New Silent PC suggestions.

[staffsMike]

I need to build a new pc next week and I'd like to do it as close to silent as possible. I know what components i'm going to use but i do need suggestions for,

1) PSU - Is the corsair 520w silent? (I want the PSU between 400 and 500w)

Are the Seasonics around the 400w mark as silent as they suggest?

2) Case - As little vibration as possible would be good. and if it comes with decent fans ignore #4.

3) CPU cooler. I'm going to go with the thermalright 120 unless someone talks me out of it.

4) Case fans - I use akasa ambers and they aren't as quiet as I'd like (these aren't so much of a problem as i'll get a fan controller)

Cheers O' wise ones.

[tinners]

http://www.silentpcreview.com have some excellent recommendations

Also check out http://www.quietpc.com

[acrobat]

1) I've gotta Corsair HX 620W. Its silent but I dont know about the 520W.

2) I've got an Akasa Eclipse 62. I find it fairly good. Most stuff is fine, but the hard drive cage vibrated. Luckily, it unclips easily and now I've got it resting on foam. My hard disks are almost silent now.

3) Good cooler although you'll need a fan for it I think?

4) I'd highly recommend Sharkoon 1000s - unless you have temperature concerns. I've got the sharkoons and I can't imagine any fan being as quiet as these - unless its not spinning

[MSIC]

The Antec P180 case (and now the 182) would answer alot of your issues.
There are rubbery-type gromit things that every hard drive has between it and the hard drive cage, thereby removing all vibrations.
Also because of the positioning of the case fans, there are 2 x 120mm fans directly around the CPU heatsink (depending on the layout of your motherboard of course) and so you may well not need an extra fan.

[wja96]

The Thermalright HR-01 is an excellent CPU cooler - but it has a greater surface area than the Ultra-120 Extreme as it is designed to be used passively with the 120mm rear case fan. It is, therefore, genuinely silent as it adds no noise to the PC at all.

[frazered]

1. 520hx is silent - i only hear a slight buzzing when i put my ear right upto it, sat about 3 ft away from it and it is silent

2. antec p182 looks good, you can fit acoustifoam to the insides to dampen and silence the case, i have done this with my antec sonata, soft mounting the hdds is also highly recommended

3. the thermalright 120 looks great, just check you can mount it as you wish - i looked for my 939 system and found i would only be able to mount it with the fan blowing towards the psu and not to the exhaust fan

4. the antec case fans should be ok and can be turned down to low setting (belive they have a high, mid and low switcher), but otherwise i would be looking at yateloons or nexus with the desired rpm,s you want...

[amjedm]

Seasonic 430 are quiet AFAIK.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article226-page4.html - Seasonic 430 review and sound measurements

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page4.html - Corsair 520/620 review and sound measurements

I'm using an older Seasonic 400W Turbo and have removed the grill and changed fan to a Sharkoon 1000 fan running at 7v. Very quiet IMO.

I prefer the Akasa Eclipse over the P180 (I have both cases). Eclipse mods - rear and front fan grills cut out.

To cut out vibration I've used UHU White Tack to attach the fans in the Eclipse and P180. You can suspend the hard disks in the bottom chamber hard disk case (P180) to go the extra mile

Wouldn't you be better off with a Scythe Ninja running in fanless mode (if possible)?

I wasn't too happy with the Amber fan either. Am now using a mixture - Sharkoon 1000 (P180 + Eclipse), Nexus Orange (P180), NorthQ (Eclipse) and GlobalWin NCB (Eclipse). Also have a Yate Loon D14SM 140mm fan.

IMO all the fans I'm using (most are undervolted) are very quiet.

[staffsMike]

I have the asksa eclipse which is what i was originally going to go for..but the antec p182 does does seem good.

It's for my dad anyway so if I get the antec p182 and he doesn't like it he can have my eclipse

He'll be running a slightly oc'd e6600 i think so the cpu should be actively cooled if only by a very low speed fan.
It will be one of the skythes or the thermalright that I go for at this point.

I'm ummming and ahhing over the graphics card now. I'm thinking passive cooled 8500GT.. doesn't need to play games just media stuff. Is it worth going for the 8600gts for the HDCP support?

He has a grudge against ATi so I won't be getting him one of those.

Sharkoon 1000's seem to be the way to go or undervolted yate loons.

[xAmritx]

2) Case - p182 (designed for silence)

3) CPU cooler - Yeah go for the Thermalright ultra 120 Extreme and get a Nexus Real Silent 120mm or Yate Loon D12SL-12. (sitalchauhan has linked http://www.chilledpc.co.uk to supply both as they are rare)

4) Case fans - same as 3

[Thorsson]

I recently bought a Sharkoon and a Nexus. The Sharkoon is really silent. The Nexus isn't - it has an annoying "hum".

Perhaps I was just unlucky.

[frosty15]

Mike,

The Corsair psu series are as quiet as Seasonic because they are basically the same units - just tweaked, as are OCZ to FSP.

I'd agree with the Antec P180 and variations, it's compartmentalised interior and skinned sidepanels make for an Über quiet chassis.

With reference to fans, I'd suggest you get a fan controller regardless, so you can adjust even quiet fans to sub-audible, the likes of Zalman's Fan Mate, if you don't want a panel-type, would be a great example.

However, although not constant, the areas you haven't mentioned are where the majority of annoying sound comes from - HDD, opticals and graphics.

AFAIK the quietest brand of HDD's is Samsung's Spinpoint, Samsung also have a reputation for pretty quiet optical drives too.
With regards to graphics, if you aren't after a DX10 card just yet, XFX's passive FX7950 GT's are not only silent, with a decent airflow through your case, they even overclock a fair bit - £142.57 + p&p from http://aria.com (through Google Checkout).
Or if you'd prefer a bargain - http://tinyurl.com/yslof9

[staffsMike]

The graphics card isn't greatly important as it won't be a games machine, has to be dx10 though..so i'm thinking either 8500 passive or 8600gt passive. Overclocking will be light but I want it to stay cool, as silent as posssible and be reliable.

Thanks for the hard drive advice. I was going to get a WD 400gb AAKS or the spinpoints but custom pc does seem to like the spinpoints so I will deffiantly consider them.

[amjedm]

I recently bought a Sharkoon and a Nexus. The Sharkoon is really silent. The Nexus isn't - it has an annoying "hum".

Perhaps I was just unlucky.

I think you were unlucky, should have returned IMO.

[sitalchauhan]

I know LOADS about silent computing, so if you have any specific questions, dont hesitate to PM me or post back here and I will be glad to help. I have been a member of SPCR forums for years and have read nearly every one of their articles!

1) The corsair HX520 is probably the best PSU choice for a silent pc build. The seasonic M12 range are basically identical as the Corsairs (same internal fan, basically same fan management system) so you wouldnt be able to notice a difference between them. But I prefer the look of the Corsair thin modular cables so recommend the corsair over the seasonic.

2) Without a doubt get the Antec P182. It is an amazing case for silent builds. It has seperate chambers to keep the temps best in each chamber. It has amazing airflow and loads of places to add fans. It only uses 120mm fans, which are the ideal size for silent computing. It has rubber grommets everywhere to prevent vibrations. And the case walls are very thick and absorb a lot of the internal noise.

3) The Scythe Ninja is probably the best heatsink for passive cooling in a silent build. If you are not overclocking, you would be able to run it passively, and the exhaust fans in the P182 are lined up perfectly with this heatsink to remove the heat. However, the Thermalright Ultra 120 is also a very good heatsink and you will probably get slightly better temps than the ninja, but you would have to use a low rpm fan on it due to the closely spaced fins, increasing case noise. You wouldnt really be able to run the Thermalright completely passively, it was designed to be ideally used with a fan attached, but at the cost of an extra fan you would get lower temps than the ninja. So its up to you between better temps but slightly louder system with the thermalright Vs quieter system but slightly higher temps with the ninja. Both are very good heatsinks and I strongly recommend both.

4) The Antec P182 stock case fans are fairly quiet on low, but I would recommend swapping them out if you are interested at running the system as quiet as possible. Yate Loon D12SL-12 or Nexus Real Silent fans are the most popular for quiet computing as they run at low rpm, run quietly, and move a good amount of air at low rpm's. They are basically identical as each other, but the nexus runs at a slightly lower rpm so runs quieter but moves less cfm. So get whichever of these 2 fans you can get for the cheapest.

I would strongly recommend getting a fan controller aswell. Dont get the pwm fan controllers as they can sometimes cause the fans to make clicking sounds, which are very annoying and loud when the rest of your pc is running very quietly. The Sunbean Rheobus and Zalman ZM-MFC1 are the 2 best fan controllers that actually adjust the voltage, and not by pwm. I have got the sunbeam rheobus and love it. It is one of the few fan controllers that can actually lower the voltage all the way to 0V, therefore switching off the fan. When running idle, I turn off the majority of my fans as they are not needed, and my pc is inaudiable. When playing a game or running an intensive application, I just turn on the other fans which help to lower the temps at the cost of slightly increasing the case noise while the system is running at load.

As for a hard drive, I strongly recommend getting the Western Digital hard drive from the SE16 range (eg wd5000aaks). They are the most popular amongst silent PCers as they run very quietly, have very quiet seek noises, and vibrate the least. To silence the hard drive even more, you could put it in a hard drive enclosure designed to reduce HD noise (the most popular being the 'scythe quiet box').
If you want to go a step further, get a 2.5" hard drive instead of a 3.5" as they run quieter and vibrate less, but cost more for the same capacity.

If you need any help on where to find any of the components I have mentioned, post back here and I will try to help, as some of the components I have mentioned are quite rare in the UK and took me a while to find the shops that sell them!

EDIT: If you post a list of all of the specific components that you are thinking of using, I could give you my opinions and recommendations if you would like...

[staffsMike]

Thanks for your help dude.

I'm just about to buy it.

Spec so far is

E6600
Abit Fatality 650i (due to now real overclocking)
Crucial Ballistix pc5300 2GB
400gb WD AAKS (should i get the 500?)
Asus 8500gt Silent (passive one)
Skythe Ninja (i changed my mind to this a few hours ago and if it doesn't give great temps i'll get a fan on it)
Antec p182
Samsung SATA DVD Writer.

I'm going to try the antecs fans to start with and see how I get on. If not i'll be ordering the yate loons and perhaps a skythe kama or something.

[Clunk]

Just an observation, but does the 650i board run as hot as the 680i? If so, then wouldnt you be better off with a 965 board or something similar. Itll keep the internal case temps down, and that will mean less fan noise.