CHEAP $ SILENT Gaming build

[jorsote]

Hi,

I was thinking about building myself some decent machine to play, without investing massive amounts of money and keeping it as silent as possible (the old one I have is as noisy as a truck engine). I think everything is compatible ,cheap and pretty silent:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.00GHz AM3 2MB 95W BOX 97
Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD EVO DDR3 90
RAM: 2x4096MB Kingston ValueRam DDR3-1333 CL9 Kit 119
GraphCard: 1024MB Powercolor Radeon HD 6850 GDDR5 PCIe 150
Hard Drive: 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS 7200U/m 53
CPU Fan: Scythe Mugen 2 REV B 32
PowerSource: Corsair TX650W ATX 79
Case: Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case ATX 56
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TOTAL 676

Your opinions are welcome.

[David M]

What exactly is noisy on your old computer?

There are quiet cases. There are quiet CPU heat sinks. There are graphics cards which are quieter than others. There are very quiet PSU's. There are quiet hard drives.

Do you have a budget?

[jorsote]

My old PC is almost like a hair dryer (its almost 7 years old).
Is there any place or way to know how silent a component is?

My initial budget was 600 but I could stretch it a bit until 800, if the components are really worth of it (I dont want abosulte 0dB noise, but something that at least you dont notice when you use it).

[Nuclear Krusader]

If you use the stock HSF the machine should be quiet enough. Nowadays most cases have 120 mm fans which are also quieter. The only computers I have heard lately that sound like aeroplanes are Dells that use the BTX mobo form factor.

[David M]

This is pretty much what I did to build a quiet and fast gaming computer...

First though, I have to disagree that stock heat sink fans are quiet enough...some sound like the Blue Angels passing overhead. Look at the aftermarket heat sinks with the 120mm fans. With most of these you can control the speed both manually or have them controlled automatically as the CPU temperature increases. Sometimes the manufacturer gives noise ratings in decibels and sometimes you can find reviews that provide noise ratings at different speeds as well. The independent reviews are probably more honest.

The real trick is finding a graphics card that is relatively quiet. In general, the faster they are, the more heat they produce and the noisier they are. AMD is making more energy efficient GPU's than Nvidia. I don't really know though if the AMD cards are overall any quieter because of this. If you want a powerful card then the only solution to quieting those down is to water cool them (a big PITA) or to buy a quiet case.

I put a louder than hell 5970 into a case where I made some modifications to quiet the case down. I have a few tricks I can tell you when needed. I don't hear the graphics card at all, even when playing graphics intensive games. So really, getting a quiet case is a must if you want a quiet computer. A quiet case is not going to be one with 6 fans. It will have noise shielding and noise absorbing material on the inside. You want a minimal number of case fans and to be able to throttle back your case fans with a controller so they are not running at 100% all the time. Two 120mm fans running at half speed is much quieter than one 120mm fan running at full speed, plus you get at least the same air flow. My gaming computer (in my signature) which creates a lot of heat has one 120mm case fan on the front running at about 2/3 speed and one 120mm fan on the back also running at about 2/3 speed. That's all I found necessary to keep the internal temperatures low enough.

Although on the expensive side, Lian-Li has some really nice quiet cases. My wife has one which I kind of envy.

As far as quiet PSU's go, look for one with a 140mm cooling fan that only speeds up as the power it produces increases. My favorite one of these is the Corsair TX750. My wife's computer has one and it is indeed super quiet.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

http://www.corsair.com/_images/charts/tx750w_noise.jpg
A quiet PSU is a must because a quiet case will not deaden the sound of a PSU fan because of where the fan is located.

If you want a quiet drive and don't mind some slower read/write times compared to a WD Black then look at WD's drives intended for A/V systems. You won't hear any of the clicking that you get from regular hard drives.
WD AV-GP ( WD20EVDS )

[jorsote]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!!

I think I will follow your advice and I will shoot for the AV-GP HD. They are similar price but much more silent.

The GPU I was thinking about (Corsair TX650W) is actually a similar model than the one you suggested (Corsair TX750W), so I think I´m playing safe here.

The graphics card is IMHO the potential source of noise. According to:

Radeon HD 6850 & 6870 CrossfireX review

the sound of the card is 38 dB, between quiet and moderate, depending ofc on the brand it comes from (Sapphire, Asus or Powercolor, the option I was planning to take). But I guess I cant really do anything about it.

My problem is the case: I fell in love with the Lian-li cases , but they are way expensive. Is there a low-price noise-isolation case which is similar to those but not as fancy? If I understood right, the more fans the case has the more silent cooling they do?

Thanks again!

[glc]

the more fans the case has the more silent cooling they do?

Nope, you have misunderstood - you want a minimum number of large, slow turning fans.

Look at Antec and Coolermaster cases.