How silent will this be?

bt9

bt9

bt9

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16 May 2010
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2
Hey up, looking a desktop for the first time and walked into yo yo tech in London there at the w/end. Came up with this idea for a system:

S.No Description Image Price
1 SILVERSTONE TJ-07 ATX PC CASE
2 YYT 650W POWERSUPPLY
3 Gigabyte P55-USB3 Socket 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
4 Intel Core i5 650 Socket 1156 Dual-Core CPU OEM (CM80616003177AC)
5 G-SKILL 4GB KIT DDR3 - 1600Mhz PC MEMORY
6 OCZ VERTEX 60Gb SSD HARD DRIVE
7 SAMSUNG 750GB SATAII 7200Rpm HARD DRIVE
8 Sony 24x Black SATA DVD RW
9 Philips with 23" LG TFT monitor
10 2x ATI HD 5770 1024MB Graphics Cards Configured in Crossfire
11 Zalman Reserator 1 V2 Water cooler system (no fan option)
Click to expand...

Still need to add in 2.1 surround supporting soundcard with midi i/o. But the main thing for me is silence; I ****ing hate the whirrrrr of fans in my cubicle during the day and I don't want this at all when I get home. I'm writing this now on a netbook whose fan doesn't exist until I need to check in with Eve Online.

So basically in that respect what do you think of the above rig? Will the Zalman cool cpu and gfx cards (and whatever else might need a fan?)

I guess what I'm saying is I want a completely water cooled, quite hi-performance system. Will the above do it and if not what changes should I make?
 
There are better cases for aircooling and silence. If you are really a stickler for silence I'd move away from aluminium panelled cases and go for something like an Antec P180/P183. The other option is of course proper watercooling and the TJ07 is perfect for this, it would also give you much better performance over the Zalman system, which might struggle with the CPU and crossfire GPUs, especially if you overclock.

Regardless of what case you go for, you will likely need to change the case fans, but with 120mm you have a wide choice.

Aside from expensive SSDs, Samsung F3s appear to be the way to go these days for performance and low noise.

Not familar with the PSU you mentioned, but this is a good guide: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs. If it was my money I'd go Enermax.

With some tweaks and maybe a fan controller that system should be very quiet.
 
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5770 use about 100w at full load so you'd need 2x reserator for that (second hand off the bay about a third of retail).

But with sli you would be better off using fan assisted rads - a 120.4 or 140.3 would be ideal with some quality fans at 5 or 7v's
Much easier - and will mask the noise of hhd.

would have thought a 500-550w supply a better bet - at most your be pulling 300w from the wall and only durring gaming.

with a 23" screen are two cards really needed? just a thought.
 
sorry, I forgot to mention it's a dual screen setup, I'm just getting one off yo-yo the other I'll get myself. But point on board. Saying that once the water system is setup it'll be easier for me to upgrade monitors than gfx cards :D

Speed - what do you mean by 'proper' water cooling? Proper is what I want!! The store guy told me that Zalman would do all I need - would I still need case fans? (what are they, first I heard of these? :s )

Shadow - you're saying I'd need two resers, one for the crossfire, one for the cpu? I'd prefer no fans at all in the system. Is this even possible in a reasonable system like the above? If it meant no fans I wouldn't overclock for example. I'd like as close to silence as poss.

and with sli are you saying I should ditch ati and crossfire and go with nvidea? Remember I'm looking for good cards but no strictly no fans, just water.

Thanks for the info so far guys, really appreciated.

Btw if someone wants to point out a nice pre-built water-cooled gaming desktop available in the UK already feel free to point it out :)
 
bt9 said:
Hey up, looking a desktop for the first time and walked into yo yo tech in London
Click to expand...

Really? Stopped shopping with them unless it was something I really needed because they basically rip you off unless you "pre-order" from the website before hand... *rolls eyes*

That and because I handed in my CV to work there and they didn't even get back to me at all...! :P (although I might well be working around the corner from there soon, so it might get quite tempting around pay day, hahaha)
 
bt9 said:
Speed - what do you mean by 'proper' water cooling? Proper is what I want!! The store guy told me that Zalman would do all I need - would I still need case fans? (what are they, first I heard of these? :s
Click to expand...

The Zalman system isn't designed with performance in mind, only silence. You'll get better performance using a watercooling system built from parts and as shadowscotland said, proper fan assisted rads.

Regardless of what setup you use, you will need some fans, but if you purchase decent well balanced fans with good bearings you will hardly hear them. I think it would be better to spend your money on a decent watercooling setup than on the Zalman Reserator. Sure you might be spending a bit more but it will perform much better and if you pick well everything bar the GPU waterblocks should last through several upgrades.

There are companies out there that build these sort of setups, but it is very easy to do and I'm sure if needed someone local to you on these forums would gladly give you a hand.
 
Ditch the PSU. Any 650w psu that cost's £37.48 is going to be garbage. How many times do we need to say this? Never, ever skimp on the psu!! It is the single most important component in a pc. Cheap ones can never output their stated wattage, have weak, unstable rails and if they fail are likely to take out other components with them.
 
anything you buy from a local UK components store which isn't as big as another unnamed retailer or OCUK is going to be rubbish from my experience

only way you'll get a silent water cooled PC is if you order about 6 Alphacool CORA 142 Convects (which are damn hard to find :P) and strap them to the side of your PC, it will be very heavy and you will need two pumps but it looks better than external rad cooling IMO or you could get a Mo-Ra 2 Pro
 
Will you be gaming on both monitors?
Do you game with headphones or speakers
Is the system in an air con room / or next to a south facing window
Is the system to be used at night (gaming/encoding etc)?
Fanless AND performance is a rich man'd dream.

I have a single fan system and it's inaduable at night.
Many have 2 or 3 fan systems that are inaduable during the day.

After year of tweeking fanless and semi-passive watercooling loops I've come to the conclusion that any pc when not gaming can easily be cooled without noise with a passive loop (inc i7 at load).
But if you are going to game - get headphones - and the room can deal with a little 7v fan noise.

Oh and completely agree with pastymuncher above - quality PSU every time - a 500w one doesn't even cost that much.
And the silverstone is not a great case unless you are using active watercooling (then it's one of the best)

silent pc review is not a bad place to look for info - only problem is most of the forum is anti watercooling and not gaming friendly :(
 
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I was thinking about upgrading too this year but question is with the new LGA1155/2021 (can't remember the 2xxx number) released next year and also not compatible with the LGA1156 is it really worth upgrading this year ?
All those people who thought they would have the latest kit for a few years yet only 12 months later Intel are bringing out newer CPU's and motherboards (quad DDR3 memory controller for instance instead of tripple)
 
varkanoid said:
I was thinking about upgrading too this year but question is with the new LGA1155/2021 (can't remember the 2xxx number) released next year and also not compatible with the LGA1156 is it really worth upgrading this year ?
All those people who thought they would have the latest kit for a few years yet only 12 months later Intel are bringing out newer CPU's and motherboards (quad DDR3 memory controller for instance instead of tripple)
Click to expand...

well it's Q3 next year so that's still 5 quarters,

LGA2011 is supposed to be very expensive and LGA1155 doesn't bring much new over Nehalem so yeah I'd say it's worth it
 
quad and a double is what make the TJ-07 such a good watercooling case.
but it not a 'quiet' case with 6 rad fans (even at low rpm) plus a psu.
and its full of holes so any noise is not shielded in any way.

for the record the zalmans were designed for presscott extreme edition cpu.
remember them (easily as hot as quads) shareing the loop with a gpu and NB
Ok it will not be cool, but well within the stock cooling range even with a moderate oc.

they are a lot better than most think - and bt9 said he wants an overclocked power hungry monster.
I'll stick my neck out and say that your not a true watercooling pro unless you've own a Reserator
(or other passive rad) at some point.
Because they are perfect at what they do - allowing a good spec pc to run without fans straight out of the box

it's just most of us here are not oem/dell pc owners are we - and a twin monitor sli rig is not standard uk practice
 
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Has anyone mentioned that the TJ07 does not have pre-cut holes for external watercooling tubes to pass through? Unless you were going to do that yourself?
 
mjones1 said:
You can put a 120.4 rad at the bottom and a 120.3 at the top so no need for externally mounting.
Click to expand...

He was referring to the Zalman Reserator which would need holes drilled for the external rad/res tower. But yes, 120.4 in the bottom and 120.3 with mods in the top would be the way to go.

But actually that isn't required, pretty sure it comes with a special PCI blanking plate with holes for the tubing anyways.
 
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