My 2%....
If you want a super quiet PC then you have to forgo the HAF-X. Its a great case but its way too open to be silent. The HAF series are free flow air designs.
The Antec Performance One Series are much quieter cases. The down side to such a case is that it doesn't breath as freely. Since its not a 24/7 cruncher that wont be an issue. So take a look at the Antec P183 V3.
Arrgh...trying to copy and paste on this phone for links to parts is driving me nuts. I'll have to wait till the morning when I'm at a computer. . .
If you are after quiet, there are several things you can do, including insulating material like in cars:
http://www.acousticpc.com/quiet_comp...nsulation.html
http://pcworld.about.net/magazine/2203p174id114163.htm
But here is the thing. You have to move the air, and fans make noise.
- There is the fan(s) in the PSU. Nothing to be done with that, so make sure you buy a quiet one up front.
- Then there is the fan on the CPU heat sink. Stock one that comes with the CPU is noisy. Go after market. Maybe you can get away with passive (no fan).
- The fan(s) in the GPU are out of your control too. So pick a quite GPU (he says, as if that was a feature you could compare).
- Finally, the case fans. And this applies to all fans. It's not just the volume of noise, it is also the pitch. Small, high pitch fans are WAY more annoying than their larger, lower pitch fans with the same sound level. So bigger, even slower fans are better than small screamy fans, assuming the same air flow.
The $1500 is a rough guideline I made up. Pretty sure I could build a sweet system for around that, can go higher. I will need Win7. And I darn sure agree with Zombie about the fans, would much rather have bigger fans than smaller. We know the computer is going to make some noise, the last one I built was a screaming fast machine, but it sounded like a Blackhawk chopper when I turned it on That's what I'm trying to avoid
Hmmm Everyone should know by now I shoot for the Performance per dollar. Lets see what I got.
I want to say Newegg has 2 great combo's on this page DIY-PC-Combos
I'll work on a build later.
People do not grow old no matter how long we live. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we
I just switched from an Antec 1200 to a Haf X. I've got to say I absolutely love it. And to keep the GPU noise down, get these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-043-_-Product
I have the accelero's set on 100% and don't even hear them. I can hear my CPU cooler fan barely, it's a Cooler Master V8. It's quiet enough that I can hear my hard drives spinning. I've got 4 WD 1TB Caviar Blacks in a raid 10 config. 24 gigs of ram and 2 HIS 6970's (950/1400). I7 950, 10% OC. And a Corsair 1200w PSU to power it all.
I'd have to say to go with a Sandy Bridge CPU, just for energy (and heat) savings alone. You can do a similar setup for right around $1500, depending on what PSU, GPU's and the amount of ram you get. It's overkill for just plain crunching, but it was originally built for gaming.
Last edited by Shadow; 05-19-11 at 11:04 AM.
OK, the DrPop version for $1500 total, prices incl shipping, non-dedicated cruncher, focus on quiet.
Stated you need Win7 incl. in price, and you already own 1TB HDD for storage.
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3-B3 $127
CPU:Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge $190
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 $70
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G 2.5" 60GB $105 ($15 rebate makes it $90)
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W Bronze $92 ($20 rebate makes it $72)
HSF: COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 $30 (very quiet - only 19dBA!)
Optical: LITE-ON Black 24X DVD $20
CASE: IN WIN Dragon Rider Black ATX Full Tower $150
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit $99
COST to this point: $883 incl shipping, with rebates = $848.
This leaves you approx. $650 for GPUs, or option to spend less than $1500.
GPUs: Sky's the limit. How close to that $1500 you want to go?
(2x) MSI GTX 570 would be insanely fast, and set you back exactly $650, (down to $620 after rebate.)
Couple notes:
For quiet, efficient, I don't think you can beat the SandyBridge right now...though I wish AMD could, I'm a bit of an "under dog" fan...so here's to hoping Bulldozer is good!
RAM - I have the same RAM running a nice O/C and it's fast. Cool running, only 1.5V...
Case I suggested is a top editors pick, nice build quality, cheapest way to get giant, quiet fans AND 8 expansion slots in the back. Never know when you'll want to re-use whichever case you get for a 3GPU screamer down the road some day...
PSU -- don't be fooled by high Watt ratings on some cheaper PSUs. The PSU I suggested is 85% efficient, and has 56Amps on a single 12V rail -- you could run anything your Pops would throw at that, and not care which cables you use, because they're all off the same rail. Fool proof.
Let me know what you think, and we can get down to some fine-tuning and tweaking the individual components if you have preferences. Let's see what the guys say... Ah, I love this stuff.
Last edited by DrPop; 05-19-11 at 12:55 PM. Reason: Added link
I agree with going for Sandy Bridge. These CPUs run cooler than their AMD counterparts, meaning the CPU heatsink fan will spin slowly enough that you'll never hear it. Also, as far as a quiet PSU, go for the Thermaltake Toughpower series. I have personally owned 2 different models of these PSUs (one 750W and one 1350W) and have yet to be able to hear anything at all from them. Occasionally i put my hand over the air intake hole of the PSU just to be sure the fan is actually spinning
Also, for the HAF X, it is a very quiet case. The massive 200mm and 230mm fans only spin at 900 RPM. You can barely hear them. As Zombie said, these bigger fans are much better with noise than smaller ones, especially since their speed can be reduced to provide the same amount of airflow.
Last edited by John P. Myers; 05-19-11 at 01:09 PM.
Agree w/ JPM on the PSU...I personally own one of those ThermalTake 750W PSUs I suggested, and you cannot even hear it run. Even a CPU or GPU cooler on their lowest setting is louder!