Looking to make my PC Quiet -- Should I get Water Cooling?

[ghounds07]

Hey guys, here is my problem:

As of now, I have 3 fans cooling my Aspire X-Dreamer Case. There are 2 80mm Aspire fans, and 1 120mm Aspire case fan. Right now my computer is pretty loud, considering it is in my bedroom and I can't really leave it on at night because it is annoying. I was just wondering if you guys had any suggestions about what I should get for water cooling? I have seen some models, but I don't know which ones are good/bad. I am looking for an internal water cooler that doesn't make a lot of noise. What I am trying to do is make my computer quiet. And I was wondering, with water cooling do you need fans as well? Or does the water cool the whole system?

I will not be overclocking (or at least I don't think so atm), and here are my specs:
AMD 64 S939 3000+
Chaintech nForce4 Ultra
Chaintech 6600GT
1 GB Corsair PC3200 512x2
WD 160GB HDD
Rosewill DVD/CD Burner
Rosewill 450w PSU

Thanks for all the help in advance!

P.S.
I would like to buy an inexpensive model for water cooling, but if those all suck then please show me what I should get instead.

 

[n yusef]

Don't get watercooling for quietness. For it to work correctly, you still need case fans. What you should do is purchase a quiet 120mm fan, and two quiet 80mm fans. If your PSU is loud, then buy a Seasonic. Considering your case, I dont think that your CPU and VC fans are what is creating the noise. Those are what watercooling would replace.

 

[ghounds07]

Okay, thanks. Does anyone know of any really quiet case fans then? Like a 120mm and 80mm model?

Thanks guys

 

[Snowice]

what about a fan controller?

don't know if there are any after market coolers for you 6600gt. i think that thing is pretty loud, too.

 

[ghounds07]

Would you suggest getting different fans, or do you think the noise level should go down a lot if I use a fan controller?

Right now the 2 80's run at 30.71dBa
and the 120mm runs at 35.48 dBA

Thanks for the help!

 

[ghounds07]

If I do get a fan controller I will probably purchase this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835883001

Does this look good?

 

[Snowice]

noise level WILL go down a lot w/ a fan controller.

it's your decision you will have the flexibility w/ a fan controller since you can still choose to increase the air flow/noise level if you want to.

but my suggestion is to remove the (2) 80mm fans (assuming they are jsut intake fans) and just keep the 120mm fan since you are not OCing.

 

[Snowice]

Originally posted by: ghounds07
If I do get a fan controller I will probably purchase this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835883001

Does this look good?

http://www.svc.com/ald-v01-u1-19.html

just wana save you some money

 

[milkrocks]

I would do these things way before water cooling.. . .

Buy an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 6 Rev. 2. It'll cost about $40 but is a near silent cooling option for your 6600GT. It dramatically reduced the noise in my system but will still spin up when things get warm. (It will make more noise during game play) I can now overclock my 6600GT to 580mhz w/ 1100mhz RAM speed and the everything stays nice and cool!

Buy a quieter CPU cooler than stock. There are plenty of very good options. An XP-90 with a panaflo would be a good option, even a Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 will keep things nice and cool and be quieter than your stock setup. My Silent Boost is nearly inaudible when the machine is idle and only spins up during gaming or encoding. (I know there are many other good cooling options - these just happen to be two i am familiar with)

Get Quieter case fans. You should easily be able to buy a sub 30db 120mm fan. A 4 fan controller would also allow you to dial in the amount of noise the thing makes. At night you could simply turn down the fan speed on the case fans as the machine wouldnt be doing very much.

Check your BIOS settings: Make sure that your board isnt spinning up the cpu fan too soon - i would set the off point to around 30C and the fully on point to 50 or 55. You wont have any issues with that CPU running at 55C under full load but it should make things quieter when the CPU is idle.

I hope this helps!

 

[ghounds07]

Okay thanks guys!

I'm going to buy the Aspire Fan Master fan controller (liked that one because of the display and same company as case / hopefully same paint). If I still need less sound I'll take out some fans or try and find some that are more quiet.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Gamingphreek]

THose Aspire fans are not good. If you ramp them down im willing to bet it wont be smooth and you will get some electrical chatter.

Buy 2x 80mm Panaflo Fans (L1A/12L)

Buy 1x120mm Yate Loon or Nexus fan.

For more info check out Silent PC Review

I would advise against getting a fan controller until you get some quality fans.

-Kevin