Quiet PC

[rayban]

I am seeking advice on building a PC that will be as quiet as possible. In choosing parts for a new build, which components are most likely to influence the amount of noise that comes from the PC? I plan to spend about 1K on an intel based system for all-around computing including light gaming, music recording, MS office, web surfing etc. Suggestions on "quiet" components would be welcome.

Thank you.

[TwoRails]

Horsepower and noise kinda go together. A lower powered video card will reduce noise: what are you expecting game wise? Reduce the number of case fans (most builds need one, or two at the most) and use quiet fans. Get a quiet case, they typically have sound items like rubber mounting for the hard drives. You can also use a quite aftermarket CPU cooler, but that can technically void the warranty if you get a 'retail' CPU. They're expense, but they now also make quite power supplies.

So what exactly are you expecting, horsepower wise, from your system?

[rayban]

tworails, I'm not sure how to answer your question re: horsepower. I don't have heavy gaming requirements though. I use adobe creative suite for document layout and photo editing and a sequencing program to record and slow down music. I'm looking at the following two cases: Would either of these be sufficient to keep the noise level low or would I need to take extra measures to ensure a very quiet PC?

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811112025

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811129024

[bd1886]

There are a lot of so called "quiet cases". The grommets (that TR mentioned),are one of the main things that keeps the HD quiet. (I've used rubber washers and have achieved the same effect on other cases.) Sound proofing material (Thermaltake makes some good fabric for this) can help. I purchased some of this,but have never had to use it because of inherently quiet component selection or after market cooling solutions.
The main components that can generate noise are the PSU,graphics cards and stock CPU coolers.
Antec Earthwatts power supply's tend to run close to silent. (Have seen the 500w go for as low as $50.00) Made by Seasonic and are real stable. I've also been real happy with Zalman coolers for the CPU and graphics card cooling solutions.
Guess if you will be building a "fire breather" things could get challenging to keep quiet. But...with processors and hardware getting so efficient,you can have some good power w/ minimal noise and power consumption.

Edit: Was interrupted while replying. That Sonata III is a great deal and it has the 500w Earthwatts PSU. With what your needs sound to be, you can have something powerful and silent. I would first look at the 45mm Intel CPU's ( E8xxx's) and the Gigabyte 1333 motherboards. They tend to run with very low heat generation and have serious power. Built a similar system using that case, and it ran silent.

[liambl]

My desktop in my sig runs pretty quiet with Asus Q-Fan enabled with Silent setting. I can't tell its on except within half a metre's distance. I've found the 9600GT to be very quiet, even under full load, the case fans at 1000rpm make more noise. The PSU is very quiet, the 120mm fan never exceeds 900rpm. It's getting easier ansd easier to make silent PC's with todays technology, so it shouldnt be too hard to get a reasonably powerful quiet PC.

[Doom]

I also have the 9600GT (two of them technically) and have been very happy with them. The fans in my case (granted there are four of them) are usually louder unless I've been gaming for over a couple of hours. My corsair PSU also runs very quiet, and that's w/ a 750w unit.

[Katreat]

From personal experience computers have gotten very silent over the past few years if you use quality components. Both Antec and Corsair PSUs are very quiet. If you stay with 120 mm fans and keep them at slow speeds you really dont hear them. About the only thing currently in my case that breaks the silance is my video card. I have a 8800 GTS 320 and in hard gaming ti starts to wind up and is anything but quiet.

Helped a freind build with a Antec P182 case (with sound proofing) and it is very quiet even with his 8800 GTX under load, so the sound proofing does help to quiet down the video card. If not gaming I would look into a fanless video card, think they have some 8500s without fans, not sure of 8600s. Although, my video card is only noisy when it winds up so perhaps that is not all that important if your software does not cause it to start cranking like games do.

If total silance is necessary, then I think you would need to look at water cooling options and those can get both expensive and messy at the same time. But they can keep a system almost totally silent if done right.

Kat

[rayban]

thanks, everyone, for the helpful information.