Want as quiet a system as possible

jesus_thats_gre

Rights Lads,

The constant hum of fans from my rig is really starting to piss me off no end.

I am considering moving to water cooling but as slight hessitant as I have absolutely no experience with it.. If possible, I would like to stick to air but I would also like to keep things as quiet as possible while also keeping things running cool.. I don't mind it humming away while I am gaming but when things are pretty much idle, I want to hear minimal noise.

My spec is as follows:

- AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+
- Asus A8R-MVP
- Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO
- Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
- Antec NeoHE 550W
- Zalman CNPS7700-CU - 120mm fan
- WD 250GB SATA-II
- Sony DWQ30AB DVD±RW
- Lian Li V1200
- 2 x 120mm case fans - 1 front and 1 rear

I think the majority of noise is coming from the PSU fan once I go below a certain level of fan noise. I have a fan controller and through a little experimenting, I am pretty happy that the main contributors to noise are the CPU fan and PSU fan..

So I need some advise. Is there any PSUs out there that will power my rig while also making little or no noise while idle.. What in your experience are the quietest 120mm fan. What is the quietest CPU cooler that also provides decent cooling. Any recommendations for a 4 fan fan controller?

Also, I am considering buying some insulation. Is it worth the effort or is it a gimmick?

I know I am asking alot but I have been looking for reviews and cant really find what I want.

Cuddlesworth

Tbh, I would have said looking at your specs that the noise was coming from the gfx card and psu. That zalmon cooler is pretty quiet, and you would be hard pushed to find anything significantly better. I would recommend a quiet psu and artic silencer for the gfx card and changing the case fans to a lower noise but higher airflow spec. As for insulation, its supposed to be hard to do right because most types insulate both sound and heat.

jesus_thats_gre

I understand what you are saying about the insulation alright. There is barely any noise from the GPU when it is sitting idle.

Got any recommendations on a decent but quiet PSU?

Dooom

Seasonic PSU's are very good, and very quiet too.
As for fans, Nexus are the quietest afaik. Throw one of those (or an Akasa Amber, quiet fans aswell) onto a Thermalright Xp/SI-120 and you'll be sorted in terms of cooling and noise level.

jesus_thats_gre

Is there any that are cooled passively?

Alkers

There is but they tend to be only around the 350-400W range and reviews say they can get very hot. I've an Antec NEO 480W and it's very very quiet. The fan only speeds up if the temps are hot and I've never heard it have to do that. Make sure you get one with a 120mm fan.

conzy

Enermax liberty is silent and a brilliant psu

jesus_thats_gre

Hmmm I am guessing the noise coming out of mine is due to the weedy fan on the rear.. In general though, the PSU is a excellent performer.. Anyone wanna buy it

The Seasonic ones and the Antec Phantom seem to be the quietest while still performing very well..

Just gotta get some very quiet fans and a decent fan controller. Any recommendations on a pretty cool but not stupidly complicated controller?

conzy

I have this:



Its great:)

€10-€15

gline

Spike wrote:

Seasonic PSU's are very good, and very quiet too.
As for fans, Nexus are the quietest afaik. Throw one of those (or an Akasa Amber, quiet fans aswell) onto a Thermalright Xp/SI-120 and you'll be sorted in terms of cooling and noise level.

defo.. seasonics are great for silence
also artic cooler for the gfx and papst are good fans for silence
try www.pc-look.com for good silent stuff
i used them before and they are very good (shipping is ok and quick)

jesus_thats_gre

I reckon I will settle on the 480W Seasonic PSU: anyway.

awhir

get the 600w 1.

Cuddlesworth

How much for the stacker side window?

astrofool

I use an enermax liberty in a stacker and the zalman fan is louder at 1200rpm (9500). It's an eerily quiet system, only noisy when playing a game (X1800XT fan ramps up then).

awhir

astrofool wrote:

I use an enermax liberty in a stacker and the zalman fan is louder at 1200rpm (9500). It's an eerily quiet system, only noisy when playing a game (X1800XT fan ramps up then).

how do you find the x1800xt just got 1 hope they are good performers.

astrofool

does a good job for me, got it when it was just out and building this new system. Has good video features, 2xdual dvi and has the best stability of any ATI card I have used. My system hasn't crashed in a few months now (the A8N32-SLI Deluxe needed a bios update to be completely stable), and thats with playing games and doing dev work (visual studio, oracle etc.)

It plays far cry at 1600*1200 and Quake 4 runs perfectly (just completed it). Don't have FEAR or Oblivion to try out on it yet tho.