Any recommendations for a silent/quiet build?

scumbies · 13 Jun 2007 at 15:37

My current system is SO loud it sounds like Heathrow in here! I really need to come up with a quieter solution. Problem is, I always want to have my cake and eat it: I want it to handle games, but I also want silence to improve movie-watching and general noise pollution.

Based on my current build (see sig) can anyone recommend components that would be quiet alternatives? I suppose the main culprits are the gfx card and the PSU. The CPU fan and case fans probably don't help either.

Thanks in advance

Stu

rick827 · 13 Jun 2007 at 15:50

Cant see anything in your sig? Are you wanting new parts? or to mod your old parts? also depends on your budget.

Get a totally passive board, suspend your hard drive and stick to 120mm fans. Fan bearing noise isnt audiable, air noise is. 120mm intake, 120mm exhaust, 120mm psu and 120mm cpu can all run at around 800rpm and you wont hear much. Your gfx card will always be noisy under load unless you want to watercool.

scumbies · 13 Jun 2007 at 16:36

Weird, I can see my sig. Anyway here it is...

Athlon 64 FX-55 | Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | Leadtek 6800 GT
Corsair 2GB | CoolerMaster Stacker | Enermax 600W PSU
2 x Raptor 74GB | 1 x 300GB | 1 x 120GB

If I have to, I'll replace components. If there is a way of silencing existing ones then great. I think the case is also a problem - I got the stacker cos I had huge plans...but it has just ended up as a monstrosity filled with noisy fans. Perhaps a smaller, less ventillated case with some sound-proofing might make a huge difference? What do you reckon?

p4radox · 13 Jun 2007 at 16:40

Your existing rig can be easily silenced.

Put a Noctua NH-U12F on the CPU.

Put a Zalman VF900 or Thermalright HR-03 on the graphics card.

If your chipset has a fan stick a fanless heatsink on it like a Thermalright HR05

Replace the case fans with Noctua/Yate Loon/Scythe fans

Ditch the Raptors and get some quiet drives like Seagate 7200.10 or Samsung Spinpoint. Or alternatively get some HDD enclosures like the Silentmaxx ones.

I'm not sure how quiet your PSU is, but if it's noisy you could replace it with a Corsair HX 520W.

Jaffa_Cake · 13 Jun 2007 at 16:41

I'm guessing you don't want to lose the case seeing as its a beast.

You may want to replace the case fans with some of quiet ones such as the Noctua fans http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-001-NC

I don't know the exact fan slots on that case because the description is somewhat wobbly so maybe you dont want the 120MM ones. One in, and one exaust should be fine.

GFX fan http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SY-008-ZA is pretty quiet but no gfx are completly silent really.

Sell me the raptors at very low low prices