How to achieve a super quiet PC?

Noctua fans are good for heatsinks but their case fan is not so good, it is also hideously expensive and not to mention ugly as sin.

I would go for, and indeed I will be, Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1150 or max 1450 for near quiet operation. OCuk don't sell them for some reason, at least not yet.

They make noise, just like every other fan ,but the apparent noise they make is the most unnannoying you will find. SPCR users rate them highly.

Avoid fast (1500+ rpm) fans that say they are silent or quiet because they wont be.
 
Get a fan controller then some decent fans that undervolt well. Fans that run at around 1200rpm generally undervolt well to low noise levels.

When idle you can make them spin around 800rpm and when you are doing something intensive move them up to full whack (~1200rpm) when noise is less important.

Scythe slipstreams are decent case fans. When undervolted they are very quiet though at full speed are quite loud imo.
 
1. Bungie mod hds- until you have done it you will never understand how well this works.
2. All fans to ultra low- good SILENT fans are noctas (good alrounders but ugly, ultra high quality though), apaches (good heatsink fans, good pressure, medium quality), silent eagles (dont know too much but prevailing opinion says these are excellent case fans) and gentle typhoons (best high pressure fans for heatsinks with close spaced fins, get the low rmp models), slipsteams get an honorable mention.
3. After market graphics cooling i.e. zalman vf3000.
4. Rubber fan mounts- careful these dont flap about though!
5. SILENT as in not the kind that has it in its sales boomf silent PSU, I hate my hx750, loudest thing in my system by a mile and it is utterly cold all the time.
6. Remove anything that does not absolutley need to be in the path of airflow i.e. cables, ssds mounted in front of intake fans ect.
7. Get the pc away from you.
8. Rubber psu mounts.
9. Acoustic foam on inside of pc case (never tried but it would reduce the rattle/ambience, probably same ish volume but less annoying noise).
10. As per CPU heatsink, wide fin spacing first, efficient design next venemous x would be my choice right now.
11. Degrill wherever practical/possible.

Once you have the above sorted, boot up, take the side panel off and start using your fingers to slow/stop fans. When you notice volume drops, you know where you have room for improvement. Trust me though, get a SILENT PSU!!!!

I dont buy into fan controllers, you are better spenidng 30 quid more and making your system run silent all the time rather than comprimising.
 
Last edited:
A good thing to search for high quality and silent parts is 'DAW' or digital audio workstations. Obviously when recording music people don’t want a PC taking off in the background. See how professionals sell silent computers.
 
mast3r said:
My rig is still like a Typoon jet taking off with all fans on 70%.

the only fans i have in my rig are, the PSU, x4 for the RAD, one in the rear and one in the front for HDD air.
Click to expand...

Why you have them so high then if your watercooling?

I have 8 fans + PSU and loudest thing is my pump, all fans run at below 900rpm with most at around 700rpm
 
PaulyD said:
Why you have them so high then if your watercooling?

I have 8 fans + PSU and loudest thing is my pump, all fans run at below 900rpm with most at around 700rpm
Click to expand...

Coz i have a pair of 8800GTX's that turn my case into an oven, so i whack my fans up high to try and shift some of the heat out of the case. Both 8800s have full EK Blocks on them too, Infact my MOSFET can reach 100Deg Celcius.

I have a very hot running Striker so it seems.

I Will at some point upgrade but i see no reason to as yet.
 
Sound dampening cases like antec p18x/19x or CM cosmos will help as well.
Get higher W rated silent PSU, silent case fans, if you're not OCing CPU very high it can be cooled passively or if not get good cooler with very quiet fan.

The hardest part is probably the GPU as these need good cooling if you want anything that can play newest games on high but you can also get aftermarket coolers for those and either keep them passive or add some very quiet fans.

Lowering the RPM on fans with fan controller helps even more. Then, noise dampening mounts for hdds etc on top of that.

If you want you can get a PC that you won't be able to hear at all without even slightest bit of watercooling but then - it's not cheap as you'll be looking for at least 150-200quid for aftermarket fans/coolers and quality case.
 
for the graphics card use something like ati tool or similar to underclock the card in 2d mode, reduce the fan speed and if possibel reduce the voltage going too it and it could help it run a bit cooler.

recently done similar to my 4870 and it dropped the temp 10 degrees as well as quieting it down.
 
1) Efficient, quiet psu. Pricey for gold-rated PSUs but power supplies are often the noisiest part of the system. Seasonic x650 or x750 are brilliant - so efficient the fan only starts at ~50% max output and even then the fan runs very slowly and quietly (sanyo denki pwm). I had a corsair hx520, supposedly a quiet psu, and the drop in noise going to a seasonic x750 is amazing.

2) good quality fans - scythe gentle typhoons are raved about on spcr. Big motor hubs though so better with a shroud.

Noctuas are suppsed to be very good but fugly.

Sanyo denkis are supposedly fantasically good - either 38mm thick ones for undervolting on a densely finned hs/rad or 25mm silent or pwm series for case fans. Difficult to find though - only one distributor in this country and expensive at 18 quid each. I'm waitng on delivery of a silent series 1500rpm 12cm fan. Will report back on what it's like.

Yate loons or neus real silent (cherry picked yate loons) are also good.

3) gfx cards are usually very noisy - the arctic cooling massive cooler with widely spaced fins is what I'd go for (with a big slow fan) if I had an air-cooled gfx card that was compatible...
 
remove all the moving parts - job done
or move the pc into another room - job done
get an Mcubed case - job done
buy a second had zalman reserator - job done

A cheaper option, remove all the fans from your system.
only keep the psu fan (swap the ocz fan or get a new psu - see spcr for options)
use a wide spaced tower cpu cooler - lapped IFX-14/ ninja / HR01 / Mugen 2 (in that order)
Use a duct from the tower to your psu fan (if psu is below cpu)
us a Accelero S1 Rev. 2 on your 8800gt
Close up all the additional holes in your case (ideally with bitumen strips)
have a direct air flow from inlet over Accelero to psu and out - use card baffles as required.
under volt the cpu (keep it at stock clocks)
consider a second fan on the 8800gt / as intake infront of 8800gt if you game.
optional fan on a fan controller or bios/rivatuner profile so it only runs when running 3d clocks.
bungee your hhd

ultra quite pc's are not cheap.
but most people don't need one -
Best advice i can give is.
passively cool your cpu so it's quiet day to day
and actively (on demand) cool your gpu when gaming with headphones
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom