How quiet are OcUK systems?

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Right, I'm torn between buying a prebuilt OC'd machine or building my own again. I have a custom built machine (E6420 C2D @ 2.2-2.4Ghz, Gigabyte DS3 board, X1800 GPU, 250Gb WD SATA HDD & 1Tb WD Eco Green) in an old Chieftec case with a custom WC loop (CPU and GPU into a Thermochill rad in the top of the case)

I don't game on the machine it's primarily for digital photography. Now, the current kit works fine but I'm becoming more sensitive to how loud it is. All the fans are "silent" slow fans but I'm wondering whether its the case and HDD's that are the issue. I.e transmitting the sound through to the chassis. I can clearly hear the 1Tb drive spin up and down. It's about as loud as a small floor heater fan, or a kettle at about 50% of the way through a boil, its not deafening, but you know its there!

So, upgrade to a more powerful prebuilt aircooled system or start again and replace the case, fans and upgrade the HDDs?

Can anyone recommend a case big enough to take a 120mm tripple radiator in the top or bottom, ATX board, decent sized GPU card and some cusioned HDD bays?

Thanks.
 
Try getting some shock absorbing fixings to reduce vibrations from the HDD's saves you buying a new PC unless ur specifically out for an upgrade. Some of this stuff.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=1428&subid=1431

If moneys not an issue SSD's are silent but will be very costly if you need a lot of storage.

I would have said the GPU fan be the one your hearing as mine is the only fan i hear in my case the rest are silent at 1200rpm. But as i see your using WC i guess its not GPU fan.

Im using these for my fans http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-045-AK
only 17.5db which i cant hear at all. If you do go for new fans look for stuff with a low decibel reading pref <20db.

I have no idea about the systems on here but they are built by experienced builders so I assume they factor in noise. Give them a call if your worried as they can tailor a build to your needs, e.g. request specifically silent fans and anti vibration fittings.
 
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It sounds to me like you'd probably benefit from buying an SSD to act as your boot drive, and maybe to stick your current work onto as well. An F3 1TB would act as a great second hard drive, as it has very fast load times and I assume makes less noise, due to its low platter count.

Is your digital photography work particularly demanding on the CPU? How does it respond to extra cores and hyperthreading?
 
Fans are usually the main cause of noise. I have one of the Antec Sonata cases, and its pretty quiet, the thing that makes the most noise is the graphics card, but thats only when I'm playing games with headphones on.

I didnt think hard drives made that much noise, my old ones dont. I'd check what is specifically causing the noise, the fans could be spinning up and down at certain times.

Any system can be made to be reasonably quiet.
 
noise is most about change in tone. A quiet whush is usually not disturbing, worst would then be oscillation in fans which draw attention

Simplest solution is lots of 120mm fans that push a lot of air but fairly slowly and consistently

Theres no reason why hard disks would be audible unless failing. Duct tape loose metal


Your post makes it sound already very quiet in which case either your very fussy :p or maybe go extreme and suspend the hard drives in elastic wire. Plain elastic bands will break under the heat in time but its an easy way to test

My machine must be close to 40db I guess and definitely over 30db because I have a 60% overclock and no wc but its very regular noise that never changes, thats the main thing to me.
To listen to it I have to consciously pay attention where as you have the reverse situation for some reason
 
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