[EasyRaider]

No noise with a retail heatsink? Well, that depends on what you classify as "no noise". I'm sure I would find it at least somewhat noisy in a quiet setting.

I agree about the temperature, though. I personally let my Athlon XP warm up to close to 70 C without worries (but keep in mind that motherboard sensors are notoriously inaccurate).

 

[Solude]

Sorry no noise just fit better in the sentence

I find that the recent heatsink/fans given on retail AMD/Intel CPUs to be far quieter than the aftermarket variety. My wife's PC must be putting out 60dB because of that monster thermaltake HSF yet its no cooler. Luckily shes in another room so it doesn't effect me much

 

[Merk]

for the case, defenitly go with an aluminum one. Reason being that an aluminum case will dissipate the heat better than a steel, so if the case can dissipate the heat better there is less need for numerous case fans. As for a brand, lian-li or enermax make some pretty sturdy cases. and like others have mentioned, try to get one that can accomidate larger fans (at least 80mm) because as they mentioned the larger the fan, the slower you have to spin it, meaning the quiter it will be.

for fans, no question, panaflo makes a wide range of very efficient and more importantly quite fans.

for heatsink, either zalman or thermalright is the way to go. Zalman specializes in uber quiet cooling, and thermalright are just very solid cooling solutions. if you go with the thermalright you should also put one of the panaflo's on there.

for power supply there have already been some good mentions, as there has been for hard drives.

some other points, if you want to take it farther there are all kinds of noise dampening solutions out there. mainly in mounting of fans and drives to dampen the vibrations, or even as far as custom baffeling for the input and output vents, and even soundboard can be usefull.

of course you could just forget most of that and go with a semi-inexpensive water cooling system and have virtually no noise except drives, but that may be a little more than you want to spend, and its a bit more involved.

 

[philodox]

Please could you share any good websites on the subject
- already recommended, but silentpcreview.com

1. cooling solutions (quiet case and cpu fans)
- steel case like someone else suggested, make sure it has good airflow, definately use case fans, especially if using acoustic damping material as it keeps in the heat
[aluminum does not dissipate heat in a computer case better than steel, that is a myth]
- for fans, panaflo, papst, NMB or silenx seem to be the best... size either 80mm or 120mm... larger fans will disipate more heat, but also make more noise
- for a cpu sink and fan go with a zalman

2. quiet disk drives (large, 160gB minimum)
- seagate barracuda

3. good quality cd drives for ripping and playback
- for quiet drives definately samsung
- for good ripping plextor
- I'd go with samsung and make sure that you use EAC to rip

4. stable, quiet, well ventilated, powerful PSUs
- the enermax suggestion is a good one
- fortron makes some very good affordable PSU's [sometimes rebranded as sparkle]

 

[wit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox Please could you share any good websites on the subject - already recommended, but silentpcreview.com 1. cooling solutions (quiet case and cpu fans) - steel case like someone else suggested, make sure it has good airflow, definately use case fans, especially if using acoustic damping material as it keeps in the heat [aluminum does not dissipate heat in a computer case better than steel, that is a myth] - for fans, panaflo, papst, NMB or silenx seem to be the best... size either 80mm or 120mm... larger fans will disipate more heat, but also make more noise - for a cpu sink and fan go with a zalman 2. quiet disk drives (large, 160gB minimum) - seagate barracuda 3. good quality cd drives for ripping and playback - for quiet drives definately samsung - for good ripping plextor - I'd go with samsung and make sure that you use EAC to rip 4. stable, quiet, well ventilated, powerful PSUs - the enermax suggestion is a good one - fortron makes some very good affordable PSU's [sometimes rebranded as sparkle]

Second that.
- Steel case is better (unless you like to move your computer often) cause it blocks sound better than aluminum and it doesn't vibrate like many aluminum cases (though there are many good quality aluminum cases out there.)

- Panaflo are good quiet fans. I personally like 80mm fans more than 120mm, with 120mm @ 7v (under volt) I could still hear them.

- cpu sink, many good ones out there. I prefer Thermalright + panaflo

- Seagate drives are generally quiet.

- LiteOn or Plextor (Plextor drives generally have better DAE)

- Fortron (best bang for the buck.) Enemax.... hmmm.... heard that they have some quality issues a while back...

 

[morsel]

Cases are quiet if there is nothing noisy in them. The noisiest components are 40mm fans, fans forcing air through perforated sheet metal, and disk drives lacking fluid dynamic bearings.

Antec TruePower power supplies are relatively quiet, especially in the lower power ranges. Any power supply can be made more quiet by replacing the internal fan with a Vantec Stealth or other very quiet fan, and decoupling the thermal sensor from the hot glue that holds it to the hot internal components and letting it instead be bathed in free flowing air, which results in superior power supply fan speed behavior.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 drives have fluid dynamic bearings and are very quiet.

If your motherboard has a 40mm fan on the Northbridge, replace it with a fanless Northbridge cooler.

If your video card has a 40mm fan on the GPU, replace it with a fanless VGA cooler.

If any of your case fans are up against perforated sheet metal, cut out the sheet metal with a Dremel and install a wire grill instead.

Replace the stock CPU fan with a Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu.

Use inline speed controls on fans as needed.

 

[Head Creep]

If you want to, you can jump into water cooling. No fans for the CPU, chipset or graphics card (plus the option of cooling the hard drive), and you can overclock your computer easier due to the lower temps. It's a very good option if you aren't faint of heart and have some extra money to spend.

 

[Budley007]

quietest computer I've ever owned.

 

[llmobll]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head Creep If you want to, you can jump into water cooling. No fans for the CPU, chipset or graphics card (plus the option of cooling the hard drive), and you can overclock your computer easier due to the lower temps. It's a very good option if you aren't faint of heart and have some extra money to spend.

This is a very bad idea. I don't mean to say it isn't viable. Just it has been my experience (5yrs+ of water cooling) That you can build a rig with just passive heatsinks that will outperform a watercooling rig.(Sub $250) With today's processors a watercooling rig would only benefit if you plan on overclocking the hell out of a chip and need extreme cooling. Since you didn't mention overclocking, passive heatsinks should be more than enough. It's just a waste of money unless you're into that type of thing and have loads of money to blow aswell as time to tweak the system.

Regular monitoring and care of the system is also required.

 

[Edwood]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article181-page1.html

Take the time to lurk and register at www.silentpcreview.com forums. Absolutely fantastic resource for hardcore quieting solutions.

-Ed

 

[philodox]

If your motherboard has a 40mm fan on the Northbridge, replace it with a fanless Northbridge cooler.
- good call here, those are much better than the noisy little fans that come with a lot of motherboards

Replace the stock CPU fan with a Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu.
- I'd use the all copper one instead, but they are pretty much the same

oh, and that reserator is awesome, but very expensive

 

[kfh227]

Just some quick topics:

Go to the forums here:
http:\\www.anandtech.com\

Probably one of hte most popular PC forums that exists!

As for silent PCs, this is a VERY popular topic these days. I'm sure someone at anadtech could whip together a PC for you in about 10 minutes, all parts

They love the words: "This is my budget".

The best way to go would be to see if you could find a desktop system that uses a transmetta processor. I think they are for laptops only, but someone has to make a ATX form facotr mobo for them.

I'm in a similar boat myself

Go with a RAID 5 setup. That's my main advice !

 

[kfh227]

Almost forgot.

If you want a truely silent PC, you pretty much have to go with liquid cooled. Yup, liquid in the PC. You can get special non-conductive liquid though, so it's not that scary.

Going this route costs money though, but if silence is your goal, it's the only way to go.

 

[quke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VitaminJosh I can't agree with you more about the Sonata. I also hate the way the hard drives are mounted side-ways with the case's width. It makes it near impossible to fit an IDE->SATA adapter if you ever chose to.

Oh I don't know. I have the Sonata and use a SATA drive with a power cable adapter. It's thight but fits anyhow. Plus I think the rubber mounting points are a nice touch.

I agree that the Sonata is overhyped about the silence. No case is quiet if the parts (i.e. fans) inside it are noisy.

 

[purplesun]

Here's the component list on my AMD duallie. It is barely audible next to me in a studio-level quiet environment.

- Silentmaxx ST-11 case
- Underclock AMDs to run at 2000+ down from 2400+
- Undervolt core voltage from 1.65v to 1.2v
(CPUs internal temp runs about 45C @28C room temp)
- All case and cpu fans undervolted to run slow with in-series diodes.
(2 x 120mm-IN, 2 x 80mm-OUT, 2 x 80mm-CPUs. Mostly Papsts)
- 2 x Maxtor diamondmax 8 40GB drives
- Rear sound-proofing shroud to reduce exhaust noise
- Remove metal case bits that obstruct fan airflows
- Tagan 480w PSU (1 of the quietest fan-assisted PSUs around)

The rig runs stable even under prolonged gaming. I can run the fans even quieter if I don't fire-up Far Cry; which heats up the Radeon 9800 card a lot. Choose a slower and cooler VGA card, if you are not a serious gamer. Took me couple of weeks of trial and error with different ideas before I settled for this final result.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.