pepperxn
join:2001-02-21
| new silent pc
My current pc is 4 years old, and it's way overdue for an upgrade. I'm planning on building my next pc instead of buying, so I could get everything I want. One of the goals I set was to build it so that it's silent. So I need some advice from the experts here. 
Usually the loudest component is the Power Supply fan, so I decided that I should use a fanless Power Supply, or one that has a fan, but only uses it when it reaches a certain temperature.
Next, there's the hard drive and cpu fan. I know that the Seagate hard drives are really quiet. I also know that future Seagate hard drives will include flash memory. Plus, perpendicular drives enable larger storage on less platters. I really don't need 1TB of storage, so maybe 250GB would be fine for now. A drive with 1 platter, 2 tops is the goal.
CPU fans are usually quiet, so either keep the one that comes with the cpu boxed set or use a special one that's quieter.
The case would probably be one that's designed to be quiet. I would probably have to have 1 fan for the case to cool it. I mean, I do have to cool the other components.
So the question is... would this design work? |
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shambler
YEAH-That's the ticket..
Premium
join:2000-09-19
Miami, FL
| No problem with that setup, but I would use a "silent" power supply with a quiet fan rather than a power supply with no fan, because PSU's generate a lot of heat, which tends to shorten the life of electrical components. The best way to cool your case and components is to install bigger but slower running fans, like the 120mm variety (if your case will accept them). Two are best for crossflow through the case; but of course, the noise level will increase slightly.
The PSU with a fan may provide enough air movement with only one case fan. If given a choice, I would opt for a tad more noise, but longer component life. Excessive heat can also generate hardware errors such as BSOD's, restarts and shutdowns, and create an unstable working environment.  |
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pepperxn
join:2001-02-21 | Thanks for the reply.
I was thinking Antec's P150 case, and their Phantom 500W PSU. That PSU has a fan, but only uses it when needed.
How silent are the silent PSUs? |
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shambler
YEAH-That's the ticket..
Premium
join:2000-09-19
Miami, FL
| They're a lot more quiet than a standard PSU. The decision to use either a silent PSU or a quiet one will depend on how big the PSU is (wattage), and how heavily you will load it. Your proposed setup sounds like it will work very well with the parts you have chosen. |
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pepperxn
join:2001-02-21
| The PSU that the P150 comes with is a Neo HE 430. Antec's site says "less than 18dBA noise level". I listened to what the Phantom sounded like when the fan was running: »www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?···lent_psu
I'm planning on installing an Intel quad core around 3.2 GHz on this new pc. |
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shambler
YEAH-That's the ticket..
Premium
join:2000-09-19
Miami, FL | Less than 18 dBA is pretty damn quiet. You'll have plenty of performance with the Intel quad-core. |
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Gem
Premium
join:2005-09-10
 ·CableOne
| reply to pepperxn
said by pepperxn  :Usually the loudest component is the Power Supply fan, CPU fans are usually quiet, so either keep the one that comes with the cpu boxed set or use a special one that's quieter. My experience has been just the opposite.
Modern 120mm PSU fans have been quiet enough for me.
CPU heatsink fans, however, have often been too loud for comfort.
If you do buy the $150+/- "silent" PSU, you could probably sell the 430 Neo that comes with the P150 here on the ForSale forum.
»For Sale/Wanted |
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krenim191
Obama 08
join:2001-01-23
Williamsport, PA
·Comcast
·ProLog
 ·PenTeleData
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| reply to pepperxn
I'll put in that the NeoHE power supplies are some of the quietest supplies I've ever come across. All of my other machines that I've built over the years sounded like there was a small jet engine sitting in the room next to me. I wanted a challenge. I wanted to see how quiet I could get without spending excessive amounts of money or sacrificing performance. Heres how I've achieved it.
I started off with the Antec P-180 case. It looks like a small fridge and is built like a tank (You're not gonna wanna carry this thing to a LANparty); the inside is quite a bit different too. The sides of the case are 2 pieces of stainless steel with sound absorbing plastic sandwiched between. The case comes with 3 120mm speed adjustable fans included. I also bought a NeoHE 500 power supply. Those two pieces there were pricey... about $250 for the case and power supply.
For the hard drives I chose 2 SATA Seagate Barracudas. These are my first Seagate drives and I'm impressed with their performance and noise level (silent).
The Motherboard is a fanless Asus P5N-SLI w/ nVidia chipset. It is not the highest performing motherboard I could have gotten... but it fit the bill. It was silent, reliable and has great performance. I coupled that with an Intel Core2Duo 6400 CPU. The new Intel chips do live up to the hype. They also consume less energy and thus create less heat. The heatsink is a Zalman 9500. This beast is HUGE! But it pulls the heat away with no noise.
Overall the PC is no louder than a quiet whisper. The loudest component is my video card which I carried over from my old PC. It's an nVidia 6800. I plan on replacing fan on the card with a Zalman GPU cooler. I looked for quality components (read lots of reviews) that are going to do what I need. Then once I found what I wanted, I tried to find the quietest version of that product available... again, reading lots of reviews, lol.
I concur with the other users that you don't want a fanless power supply. It will shorten the life of the device. Your best bet is to look for ones with a quiet fan. The High-Efficiency ones can be cooled with one small fan... which is how the NeoHE is cooled.
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Use the brain evolution gave you... you'll see we are capable of many great things on our own. |
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