Building a PC, sorta quiet, sugg. here

[recover]

The last computer I built sounds likea lawnmower and I can't get any sleep, so I'm trying to build a new one that's not super martian-engineering quiet, just a normal quiet PC, here's what I had in mind, please refute or support or suggest:

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
512 mb Corsair XMS 3200LL
Radeon 8500LE 128mb (wish i had the money for something better)
Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120gb
T-bred 2400+ w/stock HSF
Antec 1080 case w/truepower 430w (prolly ODing with the wattage, but oh well)

Yeah, kind of a dumb thread, but inquiring minds (well, at least my mind) want to know.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you wait a little while (few weeks), Antec is coming out with a "Sonata" quiet case, bigger 92 mm case fans to move the same air at lower fan RPMs and a quieter power supply. I think the price is around $120 but it isn't listed at Newegg yet.

For more quiet ideas you might look at www.silentpcreview.com

 

[Bovinicus]

I just try to find fans that are a good balance between performance and noise. My case fans are both Thermaltake 37CFM baddies. They don't generate an excessive amount of noise, but they are by no means totally silent. I also have a Thermaltake 21CFM CPU fan. As well, I have a tru series PSU from Antec. This combination produces very little noise and leaves me with pretty successful overclocking results.

If you really want to reduce the noise you can buy a heatsink that supports 80mm fans and use that. Thermalright makes several heatsinks that support 80mm fans.

There is a case called the Chenbro Genie that uses 120mm fans. You might want to look into that, the noise levels are probably pretty low.

 

[mechBgon]

The stock AMD HSF is going to be the limiting factor in your proposal. They're not howlers but not whisper-quiet either. If you tried it and decided you wanted to go to the next level, an SLK-800 with a Panaflo L1A would drop the noise level more. Alpha PAL8045 would be another good one.

For your 1080, try a set of five of these: NMB 80mm dual-ball-bearing fans. $11 gets you five fans, and they run at 18dB at full power (lower if you plug them into the TruePower "Fan-only" plugs). Don't forget to get some 49-cent 3-pin-to-4-pin adapters since your motherboard won't have headers for that many fans. I use these in the similar Antec Plus880 case and they are keeping the case essentially at room temperature.

The NMBs aren't very forceful so I would stick with a Panaflo L1A on the heatsink if you're going for a 2400+. SVC has good prices on the Thermalright heatsinks, BTW. If you went with all of this stuff then I'd bet the Radeon's heatsink fan will be the loudest thing you hear.

 

[recover]

BTW I will be doing little, if any OCing

I'm looking at the thermalrigh SLK-900, can anyone tell me the noise of a 92mm fan relative to the stock?

Why are store bought PCs always so much quieter? Can someone give me a description of stock HSF, 80 and 92mm fans relative to store bought PCs?

 

[mechBgon]

Stock AMD heatsink fan: 32dB 21cfm
Panaflo L1A 80mm: 21dB 24cfm
Panaflo L1A 92mm: 27dB 43cfm
Panaflo L1A 120mm: 30dB 69cfm
NMB 80mm quiet: 18dB 18cfm

Dell's quiet P4 systems use one NMB 92mm exhaust fan that draws air through a duct over the CPU heatsink (which has no fan of its own), so they're taking the K.I.S.S. route to quietness. I imagine they use fluid-bearing hard drives such as the Barracuda ATA IV and V too.

The lower pitch of large, slow-turning fans is less obtrusive than the high pitch of small fans at an equal dB level, one reason that you see people gravitating towards larger fans even at the same noise level. Having had some of every fan I listed, plus a whole bunch of others, and tried them at 7V as well, I'd say you're doing ok if you start with the 80mm NMB's, especially for the price. They're quieter than the video card fan is likely to be, so that's about as far as you need to go. System's as quiet as its loudest part...

 

[LeeTJ]

Originally posted by: recover
The last computer I built sounds likea lawnmower and I can't get any sleep, so I'm trying to build a new one that's not super martian-engineering quiet, just a normal quiet PC, here's what I had in mind, please refute or support or suggest:

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
512 mb Corsair XMS 3200LL
Radeon 8500LE 128mb (wish i had the money for something better)
Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120gb
T-bred 2400+ w/stock HSF
Antec 1080 case w/truepower 430w (prolly ODing with the wattage, but oh well)

Yeah, kind of a dumb thread, but inquiring minds (well, at least my mind) want to know.

I'm in the process of RMAing my Asus A7N8X Deluxe so you can imagine what i think of this board.

 

[LeeTJ]

forgot to make suggestions.

Here it is in a nutshell in my little old mind.

If you want QUIET w/ Decent performance than go w/ the Shuttle SN41 or something like that. it's the Nforce2 shuttle case and board.

If you want Killer performance that is somewhat quiet, get something like what you have in your original post.

edit

btw, the built in Geforce 4 MX in the Shuttle might compare pretty well w/ that ATI 8500.