Am I the only person who doesnt care about fan noise?

[Drollic]

I don't mind some, but the less the better. A lot of it comes down to if you use headphones or not.

 

[NirK]

I've got a FD5 case, Noctua D15 Cooler and the Noctua NF-F12 additional fan. Should be silent, but the HDD's spinning make all the noise.

I find them far more intrusive than any GPU fan. Sadly high capacity SSD's are so damn expensive (and almost non-existant thus far).

Why don't you set them to switch off when idle? I have 3 x 1TB WD red drives, I set them to switch off when not used (in power options), I use SSD's for OS and games and things I use most.

Also the WD black or WD blue are very loud, the reds are almost silent, I replaced the black and blue I had with reds now I never notice them.

 

[NirK]

What about quiet AND small? I've just ordered a TJ08-E (matx), and a Noctua S12A 120mm to stick in it. If you under-volt the 180mm front fan it's supposed to be quiet enough.

Probably the loudest thing will be my Gelid Tranquillo CPU fan (not my best buy ever, cheaped out when I shouldn't have ). In which case I'll swap it out for a nice Noctua U12S.

I don't understand why people want tiny PC's, unless obviously to fit in a small space. The Fractal R4 / R5 are a good size, actually an R5 XL would be good, but currently they only have the XL R2, which has been around a long time and needs replacing with an XL R5.

 

[Telecaster]

Which is what I usually do and spent a lot of time with Phobetria and my Bitfenix Recon on my old setup, I just dont have that kind of time these days to spend tweaking and monitoring hence why I went for the Phanteks hub

Thanks for the link anyway, I'll give it a read

Just to be clear, that roll eyes wasn't aimed at you, it was aimed at myself for being daft enough to spend ages trying to figure something out that I could have done in 5 minutes with a google/youtube search!

 

[FoxEye]

I don't understand why people want tiny PC's, unless obviously to fit in a small space. The Fractal R4 / R5 are a good size, actually an R5 XL would be good, but currently they only have the XL R2, which has been around a long time and needs replacing with an XL R5.

Question: why would you not want your PC to be as small as physically possible?

I mean, in the future, wouldn't you want your PC to basically fit into your watch, or be so small it just plugs into your monitor like a USB key...

What is intrinsically better about a big PC? Because as far as I can see, a bigger PC is of no intrinsic benefit. Unless you need 8 hard disks and 4 optical drives, why bother with a full size tower?

 

[beany_bot]

Question: why would you not want your PC to be as small as physically possible?

I mean, in the future, wouldn't you want your PC to basically fit into your watch, or be so small it just plugs into your monitor like a USB key...

What is intrinsically better about a big PC? Because as far as I can see, a bigger PC is of no intrinsic benefit. Unless you need 8 hard disks and 4 optical drives, why bother with a full size tower?

I like "seeing" my components. I like getting the side off and getting in about my PC. the satisfying clunk of fitting a new graphics card. The fans spinning under the leds. I love all that. I like a having a tangible "thing" that I have made. I would hate a usb key sized PC.

 

[andybird123]

Big cases are easier to work in. Ive got a strike-x bolted to the wall, takes up no desk/floor space and even a full mobo swap only takes about 20 minutes

 

[BluesFanUK]

Why don't you set them to switch off when idle? I have 3 x 1TB WD red drives, I set them to switch off when not used (in power options), I use SSD's for OS and games and things I use most.

Also the WD black or WD blue are very loud, the reds are almost silent, I replaced the black and blue I had with reds now I never notice them.

Because i'm generally accessing the files all the time and can't stand the spin up time.

Have Seagate 3Tb, a Toshiba and a WD Blue in the PC. All three are loud, or at least they appear so loud because everything else in the PC is silent.

I wish someone would release a 6Tb SSD at a reasonable price. I've little care for the speed, even at their worst they're better than HDD's.

 

[Seanspeed]

Question: why would you not want your PC to be as small as physically possible?

I mean, in the future, wouldn't you want your PC to basically fit into your watch, or be so small it just plugs into your monitor like a USB key...

What is intrinsically better about a big PC? Because as far as I can see, a bigger PC is of no intrinsic benefit. Unless you need 8 hard disks and 4 optical drives, why bother with a full size tower?

1) More choice for components. Easier to find compatible hardware, easier to find just what you want, and also means you're more likely to save money through good deals.

2) Better airflow/improved cooling. Obviously the smaller the case, the more insulated it is going to be. Bigger cases can utilize more fans, larger fans, larger CPU coolers, and more complicated cooling setups in general. With the choice largely being up to you.

3) As andybird says - easier to work with. MUCH easier to work with, really.

4) Being able to add any additional optical or storage drives you want. I've got 2xHDD drives and 1xSSD drive.

5) Full ATX motherboards tend to be better for OC'ing. Or rather, you dont need to shell out for a premium board in order to get one that can handle a good amount of extra voltage. They also tend to come with more features standard.

6) Larger cases tend to be more affordable on average.

I mean, whenever I do my next from-scratch PC, I'll probably look at a mini ITX build, but there's lots of advantages to going for a larger, mid-full size PC.

 

[Hamfist]

i personally dont care about fan noise as like most i have headphones on most of the time and i have a separate room for the pc, but i have a m8 who does care about fan noise cos the only place he can have his pc is in the bedroom, and the pc noise annoys his mrs at night, so i can fully understand why some people care about noisy pc's.

My Mrs hates the clicking of the keys and mouse buttons more than the fan noise.

That said I to go for the larger more silent fans. Never cared much about power efficiency, performance is king, but do want my PC as silent as possible.

 

[fobose]

I must have a quiet office, whether gaming or not Fan noise plays a big part whenever I am looking at building a PC or upgrading it.

The cheap Fractal ones that came with my case made various unpleasant noises no matter what voltage I used.

I have this issue with my partners rig (fractal design arc mini). The 1200rpm fans that came with it are annoyingly noisy, even with the fan controller it came with turned down.

I actually bought fractal design case fans for my current rig years ago and they are dead silent (1000rpm silent series @ 800rpm). Not sure why the new ones that came with her case are so crap now, even at low RPM.

 

[Ayahuasca]

It's never bothered me, I've got one of those high powered 180mm Air Penetrator fans in my case because it shifts a huge amount of air through it when on max, 170 CFM iirc.

 

[pastymuncher]

Personally I couldn't care less about fan noise because the first thing I do is take the cooler off and stick a waterblock on the card. However, I do think about it with regards to resale value as I realise that most people don't watercool and appreciate a quieter card.

 

[NirK]

Question: why would you not want your PC to be as small as physically possible?

I mean, in the future, wouldn't you want your PC to basically fit into your watch, or be so small it just plugs into your monitor like a USB key...

What is intrinsically better about a big PC? Because as far as I can see, a bigger PC is of no intrinsic benefit. Unless you need 8 hard disks and 4 optical drives, why bother with a full size tower?

Don't know but I like having a "big" PC, compared to a "mini" PC, I do think some cases are too big though like for example caselabs from USA, The phanteks primo and corsair 900D are a bit too big probably, they are taller than my desk. I like the fractal R4 / R5 that is the best size, or I would get a fractal XL R5 if they made one.

Reasons for bigger PC = better cooling, more components etc. I have 3 hard drives, 3 SSD and a noctua D15 so no chance of a mini case even if I wanted one.

 

[Telecaster]

Don't know but I like having a "big" PC, compared to a "mini" PC, I do think some cases are too big though like for example caselabs from USA, The phanteks primo and corsair 900D are a bit too big probably, they are taller than my desk. I like the fractal R4 / R5 that is the best size, or I would get a fractal XL R5 if they made one.

Reasons for bigger PC = better cooling, more components etc. I have 3 hard drives, 3 SSD and a noctua D15 so no chance of a mini case even if I wanted one.

I have a define S and I think it's massive, are the R4/R5 much bigger? no way I could cope with anything that size sat in my room, I'm already half debating to bin this case off and go back to a really small build.

 

[BluD]

I think most who game with headphones on wont really mind a noisy gfx card, i game with the sound off a lot of the time so it would annoy me, i tried using the air cooler on the gfx card on a 7950 once while i was waiting for my water cooler and it was pretty unbearable.

I've had to use my laptop this week while ive had my pc in bits and the noise from that fan has been really annoying, cause it doesnt just fire up when gaming but while loading programs and stuff also.

 

[Mookzen]

I don't care about fan noise when I'm gaming, however when I'm using the PC for other, more silent activities it does matter. Also my PC is in the same room I sleep in so the noise does bother me, especially when leaving something somewhat processing power intensive to run in the background.

 

[fish99]

Even with (open back) headphones I can hear my 970 (which by GPU standards is pretty quiet), and that's with the case on the floor. And I mostly use speakers, so yes I want my GPU to be as quiet as possible.

 

[Rexxar]

I don't notice the fan noise a great deal and i have a HAF 932 , with a rear exhaust, large top and side fans, an intake on the front, two fans on my gfx card and a cpu fan... It just hum's away at a level that i don't really notice.

I can however completely understand people wanting a quieter case, and if i had the money i'd go watercooled.

 

[Angry Gamer]

I have a GTX 970 and when I start her up the ridial can be heard over my 3000W kettle! I`d like to tone her down abit but short of swapping her out for an expensive water cooled solution I just have to put up with it... I swear though I am going deaf in my right ear...