Silent PC Build Suggestions

[DrFangorn]

1. Primary use: More casual gaming - most recent games being played are Diablo 3, Skyrim, Civ 5, Fallout New Vegas.
2. Budget: No limit
3. Canada.
4. Brand preference: Intel CPU.
5. Using old parts? Current system pushing 4 1/2 years old, so nothing being kept from the main rig. Keeping my Dell WFP3007 30" monitor.
6. Overclocking? Nope.
7. What resolution? 2500x1600 W7 Desktop, for games as high as it can go.
8. When is the build date? "Soon", within a month.

I'd appreciate the community's input regarding a new rig. I am running an older Athlon 9850BE CPU on an MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with a big radiator-style CPU cooling fan, Radeon 4850 GPU with an Accelero passive heat sink, Antec 750W PSU (a quieter model), and also a two year old Intel 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD. I have tried to make this old system as quiet as I can, and have mostly succeeded short of going with liquid cooling!

I used to be a big hardware enthusiast, building my own rigs from scratch every year. Unfortunately, career and kids have whittled away at my gaming time. I stare at my wife's 27" iMac and love how quiet it is, but I REALLY want to stay as a PC Gamer and not move to an iMac and have to BootCamp or Parallel/VMWare PC games on a Mac.

Any suggestions for bits and pieces for a relatively powerful but quiet PC would be appreciated. I'm interested in either purchasing components to put together as a project for myself, or to be directed to a company that assembles silent gaming PCs. I have checked out Silent PC Review from time to time, but would really appreciate your advice.

 

[lehtv]

Here's a quick sketch:

CPU i5-3550 $210
Cooler Scythe Ninja 3 Rev. B $30 + Scythe 500RPM 120mm $10
Mobo Gigabyte H77-DS3H $95
RAM Mushkin 2x4GB 1600 $43
GPU MSI 7970 3GB Reference $325 AR + Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 7970 $85
SSD Crucial M4 256GB $200 (should fit all your games, right?)
HDD WD Caviar Green 2TB $100
DVD Asus DVD-RW $20
PSU Seasonic X-560 $130 (semi-passive)
Case Fractal Design Define R4 $110 + 3x Scythe 800RPM 140mm $45 (downvolt to 7V or 5V using the integrated fan controller; 2 front fans, 1 rear fan, keep the included Fractal fans as backup)

= $1403 AR + shipping

Prices and availabilities may be a bit different in one month's time.

 

[Zap]

To build on lehtv's suggestions...

Consider an Asus DirectCU type graphics card. Those are the ones that makes it into SPCR "certified" quiet computers. Basically a stock cooler that is effective and quiet.

Consider going micro ATX. With a single card and three drives max (SSD/HDD/ODD) an ATX tower is just one big empty box. Fractal Design makes a mATX version of the Define R4, called the Define Mini.

How much storage space will you need? If not too much, for a bit more than the combined total for the SSD+HDD you can go with a single 512GB SSD.

Whichever CPU you get, if the motherboard allows it you can try undervolting and running the Ninja 3 cooler passively (cooled by case cooling).

 

[Zargon]

any decent dual fan 7950 is going to be pretty darn quiet. I have a TF3 sitting 24 inches from me inside a raven 02 and I cant hear it idle....and its not really audible when I game due to added background noise.

I hear the gigabyte 3 fan and sapphire dual fans are quieter than that

and I game at 1440p and it does pretty well

 

[lehtv]

I like Zap's suggestion of passive CPU cooling. The Ninja is quite heavy, around 1 kg with the fan; it should be capable of passive cooling. If temperatures are alright (<80 during Prime95 blend, I'd say) you don't need the additional fan. However $10 is only a little more and will ensure good temperatures without really adding noticeable noise; you won't hear a 500RPM 120mm fan.

 

[Zap]

However $10 is only a little more and will ensure good temperatures without really adding noticeable noise; you won't hear a 500RPM 120mm fan.

You can say the same about the stock Scythe fan that comes with the Ninja 3. I'm sure it can be undervolted to 500RPM too, with minimal noise.

FWIW I ran my overclocked Athlon 64 x2 3800+ at 2.4GHz (stock 2.0GHz) passively with an original Ninja. Had a 120mm case fan running around 600-700RPM.

 

[lehtv]

I'm sure it can be undervolted to 500RPM too, with minimal noise.

I wonder how that would work with a PWM controlled fan.

 

[Cerb]

Scythe 500RPM 120mm $10

IMO, the included fan is a better choice, as it gives the ability to run that slow, but much faster if gaming demands it, with the speed automatically adjusting for you, or following a specific profile (such as with Speedfan). The Slipstream PWM would be a better one to add to or replace it, as it can go even slower (~200-1300 RPM).

The OP might even be able to omit the CPU cooler's fan entirely, but I would caution that logging temps for awhile under stressful conditions should be mandatory, to verify it is enough. With a video card, forget Prime95. Logging actual temps when playing a CPU and GPU heavy game, like Civ 5 or F:NV (Gamebryo's craptasticness makes it pretty hard on the GPU, if you get mods and/or add AA) is the way to go, so that you can account for a hotter PSU, MOSFETs, and recirculated warm air from the video card.

I cool my overclocked C2D and GTX 460 with just my case's exhaust fan (Slipstream PWM; used to be an 800RPM Slipstream at 5V) and the video card's cooler, FI, using an older revision of the Ninja, and using my BIOS' fan speed control. The ability to try cooling like that is what really sets the Ninja apart from the Mugen (and the cost is what sets the Ninja apart from the HR-02 ). So far, I have yet to see it break past 700 RPM, and my CPU has yet to reach 70C. A typical Core i5 will be the same heat generation ballpark. Not only that, but I was cheap and took over an old NSK series Antec case, which has quite a few cooling deficiencies compared to cases like the R4, P180, and Temjin series of cases.

Warm air from the GPU, especially running a video card that can perform well at such high res, is going to provide the real challenge. 1080P would be fairly easy.

Likewise, Slipstream PWMs would give the most flexibility as case fans, as well, with a case taking 120mm, and they are very quiet at lower RPMs (and they don't cost a mint, like Noctua or NB). The choices at 140mm are much more limited, of course.

I wonder how that would work with a PWM controlled fan.

Very well, IME. I'm quite a fan of using PWM fans instead of manual undervolting, these days, since the fans can be allowed to run very slowly when not under really heavy loads, but sacrifice that a little bit when you want to get the most out of your 150W+ video card .

Not all mobos do voltage control, PWM of power can cause its own noise, depending on case and fan, and voltage control available often doesn't go as low as self-control via 4-pin PWM can. All the while, you have the safety net for those full CPU+GPU load situations, and can usually (depending on mobo/chip support) control it via software, like Speedfan or the mobo maker's utilities (not my preference, but if it can do it and Speedfan can't, and the BIOS' won't go low enough...).

 

[Blain]

2. Budget: No limit

7. What resolution? 2500x1600 W7 Desktop, for games as high as it can go.

Any suggestions for bits and pieces for a relatively powerful but quiet PC would be appreciated. I'm interested in either purchasing components to put together as a project for myself, or to be directed to a company that assembles silent gaming PCs.

I can design you a silent (except for optical drive spinning up), gaming machine for less than $10k USD.
It would require more leg work on your part than a standard noisy build... Interested?

 

[lehtv]

@Cerb

The reasoning was that a 500RPM fan on a near-1KG heatsink would easily cool a stock clocked i5 at full load. Therefore constant inaudible RPM is preferable to RPM that jumps to audible levels needlessly. I would definitely agree with you that PWM was better if overclocking though.

 

[Cerb]

@Cerb

The reasoning was that a 500RPM fan on a near-1KG heatsink would easily cool a stock clocked i5 at full load. Therefore constant inaudible RPM is preferable to RPM that jumps to audible levels needlessly. I would definitely agree with you that PWM was better if overclocking though.

Where are those ~200W from the video card going to go? Before going out of the case, much of it will pass by the CPU HSF, leaving it to work with much hotter 'cool' air. That's where my concern lies. My CPU happens to be overclocked, but that's mostly because I can (well, to a point; I'm RAM-limited), and that I am trying to hold out for Haswell. Keeping the CPU alone cool enough is easy: install the Ninja, and do a little cable management. It's the pesky video card eating up >2x the CPU's power, but going to the same exhaust, that I worry about.

I brought up my configuration, because the exhaust fan spinning at >500 RPM is a direct result of the video card, and my PC happens to be very similar in terms of generating heat (not nearly as efficient at using the power, though ). In my previous case, it was a not a problem at all, but the CPU didn't have to share most of the exhaust with the GPU. It's not cooling the CPU's heat, but working with the higher ambient temp.

With automatic fan speed management, it can become a non-issue, to the extent that nothing will need to be allowed to get too hot. A 300W gaming PC is not going to be able to compete with an iMac in terms of noise under load, without performance compromises, a custom case, or liquid cooling. Keeping the maximum noise to a whisper level should be doable, with practical inaudibility except when gaming.

I can't say I'm really sad that BTX didn't take off, but it would have very much helped for this kind of thing.

P.S. The Silversone Temjin might be just the ticket. It's got plenty of open air vent space in the back around the slots, which could allow positive pressure from intake fans to get rid of most of the hot air from the video card cooler directly out the back, rather than having to go up to around the CPU, first. I would still try to go with the Slipstream PWMs, though, just because they can be started from around 200 RPM. With 2-3 of them, none might never need to even reach 500 RPMs. They could be installed (into a suitable mobo--many only have 2 4-pin connectors, which could be a problem for 3 of them), cable management done, and then the rest left to user configuration/preference.

 

[lehtv]

Where are those ~200W from the video card going to go? Before going out of the case, much of it will pass by the CPU HSF, leaving it to work with much hotter 'cool' air. That's where my concern lies.

Most of those 200W are going to produce frames for your monitor to process. A small portion will be exhausted as waste heat. The Arctic Cooling Accelero has a heavy heatsink that can retain a lot of heat, allowing slow RPM's on the fans at load while retaining good temperatures. Therefore case temperatures will not suffer much.

A 300W gaming PC is not going to be able to compete with an iMac in terms of noise under load, without performance compromises, a custom case, or liquid cooling.

Well, I can't say from experience as I've never built a rig exactly like the one I suggested. But I think it can compete given the aftermarket heat sinks on both CPU and GPU.

Keeping the maximum noise to a whisper level should be doable, with practical inaudibility except when gaming.

Isn't that what the OP is aiming to achieve?

 

[Cerb]

Most of those 200W are going to produce frames for your monitor to process. A small portion will be exhausted as waste heat.

Most of it goes to heat, AFAIK. The increased power efficiency over time is due more to getting smaller than to too much changing as far as % of input power being converted to things other than heat. Even if we could do something different...I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a video card use 200W by convection-heating the room than 200W of random radiation, even if it could be done . Watts in - Watts out = heat generated, for the most part, unless they've made some major changes I'm not aware of since I was in college . It has to be converted into something, and last I knew, computers weren't allowed to be many-Watt transmitters.

The Arctic Cooling Accelero has a heavy heatsink that can retain a lot of heat, allowing slow RPM's on the fans at load while retaining good temperatures. Therefore case temperatures will not suffer much

Effectively, a cooler is either a blower style, exhausting all of its hot air out of the case, or it is not, and exhausts most of its air inside of the case. A blower will be too loud. A big heatsink will allow lower temperatures, and that will allow it to waste less power, but the difference is not going to be much. For all practical purposes, except having a nice IDC physics post with plenty of graphs , you can consider it to need to handle the same amount of heat with the stock cooler as with the AC HSF.

The heated air has to go somewhere. The AC cooler can make it quieter, and lower the temperature of the GPU, but the Watts still need to be physically moved out of the case. If they move up and back out, they will in turn cause the CPU heatsink, and mobo voltage regulators, to all deal with much hotter ambient air than if the hot air were exhausted directly out the back, increasing the probability that very slow fans won't be able to cut it. The heatsink dissipates heat, it doesn't store it. Some of the energy will be contained in the heatsink, but that is transitory. Once there is not heat from the source to dissipate, that energy will also dissipate, leaving the whole thing at ambient temp.

With a low power video card, it's no big deal, but I'd worry a bit with a 7970 (not that things will burn up, but that the necessary fan RPMs on the video card and CPU/exhaust fan will be higher than in another case). The R4 is solidly on the right side. The Temjin cases would need a couple more arrows to do them justice, but the open back around the slots would make them closer to the left, with positive pressure gently and quietly pushing most of the GPU's hot air out of the rear.

In the R4, the GPU will largely be recirculating its own exhaust air as intake air, so will have to spin the fans faster, and then that hot air will require faster fans around the CPU, since a portion of the CPU HSF's 'intake' air will be video card exhaust. Without ducting or water cooling, there's going to be some mixing, anyway, but if there is ample room and incoming air to push the video card exhaust air mostly straight out, the amount of that the mobo's voltage regulation, and CPU HSF, have to deal with, can be much less.

Isn't that what the OP is aiming to achieve?

Hopefully. 2560x1440 and gaming with complete inaudibility will likely require either sacrificing GPU performance, or going with liquid. Given that games are accompanied by their own audio, which can mask a little bit if extra noise, most of us don't bother going quite that crazy. Blain's post may have been hyperbolic, but $3-5k could very well be realistic, since it would need extensive damping materials and baffles, or a semi-custom passive water cooling setup.

 

[mfenn]

Most of those 200W are going to produce frames for your monitor to process. A small portion will be exhausted as waste heat.

The second statement does not follow from the first. Modern video cards do indeed use energy to produce frames, but there is very little energy used to actually output frames to the monitor. The rest of the input input energy has to go somewhere per the first law of thermodynamics. Some of it turns into kinetic energy to keep the fans moving, but the vast majority of it (99%) is turned into waste heat by the transistors.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I have a 2500k over clocked to 4.5ghz in a fractal r3. Video card is a directcu gtx 670. It's very very quiet. I replaced the stock fans with nexus 120s, which I run at 7v, and I use a noctua d14 cooler, also at 7v with the same fans. While technically it isn't silent, it's very close, and I assure you that I'm picky. The loudest thing I ever hear is coil noise, which is occasionally noticeable under heavy load over the fans. Temps stay pretty low, with the CPU under 60 while gaming.