I like the silence.

[bwanaaa]

Currently using an Nvidia 6800gt and AMD 64 (single core) 2.2 ghz. I want to build a new system but do not like the loudness of my friend's 6970 AMD card. How close can I get to the quiet I like with a modern fast build quad core?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

You can buy any modern quad core and buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ cooler and at stock speeds it will be very quiet. As far as quiet GPUs go my 5850 with a non refrence cooler is very quiet during gaming. You can get a modern system very quiet if you know what to get.

 

[Arkadrel]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-442-_-Product

^ Radeon 6850 =~ geforce 460 in speed or slightly faster.

FANLESS = 0 dB = no noise from it

Fastest card made (I believe) that is fanless atm.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you look at the main AnandTech site, most cards now are very quiet under low loads, it's only for high-end gaming like Crysis 2 that the fan ramps up.

That said, some non-reference designs can be much louder, such as Zotac making noisy Geforce cards. And sometimes a vendor messes up the automatic fan speed control in their BIOS so it runs cooler but much louder than needed.

For the CPU, intel Sandy Bridge (i5 - 2500K) is going to be quieter than AMD since it offers much higher performance per watt (and overall performance). Less heat = less cooling = less fan noise.

 

[nitromullet]

My current rig is the quietest one I've ever owned, including when I ran a water cooling system for a while. SilverStone RV01, GTX 580 stock HSF, Thermalright TRUE with dual Gentle Typhoon 1150RPM fans. The GTX does ramp up a bit under gaming, but generally it's very quiet.

 

[tigersty1e]

Thermalright Shaman cooler.

Keeps my 6950 oc'd to 890/1375 and keeps it with 50C gaming temps. Hits ~55C under furmark and this is with absolute silence. Think 120mm 1000rpm sound silence.

 

[frostedflakes]

Undervolting can help a lot. I'm running a reference 6950 w/unlocked shaders at 975mV (stock voltage is 1100mV). Reduces power consumption and noise quite a bit, even while running something very demanding like Furmark the GPU fan only gets up to about 2100RPM now. Not exactly silent (hard to achieve with top of the line cards like this unless you get water cooling), but not loud either.

Make sure your case has good airflow as well.

 

[Bartman39]

Some high quality H2O gear with cpu & gpu blocks and big fans that turn slow but move air will get the job done with most anything and for sure with SB as cool as they run...:thumbsup:

 

[sandorski]

Practically any 120mm after market CPU tower HS/Fan will be quiet. There are a number of after market GPU cooling systems that will also be quiet. The key is after market.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

It can really depend on how quiet you want to get (there can be a huge difference between silent and "quiet" and of course levels of noise to different people and environments are relative) as well as what you consider to be an acceptable noiseerformance ratio.

Some high quality H2O gear with cpu & gpu blocks and big fans that turn slow but move air will get the job done with most anything and for sure with SB as cool as they run...:thumbsup:

water cooling should really only be considered if you're also looking to run an extremely top of the line rig, otherwise pumps will only add more noise.

 

[Spikesoldier]

get:

noctua nhd-14

and

thermalright shaman

=win

 

[reallyscrued]

Silence is overrated. Buy some headphones.

But seriously, the card Arkadrel suggested would be the best you can do if you don't want to mess with voiding warranties taking coolers off stock cards. Not a slow poke either.

 

[SonicIce]

hey we have the same system, i oc'd a64 to 2.5 and 6800gt to little above ultra

 

[Spikesoldier]

hey we have the same system, i oc'd a64 to 2.5 and 6800gt to little above ultra

that was my build in ~2005.

 

[BFG10K]

Passive cards can actually increase noise levels if the heat being dumped inside the case causes other fans to spin up as a result. A Radeon 6850 using the reference cooler is dead silent under load, and it evicts most of the heat outside the case.

 

[lopri]

ASUS DirectCU series impressed me. I own a 6870 and it idles @~1300 RPM and loads @~1400RPM while maintaining temp below 70C. I side-graded from a 5870 and love it. It's virtually silent. I believe ASUS also has DirectCU series for NV lineup as well.

 

[tommy2q]

my msi lightning 6970 is virtually silent too. if you have good case airflow, you will be happy.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

I have this Gigabyte 6970, and with the default fan profile it's inaudible. Only when I push the fan speed to 66%+ an I able to hear it over the rest of my system, and even then I have to focus. Even with the fact that it dumps most of the heat back into the case, I haven't notice my CPU/Chipset/HDD temps rise compared to using a reference 5870.




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125381

 

[gramboh]

Look at the Asus DirectCU, the MSI Twin Frozr series (NV and AMD) etc. They use large fans (like the GB pictured above) which spin slow and are quiet. I can barely hear my Twin Frozr II @ 60% fan speed, it is an order of magnitude quieter than my old blower style GTX 280. The downside is that these cards exhaust into your case, but with ~1000-1200rpm 120mm case fans it's not a problem, and those just create a very light sound of air moving.

If you want to go nuts, check out what the guys on the forum @ http://www.silentpcreview.com/ are doing these days re: specific heatsinks/fans/video cards/cases.

 

[timma]

Gigabyte windforce 3x/2x serials and Silent Cell 6770 is good choice.:thumbsup:

 

[llee]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-442-_-Product

^ Radeon 6850 =~ geforce 460 in speed or slightly faster.

FANLESS = 0 dB = no noise from it

Fastest card made (I believe) that is fanless atm.

Unless you get rid of all the fans in your system, a fanless card isn't really going to make a huge difference when you can simply buy an aftermarket graphics card cooler like an Arctice Cooling Accelero plus or extreme.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125333

This is the card that I have, it's a Gigabyte GTX460 1GB OC 715Mhz card, with twin fans. It's very quiet, even when the fans ramp up during F@H 100% load 24/7.

 

[deimos3428]

The apparent loudness of your components is partially determined by the case. If it has an open mesh in front, even a very quiet card like the one VirtualLarry listed above will be noticeable when the fan ramps up. So take the case into account.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The apparent loudness of your components is partially determined by the case. If it has an open mesh in front, even a very quiet card like the one VirtualLarry listed above will be noticeable when the fan ramps up. So take the case into account.

My coolermaster Elite 330 has a mesh front.

 

[jackstar7]

Buy a better/quieter case. And check out silent pc review. http://www.silentpcreview.com/