x Noctua case fans at 7v and a Tuniq tower with the Sythe Karma for the CPU.

By far the loudest thing in here now is my damn Sky HD box :/
 
Could this actually mean that water cooling is no longer required?

For noise, maybe watercooling is not necessary anymore, but what I found is that I was unable to overclock my new E2160 (air cooled) to the same speed that my old E6600 (water cooled) went to. I'm not sure whether the limitation is down to the cpu or its temperature under load.

One thing I remember reading about water cooling is that even though the CPU temps were comparable (at times, especially when using high output fans), water cooling allowed the same CPU to be clocked higher.
 
sunama said:
Could this actually mean that water cooling is no longer required?

For noise, maybe watercooling is not necessary anymore, but what I found is that I was unable to overclock my new E2160 (air cooled) to the same speed that my old E6600 (water cooled) went to. I'm not sure whether the limitation is down to the cpu or its temperature under load.

One thing I remember reading about water cooling is that even though the CPU temps were comparable (at times, especially when using high output fans), water cooling allowed the same CPU to be clocked higher.
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I'm not into watercooling, but from what I can gather on these forums, and checking prices, it's a not inconsiderable extra expense. Wouldn't this extra cash not buy a faster CPU (if not now, then for a future build), and make the extra OC from having better cooling redundant?
 
Yeah I agree, with the HD in my new build being the loudest. I was overwhelmed at how quiet the case fans (on there lowest setting) on my Antec 900 Gaming Case where, i had visions of these case fans being really loud, definitely the rather large 200mm one, but their as quiet as a mouse, and thats very surprising considering theres 4 case fans. Im using the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 HS on my GPU and a 1200rpm fitted to it, which you can only just about hear if you put your ear right near it, i also have the Thermalright 120 HS which has another Scythe S-FLEX 1600rpm fan fitted to it, now when this is on full blast you can hear it, but have set it up so only goes to 1600rpm when the temp of the cpu get to 55c, in which case the only time this would be happening is when playing a game so the sound of just this fan wouldnt be an issue anyway!! I am very impressed with the volume of my new build and have to really listen for it if i have it on when im in bed at night. On a side note what do these smartdrive enclosure do??
 
This thread kind of sums up why I ditched watercooling. I don't regret doing it for a second as it was a great experience, but frankly as said, its unecessary for the expense and extra maintenance. For those that argue CPUs will clock higher - I agree buy a quicker CPU to start with the cash you save from water cooling gear.
 
Completely agree, built a very simmilar spec you recently for pretty much the same use! Only problem is you get used to the noise levels, for me, the HDD is by far the loudest component (When being accessed that is) and I have the same one as you.

Only real reason for watercooling is in much more powerful PC's (High spec SLI, etc) and as an enjoyable hobby.
 
pendulum666 said:
This thread kind of sums up why I ditched watercooling. I don't regret doing it for a second as it was a great experience, but frankly as said, its unecessary for the expense and extra maintenance. For those that argue CPUs will clock higher - I agree buy a quicker CPU to start with the cash you save from water cooling gear.
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this man speaks the truth.
 
To kill the HDD noise/vibration i'd suggest getting hold of a NoiseMagic NoVibes III Hard Drive Cage (google it) as it suspends the drive in a 5 1/4" bay....totally quietens it!
 
I've only ever used air cooling and never had any problems with it, I always replace the cooling on the graphics card and it keeps the system silent, the noisiest thing in my computer at the moment is my 500GB hard drive (I swore I order a Western Digital but I had mistakenly ordered a Seagate, the WD are silent but this seagate sounds like it's from the mid 90's).
 
RobH said:
I've only ever used air cooling and never had any problems with it, I always replace the cooling on the graphics card and it keeps the system silent, the noisiest thing in my computer at the moment is my 500GB hard drive (I swore I order a Western Digital but I had mistakenly ordered a Seagate, the WD are silent but this seagate sounds like it's from the mid 90's).
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Hehehe. If you go back 7 years or so (in the days of the Delta fans) it was almost becoming fashionable to have loud fans. It somehow felt that the louder the system you had, the more powerful it was. People were thinking nothing about using 60mmx38mm Delta fans that were so loud, you could hear the fan in the room next door:eek: with all the doors closed. I had first hand experience of this. This is when I had to go out of my way and salvage my own watercooling setup. I spent days at plumbers' merchants looking for suitable parts. OCUK, like most other retailers, didnt want anything to do with watercooling as it was still experimental and the retailers did not want to be held responsible for people frying their hardware by spilling water all over it.

These days (as I experienced with the Corsair VX450), the PSUs are so quiet, its almost shocking. Even without the fan on, my old Antec 550W PSU (purchased about 2.5yrs back), makes an annoying hissing sound. Once the fans are added, it can easily become noisier than my 4 hard disks. To this end, I have removed one fan from it (it has 2 fans - you see how old components used to be?) and the remaining fan is attached to a rheostat, whose speed I can control from in front of the case.

In my watercooled system, 2 hard disks are run inside the case. These are both watercooled and have a lower temp than the other 2 hard disks that are run outside the case. The 2 watercooled hard disks are virtually silent (I can do this to any hard disk, even a SCSI one). I have done this by placing them at the base of the case on some cardboard, to keep them flat. I have then covered them in a denim (cut from an old pair of jeans). This material cuts out high pitched hard disk whine like nothing else, however, this also means that heat cannot escape from the hard disks, as the denim keeps them insulated. This is where the hard disk waterblocks do their job.

The problem with all this is that water cooling adds considerable expense, especially when, like me, you cool the cpu, gpu, chipset and hard disks. Every time you change CPU, you invariably need to purchase a new waterblock at around £30. Similarly a new GPU means a new waterblock which can cost upwards of £50.

Watercooling done properly can cost a lot of money and involved a lot of time and effort to get working flawlessly (ie. free from leaks).
 
sunama said:
I was using my PC yesterday and I found that the Samsung hard disk was overwhelmingly the loudest component. In fact, the vibration it was causing within the case was the only noise I could hear. I might just place the hard disk on the floor of the case, on some card board to solve this problem.

Ive heard that the hard disk enclosures, generally increase the temperature of the hard disk, unless they have fans, which increases noise any way, thus defeating the original purpose. Not sure about the SmartDrive enclosure you mention.
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Smart drive is a giant heatsink, it has copper pads on all sides where the hdd touches it, which are braced against rubbery foam for vibration absorbtion. It keeps the hdd running cool and quiet, highly recommend it.
 
Shash said:
Smart drive is a giant heatsink, it has copper pads on all sides where the hdd touches it, which are braced against rubbery foam for vibration absorbtion. It keeps the hdd running cool and quiet, highly recommend it.
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Well, this hard drive humm is annoying so I am now looking in depth at what the best enclosure is. The smart drive has come out on top, however, it is also the most expensive, at £55.
 
InQ said:
To kill the HDD noise/vibration i'd suggest getting hold of a NoiseMagic NoVibes III Hard Drive Cage (google it) as it suspends the drive in a 5 1/4" bay....totally quietens it!
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This is the one I've decided on (smart drive too expensive). The one place that sell these things are out of stock right now, so I must wait for them to become available once again.
 
I've had silent computers for years using air cooling. Zalman 120mm CPU fan set to minium - even when overclocked on a P4C by 550MHz it kept it below 55c, and a passive graphics card always done it for me (with "silent" <12db case fans).

I dont have a passive graphics card now but I cant barely hear my 8800GT when sleeping a meter away from it! I have always done research in to components before I buy them to make sure they are silent or near enough.
 
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